Catholic Relief ServicesCRS and Social

NetworkingNCDC Workshop, November 10,

2009

In Lieu of Handouts:

Download the slides:

www.slideshare.net/lbdurington

Or e-mail me:

ldurington@crs.org

or read my newly launched blog:

http://dementedsocial.blogspot.com/

Agenda:• What is social networking and why use it?

• Facebook 101• Twitter 101

• An overview of CRS’ Social Networking Strategy

• Success Stories, Experiments, Lessons Learned

• BREAK• How-to…• Resources

Why all the fuss over social networking?

What’s all the fuss about?

1. Critical Mass: most visited websites in the US:

– #3 Facebook– #4 YouTube– #5 MySpace– #12 Twitter

source: alexa.com

Facebook has just announced 300 million active daily users.

U.S. pop is 305 million!

What’s all the fuss about?

2. Viral, viral, viral (did I mention “viral”?)  

3. Online actions inspire “real world” conversations. 

4. Users often self-identify as Catholic. 

5. A new opportunity to tell our story and increase awareness. 

6. Establish relationships with younger donors/supporters (be where they are).

7. Multi-channel engagement.  8. Enhanced/interactive user

experience. 

What’s all the fuss about?

Who’s using what?

-In your personal life?-In your organization?

FACEBOOK 101Fan Pages, Groups and Causes: An Introduction to :

Facebook 101

The difference between:• Groups• Causes• Fan Pages

Facebook Causes

Cause Advantages:• Donation Capability• E-mail Capability• Actions in Newsfeed

View CRS’ Cause Page

Facebook Fan Pages

Fan Page Advantages:• News feed for all posts (post April 2009)

• Better interactivity• Insights

View CRS’Fan Page

Facebook Fan Page Insights

Terms and Terminology

Facebook:• Supporters are called:

Fan Page = Fan; Cause = Member• News Feed is lifeline• Goals:

Get people to “Share”, “Comment”, Invite friends, Join Cause, Donate, Create a Donor Match Challenge

TWITTER 101Tweets, ReTweets,@Replies, and more:

Twitter 101

• I don’t get it.• Only 140 characters?• Isn’t it all just drivel anyway?• What’s with all the jargon?

• Yup, I hear you. But…

Twitter 101

• Twitter’s evolution (thought leaders and opinion; breaking news; trending.)

• Eavesdropping on entire world (good and bad.)

• Powerful viral force.• Be transparent; be genuine – or perish.• Psst…users often self-identify as Catholic.• Save characters with a url shortener

service: Tinyurl, Hootsuite, bit.ly

Terms and Terminology

Twitter• Supporters are called “followers”• Posts are called “Tweets”• RT=ReTweet=share; @reply=public

message directed at someone; DM is private message

• Hashtags (#)= classification system

For more, see How To Use Twitter

Terms and Terminology

Twitter• Goals: Get people to Retweet, use

your @Twittername when they talk about you or respond to you, create dialog about a #topic, recommend you for #charitytuesday, #followfriday.

And the rest…

MySpace: still big in mid-west; more widely used by Hispanic US pop/bands.

LinkedIn: Great for HR; Major Gift Networking??

YouTube: Get a nonprofit channel

CRS’ SOCIAL NETWORKING STRATEGY

Where we are; what we’ve done

CRS’ Social Networking Strategy

CRS’ goals of having a presence on social networking sites are:

1. Increase awareness in a new audience of online Catholics

2. Use these sites as our own news channel and drive people to our website

3. Foster deep levels of engagement

The New Rules of Engagement

Crawl…Walk…Run:•Awareness•Engagement•Conversion

Current Stats (as of 09/20/09)

• Facebook Fans – 5,248 members• Facebook Causes – 3,738

members, $4,090 donated• Twitter – 2,234 followers• YouTube - 127 subscribers• MySpace – 3,095 members

A word about niche sites (Ex: Catholic social networking sites)

• Numbers are small• Hard to maintain too many sites

consistently• Plenty of Catholics in mainstream

networks

We’re keeping an eye on them, to see which ones will have staying power.

Success StoriesBackpack Contest

And about 70 amazing testimonials from supporters!

225 new fans in 9 days - 5x the rate we would typically see over the same time

Success Stories

• Repeat Gifts on Facebook Causes• Matching Gifts Challenge • Coordinated Messaging/Cross-

promotion• Twitter Day-in-the-life

Success StoriesIncreased traffic to www.crs.org

YouTube

TAKEAWAYS

What else can I tell you about social networking for nonprofits?

Takeaways…

• One note of a symphony• See the forest AND the trees• Go big or go home• Can’t be everywhere• Don’t panic• Be genuine• Learn the language, but stay true

to yourself, and your mission

CRS social networking sites:

• Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Catholic-Relief-Services/21492729544?ref=ts

• Facebook Causes (Main cause): http://apps.facebook.com/causes/1613?recruiter_id=1465928

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/catholicrelief• YouTube:

www.youtube.com/catholicrelief • MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/catholicreliefservices  

Now it’s your turn

• What to consider: Who should embrace social networking/who shouldn’t

• How to get started• How to promote your page• How to get fans• What to post/how often• CYA stuff

Reasons not to start…yet

• Get your house in order• Capacity matters• It has to be genuine

Social Networking Resources:

• Nonprofit Tech 2.0 (Heather Mansfield)Best Practices Series; Webinars http://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com/

• Nonprofit Technology NetworkNTC Conference; Webinars http://www.nten.org/

• Donor Power Blog (Jeff Brooks, Merkle): http://www.donorpowerblog.com/

• Chris Brogan, Community and Social Media: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/

• Beth’s Blog (Beth Kanter) How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/

• Video, How To Use Twitter: http://www.howcast.com/videos/149055-How-To-Use-Twitter

• HootSuite, Great Twitter tool

http://hootsuite.com  

Thank you!

Laura DuringtonOnline Community

ManagerCatholic Relief Services

e-mail: ldurington@crs.orgphone: 410-951-7210download slides from: www.slideshare.net/lbduringtonblog: http://dementedsocial.blogspot.com/