Social Media: If You Build It, They Won’t Come...

ANDREW MARIETTA, REGIONAL MANAGER, NEW YORK COUNCIL OF NONPROFITSWWW.NYCON.ORG 800.515.5012 ext. 141 amarietta@nycon.org

Agenda

1. The Need for a Strategy2. What Are the Best Tools3. Now Make It Work

Who’s Heard of These?

• Blogs• Wikis• RSS Feeds• Facebook• YouTube• Delicious• Flickr• Twitter• LinkedIn• Pinterest

What is Social Media?

Social Media is people using tools (like blogs & video) and sites (like Facebook & Twitter) to share content and have conversations online.

The Real Value of Social Media

“Is that it exponentially leverages word-of-mouth.”

-John Haydon, marketing consultantjohnhaydon.com(yes, that’s him.)

Show Me the Money?

"At the end of the day, you can't think of it as a fundraising tool," says Allison Fine, an expert on

using social media to ignite social change.

"It's a friend-raising and awareness raising tool.“

For What???

My how times have changed…

Number of websites at the end of his first year?

623

Number of websites at the end of his first year?

100,000,000+

What this means for you: Tools, Visibility, Opportunity and

MoreBUT…

The Challenge…

Determine what your realistic manpower and willpower is to

use social media.

Definitions of Success are Changing

Attributes of Success

Definitions of Success

Developing Basic Strategy

• Who is the target?• What is the message?• How can we engage?• What tools do we use?• How do we build a base?• Define Success• Delegate the Responsibility

Social Media: STEP by STEP

• Target Your Audience: Listen First!– General listening tools

• Best in class: SocialMention.com – As far as ‘free’ options go, this is a solid as it gets.

• Alternatives: BoardReader.com (discussion board specific), Addictomatic.com (a general listening dashboard) and PeopleBrowsr.com (big data, big insights).

– Specific listening tools• Each of the major social media platforms can be interrogated

using a combination of specific tools including: FBsearch.us (Facebook), Monitter.com (location-based Twitter search), TagDef.com (Twitter hashtags), YouTube/KeywordTool (YouTube content optimization tool).

Target Appropriately

Target Appropriately

Step by Step: Share• Share Something: Create or share content that is

valuable to your audience.– Publishing / blogging

• Best in class: WordPress.com • CheckThis.com - Need a single page website in an instant? This

is the tool for you.– Content discovery

• Bo.lt, Trap.it, YourVersion.com and MyCube.com are all examples of content curation and discovery tools which you can tailor to suit your needs.

• Imagery: Stock.xchng (the best place to find free images by keyword) and New.Pixable.com (A Pinterest-style image aggregator based on your networks and interests)

• Video: en.fooooo.com (video search engine which aggregates results from all the major video platforms)

Step by Step: Engage & Build Community

• Converse, don’t preach: What’s your message?– Not immediate: Be prepared to take time– According to Beth Kanter

“Getting to the stage where supporters are truly engaged takes about 18 months and is heavy on experimentation and "reiteration.“:

• Dashboards– The most widely used ones include TweetDeck.com,

HootSuite.com and SproutSocial.com, but there are a bunch of other alternatives out there too.

– Scheduling: BufferApp.com– A simple way to ‘pace and space’ your updates across multiple social networks.

Your Common Goals

• Raise Awareness and Visibility• Network and Share• Raise Money• Increase Sales• Others?

Doing the minimal:Most effective tools for You

Dazzling Data….

Facebook has More than 500 million active users currently.

• 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day• Average user has 130 friends• People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on

Facebook• Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups

and events • Nearly three quarters (73%) of online teens and an equal

number (72%) of young adults use social network sites.

Source: Facebook.com and Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

Why We Use Facebook….

• Pro’s: – Post News and Events to a

place where people can see it on a regular basis.

– Send out alerts and ask for action without being annoying or clogging people’s email “inboxes”

– Get real-time feedback from people who care about your cause.

– Build a community feeling.

• Con’s: – Many “friends” does not

equal many “supporters.”– Facebook not a proven

fundraising or sales tool– Confusing “fan pages” vs.

individual page vs. “group” page.

– People worry about privacy, etc.

– Can be time consuming

YouTube Is HUGE!

• More video content is uploaded to YouTube in a 60 day period than the three major U.S. television networks created in 60 years

• average YouTube user spends between 15 and 25 minutes a day on the site

• As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who rack up an estimated 92 billion page views each month.

• We spend around 2.9 billion hours on YouTube in a month — over 325,000 years. And those stats are just for the main YouTube website — they don’t incorporate embedded videos or video watched on mobile devices.

Source: http://mashable.com/2010/03/26/non-profits-youtube/

Why We Use YouTube…

• Pro’s: – Puts a “face to a

name.” – Gives you a personality– Makes the story more

powerful– Allows for feedback

with constituents

• Con’s: – Have to purchase

technology (Flip Cam or other recording device.)

– May need to learn how to embed code on your website.

– Privacy issues and copyright arise

– What’s our personality?

Today• Twitter now has over 140 million active users —

individuals who log in at least once a month — and over 400 million new tweets per day.

• Tweets generally spike during a significant cultural event, and recent figures have been staggering. On March 11, the day of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, Twitter users exceeded the average daily tweets by 37 million--that's 177 million tweets in a single day.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/twitter-user-statistics_n_835581.html http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/social-media-statistics-stats-2012-infographic/

Why We Use Twitter…

• Pro’s: – Can quickly find those

that care about your activities and engage in conversations.

– Twitter users proven to be more active and give more money.

– Dialogue driven tool. Get feedback from community of users.

• Con’s: – Personal vs. Professional

Voice. What will “be” online?

– What’s our personality?– Can be time consuming

and “suck you in.”

What’s a Blog Got to Do With it?

Why We Use Blogs…

• Pro’s: – Free tool that basically lets

you set up your own webpage. Can include links to other sites, etc.

– Can have full access to post as much or as little as you want.

– Helps create a personality for you

– Allows you to get feedback from people who care about your work or activities.

• Con’s:– People moving away

from reading blogs to mediums like Facebook and Twitter.

– Need to post frequently to make the blog worth reader’s time.

– Worry about negative comments.

Others, Examples?

• LinkedIn• Pintrest• Mobile/Text• Email/Event Registration (Hybrid Social

Media)

Integrate Social Media into other marketing channels..

• Print ads• Radio & TV• Brochures• Flyers• E-newsletters• Business cards & letterhead• E-mail signatures• Everything else!

Step by Step: Measure Success!

• Define it– What was your goal?– Examples• Raise Awareness

– New “Likes” on Facebook; Facebook “reach” using “Insights”; Number of new Twitter followers; number of “opens” of email newsletter; Number of “shares” via EventBrite = Trends!

• Raise Money or Generate Sales– Donations through Twitter; Comments on Blog tied to

customers

Was it SMART?

Step by Step: Tools to Measure• The questions:– What do want to do?– How do we know what we’re doing is working?– Who are the people we should be reaching out to?– What is social influence based on and do we have any?

• Tools– Tried & True: Google Analytics; Facebook “Likes”,

Twitter Followers, Clickthroughs, etc. – Klout’s – Twylah– TwentyFeet Peer Index– SproutSocial

5 Rules of Social Media

1. Listen. Social Media is not about you. It’s about people’s relationships with you. Listen before you speak.

5 Rules of Social Media

2. Get involved. Social Media is about conversations and building relationships. It takes effort. Don’t just talk about yourself. Ask questions, engage people and link. Most of all, be inspiring.

5 Rules of Social Media

3. Give up control. You can’t control the conversation. If you want people to spread your message, you have to trust them.

Listen. Inspire. Engage. Let go.

5 Rules of Social Media

4. Be honest. You can’t spin the truth with Social Media. Be open, honest and authentic in everything you say and do.

5 Rules of Social Media

5. Think long term. Don’t expect immediate, easily measurable results. It takes time to build trust and make connections.

Integrate - Use RSSWhich means Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) you can make your information subscribe-able, share-able and tap-able by other social media tools.