How can a CHARITY improve its presence via SOCIAL MEDIA?

radooo

I am volunteering for an Irish based charity helping them improve their visibility and public awareness through engagement with online channels and social media. If you have some experience, or valuable suggestions I would very much appreciate all your great ideas. Thanks a million

mneylon

I don't think their sector makes much difference, though being a charity probably gives them a certain advantage, as you're more likely to find a "good will" factor

radooo

blacknight, that's not the answer i was looking for, but thanks anyway

tomED

Would have to agree with Blacknight here. It's no different than any other entity trying to improve their presence - only that it's possibly an advantage that it's a charity and not a hard selling business.

What have you done so far that you feel isn't going so well?

mneylon

radooo wrote: »

blacknight, that's not the answer i was looking for, but thanks anyway

Well if you knew what the answer was that you wanted, why did you ask the question ?

radooo

thanks guys, at the moment i am at a very early stage doing background research looking for ways for online engagement across non-profit sector, observing various approaches charities engage in online dialogue via channels, e.g facebook, linkedin, twitter, youtube, and i felt that collaborative thinking (you guys on boards) would further contribute to my work.

tomED

radooo wrote: »

thanks guys, at the moment i am at a very early stage doing background research looking for ways for online engagement across non-profit sector, observing various approaches charities engage in online dialogue via channels, e.g facebook, linkedin, twitter, youtube, and i felt that collaborative thinking (you guys on boards) would further contribute to my work.

The point I was trying to make is that you shouldn't really be looking at charities, but just those that have been successfull.

This is a brand new medium and in it's infancy. Only a few have figured out how to tap into it in a way that benefits them. By closing yourself off just looking at charities, it's going to be difficult for you to find a truly successful one.

To be honest, I don't know of any charity that does a good job in terms of their Social Media campaigns. So start looking at companies that are doing it well and take their ideas and mould them to your own.

mneylon

tomED wrote: »

The point I was trying to make is that you shouldn't really be looking at charities, but just those that have been successfull.

This is a brand new medium and in it's infancy. Only a few have figured out how to tap into it in a way that benefits them. By closing yourself off just looking at charities, it's going to be difficult for you to find a truly successful one.

To be honest, I don't know of any charity that does a good job in terms of their Social Media campaigns. So start looking at companies that are doing it well and take their ideas and mould them to your own.

I agree AND disagree

A lot of the social media buzzword bingo is simply new ways of doing what people always did - interact with each other.

If you were doing it in the past using other media, then what's changed? Not a whole lot!

tomED

Blacknight wrote: »

I agree AND disagree

A lot of the social media buzzword bingo is simply new ways of doing what people always did - interact with each other.

If you were doing it in the past using other media, then what's changed? Not a whole lot!

Agree and disagree :P

Yes networking is no different than it has been in the past, but there are new ways of engaging with each other.

For example, in the past you didn't have the opportunity to run competitions the way you do now on Facebook for your business. So that is a brand new way of engaging with customers and potential customers that you have never done before.

Look at how you engage with people on Facebook. Can you imagine if you started posts here on boards showing your lovely new marketing material? You'd be banned in a second. But now, you have a captive audience on Facebook.

Take the pictures of you guys making pancakes on pancake Tuesday. Another example of something you couldn't have done in the past. But now if any of your fans comment on those photos, their friends can also see you business and the image you portray.

The ultimate question though, is - has it been beneficial to your business and how are you even quantifying that!?

mneylon

Tom - I could have done that via our blog or our forum though

Annasopra

Damien Mulley ran an event recently on this and it was hosted by the EU Commission office in Dublin, There are videos of it I'm on my mobile at the moment so can't link easily but go to www.mulley.net and search for social media ngo and you should find them

tomED

Blacknight wrote: »

Tom - I could have done that via our blog or our forum though

I don't think you could have done it the way you are doing it now though.

Yes you could have physically posted pictures of you and the team, that's grand. But would I bother reading a blog full of pictures of your team? Nah (maybe others would but I wouldn't) - straight away you'd have lost my attention. But post them in facebook - sure that's what we see all the time, pictures of people, so we engage with that medium in that way.

Running competitions on your blog just wouldn't have been the same. Some people live on Facebook, they'd rarely live on a blog. You've also got that network exposure that you don't with Blogs. For example, any promotion from Blacknight through Facebook, I "like" so that my network of friends can see what I'm doing in my profile. Straight away that can be seen by all my friends which is something I wouldn't have been able to do with a blog.

Twitter to me is the evolution of IRC. A near real time chat if you use the right program. Which is why I now prefer to follow you this way than on your blog as you are more interesting in person than in an article about your favourite movie!

So yes, it's the same concept, and you could have done things the "old way" but not like you can now. The scope for engaging with customers and potential customers are made easier with these tools (facebook, twitter, etc.)

radooo

i agree with tomEd
Johnnymcg - thank you for the link, i heard of this guy - apparently a social network guru

macdragon76

Johnnymcg wrote: »

Damien Mulley ran an event recently on this and it was hosted by the EU Commission office in Dublin, There are videos of it I'm on my mobile at the moment so can't link easily but go to www.mulley.net and search for social media ngo and you should find them

You can find the videos here

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2741356

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2741820

radooo

thanks for the links - will be very useful. cheers.

andywozhere

Irish charities tend to be a bit behind their UK counterparts in terms of use of social media and tend to use it more for fundraising than campaigning/advocacy. That said it seems to depend on the sector and Irish charities working in international development tend to do better in terms of their social media campaigns (Oxfam Ireland, Trocaire etc), while charities like Bodywhys use social media as an outreach tool and in order to provide support to people.

You will need clear guidelines as to what the charity wants to use social media for (fundraising, campaigning, advocacy, education...) and develop goals based upon those objectives.

Here are some links that may be of interest:

http://www.mediatrust.org
www.icthub.org.uk (were good enough to send me some booklets on social media for charities for free!)
http://www.onroadmedia.org.uk/
www.ictpoint.ie

I also wrote a blog on this topic a while ago http://dublinbynumbers.com/blog/social-media-and-the-voluntary-sector

I am quite interested in this area myself so if you fancy a chat pm me. I also think I wrote something (more substantial) on this ages ago. I might be able to pass it on if I can find it.