Social Media for

Nonprofits
TRIALOG Training for Multipliers
Vienna, 17 19 Feb 2015

Session overview
Review of current situation
The strategy setting goals and
measuring success
Facebook best practices
Twitter best practices
Some general Social Media management
advice
Data visualisation infographics and
visual content

Status update
How well do you think youre doing
with your social media efforts?
Do you think youre being
successful? How do you know?

Why?
What do you specifically want to
accomplish by using social media?
What are your goals?

Why?
Some potential answers:
Raise awareness about your organization
and the issues you work on?
Better brand recognition?
Develop meaningful relationships with
online influencers?
Get people to take action on campaigns?
Fundraise for your organization?
Increase attendance for an event?
Educate and inform audiences about
issues?

Why?

Here is your formula for

success

Set your objectives

connected to your vision
They have to be SMART (of course)!

A more simple formula

Use metrics to measure

success (metrics is a fancy word for stats)

Publish/Posti
ng

Visits to
Pages

Shares/Retweet
s

Friends/Follo
wers

Unique Visits

Referrals

Subscriptions

Click Through
Rates

Donations
Comments/Post
s
use date ranges

(links to you)

Activity/Likes

* influence & perception

Surveys/Polls

Use metrics to measure

success (metrics is a fancy word for stats)

Allocate resources to
get the job done

The tools

Some advice on using

It doesnt matter if you set

up a Facebook page, a group
or a personal profile for
your organisation,
as long as YOU ARE on
Facebook

Customise your FB page

Add tabs

Building an audience

Start with your

immediate networks:
Facebook App Suggest
to Friends or Invite
Your Friends that
makes it easy for your
current fans to invite
their friends to like
your page Make an
ask!

Google: suggest to friends Facebook tab

Building an audience

Start with your

immediate networks:
Write directly to some
of your
fans/supporters that
are also personal
connections and ask
them to encourage
their friends to like
your page

Building an audience

Create social media

partnerships:
Contact some of the
organisations youve
worked with, former
and current supporters
and ask them to
feature your FB page
on their own a number
of times, inviting
their supporters to
like your page, with

Building an audience

Add to link to your

email signature
Add link to your
publications
Add FB button to your
website
Add FB button to your
newsletter
You get the point, add
buttons
and links
This goes for Twitter
as well.
everywhere!

Building an audience

Develop a list of key terms connected to your

work and start searching and liking other pages

Building an audience

Like some more pages

Building an audience

Like some more pages

Building an audience

Sample criteria for liking other pages

Type of
Accounts

# of
Followers/
Fans
(Reach)

Post
Type of
frequency activity

Intended
audience

Post
variation

Organizati
ons
Reporters,
Journalist
s, Public
Figures,
Media
Sources,
Supporters
,
Activists,
etc.

Account has
at least
500
followers
is a good
indicator
of
effective
reach, but
may also
depend on
the quality
of content.

Look for
users
that post
daily
(multiple
times),
or at
least
havent
been
inactive
for more
than a
week.

Look for
accounts
that cater
to diverse
audiences

Includes
links to
news
articles,
photos,
videos, as
well as
promotion
of
websites/b
logs.

Accounts
that share
informatio
n on
related
issues,
engages
directly
with other
users,
asks
others for
feedback

Building an audience

Once youve liked all these FB pages, listen to

conversations and insert your voice

Building an audience

Like back,
share,
give a shout out

Building an audience

Join Groups related to your target group using your Personal

Profile
Start by commenting and like their posts, slowly getting
involved in the community
Once youve contributed, start sharing stories from your page,
drawing interest
Next, invite them to like the page

Posting best practices

Before you post:

1. Does this help our brand's likeability?
2. Is this interesting, engaging, useful content?

Posting best practices

EdgeRank
To get the most out of your Facebook page and presence, your posts
appearing on your fans news feeds is essential.

Posting best practices

Engaging content
Share photos
instead of just
links
Posts with
photos get 53%
more likes, 104%
more comments
and 84%more
click-throughs

Engaging content
Share photos
instead of just
links
Posts with photos
increase your
visibility and
guarantee your
entire content
gets shared

Engaging content
Share photos
instead of just
links
Example

Share photos instead of just links

Share photos
instead of just
links
Example

Engaging content
Share photos instead
of just links
Reinforce your
message

Engaging content
Cheat to
increase
visibility

Engaging content
Fill in the blank and
questions

Posts with questions generate 100% more

comments

Engaging content

Caption this!

Engaging content

Welcome a new
team member or
share
something
interesting about
already existing
team members.

Engaging content

Welcome a new
team member or
share
something
interesting about
already existing
team members.

Engaging content

Welcome a new
team member or
share
something
interesting about
already existing
team members.

Engaging content

Congratulate your
team for their
successes

Engaging content

Offer something
useful

Engaging content

Make calls to
action, whether
fundraising or
other kinds

Engaging content

Make calls to
action, whether
fundraising or
other kinds

Engaging content

Be concise shorter posts get 23% more

interaction

Engaging content

True or false questions.

Questions about a photo:

What do you think this is?

How does this photo make you feel?

Use Facebook Events

Create a FB Event for your upcoming

activities or campaigns and ask your
fans to attend, share and invite their
friends
Make multiple hosts
Post updates on the event page to keep
the momentum

Use the momentum of well-known

holidays and celebrations

Content Donts

Content Donts

Last words on content

Be natural and fun. Nobody wants to read
boring posts.
Be relevant.
Be visual. And do it right.
Be succinct.
Be emotional.
Post quotes.
Ask fans.
Use full links.

Q: What are the best days and times

to post on Facebook?

Q: What are the best days to post on

Facebook?
A: When your fans are online.

Q:A:What
thefans
bestare
days
to post on
Whenare
your
online.
Facebook?

Q:A:What
thefans
bestare
days
to post on
Whenare
your
online.
Facebook?

FB Management tips
Save posts

FB Management tips
Schedule posts or save them as drafts

FB Management tips
Create a private group

FB Management tips
Create a private
group

FB Management tips

Have more than one admin share the

workload and make sure weeks dont
pass without one single post

Some advice on using

Why Twitter?

Tweets are the new press releases

A well-maintained Twitter presence can help frame your
organization and its leaders as major players
By generating and spreading relevant chatter and links in
the real-time flow of information, an organization can
increase the visibility of its issues among decision
makers, voters and media.

Optimise your profile

Best practice

Follow industry experts. Obviously.

Why follow, though?

Best practice
Lists: Create; Subscribe; Check other
peoples lists

Best practice
Save searches you use often so that you
can check them out with one click.

Best practice

Use bit.ly

Best practice

Retweet and reply often!

Automatic retweet - tweet will show up in your followers timeline
verbatim with the original tweeters image and retweeted by you
next to that.

Old-School RT - RT @usernameand then copy and paste the tweet

you are retweeting

Automatic retweeting is
better for your visibility
than old-school retweet.

Best practice

Its OK if most of your

posts are retweets, as long
as they are interesting

Its OK if you tweet only

your own content, as long as
its interesting

Best practice

4-1-1 rule

Best practice

Hashtag all of your major events and campaigns

and encourage participants to use them

Better too many hashtags

than none

Use hashtags wisely

Use
hashtags
Seriously!

Study shows!

wisely.

The perfect tweet

The perfect tweet

Five Types of Nonprofit Tweets

Guaranteed to Get Retweeted

1.Powerful stats that speak to your mission and programs.

Five Types of Nonprofit Tweets

Guaranteed to Get Retweeted

2. Quotes that inspire social good.

Five Types of Nonprofit Tweets

Guaranteed to Get Retweeted

3. Well-formatted, easy to read factual tweets.

Five Types of Nonprofit Tweets

Guaranteed to Get Retweeted

4. Position statements spoken with clarity and conviction.

Five Types of Nonprofit Tweets

Guaranteed to Get Retweeted

5. Tweets that tap into the #BreakingNews cycle

Best practice

Follow on a 1:1 Ratio

Youre likely to get more followers if people see you follow in
return
People cannot message you directly if youre not following them
People are less likely to mention or retweet you if they think
youll never retweet or mention them
People will get an e-mail saying that your nonprofit is
following them

Best practice

Use Favourites to Bookmark future tweets and feature your most

important tweets
To bookmark tweets by others for future retweeting
To archive your most important tweets, giving them added
exposure a small percentage of your tweets should be reposted
periodically
When you favourite someones tweet, they get an email
notification and they will likely follow you back

Best practice

Use Twitter to build your e-newsletter list

Turn your followers in subscribers Please RT! or a pitch to
join your e-newsletter
Every couple of weeks send out a time-sensitive tweet letting
people know that your nonprofit is Sending out an e-newsletter
tomorrow! If you want to receive a copy, please subscribe.
Provide a link where they can automatically subscribe themselves
Dont ask too often 1 or 2 times a month

Twitter Management tips

Use Tweedeck

Twitter Management tips

Use Tweedeck

Twitter Management tips

Use Twitter Analytics

Your daily 30 min. Twitter

saved searches
Workout
Session
1. Check out your

and your lists on

the right navigation bar to see what people are

saying about your issues and interests. As you go
through the searches, you can:
Retweet or respond to tweets about your issues
Follow people who are buzzing about your issues or
complaining about a problem you address

Your daily 30 min. Twitter

Workout Session
2. Check the @Mentions tab and Your Tweets,
Retweeted (under the Retweets tab) to see who is
replying, referring or retweeting you. Make sure to
respond to people who ask you a direct question.

Your daily 30 min. Twitter

Workout Session

3. Post 2-3 original tweets: share links, photos, news that your followers will find interesting

Your daily 30 min. Twitter

Workout Session
4. Use the schedule post option on Tweetdeck to schedule 2-3 more posts for the rest of the day

Well done! Now stretch, breathe and get back to work.

Some more advice on

using
Social Media

Aim for daily posts

and activity

Diversify types of content

you share and plan for it
Example of content ideas and
frequency:

Diversify types of content

you share and plan for it

Example of content ideas and

frequency:

Dont fall into the trap

Develop a Flexible
Weekly Post Schedule
Sample Post Schedule

Develop a Flexible
Weekly Post Schedule
Your ideas:
Eg:

Weekly sustainability tips

Dont sync your Facebook

and Twitter accounts
FB to Twitter:

The message is cut off and a link to

the original Facebook post is created.
Twitter users are forced to click over
to Facebook to see the entire update.
You end up with:
a

tweet thats simply a Facebook

link, with no pretext, or
a

tweet that says I uploaded a photo

to Facebook and then theres a
Facebook link

Dont sync your Facebook

and Twitter accounts
Twitter to FB:
Visuals: Facebook is a much more
visual space than Twitter. Graphics,
pictures, and other images work
really well on Facebook.
Posts frequency on Tweeter
Twitter special elements that look
strange on FB (RT, @)

Social Media & Giving

Social Media & Giving

Social Media & Giving

Visual content
& data
visualisation

Visual content &

data visualisation

What is the difference?

Visual content &

data visualisation

Why visual?

Why visual?

Why visual?

Visual information
is
transmitted 60 000
times faster than
text

Why visual?
Words are processed by
our short-term memory.
Images, on the other hand,
go directly into
long-term memory where
they are indelibly etched.
Dr. Lynell Burmak,
Ph.D. Associate at the Thornburg Center for Professional
Development

Why visual?

Publishers who use

infographics grow
in traffic an
average of 12% more
than those who
dont

Why visual?

Just 1 month after

the introduction of
Facebook
timeline for brands
posting visual
content saw a 65%
increase in
engagement

Why visual?

Just 1month after

the
introduction of
Facebook
timeline for brands
posting visual
content saw a 65%
increase
in engagement

Data visualisation

Data visualisation

Making (boring) data easier to grasp

What kind of data and for whom?

Data visualisation

DATA + STORY + DESIGN

Data visualisation

IDENTIFY YOUR STORY:

-What

question are you looking to

answer?
-What

data do you need to answer your

question?
-Where

found?

is that data most likely to be

Data visualisation
IDENTIFY YOUR STORY:
1.Create
2.Arrange

an outline
content in the most logical

order
3.Provide

context for the data

4.Highlight

notable insights

Data visualisation

Data visualisation

Data visualisation

Data visualisation

Data visualisation

Data
visualisatio
n

Data visualisation Tools

www.infogr.am - templates, insert your
own data; wide variety of graphs, charts,
maps
www.piktochart.com excellent templates
or create your own from scratch;
excellent Getting started tutorial step
by step; easy to align graphical elements
www.easel.ly free templates, options to
include charts, a range of visual themes,
objects, backgrounds, fonts, can
customise size for mobile

Visual content

Where to find images?

Just 1month after

the

Where to find images?

www.unsplash.com mostly scenery,

people, objects, animals; no
backgrounds
www.gratisography.com/ - same
http://openphoto.net/
http://www.stockvault.net/ - nice
textures/backgrounds

Where to edit them?

Where to edit them?

Where to edit them?

Where to edit them?

http://www.picmonkey.com/ - edit
photos, make collages, create new
designs (nice paper-like backgrounds
and more) + nice fonts

Is it the right colour?

Is it the right colour?

Is it the right size?

Example

Rules for using text

Dont leave words alone (orphans &

widows)

Use ALL CAPS sparingly

Keep it to one or two fonts

Avoid the default fonts

Steer clear from clichs and uglies

Rules for using text

Be careful with reverse type

Highlight properly

Use two fonts and contrast font

families

And dont forget:

Always put your logo and website on
any visual content you produce!
Always add hashtags, if youre
leading a # campaign
Use a consistent colour range that is
a reflection of your brand

Resources
www.socialmediaexaminer.com
http://www.nptechforgood.com/
http://blog.hubspot.com/
http://visage.co/
www.simplify360.com
http://blog.hootsuite.com/
http://blog.marketmesuite.com/
http://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/
The Art of Listening Social Media Toolkit for Nonprofits (The Greenling
Institute)
Tweeting for a Better World (The Bridgespan Group)
The Definitive Guide to Social Media Marketing (Marketo)