Social Media tips from Social Media for Social Good webinar

Social Media for Social Good online seminar

Overview

On November 1, 2012, Heather Mansfield hosted an online seminar for her book, Social Media for Social Good: A How-to Guide for Nonprofits (available from many booksellers in print and electronic format).  Heather Mansfield can be considered an expert in the field of Social Media in the nonprofit arena as she maintains the "Nonprofit" profile across many different social media outlets such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.  Ms. Mansfield is also the owner of DIOSA Communications where she specializes in the providing online training for nonprofit organizations to improve their use of social media and mobile technologies. 

The topic for this free online seminar was to whet our appetites for the rest of the material in her 268 page book about using social media.  In addition to hitting the highlights of each chapter, Ms. Mansfield provided a comprehensive set of real world examples.  I was tweeting during the entire seminar (@devinedrive) and here are some of the takeaways and a few applications to support the concepts presented during the seminar.

Take-away Concepts

 

Website evaluation - How does your website stack up?

One of the most interesting discussions was regarding e-Newsletters.   Ms. Mansfield recommends that the subscribe to our e-Newsletter button is prominently displayed on every page of your website.  See additional recommendations with great examples on her blog.

In fact, it is a good idea to review your website with some industry leading nonprofit organizations.  One specific reason to view other excellent nonprofit organizations is to see how users travel from social media back to their main website.  Check each page and get a feel for the customer experience from Facebook or Twitter.  And don't be afraid to implement your own website enhancements based upon your research.

 

Storytelling with social media - Increase funding

I recently attended a Twitter event sponsored by American Express (see #amexleads) where nonprofit leaders discussed the challenges facing their specific organizations.  As the former International Executive Board President for Alpha Omega Epsilon, I had experience with many of challenges that all participating leaders had in common.  One of the biggest challenges is getting the purpose or mission of a nonprofit organization into the world.  For many nonprofits, their website is the main portal to engaging with potential and existing supporters.

During the conversation, Dustin S. Speakman (@DustinSSpeakman) discussed how his cause uses the stories of their national service members to get the story out.  In fact, take a look at the National Service In Action contest going on now.  Your members tell your story from a personal level and can be very powerful.

Once your supporter has reached your site, give them the opportunity to get involved!  Members want to help in more ways that just financial and with social media outlets there are many ways to do this.  If you set up a campaign through Twibbon, users are able to support their cause by modifying their Facebook and Twitter profiles.  In addition, Twibbon enables users to post "Donate Now" messaging to their Facebook page and post the cause to other social media outlets. Twibbon has both free and pay-for campaign services.

 

Looking towards the future - The need for Social Media Staff

Reasons to Hire a Social Media Manager - Establishing a positive relationship with customers is a time consuming process.  If it was fast and easy, everyone would be in love with every company.  A positive social media campaign should present the user with a consistent message regardless of how the customer engages.  This takes time, planning and staff to ensure that social media outlets are updated accordingly and in the manner that makes sense for their interface.  For example, you can't cross-post the contents of a blog article to Twitter.  Too many characters.  So, each social media interface needs to be cared for properly.

One of the attendees asked a question about how to break in to the social media field.  Ms. Mansfield recommended starting a portfolio of social media results.  A great way to start developing this portfolio is by getting familiar with the metric capabilities of Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media outlets.  Start a spreadsheet to track your contributions and monitor how those contributions perform over time.  Don't forget to take screenshots or have samples of your material for potential employers to review.  This is the basis of your portfolio.

Looking towards the future - Mobile technology applications

From my previous involvement with an online retailer, the subject of mobile traffic came up every holiday.  One of the leading sources for online data, the Internet Retailer website, showcases the past and projected mobile traffic.  According to Internet Retailer, 39.0% of internet traffic to Internet Retailer top 500 e-retailers will be coming from smartphones. 

This begs the question - Is your site mobile ready?  If you want to find out what any site looks like when viewed on a mobile device, test your site.  Also, check out the results of a report from The Chronicle of Philanthropy to see how other nonprofit organizations plan to expand their mobile technology capabilities.

One up and coming way to combine a personalized experience with mass text messaging is available through Slowinski Solutions.  The Context Sender allows the sender to customize an otherwise very general text message.  This is a great way to start a conversation between your organization and an individual.  Don't forget to direct them to your Donation page customized for viewing on a mobile device.

Conclusion

Interested in learning how nonprofits can leverage Twitter and Twitter apps, join Ms. Mansfield on November 6th for her next online seminar: Twitter and Twitter apps for Nonprofits.  And don't forget to support the author by purchasing Social Media for Social Good.