How to create an efficient digital presence for non-profits?

Good Social
Part 1: Creating an efficient digital presence for
non-profits and learnings from top social networks

This is the 1st part of a 3 piece research report. For other parts please visit http://www.slideshare.net/maverickdigital

Content
In this presentation:
 Top 14 Tips for Creating a successful digital presence
 Learnings from the top social networks for nonprofits

In related presentations:
 Trend analysis – what is hot for social good? Part 2

 Online fundraising platforms
Part 3
 Resources – useful sites to visit for nonprofits

All parts of this presentation are available on SlideShare:
http://www.slideshare.net/maverickdigital

Introduction
 New technologies and social media are changing the world.
 Conversation starts at one point in the world, is shared instantly and
amplified through social networks to reach millions.
 New media has enabled the devolution of power to the public. This
creates a perfect environment for nonprofit organisations (and
corporate social responsibility activities) to foster and grow.
 Social networking can be used as a tool to reach the public, connect with
them, listen to their voice, build empathy for a cause and eventually create
good for the community and with the community.
 New media also creates new and easy means of fundraising for nonprofits.
 In this presentation we will focus on the hot topic of creating efficient
digital presence for nonprofit organisations and events across
multiple channels.

Building Blocks
14 Tips for creating a
successful digital presence
for non-profits

Tip 1: Explain your cause clearly
 On your “mobile friendly” website provide your followers with as much information
as they could want or need about your cause.
 Start with a simple and clear explanation on the homepage:
– What is your cause / purpose?
– What is the most immediate action(s) needed?
 For those interested in learning more, provide more detailed information:
– Who are your team?
– What is the financial structure of your organisation?
– How can they support your organisation?
– Who are your volunteers?
 Provide downloadable files if needed.
 Provide links to online discussion groups, social networks and other platforms like
blogs.

Tip 2: Keep them updated
 Don’t just update your website but allow your supporters to follow your updates
and demonstrate the difference your organisation is making through:
– RSS feed
– Email newsletters
– Facebook updates
– Twitter posts
– Other social network updates
– Even SMS if you have budget to support
 A supporting blog allows you to provide stories from the field and less corporate
updates with a more informal, human touch.
 Provide detailed reports of activities in downloadable PDF format at least
quarterly:
– Especially financial records to build trust with your supporters; so people know
where their money is going.

Tip 3: Provide easy fundraising methods
 Online fundraising has increased around 20% over the past 3 years*. Make sure
the “Donate” button on your website is easy to find and distinctive from the rest of
the design.
 Provide visitors to your site alternative ways to donate:
– Online gift shop
– Money transfer through online banking
– Donation through SMS
– Direct Debit for continuous support
 Make sure the donation process is as easy as possible.
– Don’t force everyone to become a member or register for your email updates
when they want to donate to your organisation
– Don’t ask too many questions for data collection
– Clearly show every stage required for making donation at the beginning of the
process
– Send a thank you email on completion

Source: The Convio Online Marketing nonprofit Benchmark Index, April 2012

Tip 4: Increase the number of gifts
 Increase in number of gifts was the primary driver for the increase in online
donations in 2011*:
– Build a portfolio of options from one-off, small gifts (such as Christmas Cards)
to long term monthly donations (such as Sponsor a Child).
– Identify important times of the year where people present gifts to each other,
build special gifts to catch these moments.
– Create new gifting methods – for example use Facebook and allow fans to gift
donations to their friends.
 Make sure your catalogue is available on different platforms:
– Facebook
– LinkedIn
– Pinterest
– Even eBay or Amazon


Tip 5: Build your community
 Facebook is perfect for building your community around your cause.
 Engage with your current and potential supporters by posting updates regularly,
answering their questions, replying to their comments and actively participating
discussions on walls and forums.
 Use Facebook’s timeline functionality to provide a good background for your
activities for new comers.
 Actively involve your fans and enable their participation in discussions:
– Polls to answer
– Petitions to sign
– Activities for them to share their own pictures
– Open questions so they can post on the wall
 Observe fan behaviour and provide materials for them to share accordingly:
– Facebook timeline image “I support xxx”
– Wall images with quotes
 Encourage them to speak to each other. This builds a stronger community feeling
when there is interaction between members.

Tip 6: Get activate on Pinterest
 Pinterest is now the 3rd most popular social network in US* and generating more
referrals than Twitter**
 Connect with Pinterest’s more interest-based, heavily female community by
creating picture rich content:
– Images from your gift catalogue
– Fund raising activities – share to support
– Pictures from the field
– Your own website and blog content (with a nice picture)
– Quotes (related to your cause) to share
 Tag your products with price information so they automatically appear on
Pinterest’s gifts section and an automated price tag appears above the image.
– Make sure price changes on your catalogue are reflected manually!
 Learn from brands like Lindt Chocolate #Pin4Autism campaign and encourage
support for your cause by creating viral activities.
 Involve your supporters from your current networks - for example post questions
on your Facebook group and post answers as pins on your Pinterest boards.
Sources: ClickZ / SEW http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2166550/Pinterest-Now-3rd-Most-Popular-Social-Network-Study
TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/08/pinterest-now-generates-more-referral-traffic-than-twitter-study/

Tip 7: Use LinkedIn
 LinkedIn is one of the top 5 social networks and is the best way to reach the
professional business community.
 Connect with professionals by creating a complete company profile:
– Make sure your employees are also on LinkedIn and connected to your
profile.
– Encourage your supporters to follow your company page on LinkedIn.
– Regularly update your page – linking to your Twitter feed or blog posts is a
good way of doing this.
– Use the products and services tab to inform your supporters about your
organisation’s activities.
– Drive support to your organisation by adding the Volunteer and Causes
section to your profile.
 Use LinkedIn groups:
– Join in special interest groups to reach potential supporters.
– Create your own group for your cause / issue to connect with your supporters.
 Try to be active on LinkedIn Answers to reach potential supporters that have
questions about your area of expertise.
 Don’t forget to let LinkedIn know that you are a nonprofit.

Tip 8: Use videos (and YouTube)
 Video is a powerful emotional medium – images, sound, music all come together
to communicate your good cause. YouTube knows this and therefore supports
nonprofit organisations with a special programme.
 YouTube is the 2nd most popular search engine, be visible and available with the
right keywords and right content to reach new audiences.
 According to February 2012 figures from YouTube, of c16,000 organisations in the
nonprofit program, about 30 have received more than 10 million views on their
videos and 271 have received more than 1 million views.
 Let YouTube know that you are a nonprofit and get the special branded page
advantage for your organisation: www.youtube.com/nonprofits
 Share your videos on Facebook and your website alongside with your YouTube
Channel.
 If you have affiliates ask them to share your video(s) on their platforms too. Every
viewer counts!

Tip 9: Tweet Regularly
 Twitter is an easy way to keep connected with your community. With an honest,
real and regular conversation Twitter could be a very efficient tool to reach new
supporters and keep them updated about your cause.
 Tweet your organisation-specific news as well as other news related to your
cause. Retweet if you believe your followers will be interested in a tweet from
another source.
 Respond to your followers and mentions with a tweet.
 Ask your leading team members and senior managers to have their own Twitter
accounts to post their personal views on issues and daily activities.
 Follow users that are active in your area and engage with them through Twitter.
 Tweet regularly – 5 to 10 times a day is a good stream. Having a daily regular
tweet such as “Photo of the day” is always a good place to start.
 Update your website, blog and Facebook with your Tweets. Tweet about your
updates on your website, blog, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram!
 Use keywords and hashtags so potential followers will find you through search.
 Get in touch with Twitter and ask them to promote your Tweets for good:
http://hope140.org/contact

Tip 10: Don’t forget email marketing
 Online revenue of a charity correlates with the size of its email database*
 Although open and click through rates of emails are going down every year, when
done properly emails can still create good results*
– Average open rate 27-28%
– Click through rate 3.4%
 Email allows you to communicate directly with your supporters and prospective
supporters.
– Create profile groups according to their participation levels
– Send personalised emails containing stories about:
• Results of campaigns
• Individual life stories
• New campaigns
• Future plans
• Ways to support
• Appeals for immediate fundraising


Tip 11: Identify the influencers
 If you have an established community, plan for more advance community
management initiatives.
 There are always leaders in each community. Find them.
 Finding the most influential members of the network and encouraging them to
advocate your cause will help to reach new people to support your cause.
 Look at your Facebook fans, Tweeters, blogosphere and identify:
– Who is mentioning your organisation most often?
– Who is retweeting/sharing your posts?
– Who is commenting most often about your posts?
 Identify potential new influencers:
– Who are the top people with the highest Klout score in your area?
– What is their audience size?
– How can you reach these people? Plan for an activation strategy.
 Don’t forget, advocates are not just talking about your charity but also making
donations.
– The percentage of online advocates also making an online donation grew
from 6.4% in 2010 to 11.9% in 2011. This metric indicates that charities are
doing a better job at cross-marketing between fundraising and advocacy
programs*


Tip 12: Encourage them to share
 If you have a good cause and all your organisation needs is new supporters then
encourage your network to share the content you are providing:
– Videos: from high production value viral videos to quick and dirty field footage
– Images: from professionally shot assets to Instagram pictures directly from
your mobile
 Social sharing is one of the best ways to reach new people, create awareness
and gain new supporters.
– First time donations contribute almost 40%* to overall online fundraising and
receiving a shared link from your friend is one of the best ways to be
introduced to a new cause.
 Don’t encourage “slacktivism” (support through sharing only). Make it clear that
sharing is just an initial action and that you need more support by volunteering /
fundraising for your cause.


Tip 13: Optimise for search
 Tip 13 is a very lucky one: Make sure your site is optimized for search engines –
mainly for Google!
– What are the keywords that supporters might use to search for you? Actions,
activities, fund raising project names, generic names. Check Google Insight
trends report and your own web visitor metrics.
– How is your content matching each keyword? Make sure you don’t have any
gaps!
– Rules are changing often but one remains constant: Never spam and never
buy links. Make sure you have good content that your potential supporters
would like access to.
 If you are new or launching a brand new activity, paid search campaigns to
support initial ranking will be helpful. Check if you are eligible for Google’s non-
profit programme which provides $10,000 worth of free adwords.
 Don’t forget to identify your organisation and important people in the code with
proper microdata / schema.org tags.
 If you have a product catalogue make sure it’s marked with proper microdata /
schema.org tags, so they appear in Google’s product search too.

Tip 14: Plus yourself
 Google+ is a growing social networking platform. Even though the number of
users are lower than other top networks it has a positive impact on search engine
rankings.
 Create both your organisation and leading personal profiles on Google+ and link
them to your web page / blog posts using necessary schema.org tags such as
Author.
 In addition to SEO advantages, Google+ offers good opportunities:
– Hangouts functionality will allow any non-profit to arrange a virtual video
conference with supporters.
– Circles functionality allows you to group donors, supporters, volunteers in
groups and send separate communications to each.
 Also if you have a team in the field anywhere in the world, Google+ can be a
cheap way to arrange meetings and communicate internally.
 On top of Google+ functions, Google also allows non-profits to use its apps free or
at minimal cost. Check out their non-profits page.

Socially Goods
Learnings from the top
social networks for
non-profit organisations

The Breast Cancer Site on Facebook

 Over 3 million fans
 Highly engaged community
 Well balanced content: Informative posts, nice wall images to share, highlights from gift
catalogue, coupons to get discounts, stories & real life pictures from fans who fight against
breast cancer, posts from fans about their fundraising activities and more.

Live Strong on Facebook

 Over 1.6 million fans
 Good content mix: Informative posts, nice wall images to share, voting application to decide
where funds will be used, videos to share, blogs from members, real life stories and
highlights from activities.

Join Red on Facebook

 1.3 million fans
 Features the (RED) shop and interactive app which allows members to add their own
creation to timeline picture.
 Good content mix: Highlights from activities, nice wall images to share, posts from fans, viral
videos to share, posts from blog, highlights of new gifts on the catalogue, informative posts
to share with friends.

PBS on Facebook

 With 1.1 million fans, most liked American nonprofit on Facebook.
 As a nonprofit TV network, PBS uses Facebook’s community building functions very efficiently to feature
its shows and activities.
 They feature exclusive videos and have a special app to unlock more videos by sharing with friends.
 The page has been updated on a daily basis and has a highly engaged community with high amounts of
sharing, commenting and likes. However, the interactivity comes more from the topic and exclusive
content. Otherwise the Facebook page is handled as an extension of the website and news platform.

Greenpeace on Facebook

 Green Peace USA has over 100,000 members and is actively using Facebook to create engagement with
new fans and features good usage of Facebook external apps.
 The page has a special donation app, which allows Facebook members to donate without leaving the
page with a secure credit card transaction.
 They also have an online shop application which features 100’s of products which are available to buy,
again without leaving the page. Each product detail can be also “Like”d or “Send” as a message to a
friend. The application also allows users to see if their friend network liked any of the products.
 Finally the page also has a special Youtube page which shows videos from Greenpeace’s Youtube
channel but without leaving Facebook as in previous applications.

World Vision on Facebook

 With almost 900,000 fans, World Vision USA is one of the biggest nonprofit organisations on Facebook.
 World Vision Facebook page has a special sponsors section with news and updates for Child sponsors.
 They also have a special page designed for donations with links to an online catalogue.
 They are now creating an advocacy group called “Social Media Leadership Council” open for application
to all Facebook fans.

Amnesty International USA on Pinterest

 With 2,400 followers for the user and over 5,000 followers for some of its boards, Amnesty
International appears to be one of the most popular nonprofits on Pinterest.
 They create and share infographics to share/repin.
 Links to gift catalogue with automated price tags along with other fair trade product information is
available as a board.
 They also use the mechanics of Pinterest nicely by creating lifestyle content such as books and
movies related with their cause.

Join Red on Pinterest

 Launched March 2012
 Features a product catalogue with automated price tags. This is a good practice as it allows
products to appear on the gift section of Pinterest.
 They also pinned nice quotes to share/repin which creates viral impact on Pinterest
 Also images from recent campaigns, links to blog posts and real life cases are available.

Charity:Water on Pinterest

 One of the first charities on Pinterest and featured on Pinterest’s official nonprofit page.
 Updated daily with new pins which keeps them always visible on the updated pages list.
 Used as an image archive to create presence in this new social network.
 Has a product catalogue but prices are not tagged therefore it doesn’t appear on the gift section of
Pinterest.

Unicef on Pinterest

 With over 2,300 followers Unicef is one of the most popular nonprofits.
 Updated daily with new pins which keeps them always visible on the updated pages list.
 Used as an image archive to create presence in this new social network.
 Features boards for other nonprofits on Pinterest and videos from other nonprofits

Humane Society NY on Pinterest

 This animal protection charity uses Pinterest to feature pictures of cats and dogs looking for a new
family. They link each image back to their adoptapet.com website. They also announce adopted
pets on their “Adopted” board.
 Similar to other charities they announce projects and events from Pinterest by pinning images
while they also have lifestyle content boards for the supporting community.
 Finally they use Pinterest for fundraising as they feature the wish list of the organisation as in Pin
format.

American Red Cross on LinkedIn

 American Red Cross is using linked in as a platform to connect to professionals, employees and
new supporters. They also have a nonprofit discussion group to connect with supporters.
 There are almost 12,000 employees and 19,000 followers connected to this nonprofit organisation
on LinkedIn. The open group also has almost 9,000 members.
 On the company page, along with the career section they also feature their most recent / most
popular activities under the services tab.

American Cancer Society on LinkedIn

 American Cancer Society is using LinkedIn actively to connect with professionals as a company and
connect with current and potential supporters.
 Their company page has over 6,000 employees connected while there are over 14,000 people following
them as a company.
 They use the Products and Services tab to feature current fundraising activities.
 American Cancer Society has several support groups with active discussions. Their main supporter group
has almost 6,000 members while the “Relay for Life” group has 5,000 and the “Making Strides Against
Breast Cancer” group has 3,000 members.

Green Peace on LinkedIn

 Greenpeace uses linked in to connect with professionals as a company. They have over
8,000 followers.
 Careers is the main functionality on the page.
 They are regularly posting updates about their activities as links to Greenpeace blog.

LiveStrong on LinkedIn

 LiveStrong uses linked in to connect with current and potential supporters.
 They have a nonprofit group with currently 4,300 members.

The Nature Conservancy on LinkedIn

 The Nature Conservancy is using LinkedIn actively to connect with professionals as a company and
connect with current and potential supporters.
 Their company page has over 2,000 employees connected while there are over 6,500 people following
them as a company.
 They use the Services tab to feature current fundraising activities. They also post links to their latest blog
posts as updates on their LinkedIn page regularly.
 They also have an open discussion group with over 6,500 members along with smaller interest groups
such as “Young Professionals Network” with 300 members.

Room to Read on Twitter

 Room to Read uses Twitter to engage with a global community and inform them about their cause. They are one of the 2
main charities that Twitter directly supports with its Hope140 initiative.
 The corporate Twitter account has almost 600,000 followers while the founder @johnwoodRTR has over 350,000 followers.
This way they provide different angles to the same story and reach different target groups through Twitter to create support
for their cause.
 Room to Read has a personalised background highlighting the web URL and the cause is explained clearly on about copy
at the top of the page.
 They post around 5 tweets per day including RTs from relevant charities and influencers.
 They also post news about their cause (Such as President Obama loves #reading) and regularly share URL’s linked to their
website and blog.

Charity:Water on Twitter

 With its over 1.3 million followers, Charity:Water has the biggest follower community on Twitter for a
nonprofit. Therefore they are also allowed to use Twitter’s new page design with a video player.
 Even though they are not the biggest charity in US, they have the largest online community on Twitter.
However, we have to highlight that Charity:Water also has a personal endorsement from the Twitter
founder Biz Stone.
 Charity:Water shares “Photo of the Day” as a continuous Twitter stream.
 They retweet all mentions and fundraising activities from supporters including the new birthday pledge
campaign.

ONE on Twitter

 ONE uses Twitter efficiently to connect with the global community and raise awareness for its cause.
 With over 600,000 followers they are one of the top 5 nonprofits on Twitter. In addition to a global account they also have
UK, Germany and France Twitter accounts as well as accounts created by local grassroots activists.
 Similar to Room to Read, they have a personalized background highlighting the web URL and the cause is explained clearly
on about copy at the top of the page.
 They communicate directly with the followers and answer each mention back on Twitter.
 They also retweet posts from influencers as well as posting updates from local campaigns.
 Tweets include links to blog posts and website updates.

Kiva on Twitter

 Kiva uses Twitter to increase awareness of their microfinance concept and update
supporters on the results of their activities.
 Currently they have almost 500,000 followers.
 In addition to blog posts and retweets, Kiva also synchronises other social networks by
regularly updating posts on Pinterest and Instagram to Twitter followers.
 Kiva also uses Tweet-ups (Twitter offline meetups) to build communities around its cause.

Thank you
Please get in touch if you want to discuss how
can we help to enhance your presence online.
Sevil Ozer Crespo
sevil@mavad.co.uk
0778 951 2984

Visit our website for more information.
www.mavdig.co.uk

How to create an efficient digital presence for non-profits?

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