Social Media Strategy for Non-profits (& Small Businesses) - in 5 Steps

This question came up, and I'm going to give you the answer that has evolved over five years of thinking in this space, first on the Board of the Fremont Education Foundation, and most recently through my work in online community development for The Groupery.

What's the best way to launch a social media strategy for a small non-profit (or business)?

(1) A blog. This is your content management system and can be your website. You can have one tab that explains about your organization, one or more for programs, and blog posts that ensures your public presence is absolutely current! I'd suggest considering making everyone on the Board an author, with each person responsible for an article on a rotating schedule with a frequency that is manageable. If there are five people on the Board and once per month is plenty, then fine, do a weekly article.  The Board can come up with content guidelines, and in the spirit of "more frequent is better," (and yes, yes, my blog is a victim of "the cobbler's children go unshod"!) I would suggest that a survey of the relevant news is just fine. Have as a regular part of the monthly Board meeting what information can and should be released to the blog and who will do it. Blogs are much easier to manage than traditional websites - it's likely if you choose a hosted blog someone within your organization can take that on without even being a "technology person."

Another advantage of a blog? Your sponsors can have more than their logo on your webpage - if it provides value to them, you can offer to allow them to contribute a guest posts!

(2) Then, I would put everyone in the organization on Facebook, and have them set up to follow the blog on Networked Blogs. Some may need help getting through connecting with those friends and people they know who are already on Facebook; for others they may want help setting up two (or more) different types of "friends." 

Even for those who do absolutely nothing on Facebook, being connected to your community there, will ensure that everyone you are connected to will have the opportunity to see your blog posts. Other than having the blog posts show up on their profile, people in the organization don't need to do a thing on Facebook.

(I don't think a Fan page is as critical than this first step plus the ones that follow, but of course there are ways to do advertising, outreach, and publicize events on Facebook that can be very helpful. Also, in some communities, MySpace would be a better choice than Facebook, or doing both would be warranted.)

(3) Then I would also set up Twitter accounts. The organization will have a Twitter account and set up a list of people in the community and news feeds that it follows and also announcing each blog post. Each person will have a private Twitter account that is for the purpose of discussing major donor account and the nuances of community connection in a timely way "Just met Mr. Targetdonor at local event - very interested in xyz program but wants to be alone until after holidays." This ensures a coordinated and respectful approach to donors, even in small communities. If committees or working groups would like to do the same thing to communicate small amounts of information quickly, that can be done on Twitter also. (If desired, people can have public Twitter accounts too, but it's of secondary benefit.)

Another advantage of an organizational Twitter presence is that if you serve a community that has no internet access but does have cell phones, you can be more present in their lives. Particularly in this case, the organization should list those people by name who are contributing "tweets." It's important to know who you're talking to!

(4) Next, I would set up a monitor for the issue area(s) in which the organization is involved. There are several blog and Twitter (etc.) scraping software packages that make this much more efficient depending on what you need, including whether someone in the close by environment is publicly airing grievances online but not bringing them to the non-profit. Then the results of that are in one place for a quick survey every day of what's going on.

It is a natural progression that once you know what is going on, it's a far better way to do media and community relations, because you can step in when the topic is raised in an important venue. This can be a good way to for some key volunteers to contribute.

(5) Finally, I would create a YouTube channel, and encourage the non-profit to tell stories about themselves there. There are many freelancers in the video arena, and several good story tellers. (I know some and can lead you to others.) There are many ways to get the message out with social media that are compelling and relatively inexpensive or even free, and are also fun! A flip video camera is under $200 and fits in your pocket!

Comments

[David Katz]

Great advice! The tools are there to be leveraged...and best of all...they are free! Small businesses and nonprofits who haven't established a presence in at least two social networks are missing a huge opportunity to connect with potential customers or supporters (or at least the ability to get on their radar). The added dimension of posting videos on YouTube to humanize those working for the nonprofits...and those they support is a great suggestion for generating a bit more of an emotional reaction from the public.

[Logo Design]

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