How to use Social Media to promote your Rotary Club

1. USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN ROTARY
HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO
• PROMOTE YOUR CLUB
• ENGAGE YOUR MEMBERS AND ATTRACT NEW MEMBERS
• INFORM THE PUBLIC AND SPONSORS OF YOUR CLUB’S PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
• SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF ROTARY
Prepared by
Grayson J. Stedman jr.
Rotary Club of Dominica, District 7030

2. PRESENTER
Grayson J. Stedman jr.
Work Experience
• 19 years experience in the IT field
• Network Administration, Telecoms, Internet Technologies
• IT Manager for prominent regional group of companies
• Experience Teaching
Community Service Experience
Rotary Club of Dominica
• Member: 2008 - present
• Secretary: 2010 – 2011
• Club Administration Officer: 2013 - 2015
• Rotaract Liaison Officer: 2008 - 2013
• Club Webmaster / Social Media coordinator
Rotaract Club of Roseau
• Member: 2003 – 2008
• President: 2005 - 2006
• Vice President / Finance Director: 2006-2007
• District Team Member: 2005-2007
• District Advisor: 2008-2009
• District Webmaster: 2004 – 2008
• District Web Advisor: 2008 – present

3. WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?
Simply put, social media is having an online conversation with an individual, a
Company, an Organisation or any mixture of all three.
Until recently, online communication primarily happened in a one-way direction with the
user obtaining information from the website.
However, social media has now made it possible to “talk back” to the site by leaving
comments, views, opinions, take part in surveys as well as sharing the information with
other online users in your network.
An online user no longer needs to find news or items of interest to them; through social
media it is now finding them directly.

4. TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Popular Social Media websites include:
• Facebook: Club Events and Project updates
• Twitter: Real-time updates of club activities
• LinkedIn: Professional Networking and Online Discussions
• YouTube: Videos of club projects and promotions
• SlideShare: Online Presentations
• Others: Instagram, Google+, Flickr, Vimeo, Pinterest, Picasa, Tumblr

5. WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
Membership
Social Media is all about Interactive Public Relations (both internally and
externally). Using Social Media allows you to engage the membership of your
club in meaningful ways and keep them excited and interested in your club’s
projects and activities. Both new generation Rotarians and some of the longer
serving members can become engaged in the club and district through social
media.
Young Professionals that grew up in the digital age will be attracted to your
club through its social media efforts (if done right).

6. WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA? (CONT.)
Advertising
Your club has an event/fund raiser coming up and you want to secure
sponsorship from corporate donors, and ensure maximum participation from the
target audience of your event. Traditional advertising efforts on radio, TV, and
print are losing their market share to online mediums. Your club can capitalize
on the growing trend of online advertising by using social media. You can
promote your event online at no cost, or pay as little as US$1 a day to expand
the reach of your event to thousands of potential patrons online.
You can also promote your sponsors online to encourage future partnerships.

7. WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA? (CONT.)
Spread the Word of Rotary
With Social Media you can tell the story of what Rotary is and what it does. Many
people know the name of Rotary but are clueless as to what Rotary accomplishes in the
community. Use social media to share the success of your community projects to the
public, other clubs and even your own members. Post pictures, videos, blogs, updates to
get the public excited about Rotary. Once you get the public excited about what your
club does locally, and what Rotary accomplishes globally it will be far easier to recruit
new members, retain your existing members, foster partnerships with corporate
sponsors and receive maximum participation and engagement from the public during
your fund raising events.

8. WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA? (CONT.)
Advantage
There are several advantages to using social media to promote your club and its
activities:
• Established user base in social media (1.73 billion in 2013)
• Easier and cheaper to setup than a website (websites still serve a vital purpose)
• Two-way interaction with your audience, receive constant feedback
• Track your reach/penetration

9. WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?
• Existing members – Keep them engaged
• New generation members – Get them excited
• Service Project stakeholders and beneficiaries
• Corporate Sponsors and international partners (other clubs, grant providers)
• Patrons of fund raisers
• Local community, other NGOs, government agencies
• Youth Service Members (Rotaract, Interact, RYLA)

10. WHEN SHOULD SOCIAL MEDIA BE USED?
Ideally social media should be used to promote your club everyday. The nature of
social media is that what is happening now and what is new is what is relevant.
Unfortunately it is impractical to expect busy professionals to be posting about
Rotary every single day especially when your club is not doing something new
each day. Posting the same thing over and over again will saturate and
disenfranchise your audience.
So how do you stay relevant, current and new when promoting Rotary in social
media?

11. WHEN SHOULD SOCIAL MEDIA BE USED?
How to stay relevant in social media:
• Appoint a Social Media Coordinator in your club
• Create a Social Media Committee (Coordinator, PR Committee, Secretary, Webmaster,
Newsletter Editor)
• If necessary assign different members to update different social media sites
• Keep the message consistent
• Ensure something is posted at least once a week, and for every club project/activity
(pictures, videos, etc.)
• Use Rotary themes to talk about a different aspect of Rotary each month

12. HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
Create a presence in the major social media sites:
• Create a Facebook Page (not a profile)
• Create a Facebook Group if you wish to have a private forum for members
• Create a Twitter account (can also be linked with the Facebook page)
• Create a YouTube channel to post videos
• Create a LinkedIn group if you wish your members to link professionally amoung
themselves and with others, and have online discussions about Rotary
• Create a presence on other platforms if you see the need

13. HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
Facebook Pages
Strengths
• Solidify the image of your club
• Doesn’t require all members to be on Facebook
Weakness
• Duplicates website in some ways
• Just another Rotary Club on Facebook
Opportunities
• Connect to wider community
• Find new members
• Promote your page – focus on local community
Threats
• If not updated will be bad promotion of club
• Unfavourable comments
• Trolls

14. HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
Facebook Groups
Strengths
• Internal communication
• Privacy
Weakness
• Requires all members to be on Facebook and
accessing it regularly
Opportunities
• Share files
• Regular updates
• Create/find content for Facebook page
• Remote access
Threats
• Duplication of other internal communication
mediums
• Too invasive, tiring
• Should be a private group

15. HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
Twitter
Strengths
• Can link with Facebook
Weakness
• Works better for a persona or organization with a
large following
Opportunities
• Follow and re-tweet others
Threats
• Very Time consuming
• Tedious

16. HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
LinkedIn
Strengths
• Aligns with the professional nature of Rotary
Weakness
• Works best if club members are also on LinkedIn
Opportunities
• Start online discussions, Q&A
• Promote organization on LinkedIn
Threats
• Group needs to be moderated

17. HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
Do I need to sign up to all of them?
The straight answer is no. Each Rotarian, Club and District needs to consider what
sites they feel are appropriate for them.
However in order to save multiple sign-ups and save time, with a little experience
on some of the sites a Facebook and/or Twitter account can be linked to each
other – therefore if a post is placed on Facebook it is automatically posted to
Twitter etc.

18. HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
So, which ones should we use?
That will entirely depend on the outcome that the individual Rotarian, Club or District is
looking to achieve.
For example, if the outcome is to promote what a Club is doing; share videos; create a
forum for discussion in addition to the Club website, then perhaps Facebook is the
application to be chosen.
But if on the other hand an individual wants to engage with other Rotarians across the
world they may wish to sign up to LinkedIn.
Whereas if a Club is looking to send out regular updates on a silent auction, they may
wish to choose Twitter.

19. HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
To create Facebook Page:
1. Go to http://facebook.com/pages/create
2. Click a Page category
3. Select a more specific category from the dropdown menu and fill out the required
information
4. Click to check the box next to I agree to Facebook Pages Terms
5. Click Get Started
Note: If you want to create a Page to represent an organization, business, celebrity or
brand, you must be an official representative.

22. HOW ARE PAGES DIFFERENT FROM
PERSONAL TIMELINES?
Each person who signs up for Facebook has one account with login information. Each account can
have a personal Timeline and manage multiple Pages.
• Personal Timelines (profiles), which we sometimes refer to as profiles, are for individual, non-
commercial use. They represent individual people and must be held under an individual name. You
can follow Timelines to see public updates of people you’re interested in but aren’t friends with.
• Facebook Pages look similar to personal Timelines, but they offer unique tools for connecting
people to a topic they care about, like a business, brand, organization or celebrity. Pages are
managed by people who have personal Timelines. Pages are not separate Facebook accounts and
do not have separate login information from your Timeline. You can like a Page to see updates in
News Feed.

23. HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
To create Twitter account:
1. Go to https://twitter.com/signup
2. Fill-in a name, email address (club address), password and username
3. Click Create Account

25. ROTARY IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Rotary International
• https://www.rotary.org/myrotary/en/social-media
• https://www.facebook.com/rotary
• https://twitter.com/rotary
• http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=858557
• http://www.youtube.com/rotaryinternational
• http://www.slideshare.net/Rotary_International

26. ROTARY IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Rotary District 7030
• https://www.facebook.com/RotaryDistrict7030
• https://www.facebook.com/Rotaract7030
• https://twitter.com/RotaractD7030
• http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=5143519&trk=anet_ug_hm
• https://www.youtube.com/user/Rotary7030

27. ROTARY IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Other Rotary Social Media Sites
• Rotarians on Social Networks Fellowship www.facebook.com/rosnf
www.rosnf.net/
• Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland www.facebook.com/RotaryRIBI

28. REFERENCES
Material from the following sources was used in this presentation
• http://www.slideshare.net/danifogarty/how-rotary-clubs-can-use-social-media
• http://www.slideshare.net/graysonstedman/using-it-in-community-service-
17164741
• http://www.ribi.org/committees/marketing-pr-and-communications/social-
media-guidance
• http://socialmediatoday.com/irfan-ahmad/1993606/global-overview-internet-
mobile-and-social-media-engagement-and-usage-infographi

29. QUESTIONS?

30. CONTACT INFO
• This presentation: www.slideshare.net/graysonstedman/using-social-media-in-rotary-33808928
• Email: grayson.stedman.jr@hotmail.com
• Website: http://www.eclypsetech.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grayson.stedman
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/graysonstedman
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/graysonstedmanjr/
• SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/graysonstedman