the insiders’ guide to social media for charities€¦ · social media can help achieve your...
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The insiders’ guide to social media for charities
charitycomms.org.uk
by Rob Newsome
charitycomms.org.uk
Welcome
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
Let’s start with an assumption; an assumption that you know
what social media is. What you might not know is how to
best use it and how it can help your organisation achieve
its goals.
In the UK over 37 million people have a Facebook account,
over 15 million have Twitter and nearly eight million are
on LinkedIn. But despite the numbers, social media is still
a relatively new communication tool: Facebook isn’t even
a teenager yet, and Twitter has yet to reach double figures
in terms of lifespan. Finding how it works best as a medium
is still a question of trial and error, of testing, revising and
testing again.
At CharityComms, we believe in charities innovating
and experimenting to find the most effective way to
communicate with their audiences. But we also believe in
sharing success. So we’ve talked to the comms practitioners
at the forefront of social media – the ones who have invested
time, energy and creativity to find out what works and what
doesn’t, and who are actually delivering successful social
communications for their charities. We’ve mined them for
advice that we’ve included as ‘top tips’ and mini case
studies throughout this report. Social media managers from
charities as diverse as Sightsavers, Sue Ryder, Dogs Trust and
the RNLI have generously shared their experience – you can
find the full list of participants on page 33.
Social media, used strategically, can help you engage
with existing supporters, attract new ones, raise awareness
and fundraise. But there are plenty of people who are
afraid or unsure of social media; often those higher up
in organisations. This uncertainty tends to come from
a lack of understanding of how it all works, and a fear of
the potentially public consequences of failure, plus the
desire for a definitive set of principles to guarantee success.
Sadly, there isn’t a one size fits all solution and there are very
few hard and fast rules, but this is what makes it such an
exciting avenue to be explored. The aim of this guide is to
help you make the most of a massive, sometimes daunting
area that’s full of possibility. Our previous guide came out
at the end of 2011 and plenty has changed – if you can
believe it, selfies weren’t even a thing back then. Social
media is constantly evolving, and our plan is to update
this guide on a more regular basis to cover changes and
upcoming channels.
This is less of a ‘how to’ and more of a ‘here’s what’s out
there’ – you can find links to other resources at the end of
this guide if you’re starting from scratch (see page 33).
We hope our guide, and the experience of our contributors,
gets you thinking about how you can make better use of
social media and inspire you to take some chances and
try things out.
Rob Newsome, digital and social media assistant, MSF UK
Vicky Browning, director, CharityComms
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charitycomms.org.uk
Contents
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
One: Strategy, audiences and content
Two: Channels
Google+
YouTube
Tumblr
Vine
Snapchat
New and upcoming channels
Three: Tools
Four: How to make the most of social media
Campaigns and lobbying
Raising money
Finding influencers
Converting online conversations into offline action
Integrating social media with your other communications
Showing your expertise
Promoting your social media feeds
Making the case for social media to senior management
Using social media to engage young people
Viral campaigns
Crisis
What’s next?
Five: References and acknowledgements
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One: Strategy, audiences and content
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
Before you take the leap into social media and sign up to
every channel going, stop and spend some time thinking
about what you actually want to achieve.
Social media can help achieve your organisational goals The best starting point for deciding which channels to use is
to look at your organisational goals and decide how using
social media can help you achieve them.
Proving social media has assisted in achieving your goals will
help demonstrate the need for investment in the future.
Who are your audiences?Think about your current and potential audiences. Establish
profiles of these groups – what are they interested in? What
do they need or want from your charity?
How do your existing audiences use social media?To get an understanding of where your potential audiences
are, survey your existing ones. Ask your volunteers, staff,
donors and even board members about their social
media use.
This will give you a good idea of which channels to target if
you want more of the same, or could highlight gaps where
completely new audiences may exist.
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Engaging audiences on social media
Know your audience. Audit your content, start some deep social listening and produce audience personas based on your findings.
Test your content. Target your content towards specific sections of your audience. If it fails to perform, try again.
Monitor and measure your engagement. Keep up your social listening, and measure the quality of conversations you’ve sparked on your channels. Match them with conversations your potential audience has about your key issues elsewhere on social.
Chris Hosker, social media and community manager, The Children’s Society
Listen to what people are saying. Even if as an organisation you don’t use social media, your supporters – or people with even a vague interest – will, and will be talking about you. When we set
up our @SueRyderCharity Instagram account, we discovered over 1,000 photos tagged with #SueRyder that would other-wise have gone unnoticed and unacknowledged. It may be that listening requires you to act – change tack or stick to your guns. But whatever you decide to do after listening to people, state your opinions with conviction and make sure you address concerns or praise accordingly. It’s this two-way conversation that makes social media such a powerful tool.
Joe Freeman, social media manager, Sue Ryder
TOP TIPS
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What are your competitors doing?Check out your competitors and similar sized organisations.
See which channels they are on. What type of content are
they sharing? How often are they posting? What do you like
about what they do and what do you dislike? You’ll find links
throughout this guide to examples of how different charities
are using different channels.
What resources do you have?You can easily spend all day on social media, and unless you
work in a larger charity and it’s your job, you’ve probably got
other things to do.
It’s all well and good to say you’re going to tweet three to
five times per day, but factor in the time you’ll also spend
replying to people, for example.
Get the whole organisation to think socialIf you can persuade everyone in your organisation to start
seeing the benefits of social media you’ve got a rich source
of potential content.
Colleagues going out to meet volunteers could come
back with pictures and quotes which could make a great
Facebook post, for example.
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Resourcing your social media activity
You should match resource with ambition. There is so much scope for social and if you have enthusiastic staff in place then the sky’s the limit, but beware of trying to achieve too much too fast.
Try turning experiments into projects with schedules and deadlines. It’s a buzzkiller but you might actually do it properly!
Athar Abidi, social media manager, British Heart Foundation
Encouraging staff to get involved
I try to encourage every member of staff to get involved. For large scale campaigns or fundraising actions, I’ll usually prepare internal comms and suggest supportive content that they can send.
I’ll also scout out staff members who are particularly enthusiastic about social, and co-opt them as social media advocates for their team. This way, I can get social onto the agenda in other teams, where the social team might not have had influence before.
Chris Hosker, social media and community manager, The Children’s Society
Engaging audiences on social media
Harness the power of hyperlocal – if you have branches in various communities, from Shetland to the Scilly Isles, empower and embed your volunteers to run your social media accounts in
those communities as they will be able to have a much more meaningful and authentic relationship with your supporters.
Emily Pykett, former social media manager, RNLI
TOP TIPS
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Types of contentRemember you’re competing for attention. Ensure what
you’re sharing is interesting and relevant to your audience.
Don’t just post for the sake of it.
Decide on the tone of voice you’re planning on using – this
may vary for different channels but needs to be consistent
with your overall brand. Perfect pitch, CharityComms’ guide to creating a consistent tone of voice may help here.
Posts with images and videos tend to perform far better
than those without. It’s predicted that by 2017 over 60% of
all internet traffic will be video, which is why Facebook and
Twitter are now providing native video offerings of their own.
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Engaging audiences on social media
• Create compelling content – ideally, with personal relevance – to capture attention in the cluttered social environment and entice your audience to interact.
• Think visually – use strong imagery and multimedia to engage.
• Have a clear content calendar and plan out messaging in advance.
• Be reactive to external moments, stay on the pulse and be relevant.
• Be human, be open, be honest – get your followers talking and talk back.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment. Have fun, try new approaches and content types at different times, and then use your analytics to see what worked.
• Remember to think about the direct benefit to your audience – if you’re asking them to share content, what’s the value in their communication with their own followers?
• Keep it simple and be clear on each post’s objective.
Alicia Robinson, digital communications lead, WaterAid
Use images whenever possible! We would never (or maybe very rarely) put up a Facebook post without an image or video in it, and we are trying to include them more often on Twitter too.
Keep messages simple so that you can catch someone’s attention quickly, and make it really clear what you want them to do once they’ve read your message.
Katie Miall, digital marketing and social media manager, Alzheimer’s Society
TOP TIPS
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Engaging audiences on social media
Have clear asks. We get a much bigger response when we’re really clear about what we want people to do – read, share, comment, forward – so spell it out.
We’re always looking for new ways for our audiences to get involved rather than just passively absorbing content, but the feedback loop is important - you have to show people what you’re doing with their contributions so they know it’s valuable and not just an empty action.
Kate McCoy, social media manager, Sightsavers
Measuring success
We use a range of measurement tools. We have a very sophisticated monthly scorecard that aligns with AMEC measuring that tells us how output influences outcomes in terms of our
supporter journey, from awareness to taking actions such as liking, sharing, donating, nominating, signing-up or watching our videos.
We set KPIS for reach/sales etc before each marketing campaign and benchmark success against those. We analyse the top two performing posts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in weekly and monthly metrics reports. We keep an eye on how things are going day by day and are quickly alerted when we reach milestones in follower numbers or reach.
Emily Pykett, former social media manager, RNLI
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
Calls to actionWhat do you want users to do when they see your content?
If you want them to donate, register for an event or sign a
petition, let them know.
The most successful content will have a clear call to action.
MeasurementThis of course depends on your goals. If your goal is to
increase your media coverage and you’ve used Twitter to
build relationships with journalists that’s great. If you want to
establish partnerships with businesses and you’ve done that
using LinkedIn, again, great.
Try not to get too bogged down in how many likes/followers/
retweets you have, unless you are running an awareness
campaign.
You can get more meaningful stats using Google Analytics:
you’ll see some basic stats in the Google Analytics Acquisition
section under the Social tab. Set up goals and conversions to
properly measure your social media calls to action.
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TOP TIPS
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Engaging audiences on social media
Learn from what works – we closely monitor post success and try to replicate those that get the best responses. And experiment – the frequency of posting on social means that there’s little cost
to trying and failing so if you try a new tone or tactic and it doesn’t work you just move on to something else.
Kate McCoy, social media manager, Sightsavers
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
AdaptChances are after you’ve tried posting different types of
content on different channels you’ll come to find what does
and doesn’t work. This will allow you to adapt and adjust your
social media strategy accordingly.
What is success?What does success mean to you? How many likes/followers
you have? Probably not.
Proving a return on investment for social media is difficult.
How much do you judge someone visiting your site and
signing up to your newsletter to be worth for example?
Again, using Google Analytics you can use conversions
and put a monetary value on the actions your supporters
are taking.
How do you measure social media success?
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TOP TIPS
Great work we’ve done: Dogs Trust
Our ‘Wag’vent Calendar campaign celebrated success stories provided by our followers.
This worked because our followers enjoy seeing dogs in their new homes:
they love a happy ending. It also gave them a chance to get involved as they could upload their own stories via our website – in a hope to be included in the campaign. Occasionally behind a window we would have a donation appeal, or a link to our Amazon Wish lists – which did very well.
Abbie Smith, digital marketing officer, Dogs Trust
CASE STUDY
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Resourcing your social media activity
Around one third of our best performing posts are published out of hours, so we are turning our attention to how we resource our channels at evenings and weekends, when most of our target
audiences are online.
Emily Pykett, former social media manager, RNLI
Encouraging staff to get involved
We’ve seen staff using their own social media channels – Twitter especially – to good use in encouraging event participants, thanking them and strengthening our relationships. A lot of our
shop staff are also active on social media.
Having so many people with their own accounts can become difficult to manage. However personal contact with as many of them as possible works well. This way you can explain your objectives and also offer encouragement and support. This personal, one-to-one contact also helps when you need to offer constructive criticism or ask people to remove unauthorised accounts – which does happen from time to time.
Joe Freeman, social media manager, Sue Ryder
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
Out-of-hoursSocial media doesn’t stick to 9-5. People are constantly
checking their phones: this could be on their commute, last
thing at night or first thing in the morning.
This means you need to be prepared to take advantage
of opportunities that arise outside of office hours.
Here’s how Mind has it covered.
Guidelines for staffThis is an issue which seems to divide many people. Do you
want a set of guidelines telling your staff how to behave
on their own social media profiles? Or, do you trust them
to behave in an appropriate manner?
Here is the BBC’s recent social media guidance for news
group staff and this blog lists examples of over 300 social media policies.
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TOP TIPS
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Two: Channels
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
Bebo and MySpace were given a mention in our previous
guide, sadly they don’t make the cut this time.
Here are some channels you will have heard of and a couple
of others to think about.
What do you need to know?– 140 character updates shared with your followers and
potentially their followers.
– There are around 15 million active users in the UK.
– 76% of users connect with mobile devices.
– Twitter has 236 million active users worldwide.
– 500 million tweets are sent every day, with 80% coming
from mobiles.
Best for: Sharing short updates and engaging with key
influencers.
Less good for: Sharing in-depth policy insights.
TerminologyProfile: Your tweets and retweets will appear here for
everyone to see.
Timeline: Your feed: here you will see the tweets of people
you follow and their retweets.
Retweet: Sharing a tweet with your followers.
Following: The accounts you follow. Their tweets appear on
your timeline.
Followers: The accounts that follow you. Your tweets appear
in their timeline.
Notifications: Your new followers, your tweets that have been
retweeted, favourited, replied to and mentions.
Mentions: See who has tweeted using your @ name. If you
tweet @CharityComms you’ve just mentioned CharityComms
and we’ll see your tweet in our notifications and our
mentions.
Direct messages: Private messages between accounts that
follow each other.
Hashtags: A way of categorising tweets. For example, if
CharityComms has an event on digital media we could
start a #CCDigital hashtag. This means tweets including this
hashtag can all be searched for together. Anyone who clicks
the hashtag will see all other tweets marked with it included.
Reply: Send an @ message in response to someone’s tweet.
Favourite: This is used in different ways by different people,
but in general it means someone likes your tweet, or is
acknowledging that they’ve seen it.
Lists: You can divide your followers into lists, making it easier to
keep up with different sets of people. For example you could
have a list of celebrity supporters and another of your board
members.
Discovery: Content Twitter thinks you might be interested in.
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Now what?Your page is set up, you’re following some of the people/
organisations you know and like and you’ve picked up some
followers of your own. What can you do next?
1 Getting to know youTwitter’s a great medium to show off your brand. It provides
a perfect opportunity to show that there are real people
working behind the scenes and that you’re not just a logo.
2 EngageTalk to people. Join in conversations, be interesting and
helpful. Ask questions, respond to questions. Introduce
people. Share others’ content that you think will be
interesting to your audience too.
3 Share your news and success storiesIf someone’s following you it’s because they’re interested in
your work. Let them know what you’re up to.
4 Raise awarenessNot everything you tweet is going to ‘go viral’ but by posting
relevant and interesting content you’re increasing your
chances of being retweeted. RTs from influential people can
help you reach new audiences.
5 ListenFind out what people are saying about your organisation,
your causes and your campaigns.
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Managing your account day-to-dayOne of the best ways to manage your Twitter account is to
sign up for a dashboard tool such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.
In one screen you can see your notifications, messages, and
search results for topics you’re interested in. You can also
schedule tweets to be sent out automatically. There’s more
about those in the Tools section of the guide.
• Keep an eye on your Mentions tab to see new interactions
and followers. Reply, retweet and favourite as appropriate.
• Check your timeline. Look at what the people you
follow are talking about. Join conversations if you’ve got
something interesting to add.
• Monitor. Look at hashtags/keywords relevant to your
organisation. For example, CharityComms has a saved
search on Tweetdeck for people using the #comms
hashtag.
• Use Twitter Analytics. Notice which types of tweets work
best, and at what time.
Paying for itTwitter, like most of the established social media channels,
is coming up with ways to make money from its product.
On your homepage click the small image of your profile and
you will see Twitter Ads. Here you have the following options
to run an advert to increase the following:
• Followers
• Website clicks or conversions
• Tweet engagements
• App installs or engagements
• Leads on Twitter
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You can then target by:
• Location
• Gender
• Languages
• Interests
• Keywords – target searches or users who tweet using
certain words
• Followers – target users who follow certain accounts.
For example, you could enter the name of a similar
charity to target their followers.
You then set a budget for the campaign and you’ll be
charged for the engagement you’ve decided on.
Read how Dignity in Dying used a promoted tweet campaign to get over 18,000 retweets.
A couple of charities worth checking out on Twitter: Unicef WWF UK
Read how quickly things can spread on Twitter – Learnings from a Twitter storm.
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Encouraging staff to get involved
We’re keen to connect our 20 centres nationwide with local audiences via individual Twitter feeds. Most centres have one staff member managing their feed. They use Twitter to promote events
such as microchipping and Open Days.
Management-wise, we have access to all feeds but only provide advice and assistance when necessary.
We are conscious not to have inactive/sparse Twitter feeds, and so will follow this up at a local level if needs be. We remind members of staff that although they are tweeting for their own centre, they need to uphold the Dogs Trust brand and engage with the whole audience nationwide.
Abbie Smith, digital marketing officer, Dogs Trust
TOP TIPS
Great work we’ve done: Age UK
Our #NotByMySelfie campaign was developed as a distinct social strand of our wider No One Should Have No One campaign. We took out the sadder elements of the offline campaign and allowed people to share the positive alternative on their social channels.
We got a great response and showed that if you can come up with a hashtag that conveys your campaign message and make the selfie integral to that message, you can get the public to engage.
We replied to everyone who uploaded a selfie to thank them and put out a secondary ask. This started a conversation that we could take wherever was appropriate, be it recruiting volunteers, eventers or a text donation.
Athar Abidi, former social media manager, Age UK
CASE STUDY
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What do you need to know?– As of May 2014 there were 30.3 million active users in
the UK.
– Half of all Facebook users have more than 200 friends.
– 44% of users like content posted by their friends at least
once a day.
Best for: Creating communities and encouraging longer
conversations.
Less good for: Reaching young people – have they
moved on?
TerminologyPage: Your organisation’s presence on Facebook.
Activity: Here you can see notifications of how people have
interacted with your page.
Insights: Information about your page’s performance. You
can see the reach, and engagement levels of your posts.
You can also compare your page’s performance to other
organisations.
Likes: The people who have found your page and indicated
they’re interested in it by clicking ‘like’. Your posts and
content will appear in their timeline.
Now what?1 Choose your tabs: At the top of your page you can edit
your about section and choose the tabs most relevant to
your organisation.
2 Share content: Images and videos. Posts with images
receive, on average, 50% more likes than those without.
On a busy, cluttered timeline an eye-catching image will
stand out.
3 Ask questions: Without a character limit Facebook is an
excellent way of getting to know your audience. Ask them
questions about why they support your cause, for example.
4 Advertise your events: Before you go to any event you
want to see the guest list: on Facebook you can see all the
confirmed attendees and there’s room for people to chat.
5 Custom tabs: You can add custom apps to your page.
A good idea is to include a sign up form for your newsletter,
so you can keep in touch more regularly.
Managing your account day-to-day• Check your notifications. You’ll see them for new fans,
and things current fans have liked and shared.
• Like and reply to comments your fans have left on
your posts.
• Keep an eye on the posts users have left of their own
on your profile and private messages.
• Like other charity pages or other companies/products
you want to connect with.
• Post your content or share others’ on your page.
• Monitor Facebook Insights to see how your posts are
performing, and notice any changes in number of likes
and active users.
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Paying for itWhen you post on Facebook you’ll notice the option to
‘Boost Post’ next to the regular ‘Post’ button. This is one of
Facebook’s ways to make money. When you post to your
page’s wall only a limited number of the people who have
liked your post will see it, depending on who is online at the
time. You can pay to make sure it’s seen by more of your
fans, and also those who haven’t liked your page yet.
There are other advertising options. At the top of your page
you’ll notice a ‘Build Audience’ link, click this and there’s
‘Use Adverts Manager’, with the option to ‘Create Advert’.
You’ll be presented with the following options:
• Send people to your website
• Increase conversions on your website
• Boost your posts
• Promote your Page
• Get installs of your app
• Increase engagement in your app
• Raise attendance at your event
• Get people to claim your offer
• Get video views
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Once you’ve decided the action, you need to select who
you want to take it. Facebook allows you to target your
ads by:
• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Interests
• Behaviours
• Connections (people who already like your page and
those who don’t)
Then you decide how much you’re willing to spend and
create your advert.
A couple of charities worth checking out on Facebook: RNLI Diabetes UK
Read how Plan UK manages its global Facebook network.
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What do you need to know?Over 15 million users in the UK in 2014.
Here’s a handy infographic on the sort of people using it.
LinkedIn is the social network for professionals. If you’re
looking to make contacts with the business world or want
your content seen by professionals with an interest in your
organisation or your area of expertise it’s the place to be.
Best for: Making connections in the private sector.
Less good for: Sharing your fun, new campaign.
TerminologyProfile: This is your personal page. You’ll need one to manage
your company page.
Connections: The people you have personally connected
with, colleagues etc.
Groups: You can create and join groups to take part in
discussions and share ideas.
Pulse: A timeline of content tailored to your profession.
Mail: Private messages between users.
Company page: Your organisation’s page, which people
choose to follow.
Now what?
1 Set up your personal profile so you can start on your
charity’s Company Page.
2 Fill out your Company Page with as much relevant
information as you can. This is where you show what your
organisation is all about.
3 Post content your audience will like and share.
4 Connect: Use your personal profile to connect to people
you’ve worked with, ex-colleagues, agencies you’ve worked
with, business people you’d like to have involved with your
charity, decision makers and influencers.
5 Start a group: For example, CharityComms has a
group for our Heads of Digital leads, our PR Network, our
Creatives group and our Brand Breakfast. It’s an ideal way
to get people who work in the same area from different
organisations talking and sharing ideas and experiences.
6 Look for volunteers with LinkedIn for Volunteers.
Managing your account• Check your notifications. You’ll see who has liked your own
posts, posts on your company page and who has viewed
your personal profile.
• Add people who have asked to connect with you;
connect with others.
• Written a blog? Share it on LinkedIn publisher.
• Post to your Company Page.
• Check the analytics tab to see how your posts are
performing.
Paying for it• Premium Display Ads – These are adverts which appear on
the right hand side of a user’s LinkedIn page.
• Sponsored InMail – These are messages sent directly to the
mail inbox of your chosen targets.
• Sponsored Updates – Sponsor your content to appear in
target users’ timelines.
A couple of charities worth checking out on LinkedIn: OxfamThe Prince’s Trust
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GOOGLE+
What do you need to know?– Over one billion registered users: active users are said to be
around 300 million.
Best for: Dividing influencers and sharing specific content with
them easily.
Less good for: Your influencers might not be using it…
Google+ hasn’t quite taken off in the way it was expected to
when it was launched in 2011. That doesn’t mean it can’t be
a useful tool though. It’s widely reported that using Google
Plus can have a positive impact on your search engine
rankings, and there of course a committed core of users on
the platform for you to connect with.
Posting to your page is quick and easy, you can create
circles to differentiate types of people and you can
select which circles see which content. There’s also a
Communities section which you can use to find people
with similar interests.
One feature that you may find handy is Google Hangouts.
These are video chats that you can have with numerous
people all joining in.
A charity worth checking out on Google+: Technology Trust
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Great work we’ve done: Sightsavers
To launch our A Million Miracles fundraising campaign we broadcast a live cataract operation via Google+ Hangouts.
In the run up to the operation we’d been introducing the characters – surgeons, the patient, their family, Sightsavers staff – on Twitter, Facebook, blog posts and videos to build a relationship and an audience for the live
broadcasts. We had an amazing group of bloggers sharing their stories and tweeting for us too.
The technology failed on the second live broadcast when the patient’s bandages came off, but we were able to give updates via Twitter and drive people to the website to see the video later. We made a two minute video of the whole campaign which lived on beyond the live broadcasts and reached a much wider audience. It worked because the audience had such a strong connection with the individual who was having his sight restored having seen how difficult his life was when he was blind.
Kate McCoy, social media manager, Sightsavers
CASE STUDY
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Great work we’ve done: RNLI
Often, the best results aren’t planned and are a massive team effort: a video of a lifeguard rescuing a six-year-old boy from a rip current went viral simply because it was incredible footage.
You could see the lifeguard’s arms paddling on the bodyboard, hear the poor boy screaming, the lifeguard was shouting “I’m coming to get you buddy” – it was pure human drama, sent shivers down your spine. It was picked up by Sky and all the major news channels so views went through the roof. It happened to coincide with a major safety campign – Respect The Water – so we were able to promote lots of safety messages off the back of that. And it was all thanks to the quick thinking lifeguards who got parental consent and uploaded the footage in super quick time.
Emily Pykett, former social media manager, RNLI
CASE STUDIES
contents � � �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
YOUTUBE
What do you need to know?– The world’s second largest search engine.
– Over a billion people use YouTube with over four billion
videos being viewed daily.
– Over 300 hours of video uploaded every minute.
Best for: Short, hard-hitting or funny videos.
Less good for: Your feature length documentary.
YouTube is the video sharing network now owned by Google.
This is where you can easily upload and share your video
content. You can use embed links to host the videos on your
own or others’ websites.
You will create your own channel where all your videos will
be stored. This can also be shared on your Google+ page.
YouTube has a non-profit offer which allows charities to
include donate buttons and also tailored call to action
messages which appear over your videos.
Many charities are still getting to grips with how best to use
YouTube. Thinking of it as a search engine is one way to
improve your results.
Another important side to YouTube has been the rise of
vloggers (video bloggers). Mind has recently taken on a
vlogger, Zoella, as its first digital ambassador.
A couple of charities worth checking out on YouTube: Save The Children Scope
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Great work I admire: #BHF’s HardAndFast
I always consider the BHF’s #HardAndFast campaign featuring Vinnie Jones demonstrating hands-only CPR as a brilliant example of a digital campaign that also encompassed work from all areas across the charity.
While it was a serious message the content was fun, actually helped to save people’s lives and generated a huge amount of conversation online. I think this example should be of particular note because of the work involved across the organisation to make it work as well as possible. As an example of charity communication work, it’s up there with the best.
Joe Freeman, social media manager, Sue Ryder
charitycomms.org.uk contents � � �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
What do you need to know?– Over 300 million active users, over 100 million of those
joined in the last year.
– Bought by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion.
– On average 70 million photos are uploaded every day.
Best for: Sharing high quality images with a highly engaged
audience.
Less good for: Driving traffic to your website.
Instagram is a photo and short video sharing site.
You can set up your charity’s own Instagram page and share
photos, which you can edit with filters and various other
image enhancing tools.
Using appropriate hashtags you will attract new followers,
likes and comments.
Posting the images to Facebook is easy although Twitter
makes it somewhat harder, the site is even currently trying to
persuade celebrities to stop posting Instagram links entirely.
A couple of charities worth checking out on Instagram: WaterAid MSF
What do you need to know?– Over 70% of its users are female.– Total users estimated to be 70 million.
Best for: Driving people to your website through strong
imagery.
Less good for: Engaging with men.
Another image based social network, Pinterest revolves
around users’ Boards. On their Boards they share their
own pins (an image with a description/link attached) and
repin others’ pins. It’s a way of bookmarking and collecting
images which represent your interests.
A particularly visual charity could create a series of boards
sharing the different kind of work it is involved in.
How can charities use Pinterest?
A couple of charities worth checking out on Pinterest: Dogs Trust NSPCC
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TUMBLR
What do you need to know?– Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013.
– It has over 400 million users, with over 200 million blogs.
Best for: Posting content that might not fit on your website.
Less good for: Engaging with people no longer in their teens.
Tumblr is a micro-blogging channel which you can customise
to suit your charity’s brand.
It concentrates on shorter, shareable content, making it easy
for people to share your content and for you to share your
audience’s content. It’s ideal if you’re encouraging young
people to get involved with your cause.
Tumblr can work well if you’re running a campaign with a
slightly different tone or type of content than you’d normally
post to your website.
A couple of charities worth checking out on Tumblr: Greenpeace Oxfam GB
What do you need to know?– The 25th most popular website on the Internet.
– It has 174 million monthly visitors.
Best for: Conversation: replies are generally aimed at
one person.
Less good for: Broadcasting your work.
Referred to as ‘the front page of the internet’, reddit is
essentially a global bulletin board where users up vote
or down vote content they like or dislike.
How can charities use reddit to spread their message?
A couple of charities worth checking out on Reddit: Save The Children Scope
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charitycomms.org.uk contents � � �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
VINE
What do you need to know?– 40 million users.
– Over 1 billion loops daily.
Best for: Quick, creative videos.
Less good for: Professional quality videos.
A video app owned by Twitter, playing videos of no more
than six seconds on a continuous loop. They can be easily
shared on Twitter or embedded on to a web page.
The fact they can be filmed directly from a phone makes
them incredibly easy to make. They can be used to capture
a spur of the moment thing – like an animal doing something
cute! Or, perhaps something more useful, like a really quick
and simple ‘thank you’ message for donors.
Read how Dogs Trust was an early adopter of Vine.
A couple of charities worth checking out on Vine: Diabetes UK American Red Cross
SNAPCHAT
What do you need to know?– Total Snapchat users: 60 million.
– Over 400 million snaps sent daily.
– Just over 70% of its users are under 25.
Best for: Sending exclusive content.
Less good for: Getting that content shared.
Snapchat is a photo messaging app which allows users to
take photos, record videos and add text and drawings, and
send them to their contacts. The photos then disappear after
1-10 seconds depending on how long the sender has set.
How charities can use Snapchat.
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charitycomms.org.uk contents � � �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
What do you need to know?– A social messaging service bought by Facebook for
$19 billion in 2014.
– It has around 700 million monthly active users.
– 30 billion messages are sent on it every day.
Best for: More private conversations.
Less good for: Getting content shared.
WhatsApp is an instant messaging tool a lot like traditional
SMS, but it’s free to send and receive messages.
WhatsApp is a great way to share your content with
supporters whose mobile phone number you have. The fact
it’s a direct message to a mobile makes it a more intimate
and personal experience than many social sites.
Use WhatsApp to share your blog posts, provide news
and updates, and communicate with your customers and
readers. Give them a reason to like and trust you.
A WhatsApp group is one of the best features. For example
if you’re running an event, get all the phone numbers of
attendees and invite them to join the event group. You can
then keep them updated with what’s happening.
New and upcoming channels
PERISCOPE An app from Twitter, Periscope allows users to live-stream
video from their phones.
VIBER Like WhatsApp but with the option of video calling.
BUBBLY Allows users to record and share voice messages.
WHISPER Users can share and receive messages anonymously.
ELLO Supposedly the ad free answer to Facebook.
Know of another social media site worth a mention?
Email [email protected]
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charitycomms.org.uk contents �
Three: Tools
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
Here are a few other tools to help you get the most out
of your social media.
Social media management toolsHootSuite
A social media management dashboard which allows
you to manage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ all
in one place.
Tweetdeck
A management dashboard for Twitter. It allows you to
see all your Twitter streams, ie notifcations, messages,
hashtags all in one screen. You can also use it to schedule
your tweets.
Followerwonk
Allows you to analyse your Twitter followers.
Sprout Social A social media management system focusing on
engagement, publishing and analytics. It integrates
with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.
BuzzSumo
A social analytics tool that recognises popular topics
of discussion.
Keyhole
A hashtag tracker for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Free content toolsStorify
Allows you to curate your social media posts into a story.
Flickr An image hosting website, with many images available
for use under Creative Commons licence (ie free).
Canva
Design software to make images for the web.
Gimp
Image manipulation software.
If you use a social media tool or app you think deserves to be
listed here please get in touch [email protected]
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charitycomms.org.uk contents �
Engaging audiences on social media
Give audiences what they need to show their support – great visual assets, inspiring statements or good news stories encourage sharing because the supporter can feel proud to be a part of
what we do.
Kate McCoy, social media manager, Sightsavers
Four: How to make the most of social media
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
CAMPAIGNS AND LOBBYING
Social media campaignsSocial media is an ideal platform to raise awareness about
your cause. You can get your messages seen by the right
people, make the case for change and – possibly most
importantly – make it easy for supporters to take action.
Social media is integral to online campaigning. The most
successful campaigns have a very clear message aimed at
a specific audience. For example, Scope’s End The Awkward
campaign was aimed at a 25-30 year old, metropolitan
audience. Good ideas, executed well can spread easily
online as sharing the content has never been simpler. If
supporters find the campaign interesting or feel it has value
they can tell their own audience at the click of a button.
Finding Mike was an incredibly successful campaign for
Rethink Mental Illness.
Keep an eye on Third Sector’s Digital Campaign of the Week
for inspiration.
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TOP TIPS
Great work we’ve done: Alzheimer’s Society
We ran a cross-channel campaign around the G8 summit on dementia that had a mainly social focus.
We created a video that tried to raise awareness about the lack of significant developments in dementia research, and
promoted this across our social media channels using promoted tweets to increase our reach. We also made use of our email data to let our supporters know about the event, and encouraged them to share the video with their own audiences.
It took a lot of work to get everything in place, but it was great to run something that took advantage of a big news event in a meaningful way.
Katie Miall, digital marketing and social media manager, Alzheimer’s Society
CASE STUDY
charitycomms.org.uk contents �
Encouraging staff to get involved
The policy team all have logins to the policy twitter account and tweet themselves from events – we’re trying to demonstrate and share their expertise so it’s essential they’re the
ones contributing. It’s about trust and giving people the confidence to feel comfortable – training helps, and being there to guide people.
We encourage the whole organisation to contribute information for use on the main account but it’s managed centrally. We’re looking at rolling out training for everyone to use their personal accounts for work purposes, if they’re willing to.
Kate McCoy, social media manager, Sightsavers
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
LobbyingUsing social media in political campaigning has hugely
grown in importance for charities.
For large charities, asking supporters to lobby for change is
a regular and focused activity. Shelter recently used social
media to encourage 10,000 people to sign their petition for
more affordable housing to be built.
“Social media has increased the opportunity and power
of self-organising, leading to an emerging trend of
grassroots, micro-level campaigning activity. This creates
new challenges for campaigning charities if they are
to remain relevant and influential.” Read more from Peter Gilheany on ‘Grassroots campaigning – a ‘bottom-up’ approach’.
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TOP TIPS
charitycomms.org.uk contents � � �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
RAISING MONEY
Can you raise money with social media?Ask Cancer Research UK, they raised £8 million from a
campaign they didn’t start!
Chances are your organisation won’t be on the receiving
end of a #NoMakeUpSelfie type phenomenon. However,
if you’re using social media to drive people to the right
pages on your website they can easily donate to your
charity online.
How to raise money onlineRemember, social networking sites don’t raise money –
people do. And people will only become your fundraisers if
they are emotionally committed to your cause. Social media
offers the chance to communicate with your supporters to
build up that emotional attachment.
Another, very different example of how Cancer Research UK
is raising money is Dryathalon – where participants are
encouraged to give up alcohol for a month. In 2013 it raised
over £3 million and over £5 million in 2014. Social media
provided an ideal platform for people participating to share
what they were doing, their fundraising achievements and
their medals.
Relationships are key once again. If you have built up a good
relationship online with supporters who are interested in your
cause, you will find them much more open to supporting
you financially.
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Great work we’ve done: WaterAid
The social media campaign we’re most proud of is our most successful ever for To be a girl – which won Silver at the 2014 DMAs for ‘Best Use of Social Media for Customer Acquisition’.
Through compelling storytelling and talking about taboo subjects – such as menstruation and open defecation – we elicited meaningful comment and high levels of interaction on social channels. We tested a range of creative executions – refreshing and optimising along the way – closely aligning paid and organic to create continuity, and took people on an integrated digital journey with multiple touch points.
With #MeAsAGirl, our share-and-donate mini social campaign, we benefited from large-scale reach as celebrities and influencers shared their own content and helped us to spread our message further. It was a great cross-team effort, with everyone coming together to
align channels, and deliver brave and challenging content.
The result was that social not only drove huge volumes of engagement and traffic to our microsite content, but it also generated a significant amount of donations among new audiences too.
Alicia Robinson, digital communications lead, WaterAid
CASE STUDY
charitycomms.org.uk contents � � �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
FINDING INFLUENCERS
You can use social media to reach out to people and
organisations who can make a difference to yours.
Establishing connections with the most influential online
personalities can build your work, extend its reach and help
get your message out.
Use lists to keep track of influential people who work in,
or talk about, your area of work. Follow them and begin
building relationships.
CONVERTING ONLINE CONVERSATIONS INTO OFFLINE ACTION
Online action is important, but is far from the be all and end
all of any charity’s engagement strategy.
Your organisation will no doubt have offline events and
campaigns. Use social media to promote them and get
people talking and involved in the discussions around the
event. Meet them offline and make them an integral part
of your charity.
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Great work I admire: @HumansofNY
I really loved @HumansofNY’s project for the UN. This is a popular blogger and photographer who runs humansofnewyork.com and went with the UN on a 50 day tour of the
world to gather photos, stories and to raise raise awareness of the Millennium Development Goals.
It’s a great example of working with an influencer to get a message across and it’s such a natural fit with the way he usually works. It didn’t feel contrived or forced and the stories were really powerful. Such fantastic content that was a genuine pleasure to read.
Kate McCoy, social media manager, Sightsavers
CASE STUDY
Measuring success
Social media success for us, is engagement – leading to people taking action. From visiting their local centre to adopt a dog to ensuring their dogs are microchipped. Although having 800,000+ likes
on Facebook is great, what’s important to us is how many of those are engaging with us daily – taking on our advice and rehoming our dogs.
Abbie Smith, digital marketing officer, Dogs Trust
TOP TIPS
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Integrating social media with other channels
It’s essential to integrate at every opportunity, and to plan integrated campaigns rather than channel specific activity. Social media should sit in the middle of the process – use other channels
like email or media to get the reach to kick start something, send people to social to consume or share, then send them on to your site or action-based destination to get the rest of the story and complete the journey.
Integrating channels can give engagement a boost – we’ll often email supporters to ask them to take actions on social. You can reach people directly rather than relying on them seeing your posts.
Kate McCoy, social media manager, Sightsavers
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
INTEGRATING SOCIAL MEDIA WITH YOUR OTHER COMMUNICATIONS
Remember, social media is just the medium through which
your messages are being delivered.
Having established what your charity’s aims and objectives
are, you will see where social media fits in with the rest of
your comms.
Integration with your other communications can be as
easy as planning and ensuring social media activity and
communications are carefully timed to happen together.
Your campaign activity will be planned so that you launch
your press releases, online video, Twitter hashtag and
Facebook campaign all at the same time. This will maximise
your campaign’s impact across all channels. For more on
integrating your comms across all channels, download CharityComms’ free best practice guide One voice.
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TOP TIPS
Great work we’ve done: Sue Ryder
At Sue Ryder, our #Not9to5 campaign – calling for expert 24/7 care for families of carers of people who are dying – allowed us to share some very personal stories that helped us generate over 1,000 petition signatures
in our first few weeks of the campaign running online.
While the results weren’t ground-breaking, what I am proud of is how for the first time here, this was a properly integrated campaign with marketing, digital, PR and campaigns all working together effectively to deliver a project. This was a real shift in terms of working together and had a huge impact on the overall results of the campaign.
Joe Freeman, social media manager, Sue Ryder
CASE STUDY
charitycomms.org.uk contents �
Engaging audiences on social media
Talk to people, and if you can, reply to everything. If you’re posting a question, or asking people’s opinion on something your charity is working on, it’s important to acknowledge what they say.
Sometimes social media is seen as too much of a broadcast tool when it works best as two-way communication.
Also – listen to what people are saying about you. Having searches set up on Twitter for just your charity’s name – or name as a hashtag – can often show conversations you’d otherwise have missed.
Joe Freeman, social media manager, Sue Ryder
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
SHOWING YOUR EXPERTISE
Your organisation being seen as the ‘experts in your field’ has
obvious reputational benefits and helps you stand out from
the competition. Using social media to share your expertise
in the form of engaging content can only add to your
reputation.
Traditional ‘broadcast’ marketing doesn’t work on social
media. Rather than simply telling your audience what you
want them to do, you’re providing content with added
value. It’s about giving audiences something meaningful
which they can interact with.
Creating moving, funny, informative or just entertaining
content means supporters will come back to your channels
of their own accord.
If your charity is one of many working in a particular area, this
is even more important. Make it easy and desirable for your
supporters to find you.
PROMOTING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS
Once you’ve decided to set up a particular social media
channel you’ll be wanting the likes and follows to start rolling in.
A good way to get existing supporters liking your channels is
to ask them to via email. Include links to your social channels
in your email templates too and in staff signatures.
Add social buttons to your websites, at the top, or header
section of websites so they appear on every page.
Remember, most social media users are on numerous
channels, so be sure to cross-promote.
Promote your channels offline too on your print marketing,
at your events and even on business cards.
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TOP TIPS
Great work I admire: National Trust and the British Legion
I’m a sucker for the work The National Trust does on digital and I’ve always been an admirer of the British Legion’s work and its annual poppy appeal campaign. Both organisations are part of the fabric of English society and they have both worked out how to use social to dispel ideas of their being ‘out of touch’.
Working for a charity associated with older people I am currently trying to do the same for Age UK and finding that confounding people’s expectations is a lot of fun.
Athar Abidi, former social media manager, Age UK
CASE STUDY
charitycomms.org.uk contents �
Measuring success
I’m a strong believer that social media should be understood at all levels of an organisation so that everyone can see how important it is (and can be) – while also understanding the potential risks
involved. To this end, having an executive team and board of trustees who know who your social media manager is, and understand how this role works will help digital as a whole to be better integrated across the charity, with appropriate levels of support and investment.
Joe Freeman, social media manager, Sue Ryder
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
MAKING THE CASE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA TO SENIOR MANAGEMENT
Facts and figures are the best way to get buy-in from senior
management for social media. Talk about it in terms they
will understand: building trust, reputation management
and customer service for example. Explain social media is
something your audiences expect you to be on and isn’t just
a fad; your organisation cannot afford to be left behind.
The bit they may want to hear even less: it’s now not just
enough for them to understand social. There is an increasing
expectation that CEOs should have a presence on social
media themselves.
This infographic about the corporate world talks about the
link between CEOs with a social media presence and the
trustworthiness of an organisation. Why not quote Sir Richard
Branson, Virgin Group founder: “Embracing social media isn’t
just a bit of fun, it’s a vital way to communicate, keep your
ear to the ground and improve your business.”
How to invest in social media from The Scout Association.
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TOP TIPS
charitycomms.org.uk contents � � �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENGAGE YOUNG PEOPLE
Young people have grown up with social media, it’s second
nature to many and they’re in the know about the latest
channels. It’s your job to keep up with them. You need to
go to them: they’re not going to come to you on sites they
consider ‘old hat’.
The importance of this can be seen from Ipsos Mori results
about the 2015 general election, with a third of young
people saying social media would influence their vote.
This American teenager wrote his thoughts on social media sites, which gives an interesting alternative view.
VIRAL CAMPAIGNS
We’d love nothing more than to present you with a ‘Here’s
how to create a viral hit guide’ – sadly, that doesn’t exist.
A viral campaign is one that’s been shared quickly and
widely between Internet users. You will have heard of
#NoMakeUpSelfie and #IceBucketChallenge.
Chances are your campaign won’t ‘go viral’. Both of those
mentioned above were user-led; people joined in because
they were being nominated by their peers not because a
charity was telling them to.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t be prepared for a viral
campaign. Something your charity posts, or more likely,
something a supporter creates could capture the
imagination of the public and you’ll become inundated
with tweets, Facebook posts and visits to your website.
Having a plan in place should this happen is vital to make
sure you make the most of the opportunity.
Where’s our viral campaign? The Comms Insider. Read why
viral campaigns like Ice Bucket challenge hurt other charities.
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Great work I admire: #FightforYashika and #YourMencap
The #FightForYashika campaign (a campaign by students to save their classmate from deportation) perfectly showed how to drive grassroots mobilisation from a very valuable audience – young people.
And more recently, Mencap’s bottom-up success with #YourMencap (to celebrate its new five year plan, Mencap encouraged staff and volunteers to share what the organisation’s
values meant to them) used the audience’s willingness to quickly get involved with a non-brand led idea.
Chris Hosker, social media and community manager, The Children’s Society
CASE STUDY
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Talk to othersIf you’re not sure what to do, speak to people in your
organisation about your response.
Have a system in place for people to be available if a crisis
should occur.
Out of hours If you’re a smaller organisation and you don’t have an out
of hours policy it is fine to say “We’ll look into this, we’ll get
back to you.” Perhaps put the hours your social media does
operate on your profile.
Keep everyone in the loopLet the rest of the organisation know what’s happened in
case they get phone calls or emails about it.
Don’t feed the trollA troll is someone who spends their time upsetting people on
the internet. They often deliberarely try and cause arguments
and attempt to provoke reactions. If it becomes clear you
are dealing with someone who is purely out to try and get
a reaction from you, don’t be tempted to respond and give
them what they want.
Post things you’d be happy with your boss and your mum seeingA rule we’ve read many times, and should keep you out
of too much bother!
For more advice on handling a social media crisis, download CharityComms’ best practice guide to crisis communications.
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
CRISIS
One of the main reasons organisations are put off using
social media is a fear of what might go wrong. With the right
planning, chances are a social media ‘crisis’ isn’t going to
have a long term, detrimental effect on your organisation.
The very nature of most social media means that there is a
potential for conflict. You’re sharing information, messages
and possibly opinion with strangers, there will be people who
don’t like or agree with what you’re saying, and there are
those who are just out to cause trouble.
What is a crisis?Someone disagreeing with you on Twitter isn’t a crisis.
Someone posting that they’ve had a bad experience
with your organisation on Facebook isn’t a crisis. A crisis is
something that negatively impacts your brand in the long
run. With this in mind, how you react to that tweet or that
post is important.
Is it a complaint or feedback?Be sure not to overreact. Take a minute to reread what’s
been said. Is someone actually criticising your organisation
or offering a helpful opinion? Either way, acknowledge them
and let them know what you’ll do as a result.
Take it offlineThe best way to avoid a prolonged issue with a disgruntled
social media user is to take it offline. Ask for an email address,
and then see if you can give them a call. Speaking in person
rather than over a series of 140 character messages is
definitely going to work better for both of you.
Heat of the momentHowever wrong, rude or insulting someone has been, take
a few minutes to collect yourself before you respond.
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WHAT’S NEXT?
The continued rise of user generated content.
As supporters engage more with charities online and apps
make it increasingly easy for users to make content, it is
inevitable that the more creative charity supporters will
create their own.
Interesting examples include Macmillan Cancer Support’s
The Source, where Macmillan’s online community shares tips
on how to talk to a friend, colleague or family member with
cancer, and Mind’s Mental Health Selfies slot on YouTube
featuring real people’s experiences of trying to understand
and cope with issues around mental health.
Charities will need to become increasingly flexible and willing
to ‘let go’ of their brands to ensure they can make the most
of this.
User generated content adds value and credibility to a
charity as people can see just how passionate and engaged
their peers are.
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Five: References and acknowledgements
� �The insiders' guide to social media for charities
Further readingJustGiving – Guide to fundraising on social media
Sounddelivery – Getting started with social media
Social Misfits Media – Something to tweet about
AcknowledgementsA big thank you to all the kind folk who gave us the benefit
of their wisdom and experience.
Kate McCoy – @K8McCoy
Katie Miall – @katiemiall
Joe Freeman – @JosephFreeman
Chris Hosker – @Chris_Hosker
Alicia Robinson – @lisha_rob
Athar Abidi
Emily Pykett – @TotallyDorset
Abbie Smith
About Rob NewsomeRob is now digital and social media assistant at Médecins
Sans Frontières, but when he wrote this guide he was
CharityComms’ digital content editor, having joined in
June 2012 as communications officer. Before this, Rob
worked as a PR and comms officer for a charity in Delhi
after completing his MA in Multimedia Broadcast Journalism.
@robnewsome_ LinkedIn: Rob Newsome
About CharityCommsCharityComms (charitycomms.org.uk) is the professional
membership body for charity communicators. We believe
that effective and inspiring communications should be
at the heart of every charity’s work for a better world.
We’re here to improve the standard of communications
and champion its role in the sector.
CharityComms membership gives you access to great
content, examples of best practice, free seminars and
exclusive networking events and a host of opportunities
for professional development. Find out more at
charitycomms.org.uk/membership
@charitycomms
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Designed by Bowley Design
First published September 2015