Build a Website

Without a website, you have no online credibility. So you need a nice one. If you don’t have the $$$ to pay a developer, then there are loads of free wordpress themes out there.

Allow for Online Donations

You need a portal/giving gateway so that donors can, well, donate.  Network for Good offers a gateway, or you can use Paypal, or an array of other sites.

Register Your Nonprofit

Next, establish yourself by registering at a couple of sites that allow members to search for (and donate to) nonprofits. Two of the best are Cause World and Charity Finder.  

Claim Your Twitter and Facebook Handles

Make sure your handles match (or as much as possible, mirror) your organizational name. You may want to have employees tweet under your organizational name (and spread the work among multiple staffers). At Giv.to we use Cotweet .

Do a Little Research

Just like you wouldn’t jump into the ocean without knowing how to swim, you don’t want to throw your brand into the sea of social media without some idea of what you’re doing.  Here are five articles we consider to be “must reads”:

One, Two, Three, Four, Five.  Okay?

Establish Your Social Media Strategy

Before you tweet or post, you should have some kind of strategy in mind. Questions like “What tone do we want to have? What do we want to communicate about ourselves? How often will we ask for donations? How often do we want to tweet and what about?” should all be decided before you start tweeting.  And this strategy must be communicated to the employees who will participate.  Also, make clear to employees who tweet under their own name whether or not they can/want to affiliate themselves with you.  Finally, establish your course of action when someone is upset or denigrates your organization – it WILL happen, and it is better to be prepared.

Build the Facebook Page

Moving on… you are now ready to set up your facebook page.  You should add relevant company details, some interesting facts, and post some pictures. Link to your website and your twitter.  Incorporate your facebook onto your organization’s website.

Get graphic!  (take some pictures, a youtube video)

Your website is going to be really boring without something to look at.  Studies show that Youtube is one of the best ways to get the message out about your organization – and it doesn’t have to be a professionally shot movie.  Search your staff for an amateur but decent photographer and have them take photos at your events and outreach campaigns. Post them in Flickr, an online gallery… anywhere.

Now, start tweeting.

The moment has arrived. Last words: Keep your content genuine. Be yourself and your brand. Consider these words – passionate. creative. motivating. insightful.  Aim for those.  Share content you find interesting. Be a considerate conversationalist.

And you’re on your way.

It is so exciting to be part of the DC Tech community, and we could not be more thankful to the many, many, many mentors we’ve had over the last year.  There are, quite literally, too many to list.

Last night we took a much needed break from the insanity and went to the Caps game (GO CAPS!) and were able to forget for a few hours all the work we had at home.  It was great!   Our new product launch is fast approaching, and so it was a brief respite from sleepless nights.

Tomorrow: Organizations outsource their media campaigns to their top followers, sometimes for a reward.

This is the next wave of social media strategy.

Instead of engagement, we have outgagement. This isn’t a ‘new’ phenomenon, in fact it is one that is already occurring at a lightning pace.  A small business shares a great deal, and a Twitter follower shares it with 50 friends, and they share it with their friends, and so on.  Getting people to listen is engagement. But getting people to share your message and advertise for you – that’s outgagement.

So how do they do it? How do we move from getting customers to care to getting them to share? It’s an interesting question and one that I feel like has its roots in the Social Media movement already.  Human beings are hardwired to share helpful information, almost pathologically so.  To capitalize on this tendency, all an organization really needs to do is give followers information worth sharing!  This is more difficult than it sounds, of course.  How do you know what your followers want to hear? And how do you take that engagement to the next level, so that followers feel compelled to share with their friends (and anyone else who is listening)?

I’m developing a ‘rules of the road’ for Outgagement, which I’ll be happily sharing over the next few weeks.  With a detailed plan, I believe any organization can step up their game and outgage!

It seems like there are more bad days than good, in these tough economic times. It makes me want to tweet angrily at the world, why aren’t you more concerned, let’s just do something and stop standing here.

Then I think of the few gentle activists who made their points with civility, who stood up and advocated a cause without anger.  55 years ago today, Rosa Parks was asked to give up her seat and refused. She did not scream or shout or berate anyone, she did not threaten.  She had reason to be angry, certainly.

Activists who see the world with passionate zeal, who burn to make things better, are desperately needed in this country. It’s a frustrating, demanding, and often thankless job.  It’s a job for dreamers.  Unfortunately, dreams can be denied. They can be shelved during budget cuts.   And activists become sad, or disillusioned, or bitter.

Giv.to is an organization I’m proud to be a part of because we help organizations reach their fund-raising goals. We try to help our clients see that ‘acting out’ their frustration (however well-intentioned or understandable it might be) is never a good idea online.  We tell them that this is not only because the record of that misjudgment will spread in a nanosecond then last forever, but also it’s damaging to your credibility and it devalues the message itself.

What other guidance do we give our clients?  I think of them as the ABCs of Social Media Self Preservation:

1) Absolutely no name calling

2) Be considerate

3) Care passionately

4) Defend with Facts

…

Just these four cover a lot of ground, and following all 26 should (hopefully) keep activists out of major trouble.

-Rachelle

But how do we keep them from saying anything negative?

You can’t.

Then how do we keep other people from seeing the negative and it snowballing out of control?

You can’t do that either.

Not exactly a motivator, right?  But the benefits of social media are just too huge to ignore, and companies who do may find themselves profoundly ‘behind the ball’ in the new digital age. So how can a new organization (or an old organization, reluctant to let go of private information and resistant to change) jump on the social media bandwagon without embarassing itself?

1) Research, read, reflect.

Find articles about social media, about branding, about selling products or yourself, and study them. Ask critical questions like “how do we want to portray ourselves? what kind of organization are we really? are we going to allow lots of people to tweet or just one? are we going to do customer service via twitter or just post updates?” Whatever you answers are, research those topics and follow the advice of the experts. You wouldn’t try to fly a plane without instructions, would you?

2) Check out the competition.

If your opponent is on Twitter, study his tweets. If other organizations like yours are online, go through theirs. Notice who follows them and why. Make a list of who seems awesome and who sucks, and emulate the best.

3) Take criticisms seriously.

The best brands on Twitter and Facebook look at every naysayer as a chance to win over a new customer… not as a chance to throw  up their hands and claim social media ruined their business.

4) Don’t oversell it.

Don’t place ads directly in your tweet stream. Don’t direct message people unless you know that they want you to.  Don’t stalk Twitter users and for heaven’s sake be professional (but personable).

5) Apologize.

Maybe this should have been number one. If you screw up, if you have some really negative feedback, apologize. Profusely.  The power of social media is that a negative message can spread to a million people within hours. But you know… it wouldn’t spread so fast if it weren’t big news – which means you really effed up. In which case, the best thing to do is own up, make it right, and move on.  I look at recent events (like the cookssource debacle) and I think, if only they’d just apologized and made it right.  Some people say their “downfall” was the power of the mob… but technically their downfall was the fact that they found plagiarism to be totally hunkydory, and were smug when someone pointed it out.     Being aware that organizational mistakes are amplified doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes. It just means you’ll need to correct them quickly and publicly.

Next post, I promise, will be great guides/resources for getting social media savvy!

-Rachelle

In that spirit, I wanted to congratulate giv.to power users at the Allen West campaign for being especially terrific partners, and in translating all the enthusiasm and fundraising they generated into his insurgent victory as the new Congressman of Florida’s 22nd Congressional district.

Now that the election is over don’t forget to keep the conversation going with all of the political candidates this cycle over Twitter, Facebook and E-mail.

This final post in the series focuses on three tips that will help organizations make the most of Twitter as they continue to develop their social media toolkit.

6. Use hashtags or other markers of common content to make conversation-building easier. Communities of Twitter users can label or tag their tweets with hashtags (ex. #fbcamp, #apda2009, or #madmen) to signal to other users that their tweets share a common focus: a specific topic, or the goings-on of a particular industry conference, for example. This can be useful for a number of reasons:

Individuals who know to look for a particular hashtag can use Twitter’s search function to find all tweets related to that topic.

Users who stumble upon an interesting tweet with a hashtag can then find other related tweets.

A specific community can agree upon a specific hashtag to keep a lasting record of all tweets relevant to a meeting, event, or other happening.

How to: There is no central registry where Twitter users must record hashtags – just start using one in your tweets and encourage your like-minded followers to use it, too.

For example, SaveSeaTurtles might post the following update:

«Plastic 6-pack rings can kill! Please remember to #riptherings.»

Then, others who saw the tweet might post their own updates:

«#Riptherings to save marine wildlife from preventable deaths.»

7. Think about Twitter as an extension of your existing online presence: make sure your website, Facebook page, and online giving infrastructure are ready for the limelight. Many Twitter users refer followers back to their webpages without ensuring that the web page is updated and full of additional content and further opportunities to take action. A link should serve as a clear gateway, not be the last (underwhelming) step.
Entice users to visit your web space with interesting tweets and statistics, but think ahead about how you’ll keep them involved – and get them to donate – once they’re there.

8. See what your followers respond to by having a reporting page or widget that shows your real-time results. Tracking the number of followers you have only tells part of the story: it’s important to know who is reading and responding to your tweets. Services like Giv.To can provide detailed analytics about the users who click on links in your tweets to help you see what kinds of content is most compelling to your supporters and potential supporters.

[You can find the first post in the series here. The second post is available here.]

This post’s tips focus on the Two “Rs” of Twitter: Retweeting and Responding

4. Make it easy for others to retweet you.

Ask for retweets to convey urgency or an especially important message. Reaching out to your followers to help you spread your message empowers them to involve their own network in the cause. It also conveys the message that you’re eager to expand your reach.

How to: To be direct, append a tweet with «Please RT!,» «RT Plz,» or a similar call to action. Saying “please” has a big payoff.

Craft tweets that are ripe for retweeting even without making a direct appeal to your followers.

How to: Keep your tweets short so others can easily add «RT @yourorgname» and stay under 140 characters, in case they prefer not to use Twitter’s automatic retweet function. Keeping your tweets short also allows your followers to tweet your message and add their own thoughts, all in one tweet.

How to: Pepper your tweets with some of some of the “most-retweeted” words to make it more likely that your tweets will spread quickly across your network. “You” and “Help” indicate that you want to engage in a personal conversation with your followers, and “New Blog Post” suggests that you want to share meaningful content.

5. Acknowledge engagement with personal responses. Don’t let the conversation die once someone has contacted you; thank them for their participation.

How to:

Send a direct message (DM) to new followers to thank them for joining your network. Use their name. Include a link to your webpage or blog. For example:

«Thanks for the follow, NancyLou! Looking forward to saving sea turtles together. www.saveturtles.org»

Direct messages are also a great way to thank people for retweeting your messages:

«Thanks for the RT! It sure is a frightening statistic!»

If you query your followers and get responses, thank them for their input:

«What a great idea, Pam – thanks for the link!»

Immediacy is important: say «thanks» quickly to stay relevant.

Stay tuned for the third and final post in this series! [You can find the first post here.]

Finding success on Twitter can be attributed to a mix of two overarching strategies: making intelligent use of the technology, and abiding by the social norms of the Twitter community (having good «Twittiquette»). The Eight Top Tips discussed in this series provide an overview of how to make use of these two strategies.

1. Start early. Your first foray onto Twitter should not have as its focus a capital-raising campaign. It’s important to build your network – and social capital – first.

Find people on Twitter interested in your cause. Follow them, and create content worthy of them following you. Of course, you may have existing supporters who are already using Twitter, but you’ll want to reach out to others. You can search for users to follow by keyword, and also by location.

Begin posting content-rich tweets that are closely-related to your organization’s mission, and make sure your followers know how to engage with you:

Announce your presence, and include a link to your website in your Twitter profile

Share statistics and stories, or announce and report on events

Post tweets with links to your website or blog, or use a service like Giv.To to direct supporters’ attention to interesting third-party content

2. Build your network organically: post regularly, but not too often.  Take measures to ensure your account isn’t marked (officially or unofficially) as spam.

It’s easy to imagine a for-profit organization who overly-promotes their wares via Twitter getting called out for spamming. By having a targeted network and providing value in your tweets, you can avoid having your outreach lose its novelty and become as annoying as direct mail in your supporters’ mailboxes.

3. Retweet others’ updates when they are relevant to your followers or could garner goodwill.

How to: SaveSeaTurtles [a fictitious organization focused on protecting endangered wildlife] might retweet messages in any of the following ways:

• «RT @turtleluvr – I had the best time today on the beach clean up. We’ll save lots of marine lives!»
• «Twelve dolphins found dead today in Japan – injested trash. So sad! We must clean the oceans! RT @DavetheDolphin»
• «Fundraiser tomorrow at the pier: 8pm. Via @LocalSMBAssoc»

These tweets are examples of the following principles for successful retweeting:

Continue the conversation. Retweeting is a great way to show that you’re a member of a community – not just pushing your own message, but engaging with and spreading someone else’s.
Make and strengthen connections. Retweet a stranger’s relevant message and you might get a new follower; retweet a supporter’s message and you reaffirm their worth to the cause.
End the isolation. Don’t be afraid of mentioning another cause or organization; signalling that you’re interested, informed, and plugged-in builds credibility with your supporters.

Stay tuned for the other two posts in this series!

Current best practices will serve nonprofits just fine [today]. Between email solicitation, direct mail, major donors, and grant-writing, the vast majority of nonprofits will weather the economic hard times. But a shifting communications environment and changing donor demographics could render those best practices ineffective at best, and obsolete at worst, as early as 2012.

Peter also talks about the inevitable shift in donor expectations that comes from living in a more connected, information-based society:

In 2012, individuals will come to your organization with the expectation of being full partners in your work, not just dollar wells to be tapped when cash is needed. Donations will be a consequence of meaningful engagement, not a measurement of it.

This dramatic change has already begun to take place. Online giving has grown from an estimated $1.1 billion in 2002 to more than $10.4 billion in 2007, and online giving was up 41% year-over-year in a recent quarter. It is estimated that soon half of all charitable giving will happen online.

Many nonprofits – large and small – have turned to social media to harness the power of such an important and growing market segment. Twitter and related services like Giv.to can help nonprofits reach and grow their support base for very little money.