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10 Steps to a Successful Social Media Strategy
MAUREEN HANNAN,
DIGITAL MARKETING/ANALYTICS TRAINER
#MASfunergy
Here’s The Stuff That Causes SMAC (Social Media Anxiety Complex)
Lack of internal resources
Lack of expertise
Fear of “the new”
Not convinced about the real value/ROI
Lack of clear guidelines and policies
Fear of negative reactions on social media accounts
Fear of loss of control
MAUREEN HANNAN
So, before you plunge in: Create a committee….
Who should be on the social media committee???
Who in your organization (staff, volunteers, clients) likes social media?
Who is creative?
Who has their pulse on the latest news?
Who is well-connected?
Who is passionate?
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…and determine what they will do.
Brainstorm content.
Research blog posts.
Take and post photos.
Be on the lookout for good stories and news.
Be champions online!
Share, like, tweet.
Train and motivate others.
Create social media policies and procedures for the organization.
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Step 1. Define your audience…
What is the desired action?
Who is most likely to take this action?
What motivates them?
Where do you come in? What do they already know about you?
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…and learn more about them.
What may drive them to
take the action that you want?
Where do they get their
information?
What else is important to
them?
Where do they spend their
time online?
MAUREEN HANNAN
Try conducting an audience survey using SurveyMonkey. Here are a few sample questions:
Which social media sites do you interact with? (List to top 10 - 12 social media sites and platforms)
How much time do you spend engaging in social media per week? a. For personal use b. For professional use
What would motivate you to interact with USTA Mid-Atlantic on social media? (entertaining videos, helpful content, impact stories, etc.)
What other brands or organizations do you engage with on social media?
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Step 2. Define Your Goal(s). Why are you using social media?
How will you determine the success or failure of each campaign?
Common nonprofit social media goals:
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Raising awareness Thought leadership Reaching new
supporters
Engaging/deepening connections with
donors
Raising Awareness How will you get as many people as possible to know about you, your brand, and your products and services?
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Thought Leadership How will you be recognized as a leader in the field and a go-to resource for members, potential members, and the media?
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Reaching New Supporters How will you build up your email list and your social media channels to reach new people who may donate money, volunteer, or register for an event?
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Source: Comedy Central
Deepening Relationships How will you deepen relationships with your current members?
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Social Media’s Strengths As a foot in the door
As a way to grow your in-house mailing list
To get supporter and stakeholder feedback
To interact with donors/community members
To build trust and loyalty
To share helpful information
To help people solve problems
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Social Media’s Weaknesses People use it to “drive website traffic” – but often neglect to put anything valuable or interesting on their website.
People do not like to be “sold” to on social media.
It’s not a “sales first” tool – it’s about networking, information sharing, and relationship building.
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Step 3. Set Measurable Objectives.
What can you measure?
Increased email sign ups
Increased ticket sales
New volunteer sign-ups
Increased website traffic
Increased online donations
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(What does that look like? Here’s an example!)
Goal What is the purpose?
How is it measured?
What defines success?
What is the purpose? Why is this goal important? What will be the benefit for your organization?
How is it measurable? What are you able to measure that will give you knowledge about your progress?
Identify a benchmark for each measurement that will help you figure out how well you did in accomplishing your goal.
Raising awareness To get more corporate sponsors for our events, to recruit more individual donors, to acquire more volunteers and Board members
Website traffic, email sign ups, increase in social media fans/followers
20% increase in 6 months
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Step 4. Determine Your Tactics and Channels…
When you define what you want to do and who you want to reach, you can then decide what
you will do:
Start a video marketing program
Sign up for Twitter
Start a blog
Revamp the website
Start email marketing
Get an online donation page
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…remembering that each channel Is different.
Each channel has its own etiquette, language, and set of rules.
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…remembering that each channel Is different.
Each channel has its own etiquette, language, and set of rules.
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3 Questions to Help You Choose Your Channels
1) Is my audience there?
2) Can I add value? What can I provide that will be interesting and unique?
3) Do I have the capacity to manage another channel?
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Here’s a quick rundown of what managing a channel means:
Daily creation of unique content that serves a purpose
Finding good content to share
Monitoring topics and hashtags to stay tuned to what is trending and on people’s minds
Commenting on others’ content
Answering questions and messages
Acknowledging people that share your content and comment
Keeping track of what has been shared
Measuring what works and doing more of it.
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How Much Is Too Much? (Something to think about after the workshop.)
Goal #1 Goal #2 Goal #3 Content: Expertise: Total Rank
Blog
Email marketing
Video creation
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Content: How easy will it be for you to produce the necessary content? Expertise: How comfortable are you with this channel? Rate on a scale of 1-5 – 1=Not Very and 5=Extremely
Step 5. Integrate. Look at other departments/functions in your organization and
come up with ways that you can integrate social media with each. How can they apply social media to their part of the organization?
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Department Social Media Use Ideas
Programs Start a private Facebook group for clients; take photos from the field and post on Instagram
Administration Answer questions on Facebook page; create and post a list of the most needed in-kind items
Development Use LinkedIn for corporate sponsor prospecting; post about the annual appeal; share stories about organization’s impact
Membership Share stories of members and what membership means to them; post about annual membership drive; show benefits of membership
Step 6. Create Policies (External).
• What will get people blocked from the page or the group?
• Can they post jobs or business opportunities?
• Can they share their own personal stories/experiences?
• What is encouraged?
• Want to see some more? Go to http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies/ for a database of existing organizational policies.
Social Media Committee
& HR should decide
answers to questions
like the following:
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Step 6. Create Policies (Internal).
Internal Social Media Policy & Training
Be smart about training employees
on what they should and should not share
online.
Empower and educate before
punishing.
Who are the administrators of the
page?
Who will take charge when this person is on vacation/out?
What is the procedure for
answering questions/comments
– what is the timeframe? 24 hours? Less?
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Step 7. Create & Curate Content.
Start a simple Content Calendar for planning, scheduling and managing publication of content across channels.
Blog posts
YouTube
Email Newsletters
Direct mail
Member communications
Press releases
Events
MAUREEN HANNAN
So, ummm… what to post?! Subscribe to industry blogs, newsletters, websites
Set up Google Alerts & New York Times alerts
Set up a free Scoop.it feed.
Ask for photos from member activities (or for member-submitted content)
Seek out success stories
Keep a bank of relevant inspirational quotes
Announce when you’ve reached a goal!
And when you want input on an issue
@JULIACSOCIAL @BOSTONFDN
Any other ideas?! Events, anniversaries (e.g., “this day in tennis history), celebrations, birthdays
Your newsletter content
Tie current events to your cause/issue (“newsjacking”
Twitter search
Figure out what’s working for similar organizations, and adapt it!
@JULIACSOCIAL @BOSTONFDN
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(Remember also to listen.) Spend some time on each channel using its native search engine.
Google “Twitter Advanced Search” and enter in some relevant terms.
Listen to what people are sharing – what moves them? What are they sharing and retweeting?
Listen to what other organizations are posting – Try going to a free site like SumoRank.com and entering in their Facebook URL.
Record your ideas and share with your team.
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Step 8. Add Visuals & Video.
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Some Free & Low-Cost Tools You need a constant stream of compelling visuals, photos, videos, infographics.
Canva.com
PicMonkey.com
WordSwag, Prisma, Boomerang, Ripl – mobile apps
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Remember: Video Rules On Social (And Facebook rewards it in the feed!)
Work to create a short-form video strategy.
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Keep videos under 60 seconds long (15 seconds on Instagram, 30-45 seconds on Facebook).
Focus on impact – one person’s story
Authenticity is more important than polished production.
Sound quality is key.
Solve lighting problems by using natural daylight whenever it makes sense.
Curate relevant videos produced by others.
(And create branded hashtags for user-generated content.)
MAUREEN HANNAN
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Step 9: Create Your Plan. Create a manageable plan. (Remember, it’ll take time and consistent effort.)
Example:
15 minutes in the morning.
15 minutes at lunch.
15 minutes in the evening/afternoon.
Estimate 2 hours per week per channel.
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Step 9. Create Your Plan (with a little help from good tools).
Check out Social Media Dashboards & Scheduling Tools
HootSuite, TweetDeck, Buffer, PostPlanner
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Step 10. Measure & Improve. Make measurement a habit.
Facebook – Insights
Twitter – Analytics.twitter.com
Website Traffic/Behavior – Google Analytics (my personal favorite!)
See what works to move you toward your objectives. Do more of it.
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