A presentation to Community Legal Centre workers in Melbourne, Australia on the uses of and theory underpinning social media.

1. The Theory & Uses of Social Media
Steve Womersley: Loddon Campaspe CLC

2. Social Media’s premise
A connected world is a better world.

3. From the horse’s mouth...

4. “Our mission isn’t to become a public company,
our mission is to make the world more open
and connected.”
Mark Zuckerberg
18 May 2012

5. If it’s true that a more open and connected
world is a better world...
then it must also hold true that an insular and
unconnected world doesn’t work.

6. What does this mean?
• We don’t know who shares our values
• We don’t know what others are doing
• They don’t know what we’re doing
• We work in opposition (not in partnership)
with those who share our values and
aspirations

7. Uses of Social Media
• Promotion (news, events, stories, value)
• Sharing (aka content curation)
• Social action and campaigning
• Fundraising
• Website traffic
• CLE and Advice delivery
• Reaching new constituents
• Recruitment (volunteers)

8. Thinking about going social?
Steve’s Top 4 Tips

9. 1. Take the plunge
Image: santimolina

10. 1. Take the plunge
• Trust your staff to use social media responsibly
• Don’t block Social Media channels
• Don’t let internal opposition thwart curiosity,
interest or enthusiasm
• A connected world and a risk averse world
can’t coexist

11. 2. Social Media policy angst? Suck it up.
Image: ohlittleheart

12. 2. Social Media policy angst? Suck it up.
• Templates abound for adaptation and use
• Social Media Policies should be a guide and a
working document not a hurdle
• You’ll stuff up sooner or later and that’s fine.
Social media is a (by and large) forgiving
universe

13. 3. Know where you want to go
Image: iwinatcookie

14. 3. Know where you want to go
• Draft a communication plan (goals + targets)
• Employ a Communications Worker (2-4 hours
p/w per social media channel)
• Communications Worker = skills and
inclination to drive, innovate, learn, play
• Don’t rely on volunteers
• Assess progress and update plan as required

15. 4. Remember: Small is Beautiful
Image: pj_vanf

16. 4. Remember: Small is Beautiful
• Free/low cost apps level the playing field
• Small non-profits aren’t hobbled by lengthy
chains of command
• Non-profits the earliest adopters and most
creative users of social media
• It’s all relative:
LCCLC May 2012 (<70 fans, reach 609)
LCCLC May 2009 (0 Fans, reach 0)

17. Twitter 101

18. Sign Up
• Free
• one email address per account
• Pages accessible without account, eg
Loddon Campaspe CLC’s Twitter page

19. Glossary
• Tweets
• Handles (eg @GossipGirl_Bgo)
• Hashtags (eg #auslaw)
• Links (eg http://t.co/tN0NC38o)
• Replies
• Retweets
• Favorites

20. Profile pages
• Links back to website (eg www.lcclc.org.au)
• Note consistent design elements
• Tweets, Following, Followers
• Follow tab
• Favorites
• Lists (will details later)
• Recent images

21. Home page (after sign in)
• Tweets (NB no longer just LCCLC tweets)
• Australia trends
• @ Connect (Interactions/Mentions)
• # Discover (Stories/Activity/Who to
follow/Find friends/Browse categories)
• Direct Messages/New message

22. Exercise #1
In Melbourne today with @rightsagenda to present Social Media training to
Community Legal Centre workers
http://www.fclc.org.au/cb_pages/event_details.php?mevent_id=959
#auslaw
• Question 1
Why use @rightsagenda not Human Rights Law Centre or Phil Lynch?
• Question 2
Why add the link to the Federation’s events page?
• Question 3
Why use the #auslaw hashtag?

23. Sign In
Username Password
lcclc justice
clc4gv justice
naclcbruce justice

24. Exercise #2
• @LCCLC
find @NACLCBruce and subscribe to CLC
Tweeps list
• @CLC4GV
find @NACLCBruce and subscribe to CLC
Tweeps list
• @NACLCBruce
visit Lists/Member of and choose only ONE list
to Subscribe to

25. Excercise #3
Question
What should @naclcbruce do when @lcclc
and @clc4gv subscribe to clc-tweeps?

26. Answer
Tweet about it, eg
Want an up-to-date list of Australian CLCs on
Twitter? Subscribe to
https://twitter.com/#!/NACLCBruce/clc-
tweeps and I’ll keep you posted. Sweet!
#auslaw

27. Exercise #4
• @LCCLC
Find the Local Media Tweeps list and see how many
members you can add from Search (Bendigo/People)
• @CLC4GV
Find the Local Shepparton Tweeps list and see how
many members you can add from Search
(Shepparton/People)
• @NACLCBruce
Find the Oz Human Rights Champions list and see how
many members you can add from Search (Human
Rights Australia/People)

28. 3rd Party Applications (eg Hootsuite)
• manage multiple accounts from one place
• shorten links
• schedule posts and tweets
• Analytics
• Allow you to edit retweets

29. Using Social Media for Communication
and Promotion
• Value (branding)
• Events (CLE, launches etc)
• New services (eg outreach)
• Newsletters
• Causes and campaigns
• Fundraising
• Employment and Volunteer opportunities

30. “In our 2010 survey of 271 Facebook users, 38
percent said they would definitely or probably
look for a Facebook page for an organization
with which they were considering
volunteering. This climbs to 43 percent for
respondents who said they use Facebook
daily.”
The Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide
October 2011

31. What’s worked for us?
• MadMimi emails for CLE events (1 week prior)
• Kooky newsletter titles
• Video teasers (eg BYBD)
• Media follow-up from tweets
• Direct messages to media
• Support from unexpected Facebook quarters
• Facebook = behind the scenes, sneak preview,
lighthearted
• Frequent blog posts = increased website traffic

32. What hasn’t worked for us?
• Spreading ourselves too thin
• Crowdsourcing
• Facebook?

33. Communications and Promotions groundwork

34. Get your website house in order
• CMS-based, easy to update, delegated
responsibility
• Simple and logical structure
• Unique URL if possible

35. Make a good first impression
• Consistent online channel designs
• Quality avatar of your logo

36. Build a digital photo library
• People process info better with images
• Recruit students or volunteers
• Buy a decent digital SLR and skill up
• Explore Creative Commons
• Spend a penny, don’t use poor quality images
• Lookout for photo or video opportunities
• Prioritise fresh photos but access photo library
if necessary

37. Subscribe to online resources
• Web 3.0 is constantly evolving
• You’re always playing catch-up
• Subscribe to Beth’s blog, iTango, Heather
Mansfield etc
• CLEWS Resources (NACLC website)

38. Principles to apply re communications and
promotion

39. Prioritise story telling and the visual
• Social media thrives on stories
• Don’t just broadcast information or ask people
for stuff, tell them your story and inspire them
to act
• Hard pitches don’t work

40. Remember, it’s not all about YOU
• Don’t just broadcast what YOU are doing,
share content that will interest those who
follow you or who regard you as the expert in
the field
• Tweeters who include links in their tweets are
the most frequently retweeted
• Thank people for following, mentioning you

41. Calls to action
• Every post, tweet etc should prompt visitors to
do something (eg to follow a link, bookmark a
hashtag, share your post)

42. Knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone
• Ensure visitors can access your social media
channels via your homepage
• Ensure your email signature links to your URL
and social media channels
• Post to every channel you manage, on the
proviso that...

43. The medium sets the tone
• Each channel requires a different tone of
voice, length etc
• Facebook more personal than Twitter
• Find out what works best for each channel you
manage and craft posts/tweets etc accordingly
• Resist the temptation to link Facebook,
Twitter, blogs etc

44. Be fleet of foot (or better still, prepared)
• Social media never sleeps
• Today’s blog post is tomorrow’s fish and chip
wrapper
• Stretch your coverage as wide as possible
• Share the load (eg multiple Facebook Admins)
• Anticipate and schedule tweets, posts etc
(using hashtags)
• Law Week Sash: VLF blog post One hour
later...

45. Have fun
• Keep the “Social” in Social Media
• Social media rewards humour, creativity and
the visual
• Don’t post a photo of a bunch of suits at your
project launch; show them a photo of your
Principal Solicitor with his pants down

47. Track your progress
• A simple spreadsheet is fine
• Pay attention to Facebook Insights to see what
works (ie what people respond to) and change
course as you need to
• Subscribe to Google Analytics
• Some 3rd Party applications provide analytics