A basic primer on how to use social media for Junior League communications - internal and external - for any League.

1. Social Media for Jr. League
Communications
Training Presentation
By Sarah Granger, PublicEdge

2. What is Social Media?
Social media is defined differently depending
on who you ask. Most people think of social
networks like Facebook & Twitter, but it can
include blogs, Evites, interactive websites and
e-mail… anything that’s online and involves
interaction between people.

3. Why Should the Jr. League Use It?
• Social media is the best modern method of
word-of-mouth marketing
• Free PR
• Easy ability to reach large numbers of people
quickly
• Reusable content allows for speedy
dissemination of information
• Web 2.0 is all about collaboration and
community – a perfect fit with the League

4. Best Social Media for Non-Profits
• E-mail Groups
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Flickr
• YouTube
• Blogs
• Custom networks (like Ning)

5. E-mail Groups
• Group communication online for the League
has been highly successful
• Committee e-mail aliases makes internal
communication easy
• League members can also create subgroups
• Googlegroups is recommended over
Yahoogroups – better user interface and
document sharing is enabled

6. Facebook
• Second only to e-mail, Facebook is becoming
the place where everyone shares the causes
and organizations they care about with their
friends and colleagues and it’s where
everyone finds out about them
• Share League events, stories, links and photos
all through personal feeds or group pages
• Promote League membership, events and
projects

7. Promotion on Facebook
• Join the group or Fan Page, searchable under
‘Junior League’
• Build out the Fan Page with sub-events and
causes, even raise money!
• Raise awareness for community projects and
issues
• Push out press releases, messages from
leadership & other League content
• Merge feeds with Twitter, FriendFeed, etc.

8. Facebook Privacy
• Under Settings/Privacy Settings, configure your
personal account to preferred settings
• Select by topic who can see each part of your
personal profiles: just friends, network or all
• Protect who can see your data when searching
• Determine exactly what gets posted to other
peoples’ news feeds
• Limit what 3rd
party applications can see
• (See handout.)

9. LinkedIn
• Great way to do professional networking &
answer non-profit-related organizing questions
• Wonderful way to showcase your League skills &
find common professional interests
• All League members on LinkedIn should be in the
Junior League group
• Building a complete profile is key
• Maintain regular group updates
• Pose questions to the community

10. Twitter
• Twitter is essentially micro-blogging or a mini-
news feed
• Who’s on twitter? Arnold Schwarzennegger,
Gavin Newsom, Oprah, media, bloggers, SPAC
• Twitter is only useful when used to follow
members, community partners, media, their
staffs and when they start following you

11. Twitter Lingo
• @name = this is how everyone refers to each
user on Twitter and can be seen in @replies
• RT = Retweet, which is essentially someone
repeating what someone else tweeted
• DM = Direct Message, i.e. private
correspondence via Twitter
• #hashtags = these are used for topic
differentiation, like #politics or #woc (women
of color), groups use these to find each other

12. Twitter Tools
• Search.twitter.com – searches for topics
• Twitterfall.com – can watch threads as they
continue
• Tweetie – great tool both as software and on
the iPhone
• Tweetdeck – more for Blackberry, windows
• (Longer list available via e-mail by request.)

13. Blogs & Blogging
• Blogs can be considered casual online
magazines or online newspapers
• People flock to blogs because they tend
toward a more conversational atmosphere
• Post as often as possible
• Assign someone to monitor the comments &
keep out the spammers, trolls
• Keep the content fresh - don’t always use the
same as in email & other social media
• Network with related bloggers

14. Why Blog for the League?
• It’s a way to reach people in the community
and bring them closer together; it’s like an
online diary of League people and activities
• If you have a personal blog, consider writing
about what you do in the League on that blog
– you never know who you might reach
• If you know bloggers, ask to write guest posts
on their blogs or ask them to write on ours

15. Social Media Communications Strategy
• Stick to one theme per message, note, etc.
• Reuse content for each medium/network so
the same info reaches everyone
• Make it “sticky” - keep people there & get
them to return
• Personalize – friendly, specific content, stories
• Use Images - photos, video make a big
difference

16. Using Social Media for Outreach,
Recruitment
• Don’t be afraid to use your social network
online – it’s the modern way of asking a friend
to lunch and telling her about the League
• Facebook is an awesome way to recruit
people for causes and to inform about our
community projects
• Social media can help break the “white gloves
and pearls” illusion and bring others to us

17. Social Media for PR
• Changing a few words here and there to
personalize content will make bloggers more
interested in using our info in their articles
• Bloggers and media will follow our activities
on Twitter and if they can click on a link to a
blog post or a page on our site to get info, it’s
that much easier for them to post about it
• Online, buzz is viral – word spreads quickly

18. Integrating Social Media & Etiquette
• Always take an integrated approach
• If someone puts up a blog post, resends your
facebook message, retweets your alert, sends
e-mail to their network, etc. make sure to
thank them for both their time and their
commitment to the issue.
• Put anyone who helps you out on a list and
make sure to keep them informed as the bill
status changes.

19. Other Online Tools for Meetings
• Online chat tools (Jabber, etc.)
• Instant messaging (AIM, YIM, MSN, Skype)
• Text messaging (via mobile phones SMS)
• Online conference call tools
(freeconference.com)
• Online polling tools
• Event management tools – Evite, Doodle, etc.

20. Warning!
Social Media can suck up all of
your time… use with caution.

21. Questions?
Contact: Sarah Granger
(415)377-6676 cell/text
sarah@publicedge.com
@publicedge on Twitter
PublicEdge on Facebook
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sairy