Leveraging Social Media for Nonprofit Events

Sponsored by: A Service

Of:

Leveraging Social Media for Nonprofit Events

Dawn Andreas & Ritu Sharma

August 15, 2012

Sponsored by: A Service

Of:

Advising nonprofits in:

• Strategy

• Planning

• Organizational Development

www.synthesispartnership.com

(617) 969-1881

info@synthesispartnership.com

INTEGRATED PLANNING

Sponsored by: A Service

Of:

www.mission.do

Sponsored by: A Service

Of:

Today’s Speakers

Dawn Andreas Event Evanglist Program Manager

Eventbrite

Hosting:

Tara Jensen, Good Done Great Assisting with chat questions: Jamie Maloney, Nonprofit Webinars

Ritu Sharma Co-Founder & Executive Director

Social Media for Nonprofits

Leveraging Social Media for

Nonprofit Events

Who are we?

Ritu Sharma

Co-Founder & Executive Director

ritu@sm4np.org

@ritusharma1

Eventbrite.com/npo

6

Dawn Andreas

Marketing Program Manager

dawn@eventbrite.com

@britedawn

SM4NP.org

The Agenda

Understanding the event ticketing lifecycle

Social media tips, tricks and time savers to maximize engagement

Leveraging social media before, during and after your event

Tying it all together with data

7

Defining Event & Social Media

ROI

ROI = Increasing donations

+ Raising awareness +

Maximizing ticket sales

8

Ticketing Lifecycle On average, fundraiser tickets go on sale 4-6

weeks before the event.

9

Ticket Lifecycle At what point has an event sold ½ its tickets?

38%

33%

29% In the week

prior to the

event

2 weeks prior

to the event

1 week prior to the

event

10

Events are Inherently Social

Increase your reach

Relatively low cost

Viral effect: Reach friends of

friends | Networks

11

The Agenda

Understanding the event ticketing lifecycle

Social media tips, tricks and time savers to maximize engagement

Leveraging social media before, during and after your event

Tying it all together with data

12

Be Proactive

Set an attendance goal and work backwards

Create a marketing calendar

• 88% of fundraisers sent invites when tickets go on

sale, but too many fall silent until the event

thereafter

• Over 50% of nonprofits say that frontloading ticket

sales is important to them

13

Open Communication Create a communication plan

• Work backwards from the date of the event until the

first invite goes out

What are the strategic times to email people?

• 9-11am, Tuesday-Thursday

Where to post information?

• Your website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, local

community calendars

14

The Agenda

Understanding the event ticketing lifecycle

Social media tips, tricks and time savers to maximize engagement

Leveraging social media before, during and after your event

Tying it all together with data

15

Create your Registration Page

16

Create a Facebook Event

17

Create a LinkedIn Event

18

Don’t Think of Your Event as

Just as an Event

2

Use the event as a data collection opportunity

Consider the long term vs. short term gains

Create direct donation option for non-attendees

19

Let 1,000 Flowers Bloom

20

Invite all your friends and followers on respective

platforms

Invite via multiple channels: Email, LinkedIn,

Facebook

More Social, More Revenue On average, 1 Facebook share generates $2.52 in future sales and 11 page

views back to your event page; however…

Tic

ke

t s

ale

s p

er

sh

ar

e

E v e n t t y p e

Prompt attendees to share event information with a powerful call to action

21

Promote

22

1. Post regular updates: Pictures, performers, VIPs,

auction items, partners and even attendee stories

2. Post more pictures & videos (cute stuff helps!)

3. Invite attendees to RSVP as they register

4. Be sure to tag attendees, VIPs, partners, and others

Promote

23

Facebook Ads

Target your demographic narrowly

Target each VIP / Key partner organization

Target all nonprofits (relevant)

Target based on Facebook Insights

pre-purchase

40% post-purchase

60%

The motivation to share is

higher once the purchase has

been made.

Facebook Shares

24

Promote

25

Create a hashtag for your event (“SM4NP”)

www.tagal.us

www.twubs.com

Hashtag =

26

• A word preceded by a #sign

– Used to unify tweets from multiple people on the same subject

• Easy to search and catalogs your event

• Keep it short!

•

•

• Brand all posts about your event with the same hashtag

• Encourage attendee participation!

It’s About the Conversation

27

Schedule regular event or important deadline-related tweets

Post tweets that showcase the work/organizations of your

partners, speakers, attendees and sponsors

ReTweet and reply (@) religiously!

Keep the Conversation Going

28

During the event:

• Provide a twitter wall

• Prominently display the #hashtag

• Display the conversation

• Use free services like tweetchat.com

or twitterfall.com

The Conversation Lives On

29

After the event:

• Ask for feedback, share a

survey

• Create and share recaps

• Post event pictures

• Use platforms like Storify to

summarize event experience

• Review your tracking and

analytics to know which social

channels were most effective

The Agenda

Understanding the event ticketing lifecycle

Social media tips, tricks and time savers to maximize engagement

Leveraging social media before, during and after your event

Tying it all together with data

30

Track your Sales Sources 1 2 3

31

Productivity Tools:

32

Hootsuite

Automatic scheduling

Mass tweeting (Only when appropriate)

Mass direct messaging (Be very selective)

Do not use for Facebook!

Productivity Tools:

33

Sprout Social

Manage conversations with one tool

Publish and schedule update across multiple social channels

Measure efforts with reporting and analytics

Productivity Tools:

34

Simply Measured/RowFeeder/Exportly

Gather data rich worksheets

See who is following you

Wrap Up

• Decide which channels are right for you and your organization

• Incent early ticket purchasing to get the wheel in motion

• Collect donations from those who can’t attend

• Encourage post-purchase sharing – it is most powerful

• Give attendees reason to engage before, during and after your event

• Analyze which social media efforts are most effective

35

36

Ritu Sharma

Co-Founder and Executive

Director ritu@sm4np.org

Social Media for Nonprofits

Dawn Andreas

Marketing Program Manager

dawn@eventbrite.com

Eventbrite

Sponsored by: A Service

Of:

Find listings for our current season of webinars and register at:

NonprofitWebinars.com