The document provides guidance for nonprofits on using social networking. It discusses the importance of social networking given changes in traditional media, outlines strategic communications planning, and reviews major social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Best practices are presented for creating pages and profiles, engaging audiences, and integrating social networking into an organization's overall communications strategy.

1. Social Networking:
A How-To Guide for Nonprofits
Jennifer Leigh
Communications Director, The Poverty Institute
jleigh@ric.edu
401-456-2752

2. Overview of this session
 What is Social Networking and why is it important?: aka “I
barely have time to do what I‟m already doing and you
want me to do more?”
 Strategic communications planning: does social
networking even fit?
 The tools in the toolbox: what they look like, how to use
them, and who is using them well
 Thumbs up for Facebook
 To tweet or not to tweet?
 The million other sites to pay attention to
 How to make it work in your organization
2

3. What is Social Networking?
 A web...all interconnected
 Like-minded people sharing ideas and interests
 Online community building
 People yapping about their lives
3

4. Why is Social Networking a big deal?
 Change in the media landscape: by the numbers
300: number of newspapers that folded in 2009
 8: number of magazines with a circulation of one million
or more that ceased publication
 500+: number of editorial positions that were eliminated
in print media
 10,000: number of jobs lost in radio
 100+: number of TV stations affected by Chapter 11
filings of parent companies
4

5. Why is Social Networking a big deal?
 Lots and lots and lots of users
 so many stats and reports that show that there are a
heck of a lot of people and organizations using social
networking
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6. Isn‟t it just a bunch of kids that use it?
 NO!!! Here‟s who is online that you could/should reach:
 Colleagues
 Members
 Constituents
 Policy-makers
 Media
 Donors
 Board members
 etc. etc. etc.
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7. How does it help my organization?
 FREE! (at least to set up)
 Create real connections with real people
 Greater and more frequent engagement
 New avenue to raise awareness
7

8. How does it help my organization?
 Convenient & quick to set up
 Popular
 Two-way communication
 Another tool for your
communications toolbox
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9. Communicating Strategically –
Plan it Out!
 Communications planning looks at how you communicate
with your various audiences
 Reflects your organization‟s mission, goals and objectives,
and is integrated into daily operations.
 Can be both short-term and long-term goals
 Informs everything from the content of your website to the
frequency of your contacts with local newspapers.

10. Communicating Strategically –
Plan it Out!
 Typical elements of a communications plan include:
 Strategic direction: defining goals and objectives
 Audiences: who are you talking to and what do they
believe, think, know about your organization?
 Content: clear messages and talking points tailored
specifically to your target audiences
 Tactics: effective delivery mediums for your messages,
such as personal presentations, email newsletter,
blogging.
 Evaluation: Is our message working? Are we using the
right tactics?

11. First step: Goals
 “What” your organization or program wants to
achieve
 Example: Improve the visibility and positive
perception of the Institute with its key publics while
changing public attitudes toward low and modest-
income Rhode Islanders
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12. Second step: Audiences
 The “Who”
 Think about who you need to
communicate with to meet
your goal
 Example: Businesses and Chambers of Commerce
12

13. Third step: Messages
 The “what you want to tell” your audience
 Consider what you want to tell your audience in order
to achieve your goal
 Consider “what action you want your audience to
take”
 Test your message!
13

14. Messages Example
 The Poverty Institute and businesses have the same
goals: a stable fiscal environment, a strong, vibrant
economy and healthy communities. (though we may have
different methods of achieving these goals)
 The issues that we fight for ultimately help your
employees and you (more highly skilled workforce, child
support for your workers, etc.)
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15. Fourth step: Tactics
 The “tools” you use to get your message to your desired
audience
 Tactics can be direct
 Tactics can be mass media
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16. Tactics
 Direct Mail (postcards, fliers) • Print Advertising
 Phone calls • Transit advertising
 Email • Outdoor advertising
 Website • Public Relations
 Printed Materials (brochures, • 1-1 meetings
fact sheets)
 Presentations
Only list the tactics you have the resources to do!
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17. Tactics examples
 1-1 meetings with key players, introducing/reintroducing
them to the Poverty Institute and explaining what we do
 Pitch presentation opportunities to the Chambers of
Commerce
 Email professional organizations as a gateway/middle man
to employers
17

18. Fifth step: Evaluation
 The “how you know if you have been successful in
reaching your desired audience” with your desired
message
 Measure of effectiveness of tactic and message
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19. Evaluation example
 Increased number of presentations at Chamber of
Commerce
 Increased submissions into Providence Business News
 Increased meetings with key business leaders
 Joint submission of legislation with key business leaders
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20. Is social networking for you?
 Start small...build big
 Set goals...what are you trying to accomplish with your
communications?
• increase engagement?
• acquire new supporters of your work?
• raise money?
• increase membership?
 Define your audience...is social media a good tool to reach
them? (it‟s ok to say no!)
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21. So many sites...
21

22. The major sites…
 Facebook: Friend builder
 Twitter: Broadcast & Community Builder
 YouTube: Broadcast content to the world
 Flickr: Photographs to inspire
 LinkedIn: Professional connections
 MySpace: Talk to teens and musicians
 Blogs: Your own online newspaper
 Social Bookmarking: Sharing information
 SOURCE: NTEN conference: Social Media Basics for
Nonfprofits
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23. Facebook: What it is
 Site that lets people share updates photos, videos, articles,
links and more with Friends who they have to approve to be in
their network
 Business and organizations can create “Fan Pages” which
other Facebook users can “like”
 By numbers alone, the most popular social networking site
today, with more than 400 million registered users
 If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest behind
China, US and India
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24. Facebook: Why people love it
 ME ME ME! Great way to promote yourself and your
organization
 Interactive multi-media...post photos, videos, links
 Interactive web of friends
 Reconnect with long-lost friends
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25. Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED
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26. Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED
FRIEND REQUESTS, VIEW PROFILE,
MESSAGES, NOTIFICATIONS SEARCH BAR: ACCOUNT SETTINGS
EDIT PROFILE NEWSFEED
VIEWS
STATUS UPDATE
REQUESTS:
YOUR
DASHBOARD
FRIEND
SUGGESTIONS:
NEWSFEED
CHAT
FACEBOOK
ADS
EVENTS
CHAT
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27. Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED
YOUR
DASHBOARD
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28. Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED
REQUESTS:
sent from friends
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29. Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED
FRIEND
SUGGESTIONS:
generated by
Facebook
FACEBOOK
ADS
EVENTS
CHAT
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30. Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED
NEWSFEED
VIEWS
STATUS UPDATE
NEWSFEED
Shows your friend’s
photos, who they are
friends with, interactions
between your friends,
and who “like” and
comments on their
status updates
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31. Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED
NEWSFEED
VIEWS
STATUS UPDATE
NEWSFEED
Also shows posts from
NEWSFEED organizations you
the
“like” as well as re-posts
from friends.
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32. Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE
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33. Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE
TABS
STATUS UPDATE
YOUR ORGS
PHOTO
EDIT YOUR PAGE
NEWSFEED
INSIGHTS INTO
HOW YOUR
PAGE IS DOING
PEOPLE THAT
“LIKE” YOUR ORG
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34. Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE
YOUR ORGS
PROFILE PICTURE
EDIT YOUR PAGE
SUGGEST TO FRIENDS
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35. Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE
INSIGHTS INTO
HOW YOUR
PAGE IS DOING
PEOPLE THAT
“LIKE” YOUR ORG
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36. Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE: The Wall
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37. Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE
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38. Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE
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39. Facebook: Creating your page
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40. Facebook: The LINGO
• News Feed: your homepage that shows your posts and your
friends posts
• Status Update: What you and your friends have to say
• “Like”: a quick way to appreciate a friend‟s post; puts a
“thumbs up” on their post
• Comment: a response to a post that goes directly beneath the
post in the newsfeed and profile page
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41. Facebook: The LINGO
• Friend Requests: someone that asks to be your “friend” and
therefore have access to your wall posts, photos, etc. (can
control what they see via privacy settings)
• Profile: a person‟s personal page that shows all of that person‟s
posts, friends posts to them, their photos, etc.
• Wall: the section on your profile page that show your posts and
the posts from your friends
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42. Facebook: Recent Changes
• “Fan” to “Like”
• No longer are a “Fan” of a page...you “Like” it (though you
still get the same updates and interaction as you would as a
Fan)
• “To improve your experience and promote consistency across
the site, we've changed the language for Pages from "Fan" to
"Like." We believe this change offers you a more light-weight
and standard way to connect with people, things and topics
in which you are interested.”
42

43. Facebook: Recent Changes
• Community Pages
• built around topics, causes or experiences.
• intended to capture public-facing topics, concepts themes
and anything else that doesn‟t fit into an “official” page
• won‟t generate stories in your News Feed
• won‟t be maintained by a single author
• Users can help improve the page, and add content (like a
wiki)
• Examples: geographic locations, types of cuisine
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44. Facebook: Recent Changes
• Connections: asking users to link their profiles to pages that
currently exist
• Will most likely boost the “like” counts of Pages
• More interconnectivity, more interlinking
• Hovercards: if you mouse over a linked item in a profile, you‟ll
see a box pop up showing a little more information about the
item as well as the option to like
• Increased privacy settings: so that people have more control
and options over their privacy settings
44

45. Facebook: Creating your page
• Must have your own individual page, first
• Go onto another org‟s page, click on “Create a page for my
business”
• You are now the administrator, and can set other facebook
users as administrators, as well
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46. Facebook: Creating your page
• Upload a picture that will appear as your “Profile Picture”
• Edit all information (best to get approval on this, first)
• Begin posting! (you must go onto your profile‟s page to have the
status update appear from your organization)
• Easiest way to get to your profile page: go to the “search” button
on the top of your Newsfeed page, type in your orgs name
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47. Facebook Best Practices
 Don‟t just post during the workday…post at night and on
weekends
 Follow other pages/people to listen to what they have to
say
 Make your posts and your interactive: add links, photos,
etc.
 Keep your posts to 3 lines or less
 Stay active, but don‟t overpost
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48. Facebook: Best in Class
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49. Twitter: What it is
 Social networking service that allows users to
communicate with their “Followers”
 It’s open to anyone, so you can follow or be followed by
people you know and people you don’t
 Microblogging: communicate via short messages and
updates called “tweets” that have a maximum length of 140
characters
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50. Twitter: Why people love it
 Changing the definition of “real time” news
 Staying up to date on current events
 Making friends around the world
 Connecting with like-minded people (“Lost”ies)
 Following celebrities
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51. Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED
Strategic Communications © Jeffreys and Ryan 51

52. Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED
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53. Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED: Timeline
HANDLE
REPLY OR“AT”ING
SHORT URL
RETWEETING
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54. Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED
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55. Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED
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56. Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED
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57. Twitter: Best in Class
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58. Twitter: THE LINGO
• Tweet: A post to Twitter - text only, 140 characters maximum
(including spaces)
• Timeline: A series of tweets displayed on a Twitter page
• Follow: When you follow someone on Twitter, that means you
elect to see in your timeline the tweets that they post
• Your “friends”: are the people who you follow
• Your “followers”: (a.k.a. “tweeps,” or “tweeple”) are the
people who have chosen to see your tweets
• @ Replies: Supports back-and-forth conversation via tweet
replies
58

59. Twitter: THE LINGO
• Direct (private) messages: sometimes abbreviated to
“DM.” You can send private messages on Twitter that are
visible only to you and the recipient
• Short URLs: You can include links in your tweet simply by
posting the complete URL, including “http://”
• Hashtags: When you insert a # in front of keywords, you
make it easy for Twitter users who don‟t already follow you to
find your public contributions to the coverage or discussion on
that topic.
• Trending: hashtags categorized by popularity, which depends
on a vast number of people tweeting on the topic at the same
time
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60. Twitter: Setting up the account
• Go to twitter.com and click the “sign up” button in top right
corner
• Pick what name and handle you want to display
• Follow instructions on the email that is sent to you to activate
your account
• Your account is created!
• Search for people and organizations that you want to follow
• Begin tweeting by simply typing in a message in the white box
under „what‟s happening‟
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61. Twitter Best Practices
 Listen first tweet later
 Search keywords related to your organization or issue
 Create lists to organize and monitor different
stakeholders
 Promote your allies before you promote yourself
 12 to 1 rule
 Engage other organizations and users
 Use @ messages
 Use url shorteners for ALL external links
 Bit.ly
 Stay active
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62. Other great tools
 MySpace
 One of the original social networking sites
 Similar to Facebook, but profile is more customizable
 Still very big with teens and bands/musicians (which was
its original intent)
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63. 63

64. Other great tools
 YouTube
Online community where users can create, upload and
share their videos
Thorough, searchable database of videos
YouTube is 2nd largest search engine next to Google. Every
minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
How your can use it
 Organization Channel
 Upload news clips, trainings, webinars,
 Create a short promo video for your organization
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65. 65

66. Other great tools
 LinkedIn
 The more “professional” social network of the Big Three. It lets
users create an online resume and network with their peers,
colleagues, business associates, etc.
 Businesses and orgs can also set up profiles on the site
 6-degrees nature of the site allows you to reach out to
people through already existing connections
 How you can use it
 Recruit and check references of new hires, volunteers
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67. 67

68. Other great tools
 Blogs:
 a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with
regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or
other material such as graphics or video. Entries are
commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog"
can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add
content to a blog.
 News
 Politics
 Organizations
 Community
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69. Other great tools
 Blogs: How you can work with bloggers
 Build relationship with bloggers
 Comment on blogs
 Send info/help blogger write a blog
 Write a blog
 Promote a blog
 Cross posting
 Live blog
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70. Other great tools
 Blogs: Creating your own
 blogger, wordpress, typepad
• establish a strategy
• define an editorial policy
• find a voice
• create compelling content
• use keywords
• post on a regular schedule
• link from homepage
• engage with readers
• spread your content
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71. 71

72. Other great tools
 E-newsletters
 Just like a printed newsletter: a way to highlight 3-4
pieces of news to send out to various audiences
 Online e-news sites make it quick and affordable to
have a tailored newsletter that you manage
 A good engagement tool to keep various audiences
updated on important issues from your organization
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73. 73

74. 3 key questions to ask yourself before embarking
in social media:
1) Do you have engaging content that provides indisputable
value?
2) Can you maintain a consistent flow of content that can
draw attention and inspire others to share and advocate
3) Where will the content come from? Internal resources?
Volunteers? Board?

75. Making Social Networking Work in your Organization
 If you decide that social media is a tool you want to use....
 Meet with your team to discuss objectives
 Put someone in charge of social networking (though many
can be involved in generating content)
 Define your tone
 Discuss privacy
75

76. Making Social Networking Work in your Organization
 If you decide that social media is a tool you want to use....
 Set a schedule
 Create a posting calendar
 Set standards and institute policy
 Create a submission form
 Create Social Media Policy form
 Use tools to help manage your social networking (i.e.
Tweetdeck)
 Monitor how your sites are doing
76

77. How to use social media well
• LEVEL 1 Involvement: “Listen” Mode
• Create your profile
• Follow/Friend those you feel are relevant (media, legislators,
other orgs, your “competition”) so you can “listen” to what
they say and stay up-to-date on what is going on/being
discussed
77

78. How to use social media well
• LEVEL 1 Involvement: “Listen” Mode
• Facebook: Do a search for keywords, pages or people
relevant to your issues
• Twitter: follow dialogues and research key issues using Twitter
Search and hashtags (#). Create Twitter lists to keep track of
these people
• YouTube: watch videos on relevant topics or from similar
organizations
• Blogs: keep a list of important blogs on your issues, and
monitor them on a regular basis
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79. How to use social media well
• LEVEL 2 Involvement: “Reactive” Mode
• Post timely information from your organization
• news articles you are mentioned in
• upcoming events you are hosting
• new reports, materials, etc. from your organization
• encourage people to sign-up to your e-news or donate
• Reply to those that comment on your page/feed
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80. How to use social media well
 LEVEL 3 Involvement: “Proactive” mode
 Come up with new content for your page/feed
 contest
 polls
 exclusive content for your social media users
 Comment, interact and encourage conversation on other pages/feeds
 use @tagging
 Retweet/repost information
 comment on relevant blogs and encourage bloggers to post on a
certain issue
 Host online events via social media sites
 Twitter parties/Twinterviews
 Event Invitations via Facebook
80

81. How to promote your page and get followers
 Twitter: follow people
 Facebook: Suggest to friends (and have others suggest to
friends!)
 Promote in all aspects of your marketing
 E-news
 website
 e-signatures
 at events
 donor materials
 Be a resource, and they will seek you out
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82. Cardinal Rules of Creating Content
 Key word in social marketing: SOCIAL. Be social! Share
photos, tell stories, and offer great content that your followers
will want to share with their fans
 Write in a personal tone
 Use “we”
 Write as if it is a 1-1 experience
82

83. Cardinal Rules of Nonprofit Social Networking
 Be human: establish a familiar and appropriate tone
 Expect the unexpected: Plan, experiment, adapt
 Be relevant: acknowledge and build upon the existing
community and what members are already talking about
 Be patient: building a following takes time; be in it for the
long-term
83

84. Cardinal Rules of Nonprofit Social Networking
 Listen: follow what others are saying, don‟t just be a “volume-
out” experience
 Be transparent: communicate as if it was a face to face
experience‟
 Stay active and involved
 Promote sharing and seek dialogue
84

85. Remember...
 People often stress the importance of reaching certain
numbers of followers/fans on Twitter, Facebook, etc., but the
essence of social media lies in relationship building in an
effort to build a community.
 It‟s not about using the latest tools…but the tools that work for
you.
 It‟s not about listening to experts, it‟s about person-to-person,
genuine interaction that you will have with people. You will find
the most value in your own experiences with social media.
85

86. Conclusion...what we learned
 Social networking is one big web
 Plan your communications, and figure out which
audiences you need to reach, and if social networking is
a tool to reach them
 There are many different sites you can be using
 Start small, build big...listen, be reactive and/or be
proactive
 Be genuine and real
 Social networking is just one tool in the tool box of
communications tactics
86

87. THANK YOU AND QUESTIONS!
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