Join Beth Kanter in a workshop that explores the themes in her recently published book, and discover how to put them into practice. Social media has broken free from the marketing communications and fundraising silos, changing the way nonprofits deliver programs, lead, manage, and even govern. This session will take a look at these trends and how organizations can equip themselves to be fully networked.
18. The Networked Nonprofit
BE DO
Understand Networks Work with Crowds
Create Social Culture Learning Loops
Listen, Engage, and Build Friending to Funding
Relationships
Trust Through Transparency Governing through Networks
Simplicity
19. Three Themes and Some Nuts and Bolts ….
• Social Culture
• Transparency
• Simplicity
20. Theme 1: Social Culture
Uses social media to engage
people inside and outside the
organization to improve
programs, services, or reach
communications goals.
21. Loss of control over their branding
and marketing messages
Dealing with negative comments
Addressing personality versus
organizational voice (trusting
employees)
Make mistakes
Make senior staff too accessible
Perception of wasted of time and
resources
Suffering from information overload
already, this will cause more
30. Codifying A Social Culture: Policy
• Encouragement and support • Best practices
• Tone
• Why policy is needed • Expertise
• Cases when it will be used, • Respect
distributed • Quality
• Oversight, notifications, and
legal implications • Additional resources
• Training
• Guidelines • Operational Guidelines
• Identity and transparency • Escalation
• Responsibility
• Confidentiality • Policy examples available at
• Judgment and common wiki.altimetergroup.com
sense
Source: Charlene Li, Altimeter Group
31. Be professional, kind, discreet,
authentic. Represent us well.
Remember that you can’t control it
once you hit “update.”
36. Your organization has a social culture if ….
Treats skepticism as a conversation starter, not
stopper
Leaders understand the power behind the tools
Leaders are open to reverse mentoring if needed
Describe results
Social is the cultural norm
Try it and fix it approach
Value learning
Social media policy is not just a piece of paper
37. Reflection:
How social is your organization’s culture?
NOT AT ALL
VERY
Somewhere in between?
38. Theme 2: Transparency
Networked Nonprofits consider
everyone inside and outside
of the organization resources for
helping them to achieve their
goals
56. Who is going to do the work?
Free Integrated Staff
• Intern • Tasks in • Full-Time
• Volunteer Job • Part-Time
• Fans
57.
58. We assert the unalienable rights of The
Intern. We understand that The Intern
might be a high school student, an MBA, a
retiree, or anyone in between. The Intern
will be taken seriously, given real work to
do, be respected for their opinion, and will
be patiently taught the things they don’t
yet know.
66. What are the surefire ways to waste
time with social media?
67. How To Waste Your Time With Social Media
Subscribe to too many blogs
Read every tweet, Facebook Post and
Status Update
Setting up profiles on very social network
known to mankind
Checking your social media every 5 minutes
Following or Friending too many people
who are not part of your community
Posting repeat messages
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dumbeast/2669701960/Understanding the Networked Nonprofit: How being more social can help you transform your neighborhood or communityJoin Beth Kanter in a workshop that explores the themes in her recently published book, and discover how to put them into practice. Social media has broken free from the marketing communications and fundraising silos, changing the way nonprofits deliver programs, lead, manage, and even govern. This session will take a look at these trends and how organizations can equip themselves to be fully networked.1. What are the characteristics of Networked Nonprofits?2. What are the leadership traits and techniques of leaders ofnetworked nonprofits?3. What are some ways that your nonprofit is a Networked Nonprofit orcan transform itself into one?
I wear many hats these days. I’m the CEO of Zoetica, write Beth’s Blog, and Visiting Scholar for Nonprofits and Social Media at the Packard Foundation
WhoHow many organizations are not yet using social media, just getting started, have a strategy in place – using effectively or not?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/franie/471300085/What do you want to learn today about social media strategy?What’s your burning question?What’s one thing you know about social media that you can share with others today?
I’ll be talking about a couple of themes from my book, The Networked Nonprofit.
It launched in June with quite a splash and a series of events both online and offline. During our virtual book launch, I dared someone to order 100 copies of the book on Amazon and I’d jump into the pool on camera. Someone did, I am jumped …. All for a good cause. Both Allison and I are donating our share of the proceeds to causes that we care about – mine is going to the Sharing Foundation which takes care of children in Cambodia. The book has been #1 on Amazon since the launch
Nonprofit Nerds from New York City to San Francisco are reading and talking about it …
The book has gotten in the hands of nonprofit practitioners around the world from Holland, Tokoko, and Oz
It’s even been used as a bed time story for the newborn of a dedicated nonprofit social media pratitioner. Not that the book will put you to sleep, but ending up being a great way to multi-task.
It isn’t a nonprofit with an Internet Connection and a Facebook Profile …Networked Nonprofits are simple and transparent organizations. They are easy for outsiders to get in and insiders to get out. They engage people to shape and share their work in order to raise awareness of social issues, organize communities to provide services or advocate for legislation. In the long run, they are helping to make the world a safer, fairer, healthier place to live.Networked Nonprofits don’t work harder or longer than other organizations, they work differently. They engage in conversations with people beyond their walls -- lots of conversations -- to build relationships that spread their work through the network. Incorporating relationship building as a core responsibility of all staffers fundamentally changes their to-do lists. Working this way is only possible because of the advent of social media. All Networked Nonprofits are comfortable using the new social media toolset -- digital tools such as email, blogs, and Facebook that encourage two-way conversations between people, and between people and organizations, to enlarge their efforts quickly, easily and inexpensively.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicmcphee/422442291/Problem statement: Explosion in size of nonprofit sector over last twenty years, huge increase in donations and number of foundations, and yet needle hasn’t moved on any serious social issue. A sector that has focused on growing individual institutions ever larger has failed to address complex social problems that outpace the capacity of any individual org. or institution to solve them. Our interest and passion is in solving these problems.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/squeakymarmot/3419918805/Problem statement: Explosion in size of nonprofit sector over last twenty years, huge increase in donations and number of foundations, and yet needle hasn’t moved on any serious social issue. A sector that has focused on growing individual institutions ever larger has failed to address complex social problems that outpace the capacity of any individual org. or institution to solve them. That’s why feel strongly that nonprofits need to work more like networks.
Solution: Networks of individuals and institutions that reduces the burden on everyone, leverages the capacity, creativity, energy and resources of everyone to share solutions, solve problems. This changes the definition of scale for social change – was institutions now networks. The transition from working like this to this – doesn’t happen over night, can’t flip a switch
Organizational culture is the psychology, attitudes, and experiences and beliefs of the people who lead organizations. Culture impactsUse social media to engage people inside and outside the organization to improve programs, services, or reach communications goals. Embrace mistakes and take calculated risksReward learning and reflectionUse a “try it and fix it as we go” approach that emphasizes failing fastOvercomes organizational innertiaUnderstand and appreciate informality and individuality do not necessarily indicate a lack of professionalism and caring.Trust staff to make decisions and respond rapidly rather than craw through endless check-ins and approval processes
So what happens is that we treat this skepticism like the black smoke monster on LOST – we’re afraid to have those difficult conversations that gets us to a social culture.
How many LOST Fans? Pick your boggyman – the blob, the attack of the killer tomatoes
Squirrels on crack …We need to use skepticism as conversation starter, not a stopper
Andy Bales Union Rescue Mission
There is also a need to describe your social media strategy in terms of the value – how it will help you reach your goals. Many leaders are “yellow thinkers” – that is they need to see the results laid out in advance before they will say.Pre-school California – there is also a conversation about value – and that happens by connecting social media strategy to communications objectives.
Rewards learning and reflectionTry it and fix it approach – fail fastAppreciates individuality and that does not indicate a lack of professionalism or caringTrusts staff to make decisions and respond rapidlyIt is more important to try something new, and work on the problems as they arise, than to figure out a way to do something new without having any problems.”
Don’t do anything stupid – Social MediaDon’t moon anyone with camera
Testing of the policy – and there may be things that you didn’t think
But it really boils down to common sense ….
What's one small step that your organization can take towards being a networked nonprofit? on the back of business card - and draw a winner free copy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hermida/490868828/Share pair, where are you and what does it look like?Ask Very social, Ask Not all, Ask MiddleWhat does your organization need to do to be more social?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/444790702/Fortresses work hard to keep their communities and constituents at a distance, pushing out messages and dictating strategy rather than listening or building relationships. Fortress organizations are losing ground today because they spend an extraordinary amount of energy fearing what might happen if they open themselves up to the world. These organizations are floundering in this set-me-free world powered by social media and free agents.This trajectory changes when organizations learn to use social media and actually become their own social networks.
The opposite of Fortresses, Transparents can be considered as glass houses, with the organizations presumably sitting behind glass walls. However, this isn’t really transparency because a wall still exists. True transparency happens when the walls are taken down, when the distinction between inside and outside becomes blurred, and when people are let in and staffers are let out.University of California Museum of Paleontology, “Introduction to Porifera,” http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/porifera/porifera.html (accessed on May 21, 2009). Opening the Kimono in Beth’s Blog: A Day in the Life of Nonprofit Social Media Strategists and Transparency,” Beth’s Blog, posted August 3, 2009, http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/08/opening-the-kimino-week-on-beths-blog-a-day-in-the-life-of-nonprofit-social-media-strategists-and-tr.html (accessed September 30, 2009).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uncorneredmarket/370672187/“You cannot be fully transparent all the time because you need to give people a safe place to have the discussion without disrespecting others.”Not black and white – line the Esther Dyson Story at Transparency CampWhat is TransparencyTransparency isn’t black and white. It is very tempting to grade organizations as either transparent or not. However, transparency isn’t quite that simple, it is a sliding scale of openness that changes upon the circumstances and needs of an organization and its network. Organizations certainly need to be open to people on the outside, easy to enter, understand, and navigate. However, this does not mean that every conversation, every piece of paper, every decision, needs to be open to everybody. “You cannot be fully transparent all the time because you need to give people a safe place to have the discussion without disrespecting others.”This black and white notion scares a lot of organizations. Their is definitely a need for a safe place for private conversations – but I our default impulse is to do things in screen – is to build a Robert Frost mending wall. I wonder what it would be like if the default was – everything is open and you had to decide what should be closed?
Amy Boroff (@njdevmgr), development manager for Junior Achievement of NJ in Princeton [emphasis added], discovered one of her new Twitter followers was Kate Specchio (@ecsfoundation), co-founder of Morris County-based The Emily C. Specchio Foundation. Through their tweets, Amy recognized the potential for working together. They continued to communicate on Twitter in real-time, after working hours, to learn more about each respective organization. After several weeks, JANJ submitted a proposal to ECS for funding for an inaugural event: the Women's Future Leadership Forum. The ECS Foundation accepted the proposal and granted funds to help support aspiring female high school students become future leaders.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kadeeae/2977694065/sizes/l/in/photostream/Doing more by Theme: Explain - Feel like you have too much to do, because you do too much - do what you do best and network the rest Exercise: Surfrider - Reflection question doing less
http://www.devonvsmith.com/2010/07/the-networked-nonprofit-theatre-a-manifesto-a-book-review/We assert the unalienable rights of The Intern. We understand that The Intern might be a high school student, an MBA, a retiree, or anyone in between. The Intern will be taken seriously, given real work to do, be respected for their opinion, and will be patiently taught the things they don’t yet know.
http://socialmediatoday.com/content/6-ways-waste-your-time-social-medhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/inel/4160678255/ia?utm_source=smt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_caSocial Media Marketing is a helpful tool, but you have to be careful not to waste time on unnecessary and even harmful actions in your quest to make the most of this new tool. Here are six big time-wasters to be aware of:Subscribing to too many Blogs. I highly recommend that you subscribe to relevant blogs for your industry, but be picky, be realistic, and set an egg timer. The point is that you cannot be everywhere, you just can't. So choose your feeds wisely. Following blogs won't do you any good if you don't have time to read, understand, and respond when necessary. You may want to respond by sharing with others, you might join the conversation, you might need to adjust something you are doing based on this new information. So don't over do it, because if you read ALL the relevant blogs there will be no time to respond accordingly.Reading every Tweet, Facebook post, or Status Update. This is similar to subscribing to too many blogs. You want to follow them because they have good stuff to say, but once you begin to follow a big crowd you can't catch every little thing. So don't feel guilty if you miss some posts. I highly recommend making Favorites Lists (“Groups” in Facebook) so that you can make sure to catch everything that the most relevant people have to say. **Disclaimer: if you have time to read a ton, read as much as you realistically have time for. I think listening (reading) is one of the most important parts of social media marketing, but don't kill your productivity by reading all day long.Getting involved in too many different social media sites. Keep it to the sites that are most relevant to your immediate fan base. We use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, & a few Forums. We post to a few main forums that speak to our industry. We comment on blog articles that are relevant and we can add some value to. We write our own blog, and we are maintaining our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube profiles. There certainly are more options for us, but this is where we find our specific community interacts. Your industry may have a ton of forums but not a lot of bloggers. It is certainly industry specific. Don't be afraid to ask customers where they “hang-out”, and don't be afraid to try something, give it the appropriate time to see if it works, and then make your exit if you find it does not work for your needs.mpaign=newsletterChecking your social media too often. Block out specific times of day where you spend 30 minutes or an hour, reading and replying on your social media pages. Don't let the urge to hop over and check it every hour pull you under. Then the day is over and all you have to show for it is your social media posts and by then you are running out of good original work and content to talk about anyway.Following or Friending people who are not a part of your community. Do you automatically let anyone who asks you to be a friend, be a friend? Do you automatically follow any Twitter follower that follows you? This can be a humongous waste of time. Again, you have to be choosy. Don't let anyone who is not relevant to your business take any of your time or energy. There are many types of relevant people in this world; mentors, prospects, clients, industry experts, P.R. connections, local connections, you will have to make the final decision. The important thing here is to not let a bunch of spamming, get rich quick, time wasters get mixed into your community.Posting repeat messages or setting up automated messages. I know this sounds ridiculous that these two things actually waste your time, but let me explain. If you set up automated status updates through ping or an rss feed you are wasting your time and everyone else's. No one wants to read automatic status updates. Everyone knows they are automated, especially if they are following several industry giants and see the same thing posted, verbatim, over and over. Those messages are not personal and will send your followers straight to their Unfollow buttons.I have seen many companies on many occasions who have a slogan or an elevator pitch or a special claim to fame, use that message non-stop on their social media feeds. I have even witnessed updates like these containing the exact same typo they had in the previous version of it. I have also seen this status update posted multiple times in the same day! Talk about exasperating. Can you imagine in your twitter feed, over and over again all day “companyxyz: We're the home of the Award Winning Acme XYZ Thing-a-ma-jig!” Literally copied & pasted all day long? Not so good. #UnfollowHow do you keep from wasting valuable time while tackling your Social Media Marketing?
http://socialmediatoday.com/content/6-ways-waste-your-time-social-medhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/inel/4160678255/ia?utm_source=smt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_caSocial Media Marketing is a helpful tool, but you have to be careful not to waste time on unnecessary and even harmful actions in your quest to make the most of this new tool. Here are six big time-wasters to be aware of:Subscribing to too many Blogs. I highly recommend that you subscribe to relevant blogs for your industry, but be picky, be realistic, and set an egg timer. The point is that you cannot be everywhere, you just can't. So choose your feeds wisely. Following blogs won't do you any good if you don't have time to read, understand, and respond when necessary. You may want to respond by sharing with others, you might join the conversation, you might need to adjust something you are doing based on this new information. So don't over do it, because if you read ALL the relevant blogs there will be no time to respond accordingly.Reading every Tweet, Facebook post, or Status Update. This is similar to subscribing to too many blogs. You want to follow them because they have good stuff to say, but once you begin to follow a big crowd you can't catch every little thing. So don't feel guilty if you miss some posts. I highly recommend making Favorites Lists (“Groups” in Facebook) so that you can make sure to catch everything that the most relevant people have to say. **Disclaimer: if you have time to read a ton, read as much as you realistically have time for. I think listening (reading) is one of the most important parts of social media marketing, but don't kill your productivity by reading all day long.Getting involved in too many different social media sites. Keep it to the sites that are most relevant to your immediate fan base. We use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, & a few Forums. We post to a few main forums that speak to our industry. We comment on blog articles that are relevant and we can add some value to. We write our own blog, and we are maintaining our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube profiles. There certainly are more options for us, but this is where we find our specific community interacts. Your industry may have a ton of forums but not a lot of bloggers. It is certainly industry specific. Don't be afraid to ask customers where they “hang-out”, and don't be afraid to try something, give it the appropriate time to see if it works, and then make your exit if you find it does not work for your needs.mpaign=newsletterChecking your social media too often. Block out specific times of day where you spend 30 minutes or an hour, reading and replying on your social media pages. Don't let the urge to hop over and check it every hour pull you under. Then the day is over and all you have to show for it is your social media posts and by then you are running out of good original work and content to talk about anyway.Following or Friending people who are not a part of your community. Do you automatically let anyone who asks you to be a friend, be a friend? Do you automatically follow any Twitter follower that follows you? This can be a humongous waste of time. Again, you have to be choosy. Don't let anyone who is not relevant to your business take any of your time or energy. There are many types of relevant people in this world; mentors, prospects, clients, industry experts, P.R. connections, local connections, you will have to make the final decision. The important thing here is to not let a bunch of spamming, get rich quick, time wasters get mixed into your community.Posting repeat messages or setting up automated messages. I know this sounds ridiculous that these two things actually waste your time, but let me explain. If you set up automated status updates through ping or an rss feed you are wasting your time and everyone else's. No one wants to read automatic status updates. Everyone knows they are automated, especially if they are following several industry giants and see the same thing posted, verbatim, over and over. Those messages are not personal and will send your followers straight to their Unfollow buttons.I have seen many companies on many occasions who have a slogan or an elevator pitch or a special claim to fame, use that message non-stop on their social media feeds. I have even witnessed updates like these containing the exact same typo they had in the previous version of it. I have also seen this status update posted multiple times in the same day! Talk about exasperating. Can you imagine in your twitter feed, over and over again all day “companyxyz: We're the home of the Award Winning Acme XYZ Thing-a-ma-jig!” Literally copied & pasted all day long? Not so good. #UnfollowHow do you keep from wasting valuable time while tackling your Social Media Marketing?
http://socialmediatoday.com/content/6-ways-waste-your-time-social-medhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/inel/4160678255/ia?utm_source=smt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_caSocial Media Marketing is a helpful tool, but you have to be careful not to waste time on unnecessary and even harmful actions in your quest to make the most of this new tool. Here are six big time-wasters to be aware of:Subscribing to too many Blogs. I highly recommend that you subscribe to relevant blogs for your industry, but be picky, be realistic, and set an egg timer. The point is that you cannot be everywhere, you just can't. So choose your feeds wisely. Following blogs won't do you any good if you don't have time to read, understand, and respond when necessary. You may want to respond by sharing with others, you might join the conversation, you might need to adjust something you are doing based on this new information. So don't over do it, because if you read ALL the relevant blogs there will be no time to respond accordingly.Reading every Tweet, Facebook post, or Status Update. This is similar to subscribing to too many blogs. You want to follow them because they have good stuff to say, but once you begin to follow a big crowd you can't catch every little thing. So don't feel guilty if you miss some posts. I highly recommend making Favorites Lists (“Groups” in Facebook) so that you can make sure to catch everything that the most relevant people have to say. **Disclaimer: if you have time to read a ton, read as much as you realistically have time for. I think listening (reading) is one of the most important parts of social media marketing, but don't kill your productivity by reading all day long.Getting involved in too many different social media sites. Keep it to the sites that are most relevant to your immediate fan base. We use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, & a few Forums. We post to a few main forums that speak to our industry. We comment on blog articles that are relevant and we can add some value to. We write our own blog, and we are maintaining our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube profiles. There certainly are more options for us, but this is where we find our specific community interacts. Your industry may have a ton of forums but not a lot of bloggers. It is certainly industry specific. Don't be afraid to ask customers where they “hang-out”, and don't be afraid to try something, give it the appropriate time to see if it works, and then make your exit if you find it does not work for your needs.mpaign=newsletterChecking your social media too often. Block out specific times of day where you spend 30 minutes or an hour, reading and replying on your social media pages. Don't let the urge to hop over and check it every hour pull you under. Then the day is over and all you have to show for it is your social media posts and by then you are running out of good original work and content to talk about anyway.Following or Friending people who are not a part of your community. Do you automatically let anyone who asks you to be a friend, be a friend? Do you automatically follow any Twitter follower that follows you? This can be a humongous waste of time. Again, you have to be choosy. Don't let anyone who is not relevant to your business take any of your time or energy. There are many types of relevant people in this world; mentors, prospects, clients, industry experts, P.R. connections, local connections, you will have to make the final decision. The important thing here is to not let a bunch of spamming, get rich quick, time wasters get mixed into your community.Posting repeat messages or setting up automated messages. I know this sounds ridiculous that these two things actually waste your time, but let me explain. If you set up automated status updates through ping or an rss feed you are wasting your time and everyone else's. No one wants to read automatic status updates. Everyone knows they are automated, especially if they are following several industry giants and see the same thing posted, verbatim, over and over. Those messages are not personal and will send your followers straight to their Unfollow buttons.I have seen many companies on many occasions who have a slogan or an elevator pitch or a special claim to fame, use that message non-stop on their social media feeds. I have even witnessed updates like these containing the exact same typo they had in the previous version of it. I have also seen this status update posted multiple times in the same day! Talk about exasperating. Can you imagine in your twitter feed, over and over again all day “companyxyz: We're the home of the Award Winning Acme XYZ Thing-a-ma-jig!” Literally copied & pasted all day long? Not so good. #UnfollowHow do you keep from wasting valuable time while tackling your Social Media Marketing?
I’ll be talking about a couple of themes from my book, The Networked Nonprofit.
I wear many hats these days. I’m the CEO of Zoetica, write Beth’s Blog, and Visiting Scholar for Nonprofits and Social Media at the Packard Foundation