ThaT’s Engaging!Social media SiteS are a perfect way to keep

SupporterS intereSted in your cauSe year ‘round.

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In a nutshell, social media is all about communication. Relationships. Engagement. While it’s far from the fundraising powerhouse nonprofit fundraisers hope it will yet become, it does have potential. But you won’t reach that potential by taking the already old-school approach to your social-media strategy.

Think of it this way, who are you more likely, personally, to help out: the biddy at your hair dresser’s who holds court every week about her fabulous life and hits you up suddenly for a loan? Or your best friend — a steadfast confidant with whom you share interests, celebrate good times, weather storms and communicate regularly — who comes to you with a need and asks for your help?

Experts agree that sharing information on social media is a powerful way to communicate need to your supporters. Certainly, you can use those status updates and tweets and pins to call attention to a current fundraising campaign, and encourage your friends and followers to donate. That kind of focus makes it easy to craft updates, etc.

But what about between campaigns, when there isn’t a big push or specific goal to focus on? Again, it comes back to relationship building. In fact, how you communicate between campaigns can be as important as what you do when you are actively seeking donations toward a specific goal.

Amanda Foster, an account manager at Salsa Labs, is adamant in suggesting that whether you’re trying to maintain interest in your cause on social media between fundraising pushes or you’re just building your social-media following, it all comes down to engagement. (Are you sensing a theme here?)

Let’s be clear about what that means. Engagement is not talking at someone. It’s not jumping in front of them and shouting in their face, then running away. Engagement is providing people with useful, interesting information, sticking around to hear their reactions, and then responding in a thoughtful way that lets them know you’re actually listening.

what it lookS likeEnvironmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit organization whose mission it is to “use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment.” It specializes in providing useful resources to consumers while simultaneously pushing for national policy change.

ThaT’s Engaging!Social media SiteS are a perfect way to keep SupporterS intereSted in your cauSe year ‘round.

One Thing You May Not Have Tried:Build Your Network of Organization-Friends

If social media is all about forming connec-tions and building relationships, then you could have a lot of success by extending that beyond just your supporters. Find like-minded organizations to connect to on your social-media channels and see if they will do the same. You can share each other’s social-media posts with your respective audiences when appropriate. It both increases the content you have to share as well as your social-media reach.

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EWG is the group behind, among other public-information resources, the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” lists that address the level of pesticides found in certain types of produce; and the Skin Deep cosmetics database where consumers can investigate the ingredients and potential carcinogenic risk of the beauty products they use.

Colleen Hutchings, EWG’s deputy director of online fundraising, said the organization relies heavily on its relationship with its social-media following to spur advocacy, broaden its reach and indirectly fuel its fundraising. That being the case, EWG’s social-media team spends a lot of time fostering dialogs.

Her key piece of advice is to use social media to provide useful, interesting information. For its part, EWG uses social media (mainly Facebook and Twitter) to communicate the results of its research and its practical application in its supporters’ lives. It doesn’t get much more practical, for example, than telling folks that while it’s important to spend the extra cash to buy organic celery and peaches, it’s fine to go with conventionally grown onions or avocados.

“We are so lucky and are in such a wonderful position that we have incredible researchers and scientists on staff who are constantly publishing new reports and compiling consumer tip sheets that people want,” she said. “They want to know about the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15, about the ingredients in home-cleaning products, about what’s in their shampoo and lotions.

“Because we have a steady stream of amazing information that people want and that they come to us looking for, that helps a lot with keeping people engaged with the organization,” Hutchings explained.

But you don’t have to be a researched-based organization to have great information to post. The key, Hutchings said, is to know why your supporters are interested in you and what it is they expect.

“You want to think about who you are from your donors’ point of view, what role you play in their lives and what they want from you,” she said. “Then make sure you give it to them before you ask them for money. Become an essential part of their lives, and they will give to you because you are filling an essential role for them.” EWG Marketing Manager Emily Ion Kosuge warned against using social media “as a bull horn or a place where you flood people with press releases.”

Social Media Posts that Engage:

The Top Five Types• Funny/Entertaining–don’tunderestimate

people’s desire to just have fun some-times.

• Touching–tellastoryoranecdotethatstirs emotion.

• Educational–teachaboutyourindustryorcause.

• Polling–askaquestiontofindoutmoreabout your community.

• Controversial–getpeoplethinkingabouta recent event, ruling or other topic.

Recent Trends:• Memes—poststhat“goviral”andspread

quicklyfromusertouser.• Lists–i.e.Top5;askfollowerstolisttheir

own in the comments section.• “DoYouRemember”—useasenseof

nostalgia to engage followers.• Infographics—stylizedgroupofimages

that explain concepts using fewer words arrangedinquick-hitstyle.

• Shortvideos—theshorterandmoreentertaining, the better.

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“We focus on building a curious community who we want to hear from, and we create great content for them, as well,” she said.

And once the content is posted, Ion Kosuge stressed, it’s important to respond to comments and foster conversation. Doing that moves your organization from “biddy at the hair dresser’s” status into “best friend” territory.

EWG, which accomplishes most of its fundraising via email (save for a premium-based, end-of-year “snail mail” campaign), released its 2012 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce on June 19. Word went out via email, as well as to the group’s 165,000 Facebook friends and 23,000 (across three accounts) Twitter followers. It was pushed out again the following week, right before EWG launched a fundraising campaign around the guide.

Hutchings pointed to that as one of the best examples of using social media to keep supporters engaged and thereby bettering your chance to garner support once there is a fundraising push.

kaboom!Another good example of the kind of relationship building that social media can provide is what KaBOOM! does on its Facebook page. The organization, which is working to ensure that every child in America has access to a great public play space, is all about kids and fun and energy. If you couldn’t figure that out by its name, one look at its Facebook page will do it.

KaBOOM! fills its page with bright, vibrant photos of children at play or something closely related, such as innovative playgrounds, fanciful artwork, etc. Its posts range from challenges for followers to submit photos of kids playing to open-ended questions about newsy items like the Olympics or a condo complex banning children from playing in the parking lot.

Noticeably absent are financial asks and navel-gazing content all about how great KaBOOM! is.

“I say this all the time, and I can’t say it enough around the office: Try not to ask too much of your supporters and find a way to serve them between campaigns,” said Kerala Taylor, senior manager of online content and community for KaBOOM!. “Think about what content is sharable and what’s not. I can write a blog post about the importance of saving play and a few people might read it, but it’s not going to get tweeted and posted on Facebook.

“If you offer creative, visually compelling and, if you can, funny content, people are going to pay attention. It’s not necessarily about getting people to do things for your cause, although that clearly also is important,” she added. “If you keep them in the loop and give them stuff that they appreciate and want to pass on, they’ll remember you when that next appeal comes up and have a positive association with you.”

Social media can help an organization become a part of supporters’ lives in ways that don’t involve asking for money. So when the fundraising element does kick in, donating seems more like a natural extension of the relationship than a burden.

“Social media hasn’t been fully used to its fundraising capacity. The tools haven’t really been developed yet,” Salsa’s Foster said. “It’s more of a place to hear about fundraising campaigns, or do advocacy and get involved in other ways.”

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So many choiceSSo you’ve paid attention, and you know what your donors and other supporters want from you. And you’re ready to give it to them on social media. You’re ready to stick around to read their responses, answer their questions, and to fully and genuinely engage them.

But with so many social-media options and so little time and/or resources to do this with, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed.

Don’t worry, while it’s important to use as many channels as possible to reach your supporters, it’s best to focus your energies where they will have the most reach.

“Being active on all the platforms is important because you can reach different personalities that way, but the first step is to figure out who you want to reach and where they are,” Foster said.

In the April cover story for FundRaising Success, global social-media and fundraising consultant Ephraim Gopin addressed the “where” of social media for nonprofits.

“The ‘where’ of a social-media strategy is tricky,” he wrote. “It’s best to start with two platforms or three platforms, get comfortable, engage, and as time goes on add new outlets that suit your organization’s social-media needs.”

According to Gopin, there are a number of factors that will determine your social-media presence:

Where is your target audience hanging out? There’s no point in being on

Google+ if everyone you want to engage is on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or elsewhere.

Manpower. Your organization has to invest a lot of time in order to build

a following and keep it engaged. At the outset it’s advised that you spend, at a bare minimum, two hours per platform per week — — something to think about when deciding how many social-media sites to be on.

Which platforms are best suited for your organization? Just because “everyone” is on Facebook and Twitter, does that mean you have to be there? When crafting a strategy,

look at each platform to assess whether the content you’re considering pushing out will be suitable.

Also, he wrote, “keep in mind that storytelling is an excellent way to bring in followers and admirers. Look at each platform and decide where you can best tell your organizational story.”For instance, while provocative and compelling photos are great on any platform, Pinterest would be a better option for an organization that has an abundance of such photos than one that doesn’t. If your mission is conducive to creating emotionally charged videos, YouTube

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Less Known Social Media Sites You May Want to Check Out:

Aswesaid,youneedtofindthesocial-mediaoutlets that make most sense for your supporters.Facebook,TwitterandYouTubeare huge but not necessarily where your supporters hangout online. Here’s a list of a handful of social-media sites that you could checkout,butdefinitelytalktoyourloyalsupporters and get suggestions from them too:

• Give2gether• Crowdsrise• Change.org• Care2• Meetup• DoSomething.org• Gather.com• Google+

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would be a good way to go. Facebook is good for slightly longer posts; and if you prefer to craft richly detailed stories in print, blogging can provide a forum. Of course, Twitter can help you point to all of these features in 140-word quips.

Ultimately, keeping supporters engaged between campaigns comes down to the same common-sense strategies you would use to build your social-media following in the first place.

SucceSS!Wherever and however your organization chooses to communicate on social media, the experts agree that you probably will have to rethink your idea of what constitutes “success.” It’s not as easy as sending out a direct-mail package, getting back a reply form and a check, and chalking that donation up as a success.

In fact, you probably shouldn’t define social media success in terms of dollars raised at all — at least not yet.

“Social media is all about return on engagement,” Gopin wrote. “You engage new people who never heard of you; you build brand awareness; you use it to strengthen and expand prominent programs; you recruit volunteers; and down the road, you potentially launch a campaign.

“Here’s how NOT to measure engagement: by number of followers. If you have many followers but they’re not engaged, what good is that? My goal is to have 150 active followers who will retweet, share and post my content when needed. Quality trumps quantity every time,” he adds. However, Foster adds nuance to that idea, adding: “Everyone has different goals. If you’re trying to engage people first though Twitter or Facebook and then get them to sign up for you e-mail list — and they do — that is success. If someone has been on your e-mail list for years and years and then all of a sudden they start following you on Facebook, that is very successful.”

tipS from kaboom!’S kerala taylor on engaging SupporterS on facebook, twitter and other Social-media SiteS, followed by Some other beSt-practice do’S and don’tS.

Facebook“With Facebook, we found that images are really the best way to get people’s attention, especially since they introduced the new timeline,” Taylor said. There is

so much noise and so many people trying to promote things. If you see a compelling image, you are much more like to respond to it in some way.”

Other tips:1. Use Facebook’s longer format to share stories. If you’re just coming off of a fundraising

campaign, having staff and volunteers share their experiences working on it or discuss how the money raised is making a difference is a good way to draw followers in. Or start to get people talking about whatever it is you will be focusing on in your next campaign.

2. Post a few times a day, and include photos when possible. But spread out your posts, rather than posting five things in a row and going dark the rest of the day.

3. Ask open-ended questions to keep the conversation going around specific issues.4. Don’t just post press releases and use the site as a bullhorn for screaming about how great

your organization is. Offer information that people find useful or entertaining and want to share.

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Pinterest“We haven’t completely figured out Pinterest yet, but because a lot of what we do is more visually oriented, we have a presence there,” Taylor said. “Like with anything

else, you don’t want to be always asking, so Pinterest lets us pin pictures of crafty kinds of stuff, projects parents can do with their kids, especially in summer. Like a homemade sprinkler. Play-related stuff that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do specifically with the organization.”

Other tips:1. Pin photos of your staff and your programs in action, of constituents benefitting from your

services, etc — photos that tell the story of what you do.2. Create Pinterest Boards for specific program areas or campaigns, and encourage staff

who are working on them to pin photos specific to their projects. 3. Pin photos of things that are needed for specific projects or things donated funds will buy.

Twitter“Twitter is a great tool to connect with people, to find people you might not find in other other places,” Taylor said. “We’re doing a Summer Playground Challenge now

where we ask parents to take their children to as many playgrounds as possible throughout the summer and submit pictures of them, then enter the pictures to win prizes. Twitter was a great place to let moms know about the challenge. You can follow people and other pages with similar interests, search their connections and send individualized messages.”

Other tips:1. Use the sense of urgency that comes with Twitter’s fast timeline and quick bursts of

information to communicate news-related information and stay relevant.2. Ask for “right now” actions that don’t involve money: write a letter to the editor; call a legislator;

meet NOW for a impromptu sit-in. Or send invitations to participate in other things.3. Watch for positive tweets from volunteers, constituents or anyone who might be talking

about your organization, and retweet.4. Don’t tweet just to send followers to bland press releases.

You Tube“We produce a lot of videos, mostly from playground builds,” Taylor said. We don’t do a great job but we do have some really cool time-lapse videos of our builds. The

main tip for YouTube is to produce awesome videos. In a lot of our videos, we’re just talking to people about playgrounds. If someone is already interested in what you’re doing, that helps. But those kinds of videos aren’t good tools for bringing more people into your cause.”

Other tips:1. Produce 30-second videos and make them as fun and visually compelling as possible.2. Don’t set out to make a “viral” video that will be passed around between thousands of

viewers. Internet sensations just happen. And sometimes the harder you try, the worse it is.

LinkedIn“We have a presence on LinkedIn, but we don’t do much with it,” Taylor said. “I tend to think of LinkedIn as the more serious social network, a place to discuss research

and policy issues. But it’s not the place to talk about playgrounds and games, etc. But for policy-related stuff, you could have some luck driving discussions there.”

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working with SalSa There’s more to social media than just signing up for Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Amplifying your cause online takes time, a little strategy and, of course, the right ingredients. Salsa has blended the perfect set of social-media features to help take the hassle out of managing and growing your social connections and influence. Our tools for social-media success let you easily add social-sharing features to email and other content, make supporter and event sign-up a breeze, track results, and more. Each of these features is fully integrated with the Salsa platform and enabled with simple controls. Adding social media to the mix couldn’t be easier!

Salsa Labs (Salsa) helps nonprofits and political campaigns to build, organize and engage a base of support online through an integrated and flexible web-based platform. With Salsa, groups of all sizes can easily manage their supporters and chapters, fundraise, advocate, communicate through email and social media, host events and measure results. Salsa is about more than just providing technology; it offers strategic best practices, highly rated training, support and a strong online community, so its clients can focus more resources on their mission. The company currently supports more than 2,000 organizations’ relationships with more than 75 million donors, members, activists and fans all around the world. Visit Salsa online at www.SalsaLabs.com.