2010 Social Media Plan

YWCA Minneapolis

Scott Gillis

Mission

Our mission is to empower women and girls and to eliminate racism.

The YWCA of Minneapolis stands for a fully-inclusive community where each person is healthy and valued, and where racial justice, gender equality and human dignity are promoted and sustained through bold and effective women's leadership. We continue to build on the strength and success of our current programs for children and youth and develop new programs of the highest quality to meet the needs of emerging and under-served populations. We invite you to stand with the YWCA of Minneapolis in our mission and our work.

TimelineWill consist of 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, and 1 year benchmarks for implementing strategies

StrategiesA. Build increasing numbers of engaged users. i.e. relevant visitor traffic (both members and non-members)B. Engage in two-way discussions to receive messages, but also get messages out (Listening is Key)C. It’s Time to Think About TwitterD. Sustain Long-Term Brand Visibility

Tactics

A. Build increasing numbers of engaged users. I.e. relevant visitor traffic. (both members and non-members)

Promoting YWCA Events: Create wall updates on Facebook (i.e. alerts) to promote major organizational events. Within wall posts create hyperlink to main YWCA web site to increase views of our homepage and subsequent pages. The major YWCA events are:

1. Circle of Women2. Women’s Triathlon3. It’s Time to Talk4. Swim for Change

Testimonials: Participants in YWCA programs can tell their stories in many ways. What better way to tell their stories than within our discussions page on Facebook. By highlighting participant profiles, program success statistics, tips and advice, and other relevant topics about the YWCA we help increase interaction with our brand.

o Key statistic: As of February 1st, 2009, the latest Facebook demographic data shows that women over the age of 55 are the fastest growing demographic on the network. Also, women comprise 56.2% of Facebook’s audience. Up from 54.3% in 2008.(http://www.insidefacebook.com)

Media Pitches: If we manage to get a story run in local community papers, Star Tribune, on TV, or even a blog, mention this on our Facebook wall. Thank the reporter who ran the story, especially if he/she has a Facebook page. Get them involved in our Facebook community. This will help increase the YWCA brand as well.

SummaryTo increase the number of fans of our Facebook page we have to give them a reason to visit and to stay engaged. We can do this by promoting all of our events. Promote our child care development and racial justice as well as our health and fitness events. Add profiles and testimonials from members to give people a chance to read about others just like themselves. This will help increase our fans. Finally, with so many journalists joining and utilizing social media let’s thank them for running a story about the YWCA.

Strategy A. Success Factors: Reach 500 friends (people who like our ORG page) within 3 months of an updated Facebook page. Attract at least 1% of those who like our page to donate/volunteer within 6 months of updated Facebook page.

B. Engage in “Two Way” discussions to receive messages but also get messages out (Listening is Key)

Create a News tab (i.e. Facebook.com/Kiva) for our “Our Voice” articles, Source articles, press releases, and e-newsletters. We can also use this for Trainer highlights, member highlights, and interviews with guest speakers. Start with a 100 word teaser then hyperlink to the full article or downloadable pdf file.

Start to incorporate video by adding interviews and video press releases to build more personable relationships. Words are still important, but try adding video to increase discussions.

o Shoot video interviews with YWCA members to get their opinion on why they like the YWCA.

After an event like “It’s Time to Talk” continue the topic of discussion from the event using facilitators on our Facebook Discussions tab. This will help cultivate relationships amongst fans and make the fans of YWCA feel more involved.

Summary It might be beneficial to give our fans some news stories to read about whether that be through a teaser with a link to the full article or a downloadable pdf file for later reading. A news tab like the example mentioned above, would give fans a one-stop shop for up to date happenings at the YWCA. Those news stories can also help facilitate further discussion on our discussions tab to continue conversations like on a newspaper web site. (i.e. forums) Unlike a forum the comments posted can be closely monitored.

Strategy B. Success Factors: Post at least 3 stories, about events, guest speakers, YWCA member highlights, and “Get to Know a Trainer” on our Notes tab, a month for the first 3 months. Try to attract at least a dozen discussions of various YWCA content over a 6 month period.

C. It’s Time to Think About Twitter

Build a following and spread word of mouth by getting YWCA employees, volunteers and trainers involved on Twitter. (Example: twitter.com/VolunteerYWCA) By utilizing personal accounts to promote the YWCA brand we can develop networks of like minded people and build connection to the YWCA. With trainers we can highlight the workouts they are helping with and if they have a twitter feed or web site, promote it.

If there is a guest speaker at an event of ours. Thank them for helping the YWCA on Twitter (especially if he/she has Twitter as well). This will help spread our brand to all of the people who may be following that speaker. We can also follow media people we have worked with on media pitches and thank them on our Twitter feed.

Hashtags? What are Hashtags? Once you get Twitter up and running one of the biggest tools you need to utilize is the hashtag. A hashtag is a pound sign (#) followed by a word that fits the occasion. When you are promoting Circle of Women you would use (#YWCACircle). The hashtag is changing the way people promote meetings and conferences. This is a great way to track response. However, just like the number of posts you make. Limit the amount of hashtags you use to only those items that are most important.

SummaryWhen working with Twitter it is important to know that you can protect your tweets. The protections feature will only let people whom you approve follow your tweets. Your tweets will not be available publicly. If you need to find good non-profit Twitter pages for examples, look at People Serving People (@P_S_P). Most PSP tweets are about current happenings at the facility, links to Facebook photos, links to their YouTube site, and thanking their followers for mentioning them on their own Twitter feeds. Another example, YWCAPortland, posts tweetpics from live events that post automatically to their Twitter feed. They list job and volunteer postings with links to their web site. They have 1161 followers and are following 1803 separated into 131 different listings. They are also thinking about starting a volunteer twitter feed like the YWCA Seattle has. (@VolunteerYWCA). Take all these examples into consideration when deciding how to map out your own Twitter account.

Strategy C Success Factors: Once Twitter is up and running, start out following at least 20 like minded people over the first 3 months. Talk to those people. Promote big events and workouts to members who use Twitter. Ask them to spread the word that we are on Twitter and to follow us. After 6 months see if your followers have grown and if in turn they have started to follow you on Facebook as well. No more than 5 tweets per day.

D. Sustain Long Term Brand Visibility

Boxeso To sustain long term brand visibility we should begin to change the visual aspect of our Facebook

page. We can do this by using Facebook Markup Language (FBML), like HTML, to make our YWCA Facebook Org page unique. This begins with our Boxes tab, which should be the visual heart of our Facebook page. Create a box with a visual image allowing people to sign up for our e-newsletter. Create a workout box which would link to our fitness homepage and a new workout that is just starting. Use a picture of a YWCA child and link that to our child care page highlighting our curriculum. Also, create a banner link, which will give fans an opportunity to put our YWCA banner on their Facebook page extending the reach of our brand.

o If we have YWCA membership deals in the future or trainer consultations available, promote this in our Boxes tab as well.

Donate Tabo Create a donate ad (see PSP Facebook page) and make this the “landing page” as the first thing

you see upon coming to the YWCA Org. page. Video & Color

o Consistent use of orange color should be synonymous with the YWCA much like the color pink is with Susan G. Komen. If we have an event, have seas of orange t-shirts involved and take photos to post on Facebook. According to the brand agency Cone, the number one non-profit brand in the U.S. is YMCA of the USA. This is something to think about when it comes to setting our brand apart from the YMCA. (less confusion)

o Create a video ad to put on Facebook and promote on Twitter with members and employees wearing orange t-shirts and saying the line “Eliminating Racism. Empowering Women.” This reinforces not only our brand colors but our tagline as well.

SummaryWhen thinking about your brand visibility, remember that our Boxes tab should be our visual heart. The Wall and Info tabs will remain the same visually, but utilizing FBML will set our Facebook Org page apart in other areas of the Facebook page. Our Boxes tab should include our videos as well as ads for our e-newsletter, a link for donations, and a visual ad that links to the Childcare page on our web site. Every couple of months we can also have a new visual ad that showcases an event (i.e. Circle of Women, It’s Time to Talk) The Health & Fitness Facebook page would be structured the same visually the only difference would be highlighting a new

workout ad every month or putting an ad talking about a membership deal both of which can be linked back to the Health & Fitness web page.

Strategy D Success Factors: After 3 months video should be a large part of our Facebook page with promotion of it on our web site and on Twitter. Use the addition of the donate tab and video to monitor increase in fans. Our goal should be 1% increase after 3 months. After 6 months, include the revamped Boxes tab and the “Take Action Window” allowing fans to get involved. After 9 months, there should be another 1% increase in fans with proper promotion of new visual aspect of our Facebook page.