1.
Building a
Social Media Plan
June 17, 2009
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2.
Reminders
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3.
Today’s presenter
• Kirstin Beardsley
Communications and Marketing Coordinator
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4.
CanadaHelps.org
What is CanadaHelps?
A public charitable foundation that provides accessible and
affordable online technology to both donors and charities.
For Charities
A cost-effective means of raising funds online.
For Donors
A one-stop-shop for giving.
CanadaHelps is a charity helping charities.
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5.
Webinar agenda
1. Overview of Social Media
2. Social Media Planning
3. Build Your Strategy
4. Tell Your Story
5. The Plan
6. Let’s Get Started
• Setup, Create, Confidence, Integration, Promote, Assess
7. Tips
8. Q & A
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6.
OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL MEDIA
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7.
Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0 (Social media)
Few Many
Many Many
• Web 1.0 was about publishing and transactions.
• Web 2.0 is about networks and community.

8.
Social media tools
WordPress Delicious
• Free blogging service • Social bookmarking service
• Expansion features with fee • Let’s you find similar websites
Facebook Twitter
• Micro blogging service,
• Social networking website
• 140 character limit
• Suite of features
Second Life YouTube
• Online virtual world • Video sharing website
• Explore using avatar • Free to upload and share
Flickr Digg
• Photo sharing website • Social news website
• Can comment on photos • People vote on news articles

9.
SOCIAL MEDIA PLANNING
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10.
What is social media planning?
• A plan to use social media appropriately to fulfill
a specific goal
• Integrating social media into your current
marketing, fundraising, and programming
initiatives
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11.
Do I need one?
• Social media can be confusing and time
consuming without a plan
• Risk losing sight of your strategic goals and
objectives if you don’t plan
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12.
Social media isn’t a strategy
• Social media is a tool for accomplishing your
goals
• Start with the question “what are my
goals?” NOT “I want to build a social media
presence”
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13.
STEP 1: BUILD YOUR STRATEGY
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14.
Define your goals and desired outcomes
• What are your current marketing, fundraising or
programming goals?
• What desired outcomes do you wish to achieve?
• Can social media tools be used to accomplish
these?
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15.
Define your target audiences
• Who do you want to reach and engage?
• Be as specific as possible:
– Where do they live?
– What do they do?
– How are they currently using social media?
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16.
Examples
• Goal: Attract young professionals as
volunteers and grow their engagement in our
organization.
– Social media tools are likely to help with this goal
• Goal: Build stronger, personal relationships
with our older annual donor base and talk to
them about estate planning
– Social media will likely not be helpful
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17.
Understand your capacity
• Internal
– Do you have the internal skills, expertise and time
internally to use social media effectively
– Poll your staff and volunteers: you might have an expert
blogger in your midst!
• External
– Are there people out there already connecting around
your issues?
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18.
Start your research
• Research the tools
• Listen to what is already being said about you
– Set up a Google Alert and use Twitter search
• Learn the language, customs and etiquette
• Get ideas about what works and what doesn’t
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19.
STEP 2: TELL YOUR STORY
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20.
Streamline your story
• Adapt your story to an online platform:
– Keep it simple
– Easy to remember
– Easy to retell
• Adapt your story to your desired audience
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21.
Starting conversations
• Remember: social media is about engaging
and building community
• Don’t just talk at your supporters
• Think of the conversations you want to start
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22.
Tips
• Don’t just write about your latest fundraising
campaign
– ask your donors to tell their story.
• Don’t just publish a news release about
government cutbacks hurting your cause
– give your supporters the tools and platform to
take action and share their passion with others

23.
STEP 3: THE PLAN
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24.
Choose your tool
• We recommend starting with one tool at a time
• Take a look at your goals, audience and
message: what’s the best tool for the job?
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25.
Choose your tool
Tool Uses
Blogs • News outlet
• Blogger • Highlighting donors and partners
• WordPress
Media Sharing • Enhance visual storytelling
• YouTube
• flickr
News & Social Bookmarking • Sharing online resources
• digg • Finding like-minded people and organizations
• delicious
Social Networking • Expanding supporter base
• Facebook • Another channel for calls to action
• Twitter
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26.
Still not sure? Try a blog!
• A good first step into social media:
– Use existing content
– Start conversations
– Get used to comments
– Integrate other tools into your blog
• Caution: Blogs do take time to create content
and engage readers
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27.
Adapt your story to the tool
• Use the tool to its fullest
• Show what you do with pictures and videos
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28.
Sample plan
Goal Audience Tool(s) Message(s) Timeline Resources
Example
Engage a University 1. Facebook Make an Sept – April University
young students in 2. YouTube impact, volunteers to
generation in our town 3. Flickr share your create
fundraising success, content and
campaign build a engage in
movement conversation
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29.
STEP 4: GET STARTED!
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30.
Get Started (finally!)
Setup
Assess Create
Promote Confidence
Integrate

31.
Setting up

32.
What do I need?
• The tool
– Signing up, learning the
ropes
• The people
– Assigning responsibility
• The timelines
– Planning updates
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33.
Creating Content

34.
Turn your story into compelling content
• Example: Fundraising event
– Blog: interview an attendee and ask
others to share their experience in
comments
– YouTube: bring your video camera and
ask people to tell you why they came
– Facebook: ask everyone who attended
to share images/stories
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35.
Turn your story into compelling content
• Example: Capital campaign
– Flickr: show people the direct impact they
can have through images
– Twitter: Tweet regular updates on success
and how much support is still needed
– Blog: weekly blog post during campaign
about the impact of your organization
(get various perspectives: Board,
community, volunteer etc…)
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36.
Gaining Confidence

37.
• Get used to the tool and the conversations
happening
• Be trustworthy & consistent
• Create distinctive content that fits with your
organization’s identity and mission
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38.
Integrating

39.
Integration Into Your Workflow
• Allocate appropriate time and funds
• Make it part of your work routine
– Creating content
– Responding & engaging
• Create guidelines
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40.
Integration With Other Initiatives
f t
• Tie into other marketing, fundraising and
social media initiatives
• Be distinctive but cohesive with your story
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41.
Promoting

42.
Promote In Your Network
• Use other outlets to promote a new initiative
• Leverage your following and promote to
whoever you can
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43.
Assessing

44.
• Is this tool helping to fulfill your goals?
• Determine the return on investment
• Think about the project’s sustainability
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45.
Listen, Learn and Adapt
• Get feedback! Ask:
– What is working, what isn’t?
– What else would you like to see?
• Implement changes and keep trying
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46.
Start again with tool #2!
Setup
Assess Create
Promote Confidence
Integrate
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47.
CANADAHELPS
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48.
@CanadaHelps on Twitter
• Every step implementation step is visible
– Set up, creating content, gaining confidence,
integration, promotion and assessment
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49.
Lessons
• Archive your content
• Go at your own pace
• Try your best to respond to everyone
• People like to talk to people
• Most of the content is shared!
• Take it offline – remember to build face-to-
face connections as well
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50.
Things to Keep In Mind
TIPS
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51.
Have a great website
• Good usability
• Easy to find information
• Relevant content
• Clear calls to action
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52.
Learn from others
Flickr + Facebook
• See how other organizations started and see
what they have done
• Recreate their success
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53.
Start With One Tool at a Time
• Important if you’re starting out
• You can integrate tools later
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54.
Enlist help from interns/volunteers
• To help with creating content or managing
the tools
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55.
Keep expectations realistic
• Success takes time and effort
• Starting up is easy, maintenance is the real work

56.
Make it part of your routine
• Making your social media plan part of your
routine helps spread the work out

57.
Remember: It’s a conversation
• Listening is as important as talking
• Don’t talk at your supporters, engage them
and listen to what they have to say

58.
Have fun!
• Interact with different people
• Make it personal
• These are fun tools!

59.
ABOUT MYCHARITYCONNECTS
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60.
www.mycharityconnects.org
• Free online resources
• Information about Next Webinar
technology
“All About
• Demos
TechSoup Canada”
• More webinars!
• Conference materials July 15, 2009
2PM – 3PM (ET)

61.
Question and Answer
You can hear us, but
we can’t hear you
Ask questions in
Questions Log
Ask away!
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62.
Thank you for attending!
Slides will be up on: www.slideshare.net/MyCharityConnects
Check out www.mycharityconnects.org for resources!
Questions, feedback, comments? Email Amy at: amyh@canadahelps.org
Thanks to: