Building Your Base with Social Media | Columbus American Marketing Association Presentation
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On September 2, 2009 I delivered a presentation to the Columbus chapter of the American Marketing Association about how I\'ve been leveraging social networking at Mid-Ohio Foodbank to communicate brand awareness and promote its mission, as well as how I\'m using social media to connect with volunteers and (eventually) raise dollars.
![Who is Mid-Ohio Foodbank? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],http://hungerrelief.tyson.com/ Food Banks Warehouse& distribution operation Hunger education & advocacy Agencies Food pantries Meal sites Shelters Backpack programs ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Government commodity distribution programs Families & individuals in need](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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Building Your Base with Social Media | Columbus American Marketing Association Presentation
- 1. BUILDING YOUR BASE MID-OHIO FOODBANK’S SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERIENCE September 2, 2009
- 3. Why are we participating?
- 5. Our Approach: Photo on Flickr by Aaron Webb
- 6. Our Approach PURPOSE Awareness Volunteers Raise funds Advocates
- 7. Where can you find us? www.facebook.com/midohiofoodbank www.youtube.com/user/MidOhioFoodbank www.flickr.com/photos/mid-ohiofoodbank @mid_ohfoodbank
- 15. Non-profits & social media www.nonprofitsocialnetworksurvey.com * Facebook Question Social Networks What is the primary purpose of the community? Marketing (80.5%) How long have you had your *community? 1-24 months (93.8%) How much fundraising revenue have you raised from your community over the preceding year? Not fundraising (61.1%) For those nonprofits without a community of this type, what is the primary reason? Do not have the expertise in-house (44.3%)
- 22. Questions?
Editor's Notes
- First of all, thank you for the opportunity to come speak to you today about the ways Mid-Ohio Foodbank is using social media. My name is Christina Christian and I’m the digital marketing manager at the Foodbank and I’ve been there since the beginning of March. Today I’ll be speaking about how Mid-Ohio Foodbank is leveraging social networking to communicate its brand awareness and promote its mission; along with how we’re using it to connect with volunteers and (eventually) raise dollars. As the title indicates, it’s all about building your base. And by base, I mean: advocates, customers, supporters, etc.
- Mid-Ohio Foodbank is a local non-profit organization that is dedicated to feeing hungry people by: Collecting and distributing food and grocery products Educating the community about hunger Advocating for hunger-relief programs Collaborating with others who address basic human needs If you’re unfamiliar with how a foodbank works, this chart helps clarify exactly how we feed families & individuals in need. Food comes to us from donors and government programs The foodbank houses the food and acts as an educator and advocate for the hungry The food is then distributed to a network of agencies – we have more than 530 – who then; Provide the food to those in need
- Now to the good stuff and the reason I’m here with you today. Why are we participating in social media?
- Well, first of all it’s how a new generation of supporters is communicating. Mid-Ohio Foodbank wanted to engage this active community. After all, it’s where you and I are spending our time and where our interests lie. How many of you are sending messages via Facebook? How many of you are on Twitter? How many of you are watching videos on YouTube? A recent Equation Research survey on Emarketing.com asked a large group of brand marketers if they were already using social media in their marketing strategies – 59% of respondents said they already were! It’s not the NEW thing to do anymore – it’s mainstream. Mid-Ohio Foodbank – like most of you here, I’m sure – wanted a spot at the table. We wanted to communicate with the masses the way they wanted to be communicated with. We also wanted to learn more about our community, our donors and our volunteers.
- Since no one on staff had the expertise nor the time to devote and maintain the new venture into the social media space… Mid-Ohio Foodbank took the plunge and made the decision to create my position: A full time staff member who is tasked with creating, growing and maintaining the online presence of Mid-Ohio Foodbank.
- So what is our approach to social media? It all revolves around a purpose – our purpose is to create awareness, generate a strong, knowledgeable community of advocates, raise funds and more effectively communicate with volunteers. Each effort I put forth via social networking revolves around and builds upon these objectives. Through initiating discussion, learning about our audience, building relationships, and friend-raising – I’m able to stay focused and stay true to the reason why Mid-Ohio Fodobank is participating in the first place.
- So where can you find us? We’ve chosen four main tools to help us achieve our goals: Facebook YouTube Flickr Twitter
- Although reaching a younger generation was Mid-Ohio Foodbank’s original intent – you all know as well as I do that the social media landscape changes often, and very fast. In the past year it’s exploded to include those older than 29. Those in the age bracket of 30 to 49 and over 50 are typically the largest donors to non-profit organizations. A recent survey titled Philanthropy 2.0 surveyed a number of “social media power users” – or people who were already participating in social media on a regular basis – about what they looked for from non-profits who were using social media to communicate. Respondents indicated that the top four topics they wanted non-profits to address using social networks included: How the organization was making a difference Success Stories More information about affiliated organizations More info about causes of interest Also… the study indicated that more than half – in each age bracket of social media adopters – already trusted social networks, blogs and message boards to provide important information. Social networks being in the MOST trusted. We’re in the right space…
- We’re using social networks to educate and alert the community about: Local hunger, our partners or advocates and what it is that we do. We’re also using social networks to recognize volunteers & donors. The great thing about social media & volunteering is VOLUNTEERING can happen on & offline. We often ask supporters to volunteer their online status to help promote our messages. Social media success is dependant upon interaction. Thus, we’re listening, monitoring, researching and responding to what our network is saying. A diversified network is our goal and we aim to build a base of volunteers, donors, affiliated organizations and advocates – nationwide. The last and most successful, in terms of quantified measurement, is event promotion.
- The first event was called Foodfight6.30. Foodfight6.30 was an event on June 30 th – in partnership with the Central Ohio Restaurant Association (CORA) and the restaurants that belong to it. Participating restaurants donated 5% of their total sales receipts to Mid-Ohio Foodbank’s Operation Feed Campaign. Luckily, a lot of participating restaurants were also active in social media. We used Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a social media news release service, called Pitchengine – which is FREE – as a way to promote this event. We made the flyer to the right into a Jpeg photo for easy posting and also asked the current and incoming president of CORA to make a short promo video . We put both items on Facebook and YouTube, and used Twitter to direct web traffic to these sites and the list of participating restaurants on our website. Our Facebook invitation had little impact – primarily because we did not direct participating restaurants to utilize the invite. Note that social media allies can have significant effects on the success and exposure of your event. Everything else – including web traffic, the response on Twitter, YouTube views, blog coverage, views on Pitchengine and media coverage – had positive, measurable results.
- The second event in which we used social media to promote was an event to launch our USx8 campaign. USx8 is a hunger awareness, text-to-donate campaign we’re currently promote to reach out to younger donors. The messaging behind the campaign is that every dollar you donate to Mid-Ohio Foodbank is eight times more valuable. So when you donate $5 via text message to us – we then, because of our bulk purchasing power and community food donations – are able to provide $40 worth of groceries to those in need. The $5 donation is added to your cell phone bill. To promote the campaign, a local digital agency created a catchy video which we then posted to YouTube, Facebook and used Twitter to direct traffic. I encourage you all to check out the video on our YouTube or Facebook page. It’s worth the view.
- Fight with $5 was a kick-off event for USx8. Using the Jpeg flier we utilized Facebook, Twitter, a Twitter invitation app called Twtvite – TWTVITE – and a URL shortening service called Tr.im, to spread the word and invite guests to the event. About 25 people showed up who donated a total of $200 – including on site cash donations and texted donations. The designated event hashtag was tracked on Twitter 70 times. Note on the flier I included the “Find us on Facebook” logo. Cross-network promotion is always recommended. Some examples that we’ve used include fliers, newsletters or links to the sites in email signatures.
- So, has it worked? How do we know if we’re not measuring dollars? The question is how do you measure awareness? Remember, fundraising wasn’t our number one objective. To determine effectiveness… measure online presence. Conduct a social media audit using a few keywords or issues relevant to your business, cause or organization. Search sites like: Facebook Twtter MySpace Flickr YouTube Technorati LinkedIn And look for with what’s being said, tagged or attributed to you or your area of specialty. Social media audits make for great benchmarks of how far you’ve come and if it’s been effective.
- “ Relationship building lays groundwork for future campaigns to raise time, money, and blood.” – Beth Kanter – non-profit, social media aficionado That’s what we’re doing. We’re identifying influencers, learning about what works and how to craft effective messages or calls to action.
- We’re not the only non-profit organization who is using social media as major friend – not – fund raiser. Another recent non-profit networking survey asked more than 900 non-profit organizations a series of questions – here are some key responses: 80.5% of non-profits are using social networking as a marketing channel 93.8% of non-profits have had their social network for less than 2 years 61.1% of non profits are NOT using social networks as a means for fundraising 44.3% of those non-profits who aren’t participating aren’t doing so because the lack in-house expertise
- From the same report, the below assessments were made: Nonprofits ARE allocating real resources, staff & budgets to social media Still, very little, real revenue has been generated Facebook is the most popular with more than three quarters of non profits using it While nearly 40% said they’ve raised some money, few report raising more than $500 4. More than ½ of the surveyed non profits intend to increase social media project staffing into 2010 5. Communications & marketing departments most likely to own social media efforts
- So what’s next for Mid-Ohio Foodbank?
- Looking back, what have we learned? We’re on the right track with friend- raising and the relationships we build are priceless Learning comes from listening and from learning, strategies often change Non profits have different needs and audiences and social media isn’t for every donor For example - Direct mail still brings in huge amounts of dollars for our organization And what do we plan to do in the future? Launch a blog which is accompanied by an online fundraising platform Create and encourage more content because content leads to conversation Think outside of the box in terms of how we communicate our messages and asks
- Remember – participation in the social space should always revolve around a purpose. It’s about building a community and understanding your audience better than your competitors. Your goal should to be to grow a community of advocates, who are like-minded and can be accurate representatives of your brand. Mid-Ohio Foodbank isn’t the only local non profit in social media. This isn’t a full list, but just a few that came to mind: The Columbus Zoo uses Twitter to update its followers regularly The YWCA has created a strong and active community on Facebook COSI maximizes the power of YouTube
- The overarching question is then, how have our operations shifted since implementing social media strategies?
- Social networks have given us a new space to communicate and spread our messaging to the masses. Other Foodbank programs, such as Operation Feed for example, have taken note of how I’m using the tools for general communication and plan to implement a social media strategy into their planning for next year We’re also using our networks as a resource for information and to collaborate and share ideas. As well as , deepening our relationships with those participating in the space with us. Although we’ve yet to receive significant revenue from using social media we still plan to see if there are opportunities. So far using the tools to direct traffic elsewhere has been successful. Social media is often a trial and error and we plan to maximize all of the opportunities social media provides.