Social Media for Nonprofit Development Pros
Had a great time chatting with the folks at the Emerald Valley Development Professionals group. Below is my presentation (via Prezi)
Perception is Reality
The first week of March I had the pleasure of presenting at the National Wildfire Suppression Association at its annual conference in Reno, Nevada.
My topic was reputation management and I looked at it by asking the attendees thinking to think about reputation as the sum of the perception’s of individual members of your audience.
Here are the slides. Of course, they may not make total sense out of context. Please leave me a comment or send me an email if I can answer a question for you.
View more presentations from kellimatthews.
Building Blocks for Success: Albany Young Professionals Kick-Off
A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege to help kick off the Albany (Oregon) Young Professionals Network. I was asked to speak about “building blocks for success.” This created a moment for me to step back and think about those building blocks that have contributed to my success. The journey is by no means over, but these things have certainly been an important part of the equation for me. Check out the presentation below.
Local Food Connection 2010: Presentation & Resources
Thanks to Local Food Connection 2010 for the invitation to speak! Below you’ll find the presentation & some of the links and resources I recommend.
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- resources
http://eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=CultivatingTheWeb
http://business.twitter.com/twitter101
http://delicious.com/kellimatthews
- books
Groundswell by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff
Secrets of Social Media Marketing by Paul Gillin
The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
Tactical Transparency by Shel Holtz & John C. Havens
- referenced
Eat the View: http://www.eattheview.org/
For Young Farmers Wiki: http://foryoungfarmers.wikispaces.com/
Grow Food: http://www.growfood.org/
Farm Foody: http://farmfoody.org/
Five Ways to Support Your Favorite Fan Page
Facebook fan pages. An amazing tool for connecting your audiences online and having conversations. Yay for conversations! However, growing your fan base organically when you’re a small nonprofit or a local business can be hard to do.
To begin, have a fan page, not a group page. Facebook created fan pages long after group pages were available. You might consider having both and moving people over to a fan page (kind of a slow process, but doable!). Fan pages get better real estate on Facebook. They show up on the live news feed of your fans & show up higher in searches. Fan page suggestions are also clearer.
If you want to support your favorite fan page, here are my five tips. Feel free to share them with your fans to help them help you!
- “Like” or comment on status updates. When a fan responds to a status update, that update shows up on the live feed of their friends.
- Fans can suggest that their friends join the fan page, too. There are two ways to do this. The first is to “suggest to friends.” You’ll find the link just below the logo/photo on each fan page. The other way is to find the “+ share” button in the bottom left corner.
- Leave a comment on the “wall” of the fan page. When you do, that comment shows up in your friends’ live news feed.
- Add a fan photo. You can add it to the “wall” or (in most cases) to the photo album area. People love to look at photos! and a fan photo is a great way to show your involvement with an organization or business.
- Include reference to the page in a status update. When you use an @ sign just before the name, it creates a link in your update to that page.
- BONUS #6 (UPDATE): You can “share” any update from your favorite fan page and it’ll post on your wall. Try it! Next to “like” and “comment” is a link for “share.” Add a comment and post away!
What other tips do you have? I’d love to hear from you.
Why I Don’t Link My Social Media Profiles
[Cross Posted at PRos in Training]
It seems like a good idea. When you update Twitter, why not update Facebook automatically… and while you’re at it, how about LinkedIn?
To me, each of these tools serves a different purpose and therefore needs different content. Certainly there is overlap in many instances, but it’s important to think about how each fits into your overall personal social media use – or how, as an organization, each helps you reach your objectives.
I know that the social media time suck is a big deal and we’re all looking for ways to make the most our time in front the screen – but if you’re going to “do” social media, do it right. And be prepared for how much time it takes.
Twitter: Short updates, more “real-time,” drive traffic to Web or blog, personal appeal. Tweets often don’t make sense out of context and when you add hashtags, RT’s and @’s it can be confusing, particularly for those on Facebook who aren’t familiar with how Twitter works. And yes, there are still plenty of people for whom that’s true.
Facebook Fan Page: More room to wiggle (no character limit), ability to add links with thumbnails for visual appeal. If you update from Facebook, the syncing to Twitter is technically easy, but can look awkward when it goes over the character limit. When Facebook-to-Twitter updates cut off, the result can be just more noise in the Twitter stream. Example:
LinkedIn: Suit & tie network, business-oriented. I see too many status updates that not only have nothing to do with your business-self, but could be less than helpful if a potential employer, investor or business partner happened to visit your profile at just that moment.
That’s not to say that you can’t use the same subject and update each platform appropriately. I do that all the time. I just don’t often update simultaneously. Maybe it’s a control thing. But I want to know that each group of fans/friends/followers is getting the best content for them, at the right “pace” and the most relevant.
When it makes sense for overlap, I prefer to send updates from Twitter. By using “Selective Twitter” on Facebook (where you add #fb to do simultaneous updates) and adding Twitter to your LinkedIn profile (use #in for simultaneous updates), you can be smart about your updates.
My personal rules of thumb are pretty basic. I use my personal Facebook page largely for personal use, so I only sync my Twitter and personal Facebook when I tweet things that are (potentially) interesting for friends & family. But what if you’re helping to manage fan pages and Twitter accounts?
Twitter –> Facebook Fan Page: Updates that translate easily to a Facebook audience. That means knowing what the people connected to the company on each platform want and expect. And, without exception, the expectations are different. For one company in particular, Facebook fans are only interested in updates from the company and I get very little interaction around other information. Twitter friends, on the other hand, like a variety of information and often retweet or reply to non-company-related tweets. When I sync the two, it’s only when the two groups’ interests overlap.
Twitter –> LinkedIn: Updates that are related to my business and add something to my virtual resume. These updates also need to be more “timeless.” That is, I don’t update LinkedIn as often as the other networks, so the updates should add value and not get stale too quickly.
I know full well that people will disagree with me and have a different approach to this conundrum. I’d love to hear what you think!
The Facebook Facts: Facebook at the UO
For faculty and staff here the UO (no related student information) interested in the uses and strategies of social media, Facebook in particular. An interactive panel discussion that will touch on the UO institutional Facebook/social
media being use…d, discussions on how departments can determine Facebook is right for them, and the background and help to make a plan to move forward.
[Click on the slides below to move through the presentation, you can also email Kelli for the PDF - kelli@vervenorthwest.com]
Making the Business Case for Social Media: WVAMA Presentation
I had the pleasure of speaking to the Willamette Valley American Marketing Association today about making the business case for social media. What a great group!
If you’re interested, here’s my presentation: (technical note, it’s a quicktime movie, but it’ll advance like a slide show and links should be live)
Notes from slide 4:
90: Percent of US Adults who are online.
70: Percent of online users who read, watch or listen to social media
20: Percent of customer (worldwide) who trust advertising (vs. 90% who trust recommendations from friends)
66: Percent of people who have joined a social network
56: Percent of customers feel better about companies and their brands when they can interact with them through social media.
Thoughts Out Loud: Local Governments Using Social Media
I had the pleasure of being part of a panel on KOPB’s Think Out Loud the morning of October 6. The topic was using social media in local government.
A few key points I think came out of the discussion (based on feedback I got from people):
- Organizations must be deliberate and approach social media thoughtfully and strategically.
- Be human and be real. If you’re not, people won’t want to interact with you online. If people/orgs appear insincere, consumers will stop reading or following.
- Social media will not replace traditional channels of outreach and is not a panacea for organizations to connect with their constituents.
- Social media is a paradigm shift and is about sharing, not about one way information.
In preparation for my participation on the panel, I thought about potential topics and made some notes for myself. I covered most of these in my remarks, but I wanted to share some of my favorite points with you here.
Why should local government participate?
- Be part of existing conversations about your agency/organization and its services
- Put a human face on government
- Make government easy to access
- Engage new audiences
- Build dialogue with your constituents
How should government participate?
- Listen first. Know where conversations are occurring so you can meet your audience where they are.
- Be authentic and transparent
- Be strategic. Think about what you want to accomplish, how it fits in with your organization’s mission and then find the tools – not the other way around.
What if people say negative things?
- If people are being critical or have a genuine concern, that’s ok. It’s an opportunity to respond and do so publicly. If it’s more than a basic question, take it off the social network to fully explore the issue and help solve it.
- Spam, hate speech and porn have no place on a public sector site. Create a policy to deal with such comments and have people empowered to remove them.
I found several great resources for thinking about this topic that I’d also like to share:
- IdeaPolicy busts 10 local government social media myths.
- USA.gov has some great PDFs for download about using social media in government, how to handle barriers and what goals federal agencies are pursuing with web 2.0 applications and technology.
What do you think? Are any government agencies doing it “right” in your view? I welcome your feedback.
[note: cross-posted at PRos in Training]
We’ve Been Busy: Updates for Summer 2009
Verve has been busy, busy this summer & we thought we’d share some of what we’ve been up to. Our projects are always very collaborative and our wide network of connections to get our client results they need. We’ve not done an update post for a while, so we have a lot to share!
FOOD for Lane County Web Site
FOOD for Lane County launched a new Web site. Designed by Verve’s Amy Miller and programmed by Josh Clark of Origen Creatives. We always enjoy our work with FOOD for Lane County and this Web site will serve them well as this vital organization grows and continues to serve our community. The site, built with a Content Management System (CMS), gives FFLC the control over content and ability to keep the text and images across the site fresh.
Lane County’s Human Services Commission
This summer we wrapped up work with Lane County’s Human Services Commission that included messaging, visual identity and creating some strong deliverables that the agency can use with all its core audiences. A brochure, flyer and business stationary (letterhead and business cards) were all created based on focus group research and extensive key message development work with the members of the Human Services Network (nonprofit agency directors) and other local and county government folks. In the end we have material that stands out creates a strong visual identity.
Designer Danielle Tindall worked closely with Creative Director Amy Miller to bring their vision to the pieces and worked tirelessly with the client to ensure the highest quality results and Bourland Printing in Eugene, Oregon always comes through with competitive prices and high quality work.
tugo
Working with inventors is always exciting. And it’s particularly exciting and rewarding when the invention solves a common travel problem and people get the value right away. We’re working with tugo on media and blogger relations, Web development and social media. You can check them out on twitter, too. The buzz has been really positive and we’re confident the company’s success will skyrocket in the next year.
Shoe GOO Skate Campaign
With the technical and big, creative brain support of Grady Britton, an integrated agency in Portland, we launched a Shoe GOO Skate video contest and companion microsite, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace profiles. Over the last few years, our client, Eclectic Products, Inc., realized how popular its product Shoe GOO is with skaters. We took what’s always been a marginal use for the product and put it front and center with this cool promotion.
Thanks to all the awesome clients we’re working with. We’ll share more updates soon! Lots of fun stuff going on.