Social Media for Non-ProfitsWesley Regan,

Communications Liaison

What is social media? -Web-based multimedia and communications tools and the content created through and for them predominantly by the users i.e. the audience themselves

- The democratization of knowledge and information that transforms people from content consumers to content producers.

It is Chaotic Self satisfying Very fast-acting Largely uncensored

difficult to control Used mostly by younger demographics

Can be a kingmaker or a cancer to brands and causes

•Social Networking: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn•Blogging: Blogger, WordPress•Micro-blogging: Twitter, Tumblr, Hootsuite•Bookmarking: Delicious, StumbleUpon•Collaborations: Wikipedia•Social News: Now Public, Reddit, Digg, Podcasts•Photo, Video and Music sharing: Youtube, Vimeo, LastFM,Flickr, Photobucket •Virtual Communities (Virtual Worlds): Second Life,The Sims

Platforms and apps we associate with it and use most often

Who do you want to engage and for what reason?

•Political pressure•Consumer behavior•Raising awareness•Raising funds•Integration with partner agencies•Because you think you’re supposed to

How do we as organizations use it?

The greatest challenge for non-profits

In my opinion the greatest challenge for non-profits in using Social Media is that it is a playground created for and dominated by egotism, marketing and advertising- NOT social and environmental advocacy or political activism.

It’s also a playground dominated by the youth demographic.

Wes’ use of social media for BOB•To raise and maintain the profile of BOB in the community, to engage local businesses and people and “stay on the radar”•To better integrate with partner agencies and related organizations•To bridge businesses and members of the community, support local initiatives, promote events, support social enterprises and spread word about opportunities in the inner-city•Create an intellectual identity that resonates with the community •Attract mainstream media attention and post content (i.e. rejected pitches) that we feel are relevant but not sexy enough for these publications

Different organizations = different approaches

Bronwen’s use of Social Media for CAAR•Track and aggregate media activities and build a profile of publications and writers through delicious and other bookmarking methods

•Uses twitter to support all media relating to their cause and negative press for salmon farms, gets constant info from people in related orgs, calls to action (protests)

•Social media has been used more for tracking compiling and disseminating related intellectual materials than creating them and also for calls to action

Different organizations = different approaches

Influencing political behavior or influencing consumer behavior

Bronwen-Encourage political activism-Don’t buy farmed, buy wild-Not politically aligned, but politically engaged -Potentially critical of any government (private funding)-Highly critical of a particular industry yet working with it to affect change

Wes-Encourage civic engagement -Buy local (social purchasing directory and local business blogs/tweets)-Not critical of government or business instead, support positive initiatives from either-Remain A-politicaland pragmatic (gov funding)

Changing perceptions and challenging values

Other non-profits focus on causes that are more rooted in values and perceptions that are at work on a personal, community or family level such as domestic violence or a disease or cause of suffering. A campaign to change perceptions or challenge values can be neither political or consumer based so what is our use for social media here?

Emotion -------- Impact -------- Internalization ------- Action

A venue for impactful content to reach a wide audience and produce positive actions as a consequence? To change perceptions and challenge values takes time and emotional appeal more than cerebral intake. See George Lakoff ‘s Political Mind

STRENGTHS: Social Media is cost effective and can reach a large audience very fast (your PR and marketing campaign overall may not however)

WEAKNESSES: populated largely by a politically disengaged demographic

OPPORTUNITIES: Huge depth of social capital to tap into. We can keep ourselves on the radar even if mainstream media is not giving us a lot of attention. We can better integrate our efforts and share information with partner organizations. We can stay engaged with our base, our movement, and our partners Provided they uses the same social media tools as us.

THREATS: Can blow up in your face like a PR atom bomb

So how do we as organizations use it? Depends what kind of an organization or company you are

•If we’re political how do we use social media to enable supporters to pressure my their MLA or the opposition party, the PM, a ministry etc. into changing policy? find the soft spot and apply group pressure•If we’re challenging values and changing perceptions how do we create content that will engage the public, resonate emotionally and translate to action? •If we’re raising awareness how do we go viral? Is it through our own content or UGC?•If I’m targeting an industry do I use social media to pressure policy makers or to engage consumers? Who are industry most afraid of?

Organization Q & A

Once you have all these issues sorted out then you can dissect how each social tool can benefit your PR, marketing or communications plan.

How I like to think of it, my communications plan is like a symphony where different instruments do different things. Each tool or instrument has a different temporal value and should be used to support the others.

Long term: website, blog, Facebook, LinkedIn (the bulk of your content, engagement, networking, and drivers of your identity and cause)Medium term: Facebook Events/Groups (a gathering place for calls to action)Short term: Twitter and other microblogging apps (call to action, direct traffic)Random hits: Flickr, Twitter, (micro-bursts of info and reminders)

Consider the tools in the toolbox

Is your social media campaign predominantly text visual or audio? Some causes or topics are more powerfully represented through different sensory mediums.

Podcasts Flickr Music Video

If you have a charismatic spokesperson who is a good speaker USE that voice. If you have impactful images use them. Sometimes people can get the point quicker from an image with one sentence below than from a descriptive paragraph.

The explore the MEDIA part of Social MediaCONTENT IS KING

The explore the MEDIA part of Social Media

The explore the MEDIA part of Social Media

Website: If you intend to create a comprehensive plan for engagement through social media including viral ads, contests, user generated content, multimedia aimed at directing traffic to your site, petition, event etc. you have to be ready for a home run. The only thing worse than having a successful viral ad or contest or UGC push is having a website that can’t turn that attention into ACTION. Specifically the actions you need to achieve your mandate.

The two words you need to remember most with your website are CONTENT and ACTION. What kind of content will keep people coming back here and how can we translate that attention into action?

Is your site set up to create opportunities for action? Donation? Petition? Contact info for MLAs or MPs? Useful links?

Get ALL your ducks in a row before you start engaging

Website and Blog:

•Choose your site’s meta-tags, anchor-words and your blog’s tags and categories strategically•Inbound and outbound links from GOVERNMENTS, UNIVERSITIES, and NEWS (CNN, CBC, NBC, REUTERS ETC) increase your search rank and often traffic. •Inbound links from other high traffic sites also increase your search rank and your chances of getting traffic.

Get ALL your ducks in a row before you start engaging

If you have more than one person in your office then you should have more than one person blogging. The same goes for updating Facebook and Tweeting.

Don’t put your social media responsibilities solely in the hands of your communications person. Are they the only sociable person you employ?

Your blog

Translating the Geography of the

Internet to the Geography of your

causeIf your desired real-world actions rely on geographic and political specifics then distill your activities appropriately. Focus on NETWORKS and on translating your online engagement to real-world actions where they matter most. Translate the Geography of the Internet to the Geography of your cause. Examples:

•If an environmental cause is entirely or largely within a riding for an MP how can you apply real-world pressure through online engagement?

•If it’s an issue confined to a part of your city how can you use social media to connect your organization with ANY other organization that may be able to help? Sometimes following on Twitter, or seeng a Facebook update can create an opportunity that you might never have seen otherwise.

Sometimes social media is useless. Always consider these things before you spend time orchestrating your social media activities in support of your overall PR and communications outreach.

-Income-Age-Cultural nuances

An important thing to remember…