Geeking For Good

I’m presenting at Website Redesign: Managing and Working with Social Media next month, so I’m hurriedly trying to finish my presentation before the due date.

My topic is Exploring the different platforms – where I’ll be discussing the various social media platforms, how to maintain your presences there, and how social media can be incorporated in websites to make them more Web 2.0.

The audience will be mostly corporate types, and from the looks of the speaker list, I’m the only non-profit person presenting. Here’s what I’m hoping to impart:

Look (and listen) before you leap.

Find out where your audience are already. Using tools such as Forrester’s Social Technographics Tool, you can gauge the existing behaviour of your target audience in the social computing space.

Find out what people are already saying about your brand, products or services online. The tools are free and readily available, such as:

• Google Blog Search
• Twitter Search
• Facebook Search
• YouTube or YouTube Comment Search

If you have the budget, sign up to social media monitoring services – two Australian-based services are dialogix and BuzzNumbers.

Be open. Engage.

Don’t lock your social presence down. Let people comment on your YouTube videos, write on your Facebook wall and leave comments on your MySpace. Opening your company up to positive comments and potential criticisms is a good thing. Respond. Interact. Be human. Put your name in your Twitter Bio, and sign off with your name on Facebook or MySpace posts.

You don’t need a huge budget to get social

Nor do you need to make a huge impact to get value from social media. My organisation has some pretty good follower numbers across various platforms, but we’re not after numbers. We’re after engagement. If we can inspire just a small group of followers to take action or make a comment on an issue, I’m happy.

Integrate social media into your website.

Your website is no longer the only touchpoint for your brand. That’s why it’s essential to reach out and connect on social networks. Be aware that people use social networks for different reasons, therefore adapt your strategy for each platform.

Conversely, people who do visit your website may not realise you’re on various social networks. Make your website visitors aware of this, and you can enhance their experience of the brand.

• Put social network badges prominently on the homepage.
• Create a “social media” page on your website.
• Make your media release section interactive. Embed YouTube videos and Flickr galleries in your online press releases.
• Embed Twitter Gadgets that automatically update with brand keywords on various pages.

What are you thoughts?

Rumour has it that Twitter Lists have now been rolled out to half of all Twitter users. I believe that the Lists functionality will provide non-profits with some great opportunities for outreach and engagement, not to mention enhance the Twitter experience for organisations and their followers.

Below are just a few List building ideas for non-profits:

1. Your organisation’s chapters and campaigns. If your organisation is federated, with multiple state- or city-based chapters, group these together in one list with any campaign-specific accounts. This will help you and your followers keep track of what is happening across all organisation accounts at a glance. No more hunting through the timeline or Twitter search for the latest news!
2. Related international organisations and campaigns. As above, keeping track of what’s happening will keep you and your organisation connected globally.
3. Organisations that are somewhat related to your organisation. If you work for an animal welfare organisation, you could follow organisations relating to animal therapy. Organisations focussed on poverty abroad could follow organisations that deal with issues relating to poverty, like health or microfinance, both abroad and in your own country.
4. Celebrities, politicians and others with a high profile. Whether you know they are supporters of your cause or not, keeping track of high-profile people could help you easily recognise and act on tweets that relate to your cause.
5. Media. As with celebrities, keep track of what journalists and bloggers are tweeting about. You never know when an opportunity to discuss your organisation could pop up.
6. Volunteers. What better way to keep volunteers engaged than to know what’s going on in their life and keep in contact? You may want to keep this list private.
7. Retweeters and people who have contacted you. As above, this can help you keep track of those people who are influenced by your organisation. An added bonus of this is you can work out just how many of your followers are actively engaged with you online. For example, if you have 1000 total followers, and 300 people in this list, you could gauge that your influence is quite high. Nurture these relationships, as these people – your most important Twitter assets – are reacting to and passing on your messages.

   Now, these lists could take some time to set up and maintain, but I see them as an essential part of non-profits’ social media activities.

   What lists will you be setting up? I’d love to hear your thoughts.