Sarah McNally, The Lesbian and Gay Foundation North West Regional Group: Social media - what's in it for us? www.charitycomms.org.uk/events

1. Are you following me?
– A Tweeting Tale
Sarah McNally, Press & Social Media Officer
The Lesbian & Gay Foundation

2. • The Lesbian & Gay Foundation (LGF) is a charity
offering a wide range of services to LGB
communities
• Nationally-significant, we support over 40,000
LGB people a year
• We provides more direct services and resources
to more LGB people than any other organisation
of our kind in the UK
• We campaign for a fair and equal society where all
LGB people can achieve their full potential. Our
mission is: ‘Ending Homophobia, Empowering
People’
Who are The LGF?

3. • Twitter – 10,732+ followers
• Facebook – Combined likes of 6,000+
• YouTube – 269 subscribers, 22,500+ views in
2012
• Flickr – Since 2007 over ¼ million views
Our Key Social Media Channels

4. • We’ve been on Twitter since 2007
• Reached over 10,000 followers in May 2013
• It’s by far our most ‘popular’ channel with the
most engagements and fastest growth
• The majority of our followers are from Greater
Manchester & NW followed by Brighton,
London as well as San Francisco & NYC
Data from twentyfeet.com
All in 140 characters…

5. • Not enough time to use social media channels
including Twitter
• We felt scheduling didn’t work due to the need
to respond ‘live’ and number of interactions
• Speaking about a huge range of issues
• SM team not experts in the field!
• Usually only monitored Mon-Fri 9 -5pm
• Targets to meet
The ‘Problem’

6. • Train key members of staff from each of our
fields of work, to use Twitter
The ‘Solution’

7. • Identified key members of staff from each area
(e.g sexual health, services, engagement,
volunteering/fundraising)
• Developed a ‘Twitter Guide for Staff’ sheet
• Signed documentation
• One-to-one training, at all levels
• Continued plan of action for engagement
How we did it

8. • Celebrating success
• …and Foggle
Engagement

9. • Inappropriate usage
• Switching between personal/professional
accounts
• Not sticking to corporate ‘tone’
• Lack of use
• SM team not knowing who is tweeting what,
when
The Risks

10. • Inappropriate usage - trust
• Switching between personal/professional
accounts – everyone makes mistakes!
• Not sticking to corporate ‘tone’ – we share
similar values, especially in 140 characters
• Lack of use – engagement strategy
• Not knowing who is tweeting what, when –
sticking to a specific field
Mitigating Risks

11. ‘Soft Results’
• Mostly 7 days a week coverage; evenings &
weekends
• More engaging and varied content – out and
about
• Enable staff to have ownership of their
communication / promotion
• Freed up SM team to think more strategically
The Results (from April 2013)

12. • “internally there has been an improvement in inter departmental
knowledge. I know the goings on of my colleagues work
programmes so much better now because my personal Twitter
feed is filled with events and promotions from across the
organisation!”
• “I’ve had an increase in people contacting me directly through
seeing our vacancies on Twitter. Using volunteer hour has also
helped on a Wednesday to get more exposure.”
• “Having direct access to Twitter means I can instantly share
information/links/stories. I can keep up to date with what people
are asking”
Comments from Staff

13. • Used twentyfeet.com to monitor stats, overall
there has been a;
– 5% increase in interactions
– 10% increase in followers
– In May 2013 reached 10,000 followers
…Results Continued

14. • While day-to-day it’s very useful, it can also
help at key times to have the support of a
wider team...
There is no ‘I’ in Team

15. • Our Love Equal Marriage campaign aimed to
encourage people to fight for equality and
support same-sex marriage.
• One of the aspects of this was keeping our
supporters informed every step of the way
• One of the key ways to do this was via live
updates on Twitter of parliamentary
proceedings
Case Study – Equal Marriage

16. • As some of you know the parliamentary
process is long!
• During the HoL alone we needed to cover 54
hours of debates over 6 days, usually starting
at 3pm and going past midnight!
• This is when having a staff team of tweeters
was invaluable

17. • During our 6 day live tweeting we received;
• 800+ interactions
• 100+ new followers

18. • Is this needed?
• Identify training needs
• Location – one office or multiple sites?
• Put policies in place to protect yourself and the
organisation
• Engagement strategy
Could this work for you?

19. • Thank-you for listening!
• Any questions?
You can follow us @lgfoundation
Thank-you & Questions