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July 13 presentation to the Niagara Fundraisers Network.
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Using social media as an engagement tool
Presented by Jocelyn Titone to the Niagara Fundraisers Network
July 13, 2011
I’m not an expert...
• Share key takeaways from CASE social media conference and own professional experience.
• I welcome any comments, suggestions and discussions during my presentation.
What is social media?
What is social media?
• Wikipedia: The use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. ... Allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content.
Why is social media important?
Why is social media important?
• It’s fast, easy, and [in most cases] FREE for you to create and share content.
• Enhances traditional communication media like email, advertising, newsletters, annual reports, earned media, etc.
• Allows you to connect with new constituents• Provides a venue for feedback via comments,
ratings, etc.
Why is social media important?
Brock Alumni Relations examples – solicited Annual Fund gifts
Why is social media important?
Brock Alumni Relations examples – generated quotes from alumni for publications
Why is social media important?
Brock Alumni Relations examples – Recruit volunteers
Why is social media important?
Brock Alumni Relations examples – New ideas
Why is social media important?
Brock Alumni Relations examples – Increase attendance at events
Why is social media important?
Brock Alumni Relations examples – Identifying what we are doing right or wrong
Why is social media important?
Brock Alumni Relations examples – made alumni more aware of Brock news and events
It`s all about engagement
• Donors who are more engaged – who feel they know more – give more.
• Set some goals– Engage donors, volunteers, clients– Enhance brand image– Increase awareness– Solicit donations??
Social media tools
• Facebook• Twitter• YouTube• Flickr• LinkedIn
• Others I will not talk about today:– Blogs– Digg– StumbleUpon– MySpace– Del.icio.us– Geosocial technologies like Foursquare, SCVNGR
• Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, allowing users to expand their personal network.
• Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile.
• Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups and fan pages.
• Facebook has more than 600 million active users, with 17 million users residing in Canada.
• If Facebook were a country, it would rank behind China and India as the third largest country by population, beating out the United States’ 312 million.
Fan page vs group
• Fan page– Administrators appear as
organization when posting– Indexed by external search
engines– Ability to host applications– Can only control who can
join based on age and location
– Targeted posts– Provides analytical data– Vanity url
• Groups– Administrators appear as
themselves when posting– Groups offer more control
over who gets to participate, settings, and approvals
– Membership capped at 5,000 members
– Members can share documents, chat with group members
How to engage people on Facebook
• Post photos and videos and encourage people to tag themselves
How to engage people on Facebook
• Ask questions, polls, trivia– In preparation for a
Brock alumni curling event, played curling trivia on a Friday afternoon.
– 7 questions generated 31 comments
How to engage people on Facebook
• Link to news articles related to your organization or articles your organization has written
How to engage people on Facebook
• Recognize holidays
How to engage people on Facebook
• Create and use Facebook events
How to engage people on Facebook
• Highlight donor and client stories
How to engage people on Facebook
• Run Facebook only contests and initiatives
• Twitter is a popular instant messaging system that lets a person send brief text messages up to 140 characters in length to a list of followers.
• Launched in 2006, Twitter was designed as a social network to keep friends and colleagues informed throughout the day. However, it has became widely used for commercial and political purposes to keep customers, voters and fans up-to-date as well as to encourage feedback.
• Twitter is estimated to have 200 million users, generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day.
How to engage people on Twitter
• Promote the use of hash tags (#) in conversation, i.e. #volunteer, #mentoring, #bbbs, #donate, #BrockGrad– Create a hashtag for
events, i.e. #runforthecure, #BrockDays
How to engage people on Twitter
• Link to content on your website• Use bit.ly, ow.ly or other url shortening
program to shorten urls https://bitly.com/
How to engage people on Twitter
• Create a twitter list and ask people if they want to join and/or follow it. i.e. Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentors, Brock Alumni Tweeters, Parents of children with autism– http://twitter.com/#!/CharityVillage/canadian-non
profits– http://twitter.com/#!/brockalumni/brock-alumni-t
weeters
How to engage people on Twitter
• Try to find as many constituents as possible online and follow them (with hopes that they will follow you back)– Try searching key words in Twitter, like your org
name as well as searching for constituents’ names
How to engage people on Twitter
• Retweet and respond to content posted by your followers (and people who are not your followers)
How to engage people on Twitter
• Similar to FB, ask questions, trivia, post photos• Ask an expert series
PR and Twitter
• Find out who’s writing about what– Does your org have anything to say about it?
Anything to add to the conversation?– Follow local and national media
PR and Twitter
• Get the organization out there by retweeting, replying to tweets and posting comments to media’s blogs
• Target influencers to retweet your content
YouTube
• YouTube has 490 million unique users who view an estimated 92 billion page views each month.
• Encourage volunteers and staff members to videotape events and post to YouTube
More sample videos
United Way Torontohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLEu-uA99ko
World Water Day Video from charity: water http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEnlrE4iMBU
United Way St. Catharines Campaign videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc7bpdSyYU4
Brock University Grape Stomphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfaCeljVvlY
Flickr
• Post photos from events to Flickr albums• Can sort by collection (i.e. Fundraising events,
volunteers, Golf tournaments, etc.)
Flickr
• Email event participants a Flickr photo album a day or two after an event as a thank you
• Encourage donors, volunteers, clients, to email in photos to add to a Yearbook Flickr album
• Cross-promote flickr albums on Twitter, Facebook, website, email, etc.
• LinkedIn reports more than 100 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.
• Post helpful information people in the group would benefit from and/or enjoy.
• Great tool to promote discussion and group conversation.
• Example: Alumni Sweethearts and Share your story
• Set up subgroups you think your donors, volunteers, other constituents may benefit from and encourage them to join the conversation and network with each other.– Cancer survivors– Parents of children with autism– Bike-a-thon volunteers– Leadership giving societies
• Organization or company pages– Provides a company
overview– Lists employees and
alumni in the organization who are in your LinkedIn Network
– Potential career section
• Group pages– Allow more
discussion and conversation
LinkedIn - NFN
• Connect with other members
LinkedIn - NFN
• Post and comment on discussions
LinkedIn - NFN
• Post and search for jobs– Keeping your
resume updated will help LinkedIn narrow down job opportunities for you
LinkedIn - NFN
• Browse LinkedIn Today – a daily digest of news and links people are sharing on LinkedIn, usually related to your profile and the groups you’re in.
LinkedIn - NFN
• Join groups related to your industry
• http://linkd.in/NiagaraFundraisersNetwork
• Niagara Professionals• Non profit marketing• Social media marketing• Social media club Niagara• AFP
Social Media Activities
• Listening– Using social media monitoring tools to
understand what people are saying about your organizations; to identify key influencers; and identify topics of interest
Social Media Activities
• Listening– Dedicate time to MONITOR social media sites. – Keep your pulse on what is happening, what
people are saying about your organization and be able and ready to respond.
Social Media Activities
• Listening– What are people talking about?• Your organization name• Your executive director name• Name of an event you run• Service you provide
Social Media Activities
• Listening– Free tools• Social mention• Twitter search• Google Alerts• Technorati
Social Media Activities
• Responding– Improving constituent satisfaction by answering
inquiries and making content more useful and relevant
Social Media Activities
• Engaging– Facilitating discussions on topics to generate
awareness and traffic
Social Media Activities
• Networking– Encouraging constituents to use content for their
own benefit
Social Media Activities
• Transforming– Using feedback to evolve your social media space
Social Media Activities
• Measuring– Social media is about engagement, so track the
engagement– What content are people responding to– Count and read comments on posts
• One step further - track who comments on posts and let fundraisers know
– Clicks– Likes– fans, # followers
Measuring Tools – Facebook Insights
Measuring Tools – Facebook Insights
What are people specifically engaged with?
Engagement is key – “likes” and comments
Measuring Tools – Facebook Insights
Fundraising and social media
• The hope is that engagement and involvement will lead to gift
• Do not constantly ask for money. Generate valuable, interesting content 99% of the time with the occasional ask for a donation
• Try asking the question “who or what inspires you?”. You may find out some of your donors` key areas of interest this way (so you can match them up with a gift opportunity)
Fundraising and social media
• Social media is not the next big thing in fundraising. It`s still a very small thing.
• Of course, there are several examples of successful fundraising campaigns using social media.
• They usually involves greater investment in time and money other than simply Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.
• Most organizations are seeing little return in fundraising in social media. Next best thing is email.
Fundraising and social media
• The actual interaction between people should be the focus for those seeking to cultivate donors.
• Your communication must convey a compelling story and a means for the donor to participate.
Three myths about social media and fundraising
• Myth #1: Nonprofits are raising a lot of money from social media
• Myth #2: Social media tools alone drive fundraising
• Myth #3: Social networking outperforms email communications
http://nonprofity.com/2011/three-myths-about-social-media-fundraising/
Other tips and tricks
• We cannot control the conversation. We’re like cruise directors – we provide the venue and get everyone excited to participate.
• The earlier we’re in a space, the easier it is to shape the conversation.
• Be transparent and authentic – you’re the face of your organization online.
Other tips and tricks
• Be a storyteller. Speak from the heart. Bare your soul.
• Communicate the IMPACT of gifts to the organization and the services you are able to provide as a result.
• Mine Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to add information to your donor database
• Don`t be afraid of negative comments• Consider creating a social media policy or guidelines
Other tips and tricks
• Market social media sites outside of space– “social trends” section on monthly electronic
newsletter– Include social media sites in printed material like
brochures, postcards, invitations, advertisements– Cross promote sites through other social media
sites (i.e. promote Twitter on Facebook)– When asking for contact info, get Twitter handles
Key skills for a social media manager
• Social skills• Adequate writer• Able to engage people• Need to have background info on organization
they’re working for• Able to proactive work with others in the org
Comments? Questions?
Jocelyn TitoneProposal Writer and Communications Coordinator
Office of Development and Donor Relations, Brock University
Phone: 905 688 5550 x3802 Email: [email protected]
Twitter handle: @jocelyntitone
Brock alumni social media:twitter.com/brockalumnifacebook.com/brockalumnibit.ly/brockalumni-linkedin
Join our LinkedIn Group
linkd.in/NiagaraFundraisersNetwork
