Using Social Media to Bootstrap an NGO

Using Social Mediato Bootstrap an NGO

Case studies and clinic

Suw Charman-AndersonSocial Technologist

Why use social media?

• Community of interest (and action)

• Tools are cheap or free

• Tools are easy to set up and use

• Can reach huge numbers of people...

• Where there’s internet access

• Where there’s widespread technology

Inside

• Use tools internally to:

• Organise yourself and team

• Collaborate on documents

• Share information

• Save information

Outside

• Build relationships with your constituency

• Create space for a community to grow

• Rallying people to action

• Fundraising

• Support for your constituency

• Draw on wisdom in your community

Third party tools

• E.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wordpress.com, Flickr, Delicious

• Pros:

• Cheap or free• Easy to use• No technical skills needed• No web hosting needed• Built-in audience

Third party tools

• E.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wordpress.com, Flickr, Delicious

• Cons:

• Reliant on unpredictable services• No control over down-time• Lack of customisation• Can get lost in the noise of other users

Overall benefits

• Allows you to punch above your weight

• Engenders trust

• Promotes fast growth

• Creates reliable relationships

• Makes you more effective/efficient

Pitfalls

• Takes time to nurture a community

• Maintaining presence in social networks and writing blogs takes time and effort

• Competition for attention is tough

Case Study 1

Open Rights Group

• Non-profit digital rights advocacy group

• Started July 2005

• Now an established voice in digital rights community, government and media.

•

• Community building takes time

• You can’t skimp on talking to people

• Find a volunteer to help with your comms

• Don’t hold the reins too tightly

• Work in the open when you can

Lessons learnt 1

Lessons learnt 2

• Everything takes longer• Delegate as much as possible to

volunteers• Get a volunteer manager• Don’t be afraid to nag

• Tap into local design and development community• Get a good project manager

Lessons learnt 3

• Don’t burn out

• Be selective in your goals

• Build relationships with the media

• Tie online into offline

Case Study 2

Ada Lovelace Day

• International day of blogging celebrating women in technology

• 24th March

• Founded in 2009

• If you have an idea people care about, it will spread like wildfire

• Ask people to do something they would do anyway, e.g. write a blog post

• Make it easy to sign up• Help people share• Be prepared for success.

Lessons Learnt

Using what’sout there

Learn from MySociety

• Use the tools that already exist• Can you repurpose someone else’s tools?

• translate into your own language• collaborate to extend functionality

• If what you need doesn’t exist, collaborate on new tools

• Don’t try to do everything yourself• Waste of time• Slows you down

ClinicWhat do you

want achieve?

Thank you for listening!

Suw Charman-Andersonsocial technologist

suw.charman@gmail.com@suw on Twitter

charman-anderson.comchocolateandvodka.com