Keenan Wellar Co-Founder & CEO, LiveWorkPlay.ca Stacey Diffin-Lafleur Senior Director, Marketing and Communications, United Way Ottawa Despite ongoing financial distress, challenges with leadership and staff succession, and an aging volunteer base, many non-profit organizations remain reluctant to engage social media as a means for effectively pursuing their missions. For those who are using social media, in many cases this is limited to push communications, ignoring its real marketing potential as a means of developing relationships with members, funders, media, decision-makers, and others in key target communities. Frequently cited barriers to utilizing social media in the non-profit sector will be explored, with an eye to realistic best practices, and with special attention to the unique challenges of smaller organizations. 1 Understand benefits of social media for non-profits 2 Incorporate social media as an integrated strategy 3 Overcome barriers to social media engagement

1. SOCIAL MEDIA
for
SOCIAL CHANGE

2. Stacey Diffin-Lafleur
Senior Director, Marketing and Communications
United Way Ottawa
Stacey Diffin-Lafleur is an innovative senior communications strategist with more
than 18 years of experience in the high tech and communications and non-profit
industries. Versatile with extensive experience in media relations, marketing
communications, investor relations, internal communications and analyst relations
she is consistently recognized for delivering superior results. Stacey is highly
effective in creative uses of emerging communications tools and passionate about
the potential for Social Media. Stacey is the Senior Director of Marketing at United
Way Ottawa where she leads the web, writing, media relations and special initiative
communications activities for the organization. She has worked in the past in
marketing and communications roles with Chipworks, Tundra Semiconductor,
Accelight Networks, Stentor, and Telesat Canada.

3. Keenan Wellar
Co-Founder and CEO
LiveWorkPlay
Keenan Wellar is co-leader of Ottawa-based charitable organization LiveWorkPlay.ca,
which supports people with intellectual disabilities to experience life as included
members of the community. Keenan’s abilities in marketing and communications
have been reflected most profoundly through the organization’s media relations and
robust social media strategy. At a time when voluntary organizations are struggling
with succession and sustainability, LiveWorkPlay has grown its volunteer core and
diversified its funding. Recognized in 2010 with a United Way Ottawa Community
Builder Award, Keenan is an active community volunteer, providing pro bono
workshops for non-profit organizations at local, provincial, and national events. He
has an MA in Applied Linguistics and a Professional Certificate in Public Sector and
Non-Profit Marketing from the Sprott School of Business.

4. Our Social Media Odyssey
June 2011
Stacey Diffin-Lafleur

5. Intro
• @theStacey - a little bit about me and
this presentation
• What is United Way Ottawa?
1. Why social media?
2. Barriers? Who said barriers?
3. Where we started
4. Tools we used
5. Results
6. Lessons learned
5

6. Who we are
• NPO – Ottawa chapter established 1933
• Building stronger, healthier communities
• Engagement is our business
• Workplace campaign model
– 1800 campaigns; 14,000 volunteers
• We market on a shoestring – volunteer
support is key
6

7. Demographics of who’s doing
what…
7

8. Stats
“We don’t have a choice on whether we do
social media, the question is how well we do it.”
-Erik Qualman (Socialnomics)
8

9. Did we have any barriers? Yep.
• Corporate culture
– IT owning gateways (no Tweetdeck,
sites blocked, no access to Myspace,
bandwidth restrictions)
– Facebook and Twitter … those are for
playing… not for working
– Hey….we’ve always done it this way
– Fear of letting go – losing control of
the messages
9

10. Baby steps…
• Basic website
– No robust online
donation
tool
• EBlasts
– Really just invitations
• E-newsletter
– Low subscriber base,
not used to engage
All push marketing, no conversation…
10

11. Broadening our reach to meet…
• Home-based business
• Entrepreneurs
• Smaller retail outlets
• Students
• Next Gen
• Everyone who’s not part
of a workplace campaign
11

12. We changed it up
• And..
– met a lot of the SM folks in town and
out, asked a lot of questions, ate a lot
of lunch
– Held a SM lunch and learn for United
Way staff to demonstrate potential
– Got the Director’s Network at United
Way Ottawa using Yammer
12

13. We changed it up
– Used Twitter and Facebook to promote the Malcolm
Gladwell visit…a lightbulb went off in the organization
– Put a plan in place…
…and the rest is history
13

14. 14

15. Next Step: Let’s start the
conversation
• Met service partners @ twestival
• Desire to do more SM outreach
• Build deeper/personal engagement w/ UW
• Recognized the power of “trusted networks”
• Began outreach tools development
15

16. One of our SM tools
• Record.Share.Donate.
• Speaker’s Corner
16

18. Our SM tool (mobile)
18

19. Our SM tool
• Other UWs excited about potential
• Sponsor came forward
• Building more tools and expanding reach
19

20. Some results
• 68% year/year increase in page views at
www.unitedwayottawa.ca
• 6,500 pageviews of donated video page on
United Way Ottawa site
• 200+ user generated videos submitted
• Nearly 200% increase in total online $$$
• Tripled the # of online donors
• More than 1,500 people follow United Way
Ottawa’s official account on Twitter – grows
daily
• More than 3,000 my colleagues, this add up to
reach! 20

21. Some results
• Using mail platform to track our EBlasts and
open rates and fine-tuning
• Schmoozefest sold out (past attendance was
low)
• Kindness – reached 27,000 people in one day
with <50 tweets
• New people involved with us? Yes.
21

22. See anyone you know?
22

23. And in video…
23

24. Lessons I’ve learned
• Set clear, realistic objectives
• Start small – do it well – then grow
• Not everyone will get on board -
immediately
• Measurement – be prepared to defend
your results – not a traditional
transaction – it’s just not linear anymore.
24

25. Lessons learned
• Work within corporate culture to help
more senior execs and busy VPs to
understand the value of Social Media –
get them involved, show them results,
engagement will follow.
– St. Bernard Project/UW Nt’l Conference
– Facebook help from employee body – engage,
harness, share
– Bloggers invited to events as media - good ideas
spread. It’s all about telling the story to the right
people.
25

26. Lessons learned
• Listen, ask questions, don’t be afraid to get
involved
• SM is a great engagement and awareness
tool and a low-cost, high return piece of our
overall marketing strategy
26

27. Changes we’ve made happen
• No webmaster – now an Online
Experience Officer…(found via Twitter)
• No longer just a media site – now a
newsroom
• No longer static content - now a
conversation
27

28. Questions….
• Thank you
@TheStacey
28

29. Will your social media strategy get you murdered in a lake?

30. Keenan’s social media passion:
made, not born!

31. Live WorkPlay
Found
guilty of
a crime
Against
society
Found
guilty of
having an
The situation for people with intellectual disabilities in my
intellectual community of Ottawa and in general across Canada is that
disability only about 1% own their own home, and only about 10% rent
their own home – so we have some 90% of individuals living in
some type of institutional residence.

32. Live WorkPlay
A life transformed, a community transformed

33. Website and
Partner Websites
Turning moments into movements

34. 715 Views of Moira and Caroline [So Far]: Important Events Analytics
Social media analytics bring surprising levels of
understanding and transparency to relationships
I-J: Posted on Facebook and LiveWorkPlay.ca
H: Posted on WordPress at keenan.wellar.ca
F-G: Shared with YouTube friends/subscribers
C-D-E: Featured in stories on partner websites
A-B-C: Post-conference presentation buzz

36. For some,
social media is understood
as a tool, a job, a skill, a choice…
For me and others,
social media is understood as the
most profound confluence of human
discourse the world has ever seen…
When pursuing social change – whether it is a community
where people with disabilities belong, or another desired
social transformation – how leaders (both individuals and
organizations) choose to understand social media has
profound consequences for themselves and the world.

37. Marketing? Me? No no no, I work for a charity!

38. Hello, my
name is:
LiveWorkPlay
Marketing
Budget!

40. Where it all started…

41. Top 30 20 in
Canadian
non-profit
community?
If only we’d been trying!
(YouTube is more than kittens
and hits to the groin)

42. My advice is learn
all the tricks
you can while
you’re young!
Being completely current on social media is
a simple matter of the impossible, so
reinvigorate your joy of discovery!

44. Is your organization engaged in marketing?
How well is your organization positioned in the
competitive world of social marketing?
Do you have an integrated social media strategy?
How can social media help improve the rest of
your marketing and communications work?
Are you concerned with outputs or outcomes?
Social media is an opportunity to both enhance and
challenge your organization’s mission-oriented pursuits!
“Master of the obvious” questions and statement…but…

45. Looking at how survey respondents use commercial
social networks, the most popular role is:
1) traditional marketing—to promote the non-profit’s brand,
programs, events or services—with 92.5% of survey
respondents indicating this role as the purpose of their
presence on commercial social networks.
2) the second most popular role is for fundraising (45.9%).
3) third program delivery (34.5%)
4) fourth market research (24.3%)

46. It’s not like Keenan shaves
his head and wears black…

47. Seth Godin on leadership:
Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through
the discomfort required to lead. The scarcity makes leadership
valuable. If everyone tries to lead all the time, not much happens.
It’s discomfort that creates the leverage that makes leadership
worthwhile…if everyone could do it, they would, and it wouldn’t
be worth much.
It’s uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers.
It’s uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail.
It’s uncomfortable to challenge the status quo.
It’s uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle.
When you identify the discomfort, you’ve found the place where a
leader is needed. If you’re not uncomfortable in your work as a leader,
it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader.

48. Some non-profits may fear that social media resistance is futile…
Those who are in proper mission-oriented focus will
understand it as a new universe of opportunities…

49. To err is human!
But we can adopt marketing
Strategies that aren’t doomed
to fail from the outset…

50. Do as we say, not as we do:
social media engagement (non) strategy
Hi, I’m the CEO of a local charitable organization. I don’t have time
for social media, but our summer intern is posting some of our press
releases on Facebook, you should check those out and make a donation!

51. The conversation
Monetizing social media is like might lead somewhere
monetizing the conversation but it definitely didn’t
you had while waiting start with an ask
for your mocha java! for $20 before you’d
start conversing!

52. Do your practices alienate young people?

53. Treating Facebook
updates and
Twitter tweets
the same?
You are losing out
with one or
both audiences.
You are putting
disregard for
authenticity on
public display.
On Facebook, updates have a full day life span!
On Twitter, 95% of re-tweets happen in the first hour!

54. Are you expecting a mob of supporters to magically appear?
Charity begins at home – build your tribe!

56. The perfect
social media
storm…
Not an
act of God, an
outcome of
a marketing
plan!

57. Looking at how survey respondents use commercial
social networks, the most popular role is:
1) traditional marketing—to promote the non-profit’s brand,
programs, events or services—with 92.5% of survey
respondents indicating this role as the purpose of their
presence on commercial social networks.
2) the second most popular role is for fundraising (45.9%).
3) third program delivery (34.5%)
4) fourth market research (24.3%)
Andrea and I are interested in training with a team of
LiveWorkPlay members to participate in this fun event
either by walking or jogging the 2K, 5K, 10K, or half marathon.
Social Media “Loss Of Control” Can Be A Great Thing!

60. @keenanwellar
Contact information and slides (available next week):
http://tiny.cc/marcom2011