1. Social Media and Nonprofits

2. What is social media?
Social media are websites or applications that allow people to create and share information, ideas, interests or images.
Source

3. Why you should use it
Alongside press, social media is one of the most cost effective communications channels. Charities who share good content on social media are able to reach hundreds, thousands or even millions of people, meaning that they can scale up communications at little cost.
Secondly, social networks are very popular and it makes sense for charities to go where the conversations are.

4. 2016 Nonprofit Communication Trends

5. How often they communicate

6. “Nonprofit Quarterly” found:

7. How social media differs from other communication channels
Compared to press or advertising, social media enables charities to take their campaigns directly to their audience with no intermediaries. This gives them more control over the message.
It allows them to build relationships with their audience in real time.
It’s more informal and conversational. This means that organizations need to be prepared for two way conversation and, occasionally, people posting content that they may not agree with.

8. Authenticity is what makes social media real and human
Authenticity is what makes social media real and human. You don’t need high cost production houses; real is key here.

9. It's viral where people spread, share and transmit content readily
It's viral where people spread, share and transmit content readily. That's what makes social media contagious.

10. One study found:
“Another challenge for small organizations is the lack of accurate feedback regarding their social media performance.”
“Most of these (analytical) tools are also not free, which limits small organizations’ ability to use them.”

11. It’s usually “all hands on deck”: study
In the small nonprofits, there was usually a shortage of labor for social media management. One study found that most of the nonprofits did not have one person wholly dedicated to social media management but instead distributed the responsibility across a group of staff members. This “all-hands-on-deck” approach to social media management followed several different patterns.
The first mode was that each staff member would manage one official social media page with which he or she was familiar. The challenge, as a result, was to coordinate among different social media pages.
In the second mode, multiple staff members had administrative access to the official social media page(s), and anyone could edit and maintain the sites’ content. When multiple people were working collaboratively on these sites, the challenge became how to coordinate among people and conduct quality control. Nevertheless, most organizations did not have a rigorous policy about coordination and quality control; instead, staff members just had to trust that each person would behave responsibly when posting something.
In the third mode, the nonprofits encouraged certain staff members (such as outreach specialists) to create a personal account separate from the official account—usually on Twitter—to post about their work, expertise, and experiences related to the organization’s causes. The official account and the specialist accounts frequently reposted each other’s content and attracted their own audience.
The nonprofits often relied on their temporary workforce (such as interns or volunteers) to manage their social media sites. These short-term workers were temporary, their schedules frequently changed, and their work discontinued after they left the job.

12. Even though social media were initially perceived as an easy, low-cost way to communicate, most of the nonprofits still felt that social media sites were very time consuming and that they lacked the time to make use of them fully. Consequently, nonprofit point persons normally focused on only one or two social media channels, even when they saw other new or alternative social media sites as potentially useful:

13. Finally, the nonprofits’ social media channels were constrained by their internal lack of expertise in differentiating their use of different social media sites. Several participants noted that they posted the exact same content on Facebook and Twitter, and used automatic synchronizing tools to link different sites, despite the significant differences between the two sites in terms of audiences and features.
Nonprofit quarterly found; Just about half the respondents had one or less staffers overseeing their social media efforts, and the remaining half was split between teams using a social media policy to guide their efforts, and those winging it.

14. What can I do with it?
Fundraise: social media represents an opportunity for charities to communicate frequently with their audience and nurture strong relationships. 

15. Build brand: Social media is very useful for positioning your charity, so that your audience knows more about what you stand for, why you’re different and the impact you’re having. You’ll need to consider what impression you want to give people on social media, and what content and tone of voice will reinforce this.

16. Build community: Social media offers charities the opportunity to bring together like minded individuals.
Internal communication: closed groups
External communication: notifications to large group at one time
Campaign: gives your organization a voice with a wide audience
Media: outreach to reporters who can help you disseminate information and garner attention
Strengthen existing partnerships: A study found that a third of nonprofits cross-promote other organizations to strengthen existing partnerships.

17. Find volunteers or staff: Ask your existing followers to retweet your ask or share it on Facebook. Join groups of Facebook and post there.

18. Study looked at 3 uses:

19. Some Best Practices for Nonprofits
Make sure you know how to use the social media and all the tools available
It’s a “social” network; expect and have conversations with people. Ask questions. Provide fresh content. Make people want to keep returning to your site.
Creative ways to get your message out: images, video, etc. And tell stories. Nonprofits have a huge advantage in that we have great stories to tell.

20. Say thank you to your supporters and corporate sponsors.
Generate engagement by asking questions, profiling volunteers (who will share the post), sharing graphics, images (which increase shares).
Listen to what people are saying about you. That allows you to find advocates and respond to positive or negative comments.
Reach out to local media (even on social media) about possible coverage ideas.

21. Make donating easy. And mention your fundraising events often and well in advance. (Try to keep your requests for money to 20% or fewer of your social media posts.)
Ask your supporters to promote you (especially any celebrities)
Ask for reviews on such sites such as Greatnonprofits
Highlight your successes!!!

22. Tell a story. Too many nonprofits try to persuade people with facts only.
Think visual:

24. Be be be creative