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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”)

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Nonprofits and Social Media - Getting Your Fans to Help You

More NonProfit Social Media Ideas

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4 comments September 24, 2008

Facebook, MySpace and Nonprofits

FACEBOOK

facebooklarge Finding long a lost love? Contacting friends you’ve lost touch with? Facebook is certainly phenomenal at these things. It sometimes seems as though Facebook has so many users, that it has become a type of internet phone book… In fact, that’s just what Toronto Public Health officials decided to use it for when they needed to contact someone urgently: in this case, a woman who needed to be told to get a rabies shot after coming in contact with a rabid bat.

While your organization may not be in just such a situation you, too, can leverage the power of Facebook and to help with your needs. The nature of Facebook is entirely viral, and users can garner information immediately from their friends activity and interactions. (For instance, when someone joins your group or plans to an event, this activity is listed in their News Feed, which exposes the message to all their friends!)

As a NonProfit, Facebook allows you to:

Create a group (like Support Monks in Burma) and thus establish a database of supporters - or a Fan Page.
Enable others to spread your message easily (e.g. The Causes Application - like the one to Support Breast Cancer Research)
Keep your supporters apprised of events (meeting, protests etc.) (Facebook even has a great feature where people can post an event straight into their Outlook or other calender)
Post links/Articles of interest/Blog Posts
Encourage people to take action (sign petition, donate etc.)
Gain Supporters & Get to Know them Better

Supporters can

Join you
Spread your message around - people can “Share” postings, events etc. and invite others to events and - as mentioned above, simply by adding your group, cause or by deciding to attend an event, the word is spread to others
Be kept in the loop

For More Great Resources about Facebook check out my delicious links marked (”PowertoYou”+”Facebook”)
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MYSPACE

myspacelarge If you’ve been the victim of a epileptic seizures brought on by the viewing a MySpace profile page, you might still be a bit shell-shocked. As a Non-Profit, you might also believe the site is predominantly for teeny-boppers or that it has worn out its welcome. However, although Facebook is catching up to MySpace, MySpace still dominates in the US and has as many unique monthly worldwide visitors as Facebook (a staggering 115 million people). MySpace profiles can have a tremendous impact on your Nonprofits momentum if used effectively. In fact, you may not know that it has the power to save lives: a recent MSNBC segment profiled a MySpace page which helps youth suffering from depression and isolation.

What can it help a nonprofit do:

Gain supporters
Allow you to get to know your supporters better
Encourage supporters to take action (sign petition, donate etc.)
Help them spread your message easily (via the use of Badges or Stickers whose code they can ad to their own profile)
Keep them apprised of events or “issue alerts” - as bulletins
Have another presence on the web/a type of interactive brochure: containing your video, blog posts, pictures etc.

Supporters can

Join you
Spread your message around (E.g. site badges or stickers allow others to help promote campaigns)
Be kept in the loop

Examples of Nonprofit MySpace Pages:

Wildaid on MySpace
Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) on MySpace
Oxfam on MySpace
Humane Society on MySpace
Defenders of Wildlife on MySpace

Increase Your Exposure on MySpace with:

NonProfit Organzation http://www.myspace.com/nonprofitorganizations
A Place for Impact - http://www.myspace.com/aplaceforimpact
Impact Awards - http://www.myspace.com/impactawards
One Person Difference http://www.myspace.com/onepersondifference

Some MySpace Specific Tips

“On your MySpace page, ask friends to take specific actions such as “link to our Web site,” “subscribe to our e-newsletter,” “tell a friend about our current campaign,” “contact us to learn about,” and so on.”
“Don’t make the mistake of staying within your own circle of like-minded organizations. When you add friends, consider reaching out to folks outside of your circle. In particular, nonprofits could reach out (via MySpace) to for-profit companies with strong social responsibility programs that can help spread the word about their causes.” (What are other groups that could help you out?)
“Don’t “Add” a song to your organization’s MySpace profile” (It’s so very annoying)
“Use MySpace to drive your friends to other social networking sites” (Where else are you? see below for ones that make it clear)
“Don’t set your age to be 13-17 years old”> (Does not show up in searches)

General Suggestions

As with all social sites, you must take the time to:

update frequently
participate and engage
monitor (for adult content posted or very offensive comments)

Remember to have a hub where you display all your social networks - so people can find you on all social sites easily A Quick Reminder About Integration/Cross Platform. Here are just a few examples of Nonprofits making this clear:

More Great Resources

The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “ Facetime”
Tech Soups Excellent “ How to Use MySpace to Raise Awareness” - Talks to 3 Nonprofits
Diosa Communications provides an incredibly comprehensive list of My Space Best Practices with explanations
The SocialMedia4Change Wiki

And on my delicious (”Powertoyou”+”MySpace”

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5 comments September 23, 2008

More Nonprofit Social Media Ideas

Being nice for this long might be zapping my strength so I’ll be finishing up this series soon ;) . Check out my other nonprofit posts for more meaty information. What follows are just a few more Social Media tips for your nonprofit:

Blogging. Ideally, your nonprofit should be blogging - but remember that it’s a big time commitment. You might consider getting a few people to run blog collectively (e.g. each post once a week). Consider, as well, that many of your supporters already blog (for instance, in the CPP’s case, 49 Megawatts filmmaker, Bryan Watts, has his own blog) and might be pleased to occasionally post for/about and link to your cause. Alternately/Additionally, you could create a feed of posts that have to do with your cause. For more nonprofit blogging information see Britt Bravo’s wonderful “ 10 Ways Nonprofits can Use Blogs“.
Memes/Trends. Try something that has possibility of being infectious/trendy - like asking people to use your logo as their avatar for a specific day (e.g. Red Cross Social Media Day), or post a picture of themselves wearing/doing something that has significance (e.g. wearing pink against bullying or post a black profile picture to raise awareness about malaria)
Fundraising and Birthdays. Consider the impact asking for donations for your birthday can have (e.g. Beth Kanter’s Birthday Challenge and Charity: Water)
Social News Sites. Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit are new sites, in which the digg importance/rank of the item is determined by the users. The exposure brought on by a successful Digg campaign can really boost the exposure and support for your nonprofit (e.g. Nature Conservancy)
Meetup.com etc. meetup While Facebook is a great place for events - you might also want to supplement this with a Meetup.com group - which has some more functionality (e.g., see an event I co-organize, Vancouver’s Third Tuesday). Posting an event to other sites like Upcoming is also helpful.
Consider other Social Networks (with a Social Action component). Check out: Causecast, Care2, Change.org, Gather.com (”Supporters of the Nature Conservancy use Gather, an online social-networking site, to share ideas about protecting the environment”), Think MTV, SocialVibe
Do you have any other tips? I’d love to hear more ideas.

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Tags: powertoyou, blogging, monicahamburg, meetup.com, upcoming, digg, fundraising, memes, trends, nonprofit, nonprofits, social media

1 comment September 21, 2008

Come to Netchick’s Fundraiser on October 8th!

My good friend, Tanya Davis aka Netchick, will be running a half-marathon (better her than me! :) for diabetes research and is having a Comedy Fundraiser Night:

Details:

October 8th at 8pm
at the Jupiter Cafe
Tickets (get them through EventBrite) are only $10 - which makes it just about the best deal in town

Hope to see you there!

P.S. You can also pledge her here.

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1 comment September 20, 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 5^th.
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

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