Social Networking Tips

Social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter present many exciting opportunities for growth, as well as some pitfalls. Some organizations, leaping before they look, start with an elaborate “Grand Opening” but then watch with bewilderment as a great silence descends on their best efforts. Others, looking carefully before they leap, simply decide that they can’t afford a system of communication with their constituents that could consume an infinite amount of time and effort. But these pitfalls are avoidable with a strategic understanding of what’s going on.

The truth is, social networking requires nothing more — and nothing less — than the many forms of communication non-profits already use. With planning, these valuable tools can be powerful aids in maintaining solid relationships with current constituents and growing the base of supporters for any non-profit organization.

Facebook and Twitter are commonly used social networking tools with a lot of potential, but they are very different systems. We’ll take a look at these differences in a future article. For now, we’ll stick to the broadest strokes and let you adjust your use as experience suggests. Let’s start with some common situations where Facebook and Twitter come in handy.

Announcements & Events

One of the most natural ways to use online social networking tools is to make quick announcements and reminders about upcoming events. There are a thousand examples, but these, perhaps, suggest the idea:

• Rally at the capitol building on Tuesday. Be there by Noon!
• Only 10 tickets for our Gala are left. Buy them soon before we sell out.
• Don’t forget: registration for our classes closes tomorrow.

Announcements can include breaking news about your organization.  Post the news on your website, then post the announcement on Facebook and Twitter. This is an excellent way to drive traffic to your Website. Don’t forget to include a good picture on the website whenever possible, as Facebook will allow graphics to join with the link. Don’t provide the whole story when making these announcements. Just post a sentence or two to pique people’s interest and drive the traffic to your website, where you have plenty of room to say more. Examples:

• Our third clinic in Haiti is now open: <link>
• Our Executive Director testifies before the House Subcommittee on Healthcare: <link>
• Charitable gift annuity rates change soon. It’s a good time to consider this way of giving: <link>

How to Send Website Addresses on Twitter

To make announcements for your group on Twitter, you’ll want to use a URL-shortening service (like tinyurl.com). This will give you a shorter URL that points to the same place. For example, the direct URL of this article is http://www.grassrootsgivinggroup.com/blog/?p=28 — which is rather long and unwieldy, but with Twitter’s limit of 140 characters per announcement (characters, not words!) the website address alone would take up a lot of our space! We went to tinyurl.com and typed in this address, and it created http://tinyurl.com/27k2h38 for us. Google’s http://goo.gl created an even shorter one, http://goo.gl/fkr7A. Try copying this into your browser right now. When you put this short address in your browser’s address bar, it redirects you to the original, longer address — so you can post the short address in a space-limited tweet and direct people to your website. Even if you don’t need a URL shortening service to fit your tweet in the space limit, it’s considered good manners on Twitter.

Planning in Advance

You can probably think of a hundred ways to use these tools to promote your own organization. But as the “Grand Opening” organization found out, this just isn’t enough. Social networking requires tending and keeping an open flow of information, if your organization is to reap the very real benefits of being “top of mind” among your supporters.

This is where advance planning comes in handy. Make sure that your social network updates are included as a step whenever you update your website and add new content. Make sure you’ve scheduled your updates for events. Now, you need more content to keep the momentum going when you don’t have as much to announce.

This Day in History: One great tactic is a “This Day in History” file. Every organization has its own history, and sharing this with donors can be both fun and productive. Create a list of important dates in your organization and plan on communicating through your social-network tools on those dates. You can also use this to push a timely message. For example:

• Five years ago today, we began our first parenting class. Tomorrow, our 134th class begins. Please help us keep these important classes going! <link to donation site>
• Six years ago, our founders met at a kitchen table to discuss an different approach to educating children with learning disabilities. Today, thanks to supporters like yourself, we have over 2,000 graduates who have successfully obtained their high school credentials.
• 107 years ago this weekend, Mr. Wexler obtained the first piece of art he would eventually donate to found the museum. Come see “A Blue Child” by VonWitz this weekend – the painting that started it all.
• Today is International Literacy Day. Support literacy in your community. <link>

You get the idea. Milestones, large and small, can be shared and celebrated in this fashion.

Quote Collection: Another resource to develop is a good collection of quotes. Relevant statements by experts, celebrities and the more public facing members of your staff make excellent “filler” when a day or two has gone by without something better coming up.

Ask Your Audience Questions: I strongly recommend asking questions through your social networking tools. This invites participation rather than passive viewing. But it also requires someone to check in periodically and respond to themes as they develop and make sure the conversation remains on track and civil. Someday, somehow, someone will go off on a tangent or decide to “flame” another supporter. This isn’t the end of the world nor is it a reason to avoid social media. Just deal with it responsibly. Remind everyone to be kind to one another and, if someone has really crossed the line, eject them from the conversation. If you can keep a good conversation going, perhaps on Facebook or (if you’re ambitious) on your own blog, you’ll be able to keep your viewers’ attention and even acquire new viewers as the conversation picks up. The more people participate, the more people get involved, and the more people give money.

Staff Introductions: You can also use Facebook to introduce your supporters to members of your staff with whom they might interact, fostering a sense of community and belonging. Take a photo of your merchandise-fulfillment person or receptionist, and tell a little something about what they do. Examples:

• Cheri, our Merchandise Manager, oversaw the shipping over over 7,500 pounds of merchandise ordered by our supporters last year.
• Bob, the receptionist at our office, answers and redirects an average of 230 phone calls every day, greets every visitor, and, perhaps most importantly, brews all the coffee to keep us going every day. He’s been with our organization for 5 years this Thursday.

Notes from Your Day: Lastly, keep things current and lively by sharing snippets from the experiences you have as a staff person about which your supporters might be curious. Did a beneficiary of your work express gratitude in a particularly moving fashion? Have you learned a new fact that lends increased importance to what you do? Small bits of information that encapsulate a snapshot of the larger picture are perfect for sharing in this medium.

How Often to Update?

So, how often should you communicate via social-networking tools? There is no hard and fast rule. If the times are particularly exciting and things are developing at a breathless pace, you might choose to have several updates every day. If, on the other hand, the times are more normal, you might consider somewhere between four and ten updates every week. To keep your momentum going, don’t let more than three days go by without something worthwhile finding its way to your supporters on a regular basis, even if news is lean. Using some of the tactics above to fill those lean times, this doesn’t have to be very hard to do.

Social networking tools provide a great deal of opportunity for communication and relationship-building for non-profits. Using them effectively requires just a little planning and some imagination.

Do you have more tips? Share them in the comments section below!