Social media for charitiesJohn Breslin, NUI Galway

www.johnbreslin.com / @johnbreslin

Lecturer, Engineering and InformaticsFull-time lecturer from 2000 to 2004, tenured in 2008.

Researcher, DERILeader of the Social Software Unit in the worldʼs largest Semantic Web research institute. Co-author of “The Social Semantic Web”.

Who, Me?Some background on John.

Founder, Technology VoicePublisher of tech articles. Deciphering new technologies and promoting Ireland as a tech hub.

Co-Founder, boards.ie Ltd.Irelandʼs largest discussion forum website, 2.2 million visitors/month. Began as a gaming forum in 1998.

Getting Onboard

Joining In

Keeping Up

Quick Example

Resources

What?Quick overview of my talk.

Service delivery

Fundraising

CrowdsourcingCrowdfunding

Awareness raising

Campaigning

Advocacy

Why?What can a charity use social media for?

Choose Your Platform, CarefullyDepending on your audience, do you need to be on social networks, discussion forums (e.g. Google Groups or boards.ie), or something else entirely?

Spread Too Thin?Donʼt waste time on a platform if your “customers” just arenʼt there.

Part 1: Getting OnboardPick what services should you be on.

The Social Network Choices

Twitter: Whatʼs happening? Info streams.

Facebook: Everyoneʼs here, eek!

LinkedIn: The business network.

MySpace: Only if youʼre selling music...

Bebo: Kaput, even for 13 year olds.

Create Your IdentityTry and get a common brand that you can use across one or more platforms of your choice.

Pick Your “Forever” UsernameHave a consistent username for your Twitter account or Facebook page.

Promoting Your IdentityMake sure you tell people about your social media identity where appropriate, e.g. in your e-mail signatures, on your website, in presentations.

Part 1: Getting OnboardDecide exactly who you are.

Part 2: Joining InBe part of the conversation.

Respond To Others, Meaningfully!Thereʼs no point being a standalone broadcaster on social websites. You must engage with others, not just via your own channels.

Does anyone know

[...]?

Hello! I think I can

help...

Choose Who You Are Talking ToIf you want to be a person of influence using social media, then the way to do it is to acquire engaged followers who are themselves active on the service: http://tch.vc/twitterinfSee also “Finding Your Influencers” in http://tinyurl.com/sm4charities

Part 2: Joining InTell the world about your organisation, your services.

Marketing Your BrandYou can do targeted advertising on social networks like Facebook, but did you know charities can get free ads?“Google Grants empowers nonprofit organizations, through $10,000 per month in in-kind AdWords™ advertising” http://www.google.com/grants/ (up to $480,000 per year)

Use An Integrated StrategyView this great video from Deanna Lee (Chief Communications and Digital Strategies Officer at Carnegie Corporation) about how social media is just one part of your communications strategy: http://bit.ly/leevideo

Part 3: Keeping UpStay up to date with your interests and “competitors”.

Think about whatʼs coming around the corner.

The World Is Going HyperlocalYou may need to think about a web where oneʼs geolocation is strongly tied to their activities online: Foursquare, Layar, and more: http://tch.vc/hyperlocalized

The Semantic What?The next generation of the Web, encompassing the notion of “Linked Data” whereby itʼs not just pages that are linked on the Web, but rather data with an associated meaning: http://tch.vc/linkedd

Part 3: Keeping Up

Start With the Web Address.org or .com is best; .ie is okay too:e.g. irishfreeaid.orgIf you need a quick and easy-to-maintain site, you can sign up at wordpress.com, buy a domain and choose no-ads option for $43/year. Can use JustGiving for donations and Giv2.it for Twitter integration.See also Facebookʼs causes.com.

Example: Irish Free AidAn imaginary charity

Get Your Social Network Names

Twitter: @irishfreeaid

Facebook: facebook.com/irishfreeaid

YouTube: Get irishfreeaid as username

Google+: No short URLs yet; use gplus.to

LinkedIn: Create linkd.in URLs at bit.ly

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A Cut Out And Keep Social Media Plan for a Non-Profit (Technology Voice) http://tch.vc/cutoutandkeep

How Does Your Charity Use Social Media? (The Guardian) http://gu.com/p/38jq7 and http://gu.com/p/36kx4

Social Media Escalation Flowcharts http://tinyurl.com/smflow and http://tinyurl.com/smtriage

A Guide to Social Media for Charities http://tinyurl.com/sm4charities

Why Social Media is the Future for Charities (and lots more on this great blog) http://tinyurl.com/springgiving

Reference materialsSome useful guides

Ask JohnThanks for listening.

Image credits: Tom Murphy and www.publicdomainpictures.net

Slides available at: www.slideshare.net/Cloud

john@bresl.in