Social Media Now: Adapting to Facebook and Twitter while Anticipating the Next Big Thing

Social Media Now | Design for Good

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Social Media NowAdapting to Facebook and Twitter

while Anticipating the Next Big Thing

Presented by

Don Havey and Stacy Kim


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IntroductionsWho we are, who you are, and why we‘re here


Meet Don & Stacy3

Stacy and Don run 3c32 and Design for Good together.

3c32 is a design studio dedicated to offering unique and engaging design

solutions to socially responsible businesses and organizations. Stacy

works primarily on the design side of things, Don manages development.

Design for Good is a work in progress. Through DFG, Don and Stacy plan

to provide strategic design resources, support and guidance to nonprofits

interested in evaluating and improving the effectiveness of their

communications.

Between them, Stacy and Don have over 10 years of experience working

on web-based projects. They are members of the dial-up AOL generation.


A quick show of hands4

Does your organization have an active...

Twitter account?

Facebook page?

Website with an RSS feed?

(No right answers here. Just wondering about your experience level.

Not every organization needs each.)


What to expect today5

The plan:

An overview of the conceptsNew media vs. traditional media, pros & cons comparison

What social media tools exist today? What‘s next?Best practices and types of uses, plus ways to measure effectiveness

Examples of good nonprofit social media campaignsFundraising, using Twitter & Facebook, and activating followers

Develop a social media plan of your ownEstablish a reusable workflow

Q&A, brainstormingMight as well solve some problems while we‘re all sitting around


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New vs. Traditional MediaKey concepts and comparison


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Traditional Media


Broadcast media: pushing out8

Traditional media (TV, radio, newspaper, mail, etc.)

relies heavily on the concept of broadcasting.

broad∙cast –verb to spread widely; disseminate 1

Not such a bad definition, right?

Large audiences necessitate one-way messagingToo much time and effort to address each member individually 2

Don‘t blame the toolsetContrary to popular belief, technological limitations

are not the primary factor behind one-way

communication; two-way communication breaks

down when the author cannot reasonably

spend enough time with the entire audience 3


Advantages & limitations9

Pros

Well-established guidelines for

effectiveness

Campaigns easily scalable to

audience size and media type

Existing industry standards for

measurement

Close to 100% penetration

(TV, mail, etc.) in U.S. 4

Most audiences comfortable

with traditional media

Cons

Little incentive for audience

engagement and action

Delivery channels are neutral

at best, sometimes untrusted

Typically once-and-done;

removed from daily workflow

Cost and content restrictions

can limit message depth


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New (Social) Media


Social media: a living network11

Social media is all about creating opportunities for

communication in as many (preferably interchangeable)

forms as possible.

Personal, meaningful two-or-more-way interaction‖A group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and

technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and

exchange of user-generated content‖ 5

User as publisher, editor, curator, criticAllowing your audience to become participants

Flexibility is keyOpen source data formats allow information

to be shared across platform-independent apps


Advantages & limitations12

Pros

Learn (much much) more about

your audience

Real-time interaction possible

Opportunities for collaboration

and deeper engagement with

supporters

Highly trusted and targeted

Encourages serendipitous

connection-making

Narrative; puts a human face

on the organization; evolves

Cheap… very cheap

Cons

Proven, but not fully

understood yet

Limited audience size; young

Effective campaigns require

some serious creative thinking

Fundraising large amounts is

very difficult 6


―Social media‖ is a grey area13

Social

Broadcast


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Time for a Shift―The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to

plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing

and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied,

'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!‗‖ -JFK


Future-proofing: no checks, no mail15

Between the mid-1990s and present day, the number of

internet users has grown from ~10 million to ~2 billion. 7

In 1995, how did you…

Find information?

Communicate with friends?

Pay for purchases?

(Needless to say, it is hard to imagine nonprofits

fundraising via postal mail in 2030.)


Not your grandma‘s audience16

Your audience is always changing, but today, so is the

very concept of ―audience‖.

You are still the primary actors, but your supporters no longer simply pay

admission, sit in the seats, and watch the performance.

We‘re not just talking about bringing people up on stage. We‘re talking

about letting them help write the play and perform it with you.


(Re)(re)(re)distribution17

The founding principle behind most social media sites is

this: make it easy to share and redistribute information.

Good broadcast-style campaigns converge on similar network behavior

(think Super Bowl ads that go viral), but the potential for redistribution of a

message is built into the DNA of new media.


The price of failure18

Web-based campaigns are tricky, but failure is

essentially free, due to the low cost of admission into

the social media carnival.

The key is to integrate the time you spend building your organization‘s web

identity into your daily workflow.


Fund vs. friendraising19

Social media is better suited to friendraising than

fundraising. It helps you build connections—avenues for

finding donations, volunteers, grants, media attention,

etc.—but it does not magically create money.

Don‘t try to force your social media efforts to fit into a standard fundraising

model! It‘s a different game. Friendraising increases your potential for

fundraising: it reduces the number of degrees of separation between you

and prospective donors.


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New Media Tools & UsesWhat can this new approach do for you?

What types of content match each social media site?


Connect & engage21

Interacting with your supporters is the number one reason to

use social media. Stay in front of them!

Here‘s how we recommend connecting:

Twitter and other short-status-update services are great for finding and

publishing breaking news, special events and secrets (important!), and

campaign progress updates (―if we can get 25 more followers…‖)

Facebook and comment-enabled community sites are ideal for gathering

feedback and starting conversations to keep your audience engaged (and

solve problems); don‘t forget to create a plan for comment moderation!

Your website should house ALL content in some form or another and offer it

up to users in an interchangeable format, such as RSS or Atom

Comment-enabled blogs can be a good way to offer supporters a view from

inside the organization, addressing challenges and successes


Connect & engage: sample tools22

Facebook wall Twitter feed Facebook events

YouTube Your own blogMeetup


Share & collaborate23

Rule of thumb: anyone who has had success on the internet

(with anything) will be happy to tell you about it.

Ties to other organizations are just as important as ties to supporters:

Twitter, Facebook, and other status-enabled services can be a great way to

keep track of how other organizations are doing, what works, and what

doesn‘t

RSS feeds, email newsletters & digests, and micro news sites such as

Twitter can help you keep you updated on foundation announcements and

aid in the grant-finding process

Many sites, organizations, and agencies have begun opening the doors to

their resource archives; look for public APIs that can be used in

combination with your own website and applications

Use document sharing services to collaborate internally and externally


Share & collaborate: sample tools24

Facebook ―discussions‖ Twitter RTs StumbleUpon

YouTube video responses Google DocsMindMeister


Streamline25

This sounds like a lot of work, but you can always

count on the web to build the right tool for the job.

There are many ways to simplify web-based updates:

Automatically push updates out from your website to Twitter, Facebook,

etc. using modules in your CMS or by importing RSS feeds

Use third-party social network merging applications (such as HootSuite,

TweetDeck, and Google Buzz) to aggregate your profiles and send

across-the-board announcements

Keep track of your favorite sites using a social bookmarking service

(e.g. StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg, etc.); browse relevantly-tagged

favorites for inspiration; recommend sites to other organizations



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Measure28

Everyone wants to see the numbers.

There are two key principles to successful social media measurement:

Send them to you: End goals should be located on your own website

Set up unique funnels: Create campaign-specific landing pages and

goals; give users unique objectives and rewards for achieving them

Measure the results using these methods:

Website analytics: Learn and install Google Analytics or similar to get to

know your audience better; find out who is interested in what content

Social network analytics: Facebook, Bit.ly, AddThis, Google Adwords,

and other services all offer some form of user tracking

Historical comparisons: Analyze new- vs. old-media success


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Prepare for future trends32

Let‘s try our hand at some internet fortunetelling. Where

is the web headed? What‘s next?

There will be data… lots of dataThink of the amount of personal data you generate on a daily basis:

emails, browsing history, status updates, location… now multiply that

by 10 years; successful future web services will focus on parsing

existing data in unique ways; interchangeable data formats will be key

Decreased separation, increased augmentationAs connectivity increases, the web ceases to act as an alternative

reality 8 and instead becomes an extension of daily life

Long live the appAs the web grows ever more complicated, users will continue to show a

preference for task-specific tools that do the dirty work of finding info


Prepare for future trends, cont‘d33

So how can we prepare for the data zombie attack?

Disperse your presenceOne of the keys to survival on the web is to offer your audience many

channels for engagement; do this by tapping in to as many existing

networks as possible, but don‘t forget to maintain a consistent identity

Get used to transparencyShift your organization to the web slowly, but start now

Invite collaborationThe goal of a nonprofit is to successfully solve the problem it addresses;

the web is a perfect tool for sharing, just check your ego at the door

StandardizeDesign creatively, but offer information to supporters in a technically useful

way; maybe someone will offer to build you a free Android app


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Case StudiesWho is using social media well?


American Red Cross35


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Highlights Consistent avatar

Useful Tweets

Timely information

Utilize lists


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Highlights Consistent avatar

Useful Tweets

Timely information

Utilize lists

Highlights Custom tabs

Custom applications

Facebook is the perfect

place to gather stories


Kogi BBQ38


Case study #2: successes39

Highlights Creative us of twitter

Incentive for followers

Timely

Single purpose tweets


Case study #2: areas for improvement40

Highlights Posts are different

Foster community

Simplified tabs


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Highlights Integrate social media

dynamic content


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Try it yourselfLet‘s develop a sample strategy and some ideas


Social media asset mapping: step #143

First, let‘s list the content we‘re working with and some tools.



Next, let‘s consider how the content flows through each tool.



Finally, let‘s look at the specifics of each tool in the map.

Remember that this is just a boring old sample! Get creative!

Twitter: Facilitate conversation with supporters; status updated

automatically using CMS module when adding weekly news

Facebook: Facilitate conversation with supporters; manage events; allow

followers to sign up for email newsletter

Flickr: Manage annual event photos

Constant Contact: Manage email lists

Website: Automatically import events from Facebook; automatically import

photos from Flickr; manage monthly web info and weekly updates; unique

landing pages for each semi-annual fundraising campaign


Homework time: help another nonprofit46

Uh oh, time to prove you‘ve been listening.

There is a worksheet in your handout. Fill out a few of your organization‘s

goals (for a specific campaign or in general) and your target audience,

then pass the sheet in. We‘ll shuffle them up and pass them back out… it‘ll

be up to you to take a look at someone else‘s situation and make a social

media strategy recommendation.

Maybe something as simple as creating a Facebook cause? How about a

time-sensitive Twitter campaign giving away free admission to a local

museum in exchange for volunteer work? A real-time map of all geotagged

social network activity related to the cause?


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Questions & AnswersWhat have we missed?


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ConclusionsBulleted lists for your viewing convenience


The case for a new media approach49

The internet is not a tool, it is a living network… and you are

a big part of it! Social media is not just about finding

supporters, it is about developing relationships.

Connect & engageListen to question feedback; let your identity evolve; expand your reach

Share & collaborateFind similar organizations facing similar challenges, share successes and

resources; utilize the collective mind of your supporters

StreamlineKeep in front of your audience; merge your campaigns and workflow

MeasureFailure is free and it happens; find what works for your organization


Next steps50

Keep up the momentum:

Develop your own social media mapOpen a Twitter account and tell the world how much fun you had today

Make one big organizational switch to the webMaybe begin sharing documents on Google? Or importing all of your

resource bookmarks to Del.icio.us?

Talk to a web designerAsk about the current state of your site, what measurement tools your

organization is using, and how to integrate social media into your CMS

Check out the rest of the Design For Good resourcesHeck, I guess you could even become a member if you want more

campaign-specific guidance and consulting (designforgoodmaine.org)


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Go Forth and Multiply(The size of your organization‘s audience)


References52

1. broadcast definition Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved October 19, 2010, from Dictionary.com website:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/broadcast

2. audience size ―you can see Oprah; Oprah can‘t see you‖ Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody (New York:

Penguin, 2008) pp 90-96.

3. two-way breakdown ―the power log distribution of weblogs‖ Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody (New York:

Penguin, 2008) pp 122-130.

4. traditional media penetration ―percentage of households that possess at least one television: 99‖ The

Sourcebook for Teaching Science. Retrieved October 19, 2010, from CSU Northridge website:

http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html

5. social media defined Kaplan, Andreas M.; Michael Haenlein (2010). "Users of the world, unite! The challenges

and opportunities of Social Media". Business Horizons 53 (1): 59–68. Retrieved from Wikipedia.com website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

6. fundraising difficulties ―To Nonprofits Seeking Cash, Facebook App Isn't So Green.‖ The Washington Post.

Retrieved October 19, 2010, from The Washington Post website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/content/article/2009/04/21/AR2009042103786.html

7. internet user growth Internet World Stats. Retrieved October 19, 2010, from Internet World Stats website:

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

8. alternative reality ―what seemed like a deep social change‖ Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody (New York:

Penguin, 2008) pp 193-196.