Posts filed under 'Social Marketing'
Social Media and NonProfits
This is a sticky post. Please scroll down for new ones.
What’s going on here? Many of my newer posts (now below) discuss “[a specific social media tool] and Nonprofits”. Well, there’s a method to my madness (OK, sometimes). Next month, I’ll be speaking at “ More Power to You: A conference for community & environmental activists organizing to protect public power in British Columbia”.
BC Citizens for Public Power (CPP) have asked me to talk about Social Media with regards to Non-Profits (what others are doing), as well as offer them some specific suggestions as to how they can get more attention for their cause. So, post with the tag: “Powertoyou” tag (and Tweets posted with the #powertoyou hashtag) will function as a reference for conference attendees, as well as (hopefully) a resource for others interested in this topic.
Please feel free to offer your suggestions – especially with regards to other great examples of how Nonprofits are using these social media tools. And feel free to post about these topics and tell me about it. We’re all learning from each other and I’d love to hear what you have to say.
My Related Posts:
Nonprofits and Social Media - Getting Your Fans to Help You
3 comments October 2, 2008
Twitter and NonProfits
twitter_logo_s Put simply: Twitter is a microblogging network that allows you to make a post of 140 characters of text or less. While it asks you to answer “What are you doing?”, most use it for a variety of other mini-posts (some including links). Twitter has its own terminology: the quick posts are known as “tweets”, people are “twittering” when they post, someone is “following you” they are merely subscribing to your posts ( no need to fear) and they become your “followers” (sounds cult-like, but it’s not…generally. For instance, you can’t get your followers to clean your apartment. Trust me, I’ve tried). Another interesting element is that Twitter can also be used via mobile devices.
The constant pulse can be a benefit to those who feel isolated - the distance that may exist in busy lives is virtually eradicated by the hyper-connectivity of Twitter. Like all good social media tools, Twitter is engaging, connecting - and can be a big time-suck (er, commitment, I mean). Twitter involves communication - but Twitter communication is brief and its life-span is short. That same immediacy that can be a drawback in some cases, is a great asset in others. Twitter’s immediacy has been highlighted in life-saving cases: a man posts a suicidal message, but realizes how much people care when they reach out to him and Twitter was credited with saving a man from Egyptian Justice. The site may even soon be used to find missing children.
So, how can you, as nonprofit, benefit from using Twitter?
- Find out what people are talking about (Use Twitter Search or Twemes (if people are hashtagging (i.e. using a tag/keyword with a # in front of it, e.g. #LPV5)
- Build your relationship with supporters and community
- Post new information, blog posts (via Twitterfeed or manually to an engaging message with the link), press releases etc. “Several groups like GreenPeace, the Obama Campaign, NetSquared, MobileActive, etc use Twitter to call out press releases, links to new pages on their blog or website, and sometimes asks to donate” - mg131
- Encourage Action/Tell Story. For instance - frustration with Government. Note: I worked for years in a field where government action was necessary - but slow in coming - this might be an experience your nonprofit is happening. Difficulties with getting a response (or satisfying) response from government can be aided (and exposed) by Twittering. You can show what is happening - like a public log. (E.g. Sept 12th- “Sent this letter [perhaps link to letter] to Premier, hopping for response soon.” Then, say, 2 weeks later - I’m an optimistic gal - you tweet again: “Response received from Premier, he has forwarded my letter to X”. Then, 2 weeks later: “No response yet from X”. And later, perhaps “Response received from X, he refuses to get involved”.) Perhaps there can be an action followup - for instance: “Please email him with your thoughts”.
- Mobilize people to do things with urgency - donate, encourage signing of petition, Diggs etc. ( See Social Media for Real World Social Change)
- Find out information/Ask questions of your supporters (E.g. Advice, Recommendations, Contacts - “What’s a good site for X?”, Know a good consultant re: X?”, “Does anyone know someone at company X that I could contact?”)
What can your supporters do?
- Re-tweet important tweets from your nonprofits & other supporters. This will get eyeballs from their network/followers.
- Mention upcoming meetings
- Submit and make popular stories on social news sites, like Digg. (E.g. They submit to Digg & encourage others to on Twitter to Digg as well.)
- Post tweets summarizing important points (See #cdninst) and a conference (something a nonprofit could do at a related conference). If several people are twittering, you can get an good picture of the conference highlights.
- Respond to advice and make suggestions of their own.
- Point you to related information/posts/articles
- Talk about issues/build community
- Twitter is being used in countless other ways (see Twitter Collaboration Stories)
Examples of NonProfit Twitter Feeds
Highly Effective Twittering:
- Frozen Pea Fund
- Beth Kanter - “Twitter, Facebook, Chris Brogan and 81 other people send Cambodian girl to college”
- “ The Well That Twitter Built“
- Telling people you’re safe during a disaster.
Some Tips
- Peek in before you dive in (sound advice for most social sites), so you can see how it works.
- Wondering who to follow? - Check out the appropriately named: Who do I follow? Wiki
- The Creation of Twitter Best Practices: Round 1 recommends that you BE INTERESTING & INVOLVED in the conversation, among other useful suggestions. Don’t use twitter as a bullhorn. It’s not a platform - it’s a communication tool.
- Remember if you’re going to allow your Tweets to be public (the best way to get new people involved in your message) remember that you’re tweets are public. Anyone can see them and they will likely exist for awhile (potentially forever). So, don’t post anything you don’t want most knowing/sensitive information. (See Rob Cottingham brilliant cartoon.)
- You need to participate in the conversation rather than
- Hashtags can be very useful.
More Excellent Resources
- Twitter for Health - discusses the many different way nonprofits are using Twitter
- Social Media 4 Change Wiki
- Twitter Collaboration Stories
- Beth Kanter’s Twitter Primer
- For others, see my delicious (”Powertoyou”+”Twitter”)
http://delicious.com/mhamburg/powertoyou+twitter%20
My Related Posts
Nonprofits and Social Media - Getting Your Fans to Help You
Facebook, MySpace and Nonprofits
More NonProfit Social Media Ideas
Tags: monicahamburg, twitter, powertoyou, nonprofit, nonprofits, socialmedia,
4 comments September 24, 2008
Youtube and NonProfits
youtubelarge In spite of its many teenage confessionals and frat videos, make no mistake: YouTube is more than just a vestibule for teen angst, crotch-kick footage - or just a place to watch illegally posted prime-time television shows (something, I, of course, would not consider doing).
Youtube footage has a large audience – and far reaching consequences. Earlier this year a Baltimore police officer was suspended after footage of him physically and verbally abusing a teenage boy surfaced on Youtube. And “ police are increasingly relying on YouTube as a crime fighting weapon”.
Citizens capture footage of an event before reporters (and sometimes police) even know there is a story. Disasters (like Hurricane Katrina) are being covered by regular people, people who are involved in the story or are witnesses. They are becoming the reporters and they are often more compelling ones as they have background knowledge of, and an attachment to, the story. “If you look at what individuals are showing and posting on YouTube, it’s just astounding. You get a much better sense, I think, of the scale of the disaster and of the personal nature of it. You really get a strong sense of how individuals have been impacted”
In the case of Nonprofits – the stories can be told by people affected by an issue or supporters of a cause – often with amazing results.
The Youtube platform enables Nonprofits to use video to:
- Educate People about an issue. (This can involve personal testimony/experience and more. e.g. “ 24 Hours for Darfur is a global video advocacy and education campaign to help end the genocide in Darfur.”)
- Encourage people to take action
- Serve as messages to government
- Unite people with similar views and empower them Youtube can become a Hub to show solidarity for a cause. (“ WITNESS uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. We empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change.”)
- Show people they are not alone (for instance – depression or sexual abuse)
- Grab the attention of people who might be interested, but have not yet been compelled to act
- Get more people involved and engaged with your cause (the Human Society’s Youtube “competition drew 2,000 new members to their email list, provided HSUS a whole batch of new online videos to use, and garnered over 95,000 views of the winning clip.”
Videos can involve:
- important footage captured
- a person discussing their experience
- someone talking about their motivation (for supporting a particular cause)
- a person succinctly stating an opinion
- a sequence/montage set to music (some are like a commercials - e.g. Girls on the Run, others simply use music and images (E.g. Free Hugs and Stand Up to Cancer), and several are, in fact, a music video with participants singing their message - like the fun-tastic WearetheWeb – Internet Celebrities for NetNeutrality
- Several people reinforcing the message ( Yes We Can - for Barack Obama, ONE – against poverty or Watch for Change for.. (drum roll!) change.
Video Tips
- Consider starting a contest. As in the Humane Society’s experience, contests can be a great way of getting new people involved and invested. Worksafe ran a “Serious Injuries Stop With You” contest asking for students to create videos about work safety. And Greenpeace encouraged artists to record themselves playing Beethoven’s 5th.
- Invite people to be a part of it – the larger “it”. Ask them to send in videos (or even pictures) that will be part of a compilation. Stand Up to Cancer is a perfect example - they asked people to submit pictures stating why they “Stand Up to Cancer” (e.g. “Because of my Dad” etc. which were then edited into a compelling video).
- Names make a difference. Make sure to tag the video so it can be found by people interested in your cause or nonprofits. And consider how you title it: “Often, an effective title (e.g. “This Is Why I’m Hot” instead of “Global Warming is Serious”) or interesting tags can increase the number of people who click on your video.”
- Encourage people to participate. Ask them to post related video comments etc. The Vlog Brothers Project for Awesome for the Humane Society – Encourages Donations - and asks others to post video to continue spreading their message
- Sincerity counts. So “ [b]e genuine — interview people who are affected by the work your organization does, record actions you are taking to solve problems in your community, ask YouTube users to sound off on why your issues are important. These tactics will resonate much more with the YouTube audience than a piece you think is hip or one that features a celebrity.”
- Humour can work too. Consider “ Sing A Long” which reminds men to check for testicular cancer with a hilarious ditty.
- Use the Bonus Features. Youtube recently introduced annotations, a feature “that allows you not only to annotate your uploaded video with captions, but also to create links within the video to other video clips or to your YouTube channel”. Consider how you could might integrate this feature to link other videos.
- Make it Short, Sweet and Riveting. Remember to make it short (we all have ADT). And compelling. WITNESS’ video about the plight and segregation of the Roma people distills a fairly involved situation into a video that is easily understood. Giant Ant Media ’s Bongo Promo – a video for Urban Projec t tells their story - which involves the funding of hip hop artists in Tanzania in a way that moves and captures the audience.
Other Tips
- Create a Channel. You need one to create an organized place people can go and find all the videos (e.g. Campus Progress Action).
- Create a Playlist. A Playlist can highlight some specific videos (e.g. the ones made by Youth for Beatbullying).
- Create a NewsRoom. With regards to Photos, Videos etc. - make it easy for people to share and show your content. Having a central hub (website etc.) to aggregate efforts (as Be the Full Stop does) is excellent (read: do it!) but also consider combining all your efforts into a type of “social media newsroom” – a place where you amalgamate items people can easily use and repost (the most effective videos/pics in your arsenal, news items/releases and more), so people (and tradional media) don’t have to search, space (take this tip from big business –e.g. Ford).
- Create Buzz. Think about how you are going to get the buzz going - a video has no effect if people don’t watch it. Figure out how to promote it – e.g. Be the Full Stop’s site asks people to take action by “ emailing everyone in their address book with a link to the Click TV ad” ”. Or consider Presentense which “had a “Viral Video Party” when a new video release was due, where they got a group of about 70 people in a room with computers, and they send the video to their friends, friends’ friends, etc.”
- Note that Youtube has a nonprofit program (Nonprofit must be U.S. based, however)
Great Resources
- Youtube’s NonProfit tips, including those on running a video campaign
- Frogloop’s - Insider’s Guide to Video and YouTube for Nonprofits
More Resources
- can be found bookmarked on Delicious [my delicious Powertoyou and YouTube ]
http://delicious.com/mhamburg/powertoyou+youtube%20
add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: YouTube and NonProfits :: YouTube and NonProfits :: TailRank
My Related Posts
Nonprofits and Social Media - Getting Your Fans to Help You
6 comments September 16, 2008
Zuning to the Newies!
Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I got my Zune! (Thank you, Matchstick!)
Here it is in it’s all its packaged glory:
http://monicahamburg.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/img_0063_11.jpg
Yummy.
I’m really psyched about trying the Zune out for a myriad of reasons, one of which is that I want to listen to more podcasts and watch more tech shows. Also, I take public transit ( no, really…) and this will be a nice alternative to reading (especially since I’m presenting without a cool book).
I spent the better part of last night adding podcasts to my collection - including TED Talks, Twit, Epic Fu & Savage Love. I have now amassed over 500… - but know there is more cool stuff out there. So please let me know what you like (Tech, Comedy, Educational, Marketing etc.) - I’d love some recommendations.
The Zune also has an interesting social aspect - you can get other people’s downloads and people can beam things to your Zune. They even ask you to name your device for that reason. (My device’s name is “MrShiny”, btw :)
The inside of the Zune’s box reads: “Wel-come to the Social.”
I’ll talk more about the Zune and my thoughts as I use it. P.S. I am participating in Chatthreads research for this promotion, so if you want to talk about this post feel free to go to Chatthreads.com and type in Conversation ID 102 986 0287
https://www.chatthreads.com/t0/?cid=1029860287&convid=1144&uid=1144
5 comments July 17, 2008
Summer Contest - Make it a Double
A few of my friends are running cool contests.
You’d be a fool not to enter these - and I pity the fool!
Capulet: PutPlace - “Pull a Face” A data lost photo contest
PutPlace asks you to show your best “data disaster loss” face. Basically, the horror, the agony etc. of knowing you’ve lost your work/files…
I’ve entered - though I must admit many of my outtake pictures look more like “I need Metamucil badly!” than “I lost all my files!”
Memelab’s: Fan Trust - “I Know What You Did This Summer”
http://monicahamburg.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/fantrust.jpg
Memelabs wants you to show how your favorite TV characters are spending the summer/hiatus. Great idea! Perhaps someone will imagine a cure to the disease that makes women become contestants on the Bachelor…
I’d enter this one too, but as my Mr. T reference in this post demonstrates, it has been a mighty long time since I watched TV.
I still wonder what happened to Night Court…
Add comment July 16, 2008
Out-Smarts Interview
I had a fun discussion/interview, re: Crowdsourcing and Social Media in general, with Mhairi Petrovic of Out-Smarts.
You can listen to the podcast here.
1 comment June 2, 2008
Being Campy Tonight
Tonight I’ll be speaking at WordPress Camp amongst many other cool presenters (including Rebecca Bollwitt, Bruce Byfield and Greg Andrews). I’m looking forward to hearing the other bloggers speak and am sure it will be a very inspiring & educational evening!
Putting my talk together was a bit more fraught with drama than I would have liked… Yesterday, when I was almost done writing my notes for the presentation (and lovely they were, of course) – I got booted out of my Word Docx (not a big fan, btw) – only to lose the document forever. Yip, the file was deemed “corrupted” and try as I might to recover it, it was gone. Gone babe gone.
Suffice it to say, I was not a happy camper.
But, I’ve now recreated my piece and am feeling far way more optimistic.
So, what will I be talking about? “Blogging and Social Media”.
While I don’t profess to be an expert blogger (far from it) - I do love talking. And I think the Tazzu folks are wonderful so here I am, or will be, or by the time you read this, already was…
I’ll be addressing some tactics on how to write more engaging posts and promote the best ones using social media sites. It’s a 20 minute presentation, so I won’t be able to cover everything, but I will be touching on some important subjects and am excited.
I’ll be referencing a whole bunch of posts and blogs. I’ve bookmarked these (and some other excellent related articles) on Del.icio.us.
I have learned even more about blogging and post promotion through this research than I did when I first began blogging. Hope you will too.
I am also thinking about posting my Powerpoint with an audio track on Myplick (or another slidesharing tool that can easily sync an audio track - ideas?). Let me know what you think about that.
And please feel free to suggest any articles that helped you become a better blogger or better promote your posts.
1 comment April 30, 2008
Crowdsourcing, a Bad Influence?
In preparation for my talk on the 15th, I have been doing some interviews with my peers. One of the questions that comes up, naturally, is “does crowdsourcing encourage exploitation”. If you’ve read my blog/articles before, you already have an idea of my thoughts on that (quick answer: “no, but in the wrong hands…”)
Someone with no intentions to exploit is not suddenly going to go “Hey, exploiting people?! That’s rad - I totally want to do that!” I make the same argument when people bring up violence in films - it doesn’t influence anyone to commit crimes. Someone who wants to hurt someone doesn’t need a film to propel them into action - and someone who doesn’t, won’t suddenly decide it’s a great idea.
If you think exploiting people is the way to go, hey, there’s always a way. Is it beneficial? I think it’s severally short-sighted.
I’ve always believed in respect & as I get older, I’m even more opinionated about it. I’ve been at companies where they treated their employees with such blatant disrespect - one corporation, in particular, just had the worst tactics. And, logically there was a mass exodus. We’d get 3 emails a week saying so-and-so has “chosen to pursue other opportunities” etc. and then I’d hear Human Resources lamenting that they were so desperate they were having to hire people straight out of school… And all I could think was “Well, then why don’t you just treat the good, experienced people you have as though you appreciate them?!!!”
At a discussion recently, a gentleman asked re: social media “How do you get them to drink the Kool Aid”. I sincerely hope he didn’t mean it the way it sounded… If you want them to “drink the Kool Aid” - you’ll find people who feel that they should. But there’s no longevity to this - any longer. People are getting more demanding - carving out the kind of employment and relationships that they want.
Someone participating in a Crowdsourcing project where they contribute and contribute and never win the prize or reap any sort of reward - well, what kind of quality individuals would do that…
A healthy discussion on the topic of exploitation in Crowdsourcing can be found on Jeff Howe’s blog. And my friend, Jan sent me Aaron Swartz’s blog where he says (among much other brilliance):
I have a friend who is even more brash than I am and when anyone asks her for business advice she tells them simply: Well, in the future, your servants are going to rise up and eat you. So, invest in toothpicks.
Yip.
Employees - as well as Crowdsourcing participants should be treated as if they matter. Because they really do.
You get more out of people when you treat them right.
And if you don’t agree with that, keep cracking that whip… And pray.
Add comment April 7, 2008
Nike - Swoosh, Bang - Thank You
Ad Hack took us to the movies - or should I say - the commercials (The World’s Best Commercials screening) , where I saw a few cool spots, including this one for Nike (”The Surgery” - Nike Women).
Similar to the Dove ads in a sense, this spot aims to capitalize on the frustration of women who see all the “perfect bodies” and are told that theirs doesn’t measure up. The answer is, of course, surgery. Or is it…
While this ad still presents an idealized image of a woman’s body (an average woman won’t have time to dance enough to obtain this hot bod, either), it’s still a wonderful message. And I’ll take this body a billion times over the plasticized looking beach bunny one. Plus the music just makes you want to run out and dance.
Kudos, Nike.
Add comment March 28, 2008