Here are some tips for using Twitter effectively: - Use relevant hashtags (#) to categorize your tweets and engage with others using the same tags - Retweet engaging content from others to spread awareness and build relationships - Reply to comments and questions from your followers to encourage conversation - Post a variety of content - updates, photos, links, questions. Keep it fresh! - Schedule tweets in advance using management tools to ensure consistent presence - Drive traffic to your website and events with calls to action in your tweets - Monitor your analytics to see what content and hashtags are most effective - Engage with influencers in your field by commenting on their tweets respectfully The key

1. “Social Media is about sociology
and psychology more than
technology.” – Brain Solis Principal
of FutureWorks
MDA Field
Office Social
Media
Handbook

2. 1. INTRODUCTION
2. MDA SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES
3. RULES
4. LEARN THE CULTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
5. PARTICIPATE IN OUR NATIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA
PRESENCE
6. CREATE YOUR OWN SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
7. IMPLEMENT YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
8. FACEBOOK
1. FB PAGE
2. FB CAUSES
3. FB EVENTS
9. TWITTER
10. TIPS
11. FAQ

3. INTRODUCTION
This handbook is meant for all MDA Field Offices and Regional Offices
interested in using social media to deliver our mission critical services.
This information will familiarize you with our national social media philosophy,
invite you to find, join, and participate in our national presence.
You‟ll find steps to adopting social media strategy and an explanation of
various social media tools.
Adopting a social media strategy at your local unit is a significant
commitment of your time both daily and long term. It is worth it! But a social
media strategy needs to be developed to help you plan accordingly.

4. Social Media Guidelines
 Itis required that employees obtain pre-
approval from their Regional or Divisional
Office before setting up any MDA-
administered social media site or blog,
including, but not limited to, Facebook,
Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
All social media or blog profiles, handles
and accounts established for the purpose
of conducting MDA business shall be
considered under the ownership of MDA.

5. SM Guidelines Cont…
 In concert with your Regional and Divisional
teams, MDA‟s Public Relations team is available to
advise you in developing your office‟s social
media strategy. Please contact Public Relations at
(520) 529-5317 or at publicrelations@mdausa.org
 For assistance in launching your social media site
and developing social strategy for events,
programs and office activities
 To notify National Headquarters about your official
online activities

6. SM Guidelines Cont…
 Only use approved MDA social media channels
(i.e. MDA District Facebook page or MDA District
office Twitter account), and not personal social
media sites or pages, to conduct MDA business.
 Media or Press Contacts - If someone from the
news media or press contacts you about your
social media activity related to MDA, you should
speak with your supervisor and someone in the
Public Relations Department before responding.

7. Rules:
 You are strictly prohibited from disclosing individually
identifiable information of any kind about individuals
served by MDA on any social media platform without
the express written permission of the individual or
his/her parent or legal guardian. Even if the individual
is not identified by name within the information you
wish to use or disclose, such use or disclosure is
prohibited if there is a reasonable basis to believe
that person could still be identified from such
information. Unauthorized disclosure of individually
identifiable information could constitute a violation
of the privacy rule under the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPPA”)

8. Rules Cont…
 Minors:It is against MDA policy to post
images or videos of minors without MDA‟s
Consent for Use of Likeness form, signed
by parents or legal guardians, on an
MDA-approved social media site. Images
or videos of individuals served by MDA
who are under the age of 18 should not
be posted in personal online content. This
includes photos and videos taken at MDA
events, including MDA Summer Camp.

9. Rules Cont…
 Over age 18: It is against MDA policy to
post images or videos of individuals
engaged in MDA activities on an MDA-
approved social media site without MDA‟s
Consent for Use of Likeness form. The
Consent for Use of Likeness form does not
give individual staff members permission
to post photos of individuals engaged in
MDA activities in personal online content.

10. Rules Cont…
 Stakeholders: Do not disclose personal
information, or post images or video, of
MDA‟s employees, volunteers, board
members, sponsors, donors, and affiliates
on an MDA-approved social media site
without prior written permission and
MDA‟s prior written approval. Written
permission does not give staff permission
to post photos or videos of MDA
stakeholders in personal online content.

11. Learn the Culture of
Social Media
“Social media is like a snowball rolling down the hill. It’s picking up
speed. Five years from now, it’s going to be the standard.” – Jeff
Antaya, chief marketing officer of Plante Moran

12. Message from a PR Intern
 Social Media is vital to my generation. We turn
to our Twitter and Facebook pages for
information on friends, family, entertainment,
business, and social causes. Think of your
chapter‟s social networking pages as a unifying
communication force to platform campaigns,
events, and ideas. It isn‟t easy or fun all the
time, but after a while you realize that you‟re
communicating with everyone who cares
about what MDA is doing on those sites.
Admittedly, that feels pretty cool. 
Brionna Rogers
Public Relations Intern
brogers@mdausa.org

13. Getting Familiar With Social Media
Practice using these tools in your personal
life first.
Posting your own pictures and experiences
makes Facebook, Twitter, etc. less foreign.
The more you post on your personal pages
the better you‟ll become at posting for any
sites your MDA chapter might use!
“As a general principle, the more users share about themselves, the more others
in the community will learn about them and identify with them.” – Matt Rhodes,
writing in Social Media Today

14. Participate in Our
National Social Media
Presence
Before beginning new accounts on any site be sure to visit MDA
National accounts first:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MDAnews @MDANews
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MDANational
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MySpaceMDA
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/muscular-
dystrophy-association
• Google+:https://plus.google.com/118252638961569076697/p
osts#118252638961569076697/posts

15. National’s Social Media
Goals
 To create an empowered online
community of MDA supporters to:
 Raise awareness of our services and mission
 Provide information to help those affected by
muscle related diseases
 Reenergize the brand
 Mobilize existing volunteers
 Inspire new volunteers and donors
 Provide engagement point for our employees,
volunteers, and supporters in a two way
conversation that enhances the mission

16. Create Your Own Social
Media Strategy
 Ifyour office already has a social media
presence it should also already have a
Social Media Strategy. It‟s never too late
to start one and IT IS absolutely necessary.
 Use this guide to improve an existing or
create a Social Media Strategy for your
local chapter

17. Study what other MDA chapters are doing with their Social
Media Presence
Check out MDA Puerto Rico’s Facebook Group Page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/MDAPR
Check Out Southern AZ’s Facebook Profile:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/mda.southernaz
(We’ll discuss the difference between FB Group Pages
& Profiles Later )
Visit MDA Las Vegas Twitter Page: @MDALasVegas
https://twitter.com/MDALasVegas
See what these local chapters are doing to keep their
volunteers, donors, and patients up to date!

18. What are your
EX: use Twitter to inform about MDA summer camp
registration deadlines, local fitness classes to take before
Muscle Walk, etc.
What are your goals?
How do you currently correspond with local media,
stakeholders, volunteers, donors, and the public?
What are your goals?
How are you currently mobilizing volunteers?How are you
currently engaging with donors?
What are your current strategies and tactics?
Evaluating and reviewing your organizational goals, strategy and
tactics will lead you to choices for using social media

19. Adopt a local social media goal
You are encouraged to follow the national goal
Create your social media goals
Write down goals you hope to achieve with social media
Analyze whether your goals make sense and work with your
chapter‟s strategic plan or other goals
Create your own social media strategy
Write down reasons your social media use will complement
your chapter‟s overall strategic plan
Write down the types of content you will provide to and
solicit from your community
Create tactics
How will you execute the strategy to achieve your goals?
Who will be responsible?
What platforms will you use?
How will you develop content?
How will you engage with your audience?
How often will you be present?
What steps will you take to reach your desired outcome?

20. Implement Your Social Media Strategy
If your office already has a Social Media strategy, make sure you
are measuring its success, improving where needed and keeping
MDA national informed of progress and challenges

21. Seriously…
 “There‟s no need to re-create everything
from scratch … Look at some of the early
adopters, see what they‟ve done and see
if it makes sense for your organization.
And then think about what you need to
do to customize it.” – Dave Fletcher, Utah
chief technology officer

22. We want to catalogue your:
Strategy
Chosen Platforms
Links to Your Activities
With this Information we will:
List you on our aggregated national
sites
Monitor your strategy for best practices
“Monitor, engage, and be transparent;
these have always been the keys to
success in the digital space.” – Dallas
Lawrence, Levick Strategic
Communications

23. Implement Your Plan
Decide on Short Term & Long Term Implementation Plans
Short Term: In one year have X followers
Long Term: Next Walk have X number of increased Muscle
Walk participants because of social media presence
Create a Communication Plan
Announce availability on social media spaces to your
community
Link social media activities from your main website
Commit but Be Flexible
Make adjustments based on successes and challenges you
encounter along the way
Remember we‟re here to support you and ready to help at any time

24. Measure Your Successes and Challenges
Return on investment (ROI) of Your Social Media Strategy
Define the “R” – what are your expected results?
i.e. X followers, X likes
Define the metrics – what you want to become
Pre-determine Setbacks
competitors, other local service agencies
Document challenges and successes
analyze results, glean insight, take action, measure
again

25. Documentation
Documented activities as you progress through these steps are a
great baseline to measure:
*The impact your social media strategy has in
your community
*Whether you are able to achieve your original goals
Write down everything that happens in the beginning so you have
QUALITATIVE and QUANTITATIVE results to analyze

26. EVALUATION
Give yourself room to learn and gain insight before you tie yourself
to a traditional ROI analysis
Adopt a “listen, learn, adapt” measurement strategy
after you‟ve tried your strategy for a while, ask yourself what
you‟ve learned and how you can improve next time
And of course…
Send your links and measurement data to national
Make sure we know what you‟re up to so we can recognize your success
from a national platform and help you with any struggles!

27. “This is no longer a gimmick. This is how the American people want
to receive their news and want to hear from us.” – Nick Schaper,
new-media director for House Minority Leader John Boehner

28. “In some ways, [Facebook] levels the playing field of friendship
stratification. In the real world, you have very close friends and
then there are those you just say “Hi” to when you pass them on
the street.”
– Jason Kaufman, research science fellow at Harvard University

29. Is Facebook right for your chapter?
Find out by asking yourself:
You‟ll need someone to be responsible for updates; this person
will need to dedicate a time !

30. You‟ll need the someone to acknowledge and engage fans

32. If you answered yes to all these
questions, you‟re ready to set up a
Facebook page!
If not, please join our national page
and let your stakeholders know they
can find MDA there.

33. Pages vs. Groups
All offices should create a Facebook Page NOT a Facebook
Group
„Pages‟ offer greater visibility, customization and
measurability. Community pages will currently be accepted as is
unless there is a copyright/trademark issue.
„Pages‟ work just like personal profiles of individuals. You
can:
Make friends
Update your status
Upload videos, photos, and articles
Create events

34. Rules for Facebook Pages
• Name your page after your chapter or region
• Identify the name and location of your chapter in your profile image
• 1 Facebook page. We‟ll explore ways to highlight your action items with
Causes
• Assign someone to be responsible for updating your page with status
updates, post new items, and offer other types of timely content on
your page. REMEMBER: you‟ll need to acknowledge and engage your
fans here EACH DAY.
• We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit so your chapter may NOT join any political
or religious advocacy groups, pages, or causes

35. Causes are basically online fundraisers
You can set up multiple causes for campaigns and
current issues
We all share a single EIN number so causes you create
will benefit MDA!

36. Tips for Making an Effective Cause
• Titles should have an active verb and grab attention
i.e. Make a Muscle Campaign
• Turn your cause into a campain: Set an achievable goal
i.e. raise $1,000 for MDA research
• Creatively engage people to invite their friends
i.e. “Power of 10” campaign; ask each fan to invite
10 other people to send $10 each
• Have a fundraiser up in addition to generic fan pages
(the more exposure the better)
• Use announcements feature and keep followers in touch.
• Make content different (and short) every post
• Engage “SUPER USERS” by keeping them encouraged and
acknowledging their work
• Try different campaigns!
In one idea doesn‟t work: toss it and try another one!

37. Facebook Event
When your chapter has an impending event (i.e. walks, large one-
day fundraisers, etc.), an event page helps you provide critical
information to your community.
Additionally, you can keep track of your social media presence by
monitoring how many of your FB friends RSVP.

38. Check out this Event Page from MDA Southern-AZ:

39. YouTube: “connect, inform, and inspire”
YouTube is a center for DIY and information, in addition to
entertainment. Create videos or post videos from other sites
(with proper permission and without violating copyright of
course) based on YOUR community!
Check out the following channel to see a local office taking
social media into their own hands: MDA Metro NY/NJ & So.
New Eng
http://www.youtube.com/user/MDARegionC2

41. If you decide to begin a YouTube Channel:
• Name your channel after chapter or region
• 1 YouTube Channel (you can create multiple playlists to organize
your channel)
• Assign someone to be responsible for updating your channel with
new videos. Remember: You should be uploading new videos as
frequently as possibly (shoot for 1-2 times a month)
• We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit so your chapter may NOT join any
political or religious advocacy groups, pages, or causes

43. Twitter asks
and millions of people answer in 140
characters or less
“Twitter represents a collective collaboration that manifests our ability
to unconsciously connect kindred voices through the experiences
that move us. As such, Twitter is a human seismograph.” – Brian Solis,
Principal of FutureWorks

44.  You’ll need to update Twitter multiple times a day
 Post new items and offer other timely content
 You’ll need a person responsible for daily upkeep on
your page

45. Twitter is not just about posting your own information, you’ll
need to engage and acknowledge followers each day. Here
are some common

46. Hashtag: the symbol before relevant keywords or topics in a
Tweet which categorizes those Tweets and helps them show
more easily in Twitter Search. (i.e. MDAShow, MuscleUp, etc.)
1. use the hashtag symbol before a relevant keyword or phrase
(no spaces) in their Tweet.
2. Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all
other Tweets marked with that keyword.
3. Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet – at the
beginning, middle, or end.

47. A retweet is a re-posting of someone else's Tweet. Helps you and others
quickly share that Tweet with all of your followers.
An looks like normal a Tweet with the author's name and username next to
it. It is distinguished by the retweet icon and the name of the user who
retweeted the Tweet.
For additional help with Twitter visit the Help Center:
https://support.twitter.com/

48. Any Twitter update that contains "@username" anywhere in the
body of the Tweet.
Mentions are commonly referred to as “tagging
someone”
Example: University of Chicago‟s Twitter name - @UChicago

49. • BE CREATIVE: ENGAGING CONTENT
• Be Strategic: don’t ask for donations immediately
• Be Persistent: add links to the social media account in every
email and press release
• Scatter posts throughout the day, at night, and the weekend
• Do not clump them all together
• Mention other pages and people when it is appropriate
• Ask fan engagement questions for posts whenever possible
• SPELL CHECK
• Thank your fans, followers, sponsors, etc.
• Mix it up: photos, questions, videos, supporter content, news
stories, etc.
• Use quality photos and add details – ask followers to tag
themselves
• Twitter: Use URL shorteners (http://ow.ly/url/shorten-url - is a
good one)

50. • Use #hashtags in every Tweet
• Search for established #hashtags
• Create your own
• Tweet quotes, breaking news, events, links to articles,
photos, websites, etc.
• Ask yourself “Would I retweet this?” before tweeting
• Engage with your Twitter followers by asking retweeting their
answers to your questions
• Check often for new Twitter accounts and acknowledge,
follow, share, etc.
• Follow @MDAnews
• Include a link to official site in biography
• List Twitter page on your Facebook page
• Don’t follow brands that are not endorsers or imposters
• Don’t follow those with political or religious affiliations

51. One of the trickiest components of Twitter is the LIMITED
space you have to express a thought. Here are a few words
or phrases to get you started but don‟t be afraid to get
creative and make your own shortened words:

52. Naming Your Twitter Account:
• Choose a name that clearly defines your local affiliation
(i.e. @MDALosAngeles)
• Keep your names as short as possible. You only have 140
characters (shoot for appx.130), so the less your name
takes up, the better for retweeting
Profile Image:
• Twitter‟s image machine is tiny. It‟s difficult to adhere to
brand standards but you must.
Twitter Design:
• You can choose a background image for your Twitter
account. Please follow brand standards if you choose to
do this.

53. LinkedIn

54. LinkedIn is a social networking site built for the professional world.
Most businesses use this site as an opportunity to develop
relationships with like-minded professionals.

55. If you think your chapter or region could significantly benefit from use
of social media but are worried about the time necessary to run it…
helps you manage all your social media sites at once!

56. Hootsuite is a tool which can be used to:
1. Manage multiple social profiles
2. Schedule messages and tweets
3. Track mentions
4. Analyze social media traffic
You can schedule Facebook posts and Twitter messages months
in advance. Hootsuite even makes it possible to attach images,
videos, URLS, etc.

57. Should I use social media platforms to fundraise?
Many people enjoy social media sites because they are free from marketing machines. Our goal is
to offer value in these spaces rather than marketing solicitations. Fundraising can be tricky so tread carefully.
Once you build an online community, offer tools which make it easy for supporters to do the
fundraising for you.