This document provides tips and best practices for non-profits using social media. It recommends focusing social media efforts on a few key platforms where an organization's target audiences engage. It emphasizes the importance of developing trusted relationships and sharing engaging content over direct sales pitches. It also stresses allocating adequate staff time and resources and collaborating across departments to ensure consistent branding and messaging across all social media channels.

1. Social Media for Non-profits @LuckyRenee

2. Renee’s Top Tips social media how-to in 4 slides

3. Find & Follow the rock-stars @LuckyRenee

4. Stock the fridge before the party @LuckyRenee

5. It’s the house not the hammer @LuckyRenee

6. Be Fearless @LuckyRenee

7. Getting Serious with Social Media From communication to engagement to $$$

8. Social Media is a BUSINESS function Social Media has implications across all business functions Your social media goals should mirror and help reach your organization goals @LuckyRenee

9. Time, tools and team Time: Social is 24 hours, you are not, the more you give however, the more you get! Set feasible daily time for your management Multiple day parts for short time (breakfast lunch dinner) Tools: Lots of FREE and easy tools to streamline the process My fav’s: Google dashboard, TweetDeck, Hootsuite Check out this great resource from Carrie Lewis of Humane society:http://cariegrls.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-free-igoogle-brand-monitoring.html Team: Have 1 person who is in charge of overall strategy, policies & curating Incorporate ideas from all teams (development and volunteers are essential) Channels can be managed by volunteers, receptionists, interns etc. once the strategy and plan are defined @luckyrenee

10. A donor is a donor Follow traditional donor relations best practices Social can be a hug not just a hand shake How are your supporters connecting with you off-line? Incorporate development tactics Identify influencers Consider “fans” leads Deploy traditional development campaigns @LuckyRenee

11. Become a friend DON’T SELL Rotate content appealing to your audience Become a trusted expert and community outpost Act SOCIAL think media Tell stories Be authentic/develop trust @LuckyRenee

12. YES! You can raise funds BIGGEST RULE: Would you give $20 to a stranger or a friend??? Become a FRIEND 1st! Manage your (boards) expectations Make it MEANINGFUL (not passive) Start small and test highly specific campaigns Create unique metrics of success Take a team approach @LuckyRenee

13. Your Questions, Answered Questions from your registration survey

14. Your Questions: How often do you recommend updating the blood center Facebook page? Test and learn (keep the shop open and active but DON’T SPAM How do you keep your audience engaged on your social media page, when the person doing social media has time constraints & can't log-in every day? Let’s discuss! How often do you monitor your Facebook page? Daily is a must How do you handle it when people post pictures on your Facebook page? Depends on the content How (and how much) do you monitor mentions of your blood center on other people's Facebook pages/Youtube/MySpace etc? These are conversation starters, don’t you want to talk? @LuckyRenee

15. Your Questions: Managing live posts that mention the competition Consider these conversation starters. What would you say if you over heard these comments at a public event? Managing negative comments, especially those that are tied to Google maps Follow your traditional customer service response plan. If you don’t have one, create one BEFORE engaging in social! @LuckyRenee

16. Your Questions: We have multiple recruiters that want to have/manage their pages for their territories. This would then cause multiple pages for our one organization and a challenge with consistent messaging and branding. How do other blood centers handle this? By creating and providing official tools and best practices you can help ensure consistency across pages You can find the red Cross chapter guide here: http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php Who manages the social media program? Which department/team member? Depends on who is best at engaging and communication about your brand Regardless input should be given by all teams on content COLLABORATE! How do blood centers handle creating events for each of their individual blood drives? Suggestion: Facebook events and small highly targeted ad buys @LuckyRenee

17. Your Questions: How can we use social media to reach our hospital and partner organizations? Now you’re talkin! Become active in their channels and position yourself as an industry expert (fan/brand/stuff) Perhaps plan joint webinars and live-streamed events How do we motivate our content creators to embrace social media when their desire is limited and they have significant time constraints? First know that there is now time rule, but you do get what you give. Second, understand that the deep relationship building nature of social makes the conversations that happen hear much more lucrative. @LuckyRenee

18. Your Questions: Which social media platforms make the most sense for what we do as blood centers? Fish where the fishes are! DO NOT get distracted by the 5 zillion channels and tools. I'm curious to see how other blood centers promote their social media pages. I'd also like to hear about any successful efforts to increase fans/followers and participation. Let’s talk numbers! In real life, would you rather have 10 really good friend you could rely on or 100 friend that never answer your call? @LuckyRenee

19. More Questions? @LUCKYRENEE ReneeAHamilton@gmail.com More on Slide Share: Renee Hamilton THANK YOU!