TechSoup Canada walks through the steps on how your organization can build online community engagement through social media.

1. Building Online
Community Engagement
Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario
March 6, 2014
with

2. About TechSoup Canada
We help nonprofits use
technology to achieve
their full potential.
Register your organization today, to be eligible to request over 300 products from 25 donor partners!
www.TechSoupCanada.ca/getting_started

3. Technology Donations Program
You may be eligible to get donations of…
Is my org eligible?
a) Does your business number end in RR0001?
b) Do you have a Letters Patent from Industry
Canada?
c)
Are you incorporated as a not-for-profit
corporation with your province?
d) Are you a library?

4. We create and curate tech resources
@techsoupcanada
facebook.com/
techsoupcanada
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techsoupcanada

5. About Me
Joyce Hsu
Communications Coordinator at TechSoup Canada
@fuuyin
 Nonprofit technology blogger
 Social media & online communications
 Graphic designer
 Social Media Expert

6. Agenda
Understanding Social Media
How to Build Online Community Engagement
What are the steps to plan, execute, measure and
evaluate
Community Engagement examples
Q&A

7. Understanding Social Media

8. Why is this important?
Common stages of social media adoption:
 Peer pressure. “Everyone’s doing it, let’s do it too!”
 Underestimating work. “Social media is easy. My nephew can do it. Set up
a Facebook account and start tweeting!”
 Overestimating results. “We have some fans and followers, but we haven’t
gained new donors, members, volunteers, etc.– what gives?”
 Disappointment. “This social media thing is a bust. It takes too much time
and the return isn’t worth it.”
Credit: Fenton
http://www.fenton.com/resources/see-say-feel-do/

9. Social Media is …
… Not a broadcast tool
It’s more like a conversation

10. Social Media can be a lot of things
Think of Social Media as:
Community bulletin board
Email
Discussion board/public
forum
A guided museum tour
A form/online form

11. #1 Plan Your Strategy

12. Create a Social Media Policy
Identify internal resources. Who’s in charge of strategy & direction?
Who will be handling the day-to-day tasks (tweeting, posting, pinning,
etc.)?
Understand your audience. Are you trying to reach volunteers,
donors, funders, members, clients, associations, etc.?
Define your voice. What is your organization’s personality?
Define your goals. Is there a call to action? How many followers do
you want?

13. How do you respond and interact with your community?

14. Understand Your Channels & Tools
Decide what channels to use and set goals
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Tumblr, etc.
More channels = more time & resources

15. #2 Implement Best
Practices & Procedures

16. How often are you going to post, tweet, pin, etc.?

17. What content do you want to share and when?

18. What other online
channels are you
using?
What guidelines do
you need for those
channels?

19. #3 Measure & Evaluate

20. Why measure?
You need to know if it’s working (or not!)
Contribute to your org’s mission
Experiment & learn
You need to prove to others that it’s working
Leadership buy-in
Funding

21. How do you measure success?
Exposure
Engagement
SAY
SEE
FEEL
Conversion
DO
Credit: Fenton
http://www.fenton.com/resources/see-say-feel-do/

22. Example Metrics
SEE SAY FEEL DO
 FB page likes &
reach
 TW followers
 RSS or email
subscriptions
 Youtube views
 Bit.ly clicks
 FB post likes &
shares
 Retweets
 Email forwards
 Repins & board
followers
 FB shares with
message
 Retweet with
message
 Comments
 Online mentions





Donations
Advocacy actions
Event attendance
Membership
Volunteerism
Credit: Fenton
http://www.fenton.com/resources/see-say-feel-do/

23. Facts about measurement tools
Some tools are really expensive. Also they can overwhelm
you with data
There are lots of free & low cost tools. Use them only if
they measure the metrics you want
At the end of the day, it all comes back to your
spreadsheet

24. Let’s put this into practice!

25. TechSoup Canada’s
Ongoing communications
Twitter (4,400 followers)
Facebook (855 likes)
Website (26,000 visits/mth)

26. TechSoup Canada’s Social Media Policy for ongoing
communications

27.  How to respond and interact with our community

28.  Content & communication calendar

29.  Weekly dashboards to measure & evaluate

30. TechSoup Canada’s
5 Year Anniversary Campaign
5years.techsoupcanada.ca
1 month campaign:
520 visits/mth
51 tweets/posts
18 member stories

31.  Campaign planning & outlining goals
 Goals: Share stories, Member appreciation, Tell a Friend

32.  Scheduling campaign activities & assigning roles

33.  Campaign marketing & promotion

34.  Encourage engagement with Twitter #WhatWoodYouDo
 Easy for members to share stories on microsite

35.  Dashboards to measure & evaluate

36. Questions? Comments?
www.techsoupcanada.ca
@techsoupcanada
facebook.com/techsoupcanada