social media and your organization 7.15.10

Social Media and Your Organization

Jocelyn HarmonDirector of Nonprofit Services, Care2

A story

Today’s agenda

• What is social media?• So what and who cares?• How do you do it?• Tools you can use.• Getting started.• Learn from the best.

What is social media?

What Is Social Media?Social media are Internet-based tools to share information, learn and connect with others. Social media are SOCIAL!

They enable user-generated content and feedback.

Examples include, blogs, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.

Different from mass media

Mass media• FREE (sort of)• Easy to cut, paste and share• Social• More democratic

Social media• Expensive• Hard to distribute• One-way• Inaccessible to most

Who’s online anyway?

Less than $30,000/yr – 60%$30,000 - $49,999 – 76%$50,000 - $74,999 – 83%$75,000 – 94%Less than HS – 39%High School – 63%Some College – 87%College + - 94%

Men - 74Women - 74White, Non-Hispanic – 76Black, Non-Hispanic – 70Hispanic (English-speaking) – 6418 – 29 – 93%30 – 49 – 81%50 – 64 – 70%65+ - 38%

What are they doing?Send or read e-mail - 89%Use a search engine to find information –

88%Look for information online about a service

or product you are thinking of buying* - 81%

Check the weather – 76%Look for health/medical info~ - 75%Buy a product - 75%Get news – 72%Go online just for fun or to pass the time –

72%Watch a video on a video-sharing site like

YouTube or Google Video – 62%Read someone else’s online journal or

blog^* - 32%

Rate a product, service or person using an online rating system – 31%

Share something online that you created yourself – 30%

Listen to a live or recorded radio broadcast online, such as a newscast, sporting event, or radio show – 29%

Categorize or tag online content like a photo, news story or blog post – 28%

Post comments to an online news group, website, blog or photo site – 26%

Chat in a chat room or in an online discussion – 22%

Make a donation to a charity online – 19%

Use Twitter or other status-updating service – 19%

Download a podcast so you can listen to it or view it later* - 19%

Use Twitter or other status-update service – 19%

Don’t forget about email and search

Send or read e-mail - 89%Use a search engine to find information – 88%

These are the top-ranked online activities.

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

So what and who cares?

Social media is mainstream!75% of Internet users participate in some form of social media, up from 56 percent in 2007. Source: Forrester

Holy cow! Look at the top 11 sites on the Internet

1. Google2. Facebook3. YouTube4. Yahoo!5. Windows Live6. Baidu7. Wikipedia8. Blogger9. MSN10. QQ11. Twitter

Source: Alexa.com 7.15.10

So what and who cares?

• It’s fast.• It’s global.• It can help you reach new and younger

advocates.• It can enable your best supporters to market

for you.• It’s measurable.• It’s where your audiences are!

What this means for you

How do you do it?

Strategy first.

Tools second.

Before diving in, do your homework.

Not all constituents are created equal.

Who loves you baby?

Profile your audience

• Who are your stakeholders?• Where do they “live” online?• How do they interact with the social web?• Who are your key influencers?• How often do they visit our your website?• What do they do when they get there?• How else are you currently communicate with

them?

How are your constituents using the Web?

Your Organization

• What’s your communications capacity?• Is communicating/doing advocacy in

someone’s job description?• Do you have a marketing/communications

plan and strategy?• What do you want our stakeholders to do –

act, donate, share/spread news?

Your Organization

• Is your organization online?• Do you have a website? Is it updated

regularly?• Do you have a newsletter?• Do you have an email newsletter?• How often do you sent it out?• How does your organization handle the

adoption of new technology?

Tools you can use

WebsiteEmailBlogsVideoTwitterSocial networking sites

Websites

• Your website should still be the hub of all your communication activities.

• Make it easy for people engage with you and keep your content fresh.

• However, also make it easy for them to repurpose your content.

• Remember, you have 1 minute to WOW!

Example

Example

Example

Example

Email• Your email list is one of

your most valuable assets.

• Keep it clean and build it.• Buy a commercial email

services platform. Do not use Outlook for blast emails.

• Put an email sign up on every page of your website.

Obama for America

• It's interesting to note that the 20 social networking sites and the campaign's own online community (MyBo), which powered OFA did not yield a high return on investment in terms of fundraising.

• "From a fundraising perspective, external social networks are not a good use of time. No one has ever really cracked that code." - Stephen Geer, Director of Email and Online Fundraising, Obama for America Instead, "The real drivers were old school. They were email. And they were web." - David Plouffe, Campaign Manager, Obama for America

Example

Example

Blogs – Use them to• Put a real face on your organization.

• Enable you to communicate quickly

• Get found in Search.

• Build, organize and share content – educate.

• Control the discourse.

• Get PR.

Example

Example

Video – Use it to

Show vs. tell your story

Remember: YouTube is The 3rd most trafficked site On the Net!

Twitter – Use it to

See who is talking about your issue right now.

Respond and connect.

Enable people to follow an event, issue or conversation in real time via hash tags.

Use your twitter feed to drive traffic to your website, blog, petitions.

Example

Example

Social Networking Sites – Use them to

Build an audience, i.e. find new stakeholders.

Increase brand awareness.

Ask your supporters to support you.

A caveat: Unless you have their email addresses your fans don’t really belong to you.

Example

If you build it. They won’t come!

Don’t forget to syndicate your content.

“If you don’t like the news…go out and make some of your own.”

- Wes “Scoop” Nisker

Getting started

Getting Started• Clean up your website!

• Get your email marketing going!

• Set up Google Alert and start listening to what people are already saying about you online.

• Do a Google blog search on key terms. Search Technorati and Alltop to find the influential bloggers in your industry.

• Follow other nonprofits on Twitter to see what they are talking about.

Getting Started• Start a personal Facebook page so you can get a feel for the

medium.

• Follow other nonprofits on Twitter to see what they are talking about.

Learn from the best

Resources for You!

• Pew Internet and American Life Project• Alexa.com• 2010 e-Nonprofit Benchmark Study• Blackbaud Index of Online Giving• BethKanter.org• Frogloop.com• Care2’s social networking calculator -

http://bit.ly/aV5idE

Connect with me!

jocelynh@care2team.com301-257-8526

@jocelynharmon