Last week I was very pleased to be part of the panel for a Q&A about how the voluntary sector is using social media, hosted by the Guardian website. At the end of the two hour session, the host asked us for our three top tips, and this is what I said:
- Work out why your organisation wants to use social media in the first place. How does it fit with your other marketing or fundraising activities? How will it help you reach your organisational goals?
- Start small: perhaps just with a Twitter account or Facebook page. See who’s out there on these networks that you want to build connections with, and then see what conversations you can create or join.
- Be real! Don’t be cheesy, robotic or corporate! People want to speak to people, not androids! This really isn’t about technology, it’s about human connections.
I’ve now had a chance to think some more about this, and have a scan of the blogosphere, and so here are 2 more tips that could help you make social media really work well for you and your organisation:
1. Encourage social sharing. All Facebook cites a very interesting report by ComScore which suggests that we need to move beyond just chalking up Likes and followers and instead try and make our postings more relevant, interesting and – this is the crucial bit – more shareable. Getting your fans to share your messages with their friends, not only increases the reach of those messages but also seems to encourage people to take some action – which is, after all, why we’re doing all this. There’s plenty of detail about this and more besides in the report itself – you have to jump through a few hoops to download the report, but it’s worth it.
2. Be relevant, authentic and not pushy. Mashable suggests that we will be more effective if we add value to conversations with followers and others, and by not trying to turn every interaction into a pitch for our organisation’s work or campaigns. In another article, Mashable also recommends we make the most of the connections (both on and offline) that we have cultivated. Meanwhile, Frogloop has four excellent tips for ‘humanising’ your social media output, including listening and responding to your community. Only by building those relationships are you then in a position to ask those people to take some action for you.
What are your 5 top tips?
I picked up some great tips from someone I met at a social media surgery in Birmingham (whose name escapes me). Along the ‘humanising’ lines, she suggested introducing members of staff at your organisation on twitter and Facebook by talking about them as people, their likes/dislikes, work habits, the fact that they always smile etc. (I find talking about cake is a good way to connect!). She also suggested that if your organisation receives visitors in person, find an appropriate place for a notice board where visitors can write up their twitter handles or Facebook links and promote yours. Finally she suggested having a twitter day/conference, promoting it through other channels and building up lots of conversation in a concentrated period where you have someone dedicated to generating and responding to tweets.
Thanks very much for commenting, Lorna. These are great suggestions for humanising social media and also integrating it across teams. I’ve also found it works the other way, too: instead of just putting our organisation’s name and address, reg charity number etc at the bottom of our publications I’ve found myself writing it as if I was telling it to a person – comes across much more friendly and human.
I tweet both in my own right and professionally – I try to RT or MT (abbreviated tweets) items of interesting info I think might have escaped those who follow me/my organisation, as well as telling other tweeps (people who tweet) what I/my organisation is doing/thinking about; it’s like privileged ‘gossip’, but in a good, “you might like to know this” way
Hi Pauline, thanks very much for your comment. I totally agree with you that RT/ MT is a really useful tool for curating a bit of the Twitter stream for your followers. Not only does it help share useful info and bring a person’s tweets to a wider audience, but also, as you say, it becomes part of your ‘priviledged gossip’ that may help to make your followers pleased they follow your account(s).
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and do add more if you’d like! best wishes, Honey
My 5 … (along similar lines to others so far)
1, Be clear about your message and goal – I talk to some VCS orgs who don’t have this clearly defined so end up not really knowing what to say on social media sites.
Listen, Have conversations, Say Thank You, Remember it’s about people not the technology and don’t forget the Tea and Biscuits!
2, It’s about people and listening, so know where you audience naturally live and go to their space. Don’t try to move everyone onto your new pet-platform, people just end up having to learn a new platform AND work out what you are saying to them
3, Have a clear purpose for measuring how you’d like your campaign / event / funding drive / communications push to show success, that way you’ll know when you get there (when you’ve raised the money, got more volunteers or got the Likes …. although it NOT about the numbers!)
4, Experiment with the tools (not as dangerous as hammers and chainsaws!), try out Twitter with a few colleagues or build up some blog posts in draft.
5, Measure and Sustain. Don’t under-estimate the time social media takes – the tools are free, but time isn’t, so make sure staff at all levels have bought-in and are comfortable with resources being used this way.
6, Allow for expansion to number 6!
Great blog post – I keep telling everyone to check here!
Excellent tips as ever, Paul! Thanks for sharing these – especially the need to know what it is you’re trying to achieve before you start. Knowing that really helps you strike the right note with the social media, and also makes the tweeting, posting and updating much easier and less daunting. Thanks again for sharing these, and we look forward to your guest post! bests, Honey