Social media allows nonprofits to increase awareness, engage with others, and build relationships at a low cost. Popular social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, which have hundreds of millions of active users each day. Nonprofits can use social media to share news, events, photos, and videos; ask questions of and interact with followers; recruit volunteers; and strengthen their brand in order to gain support for their cause. Proper planning is required to allocate staff time for social media management and to establish response and success measurement policies.

1. Social Media for Nonprofits

2. What is social media? Social media is any tool that lets you share information and interact with others on the Internet.

3. Why should we care? It’s changing the face of marketing and public relations and, more importantly, the way we communicate with each other. Social media allows for real-time conversations among many people. It allows you to build relationships. And, at a relatively low cost to the organization! Because the conversations are happening…with or without you.

4. Examples of Social Media: Twitter Facebook Flickr Digg YouTube LinkedIn Blogger SurveyMonkey And much, much more!

5. Some Fast Facts: There are over 500 million active users on Facebook and 50% log on in any given day There are over 100,000 nonprofits are using Facebook LinkedIn has over 60 million users worldwide Twitter has over 105 million users. New users are signing up at the rate of 300,000 per day. People are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily. Facts pulled from platform websites and articles.

6. How can a nonprofit organization benefit from using social media? Increase awareness Engage and interact Build relationships and reap the rewards

7. Increase Awareness Link to articles and press releases about your organization

8. Increase Awareness Post exciting news about your organization

9. Increase Awareness Promote upcoming events and initiatives

10. Increase Awareness Share photos and video about your organization

11. Increase Awareness Announce new partnerships and introduce new members of the team

12. Increase Awareness Further your brand through logo placement, personalized backgrounds, colors, etc.

13. Engage and Interact Ask questions and comment on responses

14. Engage and Interact Meet new people and possible partners Milan has been on Twitter since Aug. 27 and is being followed by over 100 people, most from Baltimore,including media, “movers and shakers”, city and state agencies, etc. Plus, the restaurant is included in 20 Lists created by followers.

15. Engage and Interact Support and promote partners and others

16. Engage and Interact Surveys and polls

17. Engage and Interact Comment on blog posts, tweets, status updates, etc. from others

18. Engage and Interact Join and create “ chats” and “discussions”

19. Engage and Interact Create lists (for you and your followers) Examples: Saint Agnes Staff Health reporters Grateful patients Board members Volunteers Health Agencies Catonsville Businesses

20. Engage and Interact Host a Tweetup, a contest or promotion

21. Engage and Interact Send updates to those who “Like” you and target it

22. Engage and Interact Allow others to post videos, photos, comments on your pages that are relevant (you can delete those that aren’t!)

23. Engage and Interact Use social media on the go! Post photos, updates, etc. from an event!

24. Engage and Interact Create a landing page on Facebook that allows people to sign up for newsletters, shop, donate, etc.

25. Engage and Interact Create a landing page on Facebook that allows people to sign up for newsletters, shop, donate, etc.

26. Engage and Interact Use it for customer service! Answer questions Handle complaints/concerns Thank people for support 396 followers 251 friends

27. Engage and Interact Mobile Giving

28. Engage and Interact Communicate important news IMMEDIATELY. Examples: Weather delays/cancellations Phones are down Emergencies

29. Engage and Interact Call for volunteers

30. Ultimately, nonprofit organizations can: Meet new people Recruit volunteers Gain support for your cause Strengthen your brand Build a community of supporters and you can encourage them to contribute and spread the word about donations.

31. Things to note: Who has the time to manage social media? There are lots of applications and tools that can make this manageable. Some let you monitor what is being said about your organization, some let you track how far your reach is and some help manage the time it takes to disseminate material through these platforms. Won’t social media just allow people to air their negative comments about our organization? A small fraction of your interactions will be negative. Having the ability to converse with someone who is upset or disappointed is positive! But how will people know we’re on social media? Promote it in your newsletters, on your website, in your email signatures, in your press releases and by word of mouth.

32. Questions that need to be asked before getting into social media: Who is going to manage the social media campaign and much time is to be allocated? What is your response policy to questions/criticism/praise? What are the benchmarks to measure usefulness/success?

33. Links: Twitter - www.twitter.com Facebook - www.facebook.com Nonprofits on Facebook - www.facebook.com/nonprofits Flickr - www.flickr.com Digg - www.digg.com YouTube - www.youtube.com YouTube Nonprofit Program - www.youtube.com/nonprofits LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com Blogger - www.blogger.com SurveyMonkey - www.surveymonkey.com

34. Questions? Comments? Contact me at: Amy Burke Friedman Profiles, Inc. 3000 Chestnut Avenue, Suite 201 Baltimore, MD 21211 (410) 243-3790 www.profilespr.com [email_address] Twitter: @amyburke02 or @ProfilesBmore