lutheran communicators network presentation april 29 2009

Lutheran Communicators

Network

April 29, 2009

Megan M. EngleFormer Social Media Manager

Michigan Nonprofit Association [email protected]

www.MNAonline.orghttp://MNAonline.wordpress.com

Twitter: @MNAOnline

About Me:

http://www.slideshare.net/MNAOnline

Where This Presentation Will Be Located:

Quick Inventory of Suggestions• What would you like to see today?

• How to utilize a Facebook page, Twitter, Blogs• Effective time management• Engaging distinct audiences• Monitoring for negative feedback• Measuring success and productivity • Learning proven strategies that raise awareness

and funding • Incorporating social media into an already

existing marketing program • Using social media to be media friendly

• Increasing website traffic • Using social media to engage seniors and their

children

Today’s Agenda• Quick Introductions• Tweeting Your Message exercise • What is Social Media: discussion and brief examples

of mainstream tools• Featured tool: Twitter

• Reminder: What people do on the Internet by age • Featured case study: The American Red Cross• Break • Let’s talk Strategy! • Discussion/reflections• Questions

Tweeting Your Message – on Paper* • Pick one or two other folks to form a pair

or small group• Spend about 10 minutes discussing the

following: “How can social media benefit my organization?”

• Brainstorm possible benefits using the list on the next slide as inspiration

• Select a benefit that seems most appropriate to your organization

• Write down your answer as a “Tweet” on paper

• Share with the group *Thanks to the WeAreMedia Project (www.wearemedia.org) and NTEN for the original exercise

Tweeting Your Message – on Paper* • Possible benefits list to get you started

• Issue Awareness• Issue Education• Content Generation • Improve Reputation • Increased Relevant Visitor Traffic• Generate Positive Word of Mouth • Recruit Volunteers • Acquire New Donors and/or Members • Other ideas?

*Thanks to the WeAreMedia Project (www.wearemedia.org) and NTEN for the original exercise

SERVE STRENGTHEN

TRANSFORM COMMUNITIEShttp://www.commoncraft.com

Reminder: A Great Resource for Basic Videos

What Is Social Media?

• Definition: “the use of electronic and Internet tools for the

purpose of sharing and discussing information and experiences

with other human beings.” - Ben Parr

http://www.benparr.com/2008/08/its-time-we-defined-social-media-no-more-arguing-heres-the-definition

• In other words, social media describes the tools people use and the ways people share ideas online.


• What is the first word/phrase that comes to mind when you define social media?

• Is it a tool? • Is it a concept? • Is it a way of thinking?

• Please share with us!


• The first words that come to my mind are:

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

and LISTENING

Examples of Social Media:

• Social Bookmarking

• Photo Sharing

• Podcasting and Video

• Blogging

• Feed Reading & Sharing

• Social Networking

What Is Social Bookmarking?

vs.

+ +

Traditional bookmarking

Social bookmarking

SERVE STRENGTHEN

TRANSFORM COMMUNITIES

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30182286@N07/

Photo Sharing

Photo Sharing – How Can It Be Used?

http://www.youtube.com/nonprofits

YouTube Nonprofit Channel Program

The Importance of Storytelling

• The best storytelling shows the story – various types of media including photos, videos, audio and text can each play a part

• Can appeal to staff, volunteers, donors, and people who could potentially fill these roles

• Sharing with the community• Relationship building!

What is Social Networking?

• People using the internet to connect with others online

• Individuals often connect with friends, family, colleagues, and other internet users with similar interests and hobbies

• Four major social networking sites are: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Ning

• Relationship building!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nonprofit-Organizations/27795452714

Facebook Nonprofit Organizations Fan Page

Facebook Best Practices

http://www.diosacommunications.com/facebookbestpractices.htm

LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/

LinkedIn is a business oriented social networking site aimed at

professionals.

Nuts About Southwest Blog

http://www.blogsouthwest.com/

Video/YouTube

Photos/Flickr

Blog

Poll

News Feed

• A form of blogging comprised of user-created brief updates ~ 140 characters

• The truncated nature of the updates allows for less sifting and faster, more direct transmission of information

• Can be used as a sounding board, peer forum, news feed, etc. Must be interactive!

• http://twitter.com/MNAonline and http://hashtags.org/ - Twitter features

• Relationship building!

What is Microblogging?

http://twitter.com/MNAonline



http://hashtags.org/

The Importance of Listening

• Good first step in listening: set up Google alerts with your organization name, key words, event names, figureheads, etc.

• Little time on the front end = big payoffs in the long run

• Food Stamp Challenge example – Michigan Nonprofit Association Blog • Blog post with most page views • Blog post with most comments• 7th on list of “michigan food stamp”

results

http://www.google.com/alerts

http://mnaonline.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/michigan-food-stamp-challenge-this-week/

The Importance of Listening

• Use an RSS reader• Engage and respond to people both

internally and externally – this will help staff be on board

• Experiment with and know your keywords!!!• For example: Michigan Nonprofit

Association, MNA, Michigan + Nonprofit, SuperConference, etc.

• Think of event names, people names, cities, and general terms

What People Do On The Internet (By Age)

http://images.businessweek.com/mz/07/24/0724_6insiid_a.gif

Featured Case Study: The American Red Cross

http://www.slideshare.net/kanter/08ntc-social-media-roi-case-study-slam-roi-of-listening?src=embed



Let’s Talk Strategy!

• You need to answer certain questions before investing time and resources in social media

• Something to be said for being spontaneous, but don’t want to look like the “cool” parent at the high school party

• Social media is a piece of the greater communications plan pie – social media is often found in marketing, PR, etc.

Let’s Talk Strategy!• The basic elements:

• Objectives• Target Audience• Integration • Culture Change • Capacity • Tools and Tactics• Measurement• Experiment

*Thanks to the WeAreMedia Project (www.wearemedia.org) and NTEN for the original prompt

Let’s Talk Strategy!• Objectives

• What do you hope to accomplish by using social media? (Think about the inventory of suggestions from earlier this morning)

• Begin thinking about your objective so that it is “SMART” – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based

• Example objectives: listening and learning; building relationships and issue awareness; improving reputation; increased web traffic; fundraising or other action


Let’s Talk Strategy!• Target Audience

• Who do you need to reach with your social media campaign to meet your objective?

• How does this target group fit into the overall communications plan of your organization?

• What is their awareness level of your organization/cause?

• What do you want to show/tell/interact/converse with them about?

• What tools are they using?• http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/13/social.n

etwork.older/index.html


http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/13/social.network.older/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/13/social.network.older/index.html

Let’s Talk Strategy!• Integration:

• How does social media jive with the overall internet strategy of your organization?

• Where can you create a hub? (Think of Southwest’s blog page)

• Where are your outposts throughout the internet?

• (Think about driving website traffic) • Connecting on and offline


Let’s Talk Strategy!• Culture Change:

• Will everyone in your organization be on board?

• What are common fears association with social media? How can they become +?

• Pair up – take 15 minutes and discuss about when something new was adopted in your organization (not necessarily technology) – how did you engage people? Did something particular work? *Thanks to the WeAreMedia Project (www.wearemedia.org) and NTEN for the

original prompt

Let’s Talk Strategy!• Culture Change:

- Loss of control over your organization's branding and marketing messages

- Dealing with negative comments- Addressing personality vs. organizational voice- Fear of failure- Perception of wasted of time and resources- Suffering from information overload already,

this will cause more


Let’s Talk Strategy!• Capacity/Resources/Time Management:

• Who will be implementing and measuring your social media strategy?

• How much time can you spend each week?

• Do you need any outside help?• Can you spend approximately one hour

per day? • Will staff need to be trained? Will the

responsibilities be shared or will one person maintain everything?


Let’s Talk Strategy!• Tools and Tactics:

• What tools are you already using? • What tools would you like to use to

engage your stakeholders?• What tools are your stakeholders

already using? • What tools have the most advantages

for your organization? • Example: Facebook – LSSM page


Let’s Talk Strategy!• Measurement:

• What can you measure in the end? •Media coverage? •Blog hits/page views?•RSS subscribers?•Web traffic?•Comments/participation? •Authority/expert status/regard?


Let’s Talk Strategy!• Experiment:

• What have you tried? • What has worked? What would you like

to tweak? • This is the secret to success – as the

“experts” say, “rinse, lather, repeat”.


Discussion/Reflections/Questions

• Where will you go next? • Take 15 minutes and reflect: what is the

one thing you will promise to take on to improve social media efforts in your organization?

• Reflections? • Questions?

http://www.slideshare.net/MNAOnline

Where This Presentation Will Be Located:

Thank you!!!!

lutheran communicators network presentation april 29 2009

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