Social Media on a Budget

No Budget? No Resource? No Problem.

@gemmawent redcubemarketing.com

? Why am I here

I don’t specialise in the not for profit sector

But I do help SME’s understand how to use social media

They have similar issues

Little or no budget

Little or no"resource

But it is possible

Not for profits can use social media to …

Build awareness Build relationships Build community Create advocates Create word of mouth Encourage philanthropy

A few tips to help you achieve these with no budget or resource

Are you sure there’s no budget?

Build the right business case by using the right language

Delve into their psyche. How do they think?

What are the real issues they have with giving budget to social media activity?

Things like engagement, transparency and community are gold dust to marketers, but to those that hold the purse strings they mean nothing.

Tell them what they need to know. The ROI stuff.

Show them what social media can achieve with relevant case studies, show how you’ll do it, how long it will take, show investment vs return expectation.

Make it a no brainer.

Review current marketing (and other) activities. If they don’t deliver, ditch them.

Create the right strategy

Keep an eye out for natural stars

Give your core social team the right training, support and guidelines

Then roll it out to your staff, allowing them to spread the message and engage with those who share their passion for the cause

When done right, social media should spread through an organisation, giving employees a voice

Do some digging, who in your organisation is naturally good at this social stuff?

But ahead of this, also check …

Are there mixed messages coming from within?

Stuff! Other!stuff!

Different!stuff!

THE !GOOD!STUFF!

Integration’s what we need

Emailers! Database!

Social!

THE !GOOD!STUFF!

Eg: Emailers and Social

If you have a quality emailer database, harness the power of your engaged communities by linking the two:

‘Share on social media’ (eg Facebook Like) links in your emails (and of course you can use the data from this to understand your audiences popular social networks)

Add social connect buttons to emailers, encouraging people in your database to engage with your community

Online emailer suppliers, like Mail Chimp and Constant Contact, help integration by providing social share tools for you to add to emailers or newsletters easily

Mail Chimp also allows you to see which social platforms your database are using through their emails, as well as drilling down into more specific information about that person

Mail Chimp also integrates with Eventbrite if you’re holding an event

If you only have time for one or two social profiles, do it well

No time to engage with and manage a Twitter or Facebook community?

Publish a blog and write posts that convey your passion for the cause. Allow readers to share content across social networks to spread the word.

Encourage advocates to write guest posts for you to really get people engaging

Offer blog content to online publishers and other blogs to spread awareness. Use blogger outreach programs to identify influencers you should connect with

Only have time for one social network?

Find out where your advocates are and go where they are using free listening tools, such as

Social Mention Addictomatic SM2 (Free for a low number of searches) Search.twitter Google Alerts

Once you’ve chosen the right network, find advocates and engage with them by giving what they need to feel part of your community

OR come up with a creative idea to help engage with your community

Marie Curie have a great example of this through their Tweaparty initiative.

Although, at the time, they were still developing a social media strategy and team, a group of passionate individuals had a brainwave …

Thank you

@gemmawent redcubemarketing.com linkedin.com/in/gemmawent gemma@redcubemarketing.com

@stuartwitts // @mariecurieuk mariecurie.org.uk

Credits

Photos: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/dilalola http://www.flickr.com/photos/tallkev/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/astroboy44/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/macsurak/