Tag Archives: Us Fund for Unicef

Social Media for Social Good

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This week I had the pleasure of listening to a panel of social media experts at the Foundation Center’s Social Media for Social Good event.  Speakers included Renee Alexander from US Fund for Unicef, Julia C. Smith from Idealist, Farra Trompeter from Big Duck and Nten‘s Amy Sample Ward, preceded by a presentation by Small Act‘s Casey Golden.

As might be expected during an event on social media, there was an active stream on Twitter, which you can review with the #SM4SG hashtag.  Below are some highlights:

  • Mentioned several times this week and also by Danielle Brigida who recently spoke at the NYC 501 Tech Club, social media involves a lot of trial and error and experimentation.  Often you will have to try different tactics before you find what will work best with your audience.   Don’t be afraid to fail.
  • Engagement = stimulating a conversation and encouraging constituents to take action on issues.
  • Developing a social media policy for your organization will help guide your staff how to speak about your nonprofit online – look at the social media governance policy database and the social media policy generator for help.
  • Your social media policy should be a fluid, living document that is reviewed with staff and updated regularly, not in a book that is stored on a shelf.
  • On Twitter, in addition to sharing ideas from others you find worthwhile, make sure to include your own ideas too – the best Twitter streams have a mix of links, no links and original content.  See this example of a Twitter engagement formula.
  • If your management is still uncertain whether social media is worth the effort, show what your competitors are doing online to engage and build their constituent base.

Want more resources?  For a step by step process on how to use social media, download Idealware’s Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide.  For more guidance on developing a social media policy – Big Duck’s Measuring Your Impact and Creating Policies for Social Media.  And for general tips on Twitter, read Mashable’s Twitter Guide Book

Social media is sexy, but don’t forget the online basics: make sure your website and email marketing program is in place.  Social media works best when part of an overall communications strategy that includes any way you connect with your constituents, whether online or offline.  Focus not only on your organization’s programs, but on the issues which your organization (and constituents) is most focused on.

Thanks to the Foundation Center’s Vanessa Schnaidt for moderating the discussion and to social media guru Jereme Bivins (who manages the Foundation Center’s Twitter stream) for planning this event.

Tips from the Experts

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Took advantage of some rainy weather today to catch up on some video tutorials on optimizing donation pages and social media.

Convio’s recent presentation on Optimizing Online Donations featured Nick Allen from DonorDigital and Alisa Aydin from US Fund for Unicef.  Nick focused on how small changes in a donation page can increase the constituents who actually complete the donation process;  normally, only 10-20% of those who arrive at a donation page actually finish the transaction.  He offered examples that don’t have to cost a lot: using larger, brighter donation buttons and minimizing the number of fields included on the donation form.  Tools such as Google Web Site Optimizer can be used to test different mixes of headlines, header images, logo placement and formatting options.  Or just use A/B testing to try different types of email messages.  Alisa described her organization’s use of tangible, inspired gifts which allow constituents to designate their contributions for specific purposes, often used as a honor/tribute gift.  She gave examples of several nonprofits that are doing this successfully such as Defenders of Wildlife, Jewish National Fund, Oxfam Unwrapped and Nature Conservancy.

What I find encouraging about Nick and Alisa’s tips is that even the largest nonprofits can take small steps to follow the lead of smaller organizations such as Kiva and DonorsChoose that are allowing donors to choose how their funds will be used.

Last month, the Case Foundation recently offered a wonderful series of video tutorials on social media, Gear Up for Giving, which are still available for replay.  Below are some takeaways from sessions I listened to today by gurus Katya Andresen, Holly Ross and Beth Kanter.

  • it is so much more effective that have your strongest supporters encourage others to support your mission than just to have it come directly from the nonprofit
  • work on developing the relationship first, then ask for financial help later (build your network before you need it, my take – this is much like we should manage our careers)
  • social media is primarily a listening tool, not only a new way to distribute your message
  • let people engage wherever they are – they may never visit your main web site
  • when deciding which social media tools to use, first find out what sites your constituents are already using
  • while social media strategies often originate from marketing or communication, ultimately this should be used by everyone in the organization
  • social media isn’t a fad;  we can’t be certain which tools will be popular in the next decade, but constituents will continue to expect targeted , value-added conversations and prompt responsiveness
  • better to engage fully in a few places than to try to put your nonprofit on every social media site
  • definitely use volunteers as a way to complement nonprofits’ always constrained resources, but don’t expect them to define the overall strategy
  • segmenting your communications almost always leads to higher response rates

For more great advice on social media, consult Nten’s We Are Media project.

Lastly, as another voice for segmenting and not making every communication an ask, Beaconfire suggest that Sometimes Less is More.