Tag: social media

What non-profits can learn from the Olympics: A lesson in social media

Mondays with Marissa, technology

I don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough of the Olympics. It is a chance for me to see sports that I don’t normally have an opportunity to watch. For instance, have you seen handball?!!? That stuff is crazy!

Sports watching aside, the London 2012 Games have been a little different from the Olympiads before them. They are the most “social” games that we’ve ever experienced. I thought today, since we are smack dab in the middle of The Games, we could take a look at how social media has made an impact and what non-profits can take away from it.

Censorship

Last week, reporter Guy Adam’s Twitter account, was taken down. This was shocking to hear because Twitter has been social media’s liberation network. Twitter is supportive of free speech . . . just look at their public positions on WikiLeaks and the Arab Spring movement. When reporter Guy Adams tweeted criticism of NBC’s coverage of the Opening Ceremonies, Twitter responded by shutting down his account. After media coverage of this censorship, Adams’ account was reactivated.

What can non-profits take away from this?

Just because social media is, in most cases, a free service and covered under the First Amendment, it doesn’t take away from the fact that Twitter, Facebook, et al, are still corporations. They can still regulate your account without your knowledge. As a result, I recommend that all non-profit organizations have their own websites and not solely rely on social media. After all, social media is only one tool that you should use to drive people to your website and share their message with the world.

Rants

People will talk. There’s no doubt about that.

However, there are times when people are not only representations of themselves, but they are also representing an organization and something larger than just themselves. So, when USA Women’s Soccer Team member, Hope Solo, tweeted her disdain for the commentary that was being given during her games, her coaches and captains called her in for a meeting. She wasn’t suspended, but since the meeting, her tweets have had a different tone to them.

Similarly, athletes have been suspended from participating in the The Olympic Games due to racist tweets they published.

What is the lesson in all of this for non-profit organizations? The need for a social media policy is stronger than ever.

What is the lesson in all of this for non-profit professionals? Employees and volunteers need to understand what restrictions might exist when it comes to sharing things on their personal accounts as it pertains to your organization.

Finally, this all begs one simple question: “How does your organization know who is saying what about you online?”

I believe that someone at your organization should be assigned the responsibility of monitoring what (if anything) is being said about your organization on the internet. Please don’t misunderstand . . . I’m not suggesting that you break any privacy laws here, but if an employee has a public twitter account, it can be seen by anyone.

One way to set up something without being as much of a stalker is to set up a Google Alert to notify you when the name of your organization or a key word attached your mission is mentioned on the internet.

Share Your Successes

The Olympics are all about results. Who ran the race the fastest? Which country has the most gold medals? Athletes, teams, and news networks constantly updating their feeds with success stories.

People like good news. Non-profit organizations should share their successes, big or small, with their online communities.

Did you recently make a purchase that will improve the work that you do? Tell people about it. Were you recently awarded a grant that will make an impact on furthering your mission? Scream it from the mountaintops of cyberspace.

People will “like” the good news on Facebook and retweet the news on Twitter. This can gain you new followers and supporters.

We still have about a week left of Olympic coverage, and new stories regarding social media are bound to pop up. I encourage you to keep your eyes open and see what happens. After all, in its most basic form, The Olympics are simply one big special event that is runs by an organization. Non-profits run special events, too. What social media stories have caught your eye recently? I’d love to talk about them in the comment section below!

How to Keep Social Media Updated While on Vacation

Mondays with Marissa, technology

Vacation season is well upon us so I thought in this post, I would focus on some applications that can help you keep the social media train running while you’re away.

In my mind, I see running social media as a customer service position. So it is important that while you are on vacation your community doesn’t feel left behind. Planning out your posts is an important step to make sure that your social media plan doesn’t skip a beat. There are many templates out there that can help you lay out what you are going to post and to which network. It is important that this plan is a detailed as possible and shared with a teammate who might be looking over your social media sites while you’re away.

After you’ve planned everything out you can actually schedule your posts to be posted in the future. This can be done in a couple of ways. First, Facebook recently added scheduling functionality. When you are typing a status update on your organization’s page, you will see a clock in the bottom left corner of the box in which you are typing. Upon clicking on it you will be able to assign a time that you’d like this post to be published. All posts are then accessible through the Activity Log in the page’s admin panel.

Third party applications can also help with the scheduling of posts on Twitter. The most popular application is Hootsuite. Hootsuite can also schedule facebook posts, so it might be the all-in-one solution for your and your team. Other social media sites such as Pinterest, YouTube, and Google+ do not seem to have scheduling functionality at this time. It will be important for you to leave your plan with someone who will have access to updating your sites while you are out of the office.

In addition, if your organization runs a blog, you can have those posts either waiting as drafts to be published or scheduled to be posted using your blog management software. That way, the blog doesn’t look like it has skipped a beat in your absence.

Even though you have taken the time before your vacation to schedule the posts to be published, I would recommend that someone still look over those posts and have the ability to cancel their publication if needed. Part of having a strong social media presence online is being current and sometimes something happens that needs to be posted over a post that you planned out a week ago. If you can, avoid sharing log in information with your team member and either make them an administrator on that site or set them up using a third party application such as Hootsuite, TweetDeck or Sprout Social.

Outside of planning social media posts, make sure you have your email covered as well. Don’t forget to activate an out of office message to be sent when you get an email while you are on vacation. Don’t forget to give people a place to go if the need an issue attended to in an urgent manner and let them know when they can expect to hear back from you. Out of office messages are able to be set up in both Gmail and Outlook and other email programs.

If your company uses gmail for their email service there is one plug-in that can help you send emails while away from your desk. The service is called Boomerang and using it allows you to schedule emails to be sent in the future. This could be helpful service if need to send a reminder to your team while you are on vacation.

Planning to go on vacation can be stressful. This is specially true when you work with social media because being connected is part of the job. I hope these tools can help ease some of that stress. What tools to you use when planning for vacation? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Which blogging platform is right for your non-profit organization?

Mondays with Marissa, technology

We all know that having a website is an important part of any social media strategy, but along with that comes having a blog. Many times these are the same thing, and the blog serves as the main content on the site. Other times, a blog is a supplemental part of a site. Either way, finding the platform that is best for you and your organization is key to blogging success.

Some questions to ask yourself before setting up your blog:

  • Who will be blogging? Will this be a solo or group project?  Different platforms allow multiple authors, which is important to keep in mind. Also, I recommend making one person in charge of editing and layout, which means that person needs to be more knowledgeable on how to make changes.
  • What type of content will you share on the blog? Will it primarily be text, photos, videos, or a combination of all three? You might find after looking at different options that one is more suited to your content.
  • Will the blog serve as your main site or will it supplement your current site? Either way, you need to choose an option that works with you current website, brand and logo.

After thinking though a few of these questions, now the actual research can start on which blog platform is best for you.

WordPress

WordPress is a very popular free blogging platform that powers many of the sites you visit today – this one included. WordPress’ claim to fame is that they make it super easy to get a blog up and running and offer many plug-ins to make the site customizable.

There are two versions of WordPress — WordPress.com and WordPress.org. One might work better for you based on the needs of the blog.

WordPress.com allows you to create a free blog on WordPress’ servers. You get most of the features behind the WordPress platform without having to install it on your own server. While you never have to worry about updating software, your blog might have a domain ending in “WordPress.com”. It is also a social network that people use to follow and read all of the blogs to which they subscribe.

WordPress.org is the full featured free WordPress suite hosted on your own server. It is widely popular due to its ease of use and because it is free. It is easy to use for novice web designers, and it becomes more powerful as the user develops a familiarity with plug-ins or basic html.

There are a plethora of resources out there to build your site using WordPress. A simple google search will lead you in the right direction.

Squarespace

If you want a super easy to build professional looking blog, look no further than Squarespace. Squarespace is not free, but in my opinion it is worth the money. Depending on the plan you choose, you will be given web space, a domain, and an easy to use interface that allows you to customize your site through the simple act of “dragging and dropping”. This provider makes it easy to build a site that doesn’t look like created by a cookie cutter template approach. They also offer the ability to edit code if needed.

Other Options

There are a few other options out there. Tumblr is a social network built around blogging. The audience at Tumblr is on the younger side, but if that’s what you are looking for, it just might be the right place for your organization to share content.

Blogger is Google’s free blogging service and has been around for a long time. It is well-known as a starting place for new bloggers.

Finally, you can always code your own site. However, if you are going to do that, I always think it is best to consult with a professional.

I hope this post got you thinking about which blogging platform is right for your organization. If you currently have a blog, I’d love to hear the pros and cons of the system you are using. Also, if you have any questions on blogging services, I’d be more than happy to answer them using the comment section below!

Marissa was right . . . crowdfunding works

Fundraising, Mondays with Marissa, technology

Let me take you back and set the scene. It was Monday, February 13, 2012, which can can only mean one thing at DonorDreams blog — it was “Mondays with Marissa”. On that particular Monday, Marissa wrote a post titled: “Can your non-profit raise $1,000,000 in 24 hours using a crowd funding site?”  I have a confession to make this morning. When I was editing that post, I was a little skeptical. I have seen crowdsourcing sites and know they be a powerful fundraising tool for certain types of projects, but I thought $1,000,000 was a bit exaggerated.

Apparently, I was wrong and Marissa was more right than I gave her credit for.

A few weeks ago that YouTube video of the bus monitor, Karen Klein, being bullied by middle school children went viral. Almost 8 million people have viewed the video, and every media outlet in America has been all over this story.  After hearing the story and viewing the video, a good Samaritan set-up an online campaign using a crowdfunding platform called Indiegogo with the intent of raising enough money to send Karen on a vacation.

As of this morning, the fund sits at $660,756, and I am wondering how close it will come to $1,000,000 before it closes down in 24 days.

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that you rip up your organization’s written resource development plan and put all of your fundraising eggs in a crowdfunding basket.  Most of the crowdfunding campaigns that I’ve seen raise relatively small amounts of money. This situation was different (e.g. fueled by public outrage, the viral nature of YouTube, and an insane amount of media attention).

If you have the same ingredients for a project at your non-profit organization, then by all means double down on a crowdfunding strategy. If not, then I suggest recognizing crowdfunding is a viable fundraising strategy and placing it inside of your already crowded fundraising toolbox. Use that tool whenever the situation warrants it.

So, you’re probably asking: “When might the situation warrant a crowdfunding strategy?”

I believe crowdfunding works for non-profit organizations when they are trying to raise money for a specific project from a specific audience. You may want to go back an re-read Marissa’s February 13th post because it contains a few fantastic pointers. Catherine Clifford at entrepreneur.com wrote a post titled “Want to Raise Money With Crowdfunding? Consider These Tips” that you also may want to check out.

Have you ever used a crowdfunding site to raise money for a non-profit project? If so, please share your experiences and lessons learned in the comment box below. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Your website is the key to your non-profit social media strategy

Mondays with Marissa, technology

Is your non-profit organization struggling with development of its social media strategy? Perhaps, you’re starting in the wrong place because having a functional, vibrant and active website is the start of any good social media strategy. Why? Because linking your social media communities to original website content is key to engagement. Of course, some days it is easier to come up with content than others, which is why I thought looking at five original content ideas for those difficult days might be helpful.

In no particular order:

1) News related to your mission.

Sharing the latest news with your audience does two things. First, you are demonstrating that you are an expert in your field because you are up to date on the latest news. Second, you are educating your audience on your mission and what is important to your organization. Having an educated audience will help supporters answer the question: “Why do I care about your agency?”

In resource development terms, sharing news related to your mission can have a cultivating effect on new prospective donors as well as a stewardship effect on existing ones.

Click here to see an example from One Campaign with regard to agricultural initiatives and famine.

2) Spotlights

People like to feel special. So, why not make more people feel special by featuring them on your website? Highlighting the volunteer/donor/employee/member of the week/month/year on your site is a simple way to generate content.

By featuring a photo and a short interview piece on your site, you are letting your audience know who makes up and supports your organization. The more personal your site is, the more familiar people will feel with your agency and the more apt they will be to volunteer or donate or work for you.

Click here to see an example from helpline center.

3) Financial News

Did you just get a large donation? Were you awarded a grant? Using your website to share information with your community demonstrates your agency’s commitment to transparency.

Additionally, if your organization’s financial management situation is publicly questioned, then posting a response on your website can help you control the message.

Click here for an example of how to demonstrate financial transparency on your website from Marklund.

4) Events

Do you have an event coming up? Tell people about it. Multiple times if possible. Did you just hold an event? Tell people how it went. Post photos of the good times had by all.

Are you currently holding an event? Consider liveblogging it. Depending on the event, it might be nice to update people on what is happening at the event as it happens.

Click here to see a good example from the Barrington Area Council on Aging.

5) Behind the Scenes

Share photos or stories about what happens in the office. Does your office participate in Office Olympics? Maybe post who won. Did you hold an organization picnic? Share photos from it. By sharing a little bit of the behind the scenes info with your website audience you are adding to the personality of your site, which can benefit you because people will feel as though they know who your organization is.

Here are just a few tips to keep in mind as your execute these five content strategies:

  • Posting original content to your website should represent your organization in the best light possible. While adding personality to your site is great, you still want to come off as professional at the same time.
  • Just like with your agency’s newsletter, make sure that you have a team of people looking at content before it goes up.
  • Don’t forget to link all of your great work to all of your connected social media sites.

I only mentioned five original content ideas, but there are a bunch of others. What are some of your favorite topics to talk about? Please use the comment box to share some of your ideas. Feel free to link to examples as well. If we all pitch in, then this post can be a resource for us when we’ve hit bloggers block. I am looking forward to see what we come up with!

How Nonprofits Can Use Tumblr

Fundraising, Mondays with Marissa, technology

Before there was Pinterest, there was Tumblr. Without Tumblr, there would be no Pinterest.

As if there weren’t enough social media sites to manage these days, today we are going to take a look at Tumblr and see if it is a good fit for your non-profit organization.

What is Tumblr?

Tumblr is a short form blogging site that allows users to post photos, videos, blog posts, and audio recordings into what is called a tumblelog. (Yes, it’s a real word. Stick with me here.) Users can follow tumblelogs and re-blog or “like” posts . . . just like on Pinterest.

Who is Tumblr’s Audience?

Every social media site has an audience. Facebook and Twitter’s are the broadest, and they are the most popular. However, sometimes finding a niche audience can be very effective when it comes to reaching more people. The average Tumblr user is under the age of 25. While they probably aren’t big money donor prospects due to their young age, Tumblr users can be very powerful online advocates for your cause. According to Wikipedia, “as of June 8, 2012, Tumblr has over 58.9 million blogs and more than 24.7 billion total posts.”

Young people who may not be able to contribute to your organization today, might be able to do so tomorrow and don’t you want to be on the top of their list? In the meantime, these individuals can be talking about what your organization is up to or become a volunteer.

To put it in fundraising terms, asking these young people to advocate on your behalf will have a “self-cultivating” effect and build a very strong donor base for your organization in the future.

What is a successful Tumblr post?

Just like with most social media sites, you want to create a post that users will want to share with others. (Sharing really is caring.) On Tumblr, most users will like a post if it is short. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of long posts out there in the Tumblrverse, but they are usually by people who have an established and large audience.

Photos, lists, videos, and questions do well, and I think it is helpful if you include links citing original sources so that if your post is interesting I will be able find more to read on the subject. Additionally, you can use Tumblr to drive traffic to your agency’s website by creating a short post with a link back to an article on your webpage. You might also consider sharing a photo from your latest event on Tumblr.

Tumblr also has a feature that allows users to ask the tumblelog’s owner a question. Posting answers to those questions is a great way to interact with your followers.

How do I get started on Tumblr?

Sign up.

  • Take a look at what other nonprofit organizations are doing on the site. See what type of posts work best for an organization like yours.
  • Follow tumblelogs in your community and actively reblog and like their posts.
  • Tell your volunteers, supporters, and donors that you are now on Tumblr.
  • Write a few posts and see which ones your audience responds to most.

If you are looking for a younger audience with whom to share your content, Tumblr just might be the place for you. If you find that Tumblr is not a place for you, I still recommend signing up and claiming your organization’s space on the site so that no one else does. I also recommend using Tumblr as another source for finding out what is going on in your online community.

For more Tumblr tips, check out this Mashable article.

Does your organization already have a tumbleblog? Post a link in the comment section below and let us know what works best for you on this platform.

How to Listen to Your Online Community

Mondays with Marissa, technology

Social media does a great job giving you ways to tell things to the world. The moment something happens all of your Facebook and Twitter followers can know about it. While this advancement in broadcasting is great and a marvel of modern technology, as with any relationship, listening is even more important than telling.

Listening can help you figure out what to post on your social media sites, keep you up-to-date with what other organizations are doing, and keep you aware of the latest news. Today, we are going to look at two tools that you can set-up to help you listen to your online community.

Google Alerts

Google has a product for almost everything, but Google Alerts is perhaps the most overlooked. This product will keep a watchful eye on the internet for key words and phases and send you an email whenever one of those words or phrases is mentioned.

For example, if your organization provides after-school programing for children, you can set up a Google Alert with the term “after-school programing” and Google will send you an email mentioning the latest news, blogs, or YouTube videos posted on the subject.

Depending on the search term, you might not want a notification every single time it is mentioned, which is why Google Alerts allows you to set contact frequency for daily or weekly.

Google Alerts are also really helpful when monitoring what people are saying about your brand. For example, you can set-up and alert with the name of your organization and know when someone else mentions you on their blog post or in an article.

Twitter Search

While Twitter doesn’t offer an alert function, there is something equally as useful pertaining to “search” functionality that you are able to save.

On the Twitter home page, in the top right corner is a search box. Any term that you searched for can be saved and Twitter will update it with the most recent tweets on the subject. If you click on the gear box on the right corner of the results, you can do an advanced search which allows you to set-up even more search parameters.

What I really like about the Twitter search function is that you can look for tweets by location and include positive or negative tweets in your search as well. Based on your search term, Twitter also suggests new people to follow so that you can expand your community based upon the search you just conducted.

Additionally, some social media managers like Tweet Deck and Hootsuite allow you to save Twitter searches within their program so that you don’t have to go back to the Twitter home page to do it.

Taking a few minutes to set up a Google Alert or two and save some searches in Twitter can save you time when it comes to finding content to post, resources for articles, and figuring out what your online community wants to hear from your non-profit agency.

Other social networking sites like Google+ and LinkedIn also have search functions that you might want to investigate.

However, I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to set-up alerts focused on your agency and the names of any other organizations with similar missions as yours. This way you can keep your ear to the ground and know what people are saying in your community.

Do you use Google Alerts or Twitter search already? Are they helpful to you? Do you have other tools that you use to help you achieve the same goal? Let’s talk about it in the comment section below.

Non-Profit Time Management: Scheduling Social Media Updates

Mondays with Marissa, Planning, technology

The non-profit world moves fast. You walk-in at the start of the day, sit down, check-in, and before you know it the day is over. When time moves this fast, it can be hard to remember to update your social networks. Even if your job is solely dedicated to cultivating an online community, time can sometimes get away from even best time managers.

Today we are going to look at three tools that can help you schedule your social media updates and ensure your online presence is not neglected during the busy times in your life.

Plotting It All Out

When pressed for time, coming up with the perfect status update can be hard work. What do you want to say? Have you said something similar recently? Are you talking about an engaging topic? Planning what to say, when to say it, and where to post it, can save you time and make the whole process go a bit smoother.

DivvyHQ is a great resource when you have multiple people in charge of updating your social networks. It allows you to create a calendar to plan out what type of posts you are going to put up and where you are going to post them. There also is a post approval option if you need that as well.

For example, if there is an upcoming event and you are not the right person to talk about it, then why not ask the person who is? With DivvyHQ you can create a task within the program which will notify them via email. This gives you a place to manage your social media calendar.

DivvyHQ does offer a limited free plan, but their best features are found in the paid options.

If you decide that paying for DivvyHQ is a too expensive, you can still accomplish the same things using tools like Google Calendar and a spreadsheet. Simply create a Google Calendar named “social media” and plan out your posts by creating events for each day. You can even put the time you’re going to post it and create a reminder. If you need help, then you can invite others to that event. A good old fashion Excel spreadsheet can also work much in the same way.

Whichever method you choose, sitting down to plan out your posts can save you lots of time in the long run.

Posting to The Future

After you have planned everything out in advance, you can write posts and schedule them for publication in the future. That’s right . . .  where we’re going, we don’t need roads. What’s nice about taking the time to do this is that your social networks will automatically be updated and you don’t have to freak out about not posting on the correct day if something comes up.

The best thing about scheduling your posts far in advance is that you can actually go on vacation.

One tool that can help you with posting to Facebook is Post Planner. Post Planner is great because for a very low-cost ($4.95/month) you can post to your organization’s facebook page in a very organic way. Going beyond telling it what you want posted and when you want it posted, Post Planner allows you to upload photos to albums you already have on Facebook. You can post videos and links the same way. What’s nice is that it will look like you updating in real-time.

Another option to consider is HootSuite. HootSuite is a popular social media manager that allows you to schedule Facebook and Twitter updates in advance.

While HootSuite works well for many people as free social media tool, it isn’t something that works well for me because I have a number of photo albums that are updated on a weekly basis, which means all of my pictures go into a HootSuite album. So, I just use HootSuite to automate non-photo tweets and find it extremely helpful.

It should be noted that both Post Planner and HootSuite will email you when your scheduled post is posted.

Taking the time to come up with a calendar of when you post to your social networks will save you time in the long run and allow you to have a more structured social media plan. Using tools like Post Planner or HootSuite can help you schedule your posts so you don’t have to worry about posting at exactly the right time. What tools do you use to plan your social media message? I’d love to talk about it further in the comment section below!

Some Insight on Facebook Pages Insights

Mondays with Marissa, technology

Tools are better if you know how to use them. When it comes to social media, Facebook is a very powerful tool. But are you using it to it’s highest potential? Luckily, Facebook gives you some help in figuring that out with their analytical tool called, Insights. To access Facebook Insights, you need to be an admin of your organization’s facebook page. In the admin panel (which you should see when you are logged in and looking at your page), click on the graph and you will be taken to the Insights section of your page.

Upon first glance, Insights can be a bit confusing. There’s graphs and charts and numbers – oh my! All things that should tell you something about your organizations activity online. But what was most confusing to me was Insights terminology. Facebook analyzes each post with the following terms: Reach, Engaged User, Talking about This, and Virality.

What that what?

Today we’ll take a look at what these terms mean and how understanding them can help your posts make more of an impact on all social networks.

Reach

This is the simplest statistic out there. Reach simply means the number of people who see your post. Facebook has a very complicated algorithm that figures out what to post in a person’s News Feed. For example, you’ll notice that time of day, the type of post (status update, link, question, video, etc) can impact your total reach number.

If you click on the number next to the post, Facebook will break this number down even further into the categories of Organic, Paid, or Viral. Organic includes people who liked your paged and people who haven’t. Paid is the number of people who have seen your post because you used a Facebook ad. Viral is the number of people who saw your post because one of their friends liked it or commented on it.

To me, the most important thing is that your reach numbers are always going up or at least remain consistent.

Engaged User

Facebook defines an engaged user as someone who has clicked on your post. Anywhere on your post. Again, Facebook breaks this number down into Photo/Video Views, Other Clicks, and Stories Generated.

Photo/Video Views is pretty straightforward. This number answers the question: “Did the photo you posted cause someone to click on it?” The Other Clicks number is the number of people who clicked on something else included in the post like a person’s name, or the timestamp, or the number of people who liked the post. To me, stories generated is the most interesting. This is the number of stories that were posted on someone’s timeline due to their interaction with this post.

What I keep in mind when looking at my Engaged User number, is looking at the type of post it is. I find that most people will interact with a post if it contains a photo. Once I figured this out, I now make sure that most of my updates include photos.

Talking About This

The numbers in the Talking About This Column simply tell you how many likes, shares and comments your post received. That’s it. Again, looking at this number along with the type of post it is will give you a better idea of what type of posts are successful on your Facebook page.

Virality

For me, this is the most confusing statistic in Insights. Basically, if you take the number of stories generated (found under the Engaged User category) and divide it by the total (found in the Reach column), you get your post’s “virality”. The best thing about this statistic is it is a really fast way to see which posts are generating the most stories.

Now that we have a better understand of what all of those graphs and numbers represent, what does it all mean?

Facebook Insights gives you a picture of how people are interacting with your page, and that’s the whole point. You want to build a community to get more people involved in your non-profit mission. Use these numbers to figure out what your community wants. Maybe they don’t like photos. Maybe they love being asked questions. The bottom line is that Insights shines some light on what’s working and what’s not.

An important thing to keep in mind about all of these numbers is that Facebook will only track a post for 28 days. In other words, to see the full picture, you’ll need to go back and check. Facebook also makes this easy in allowing you to export your data and keep it for your own records.

As you can imagine, there is so much more to Insights than what we’ve covered here. You can read more about this tool here.

Finally, I realize that Facebook isn’t the only social media site out there. In fact, it might not even be the right one for your agency. However, I believe that analyzing your posts and how your target audience interacts with it on any site, can only strengthen your social media community. If you are looking for a tool that helps you analyze Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, check out ThinkUp.

Has Facebook Insights helped you shape your organization’s Facebook community? We’d love to hear some stories in the comment section below!

Non-Profits Can Mobilize Slacktivists Using Social Media

Fundraising, Mondays with Marissa, technology

Hi, my name is Marissa and I am a slacktivist. I admit to thinking I am politically active by sharing my thoughts on issues with my friends through social media without really taking any other political action. It is easier for me to “like”, “retweet”, “+1”, or “share” something than it is for me to write a letter to my Congressperson.

But is slacktivisim a bad thing? And how can you use this passive involvement of others to actually make something happen for your non-profit organization and mission?

This past week, I caught an episode of my favorite news source, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His guest was Ben Rattray, founder of a website called change.org. As the interview went on, it became clear to me that Rattray had found a way to take the simple act of a person’s “like” or “retweet” and turn it into powerful political action.

The basics behind change.org are this: a user can create a petition about any issue and change.org will help the user reach out through social media to get people to sign the petition for free. Petitions are simply signed with the click of a button.

If the user decides to pay change.org for their services, they can export the list of people who have signed their petition. Change.org also offers organizations access to sponsored campaigns.

“Sponsored campaigns” are promoted to change.org users who would most likely support your cause. The community on change.org is growing everyday, and I can only imagine it growing even more after this week’s exposure on The Daily Show. Tapping into the already growing community of users could help your non-profit organization gain more exposure. It could also be a great way of generating a list of prospective donors who are interested in supporting your mission and issues.

Change.org also connects users with local and national media outlets. Remember when Bank of America was going to charge $5/month for using a debit card? It was a change.org user who created a petition that 300,000 people signed, which gained national media attention. This, of course, resulted in Bank of America deciding to drop the proposed fee hike.

So, what could change.org do for your organization? You could create  a petition connected to your mission and use change.org to engage individuals who sign your petition. A recent article on Mashable states:

“slacktivists are 2x as likely to volunteer, 2x+ as likely to ask for donations, and 4x as likely to ask others to get involved.”

If you’ve seen KONY 2012 or Bully, you know how quickly a message can spread through the internet. Projects like these have inspired many people to get involved.

Even if you choose to not use a platform such as change.org for your agency, there are still lessons to take away from the foundation they set-up.

Make it easy for people to get involved. If you have a blog on your site, make sure you have social media buttons at the bottom of each post to allow users to share your message with their friends.

Create a community. Peer pressure is a powerful thing. Use it for good. If you create a community on a social media site (e.g. Facebook, Twitter or even on your own blog), then make sure you take the time to reply back to those who leave comments as well as recognize those who are sharing your content with their social network.

Support a cause that supports yours. If there is a petition out there that helps your mission, then get involved and sign it. If people see that you care about an issue they also care about, they might take the time to visit your website to learn more.

It was exciting for me to see how change.org makes a difference in our communities with a tool as simple as a petition. And I guess that’s the big takeaway from it all; the easier you make for people to get involved, the more people will be.

Is change.org a network that your organization could benefit from? I’d love to hear why or why not in the comments below! Or are you using other providers or platforms to accomplish the same objectives? Please share.