Class 1 of the Parasol Community Collaboration's Summer Training Series, Hands-On Social Media.
This class covered what social media is, how to go about understanding it, and why and how to create a social media strategy for a nonprofit or business.
3. What is Social Media?
Media for social interaction, using web-
based technologies to transform and
broadcast media monologues into social
media dialogues.
It’s all about listening, sharing, and
engaging
4. Understanding Social Media
“Listening” : monitoring what is being said
about you or your issue*
Research how similar organizations are
using social media
Engage with relevant blogs, pages, etc.
*Listening Tools:
•Google Alerts and Google Reader
•Twitter Search
5. Why build a strategy?
Gain a clear understanding of how and why social
media is effective
Set objectives
Identify your target audience
Identify the best tools and tactics to use
Integrate social media with other communications
plans
Determine agency capacity and resources
Identify a system for evaluation
Develop a foundation for experimentation
Create policy
Aid in changing organization culture
7. Target Audience
Who must you reach to meet your
objectives?
What sort of content will resonate with
them?
What social media tools are they using
and how are they using them?
Audience Research Resources:
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/09/nptech-summary.html
8. Tools and Tactics
What social media tools and tactics best support your
objectives and match your targeted audience?
What tools and tactics do you have the capacity to
implement?
Source: www.wearemedia.org
10. Integration
How does your social media plan support
components of other communications
plans (website, email marketing,
mailings)?
11. Capacity
Who will implement your social media
strategy?
How much time can they allocate?
Do you have an efficient method?
Do you need outside expertise?
13. Experiment!
Listen, fail informatively, and evolve
Steps to planning and designing your first
experiment:
Pick a social media project that won’t take much time
and relates to your goals
Write down your successes
Write down your challenges
Ask or listen to the people you connect with about
what worked and what didn't work
Watch other nonprofits and copy and remix for your
next project
Rinse, repeat
15. Culture Change
How do you get your organization to own your
social media strategy?
How will you address fears or concerns?
Common concerns:
Loss of control
Dealing with negative comments
Addressing personality versus organizational voice
Fear of failure
Perception of wasted of time and resources
Information overload
