A free resource for nonprofit
organizations, NGOs, civil society organizations,
charities, schools, public sector agencies & other mission-based
agencies
by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com
& coyoteboard.com
(same web site)
Social Media Bursts / Microblogging
for Mission-Based Organizations
(nonprofits, government programs, etc.)
It used to be called microblogging. It
includes tweeting, or posting to Instagram or Tik Tok, or
sending to a group you've set up on What's App. It's short messages,
just a few words, maybe a few sentences, less than 300 characters of
text or a video of less than 30 seconds.
Is it something your nonprofit, library, government
agency or other mission-based organization should be thinking about?
Yes. And if you decide it's not for you now, that's fine
- but you need to revisit that decision in a year - maybe even sooner.
And you also need to be prepared for the lifespan of the popularity of a
platform to be only about a year or two.
Microblogs, including tweets on Twitter,
are a great vehicle to help organize political demonstrations in
countries run by corrupt governments (and an effective way to spread
misinformation). It's a great way to get information about an
upcoming event, to send reminders, and to take advantage of
trends-of-the-day. Snapchat
is still a popular microblogging site for teens, as is TikTok, both for
short videos recorded with your smart phone (or at least looking like
that's how they were done). Instagram is wildly popular with people in
their teens and 20s - but that could change by this time next year.
How can nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
libraries, government programs, and other mission-based organizations
really use microblogs or social media bursts to promote their work,
increase attendance at an event, get donations, increase awareness about
something or mobilize or support volunteers? Should they even try?
Remember that the primary goal of a nonprofit, NGO, government
agency or mother mission-based organization in using social media isn't
for its messages to go viral (to be retweeted/resent on a massive
scale). Rather, it's to reach the right audience with a message that
builds or affirms your program's credibility with them, or to prompt
them to learn more about or even attend an event, or to get people to
donate, or to encourage a behavior change. If you post a message that is
shared by thousands of people but it doesn't result in any of that, have
you really benefited at all? Social media use should amplify all of your
other messaging, including what you are sharing on your web site, on
your YouTube channel, in your paper newsletter and in your programs.
Whether or not your organization should invest in using Twitter
or another microblogging platform depends on just two things:
- the audience you are trying to reach - is that
audience on whatever microblogging platform you are going to use? Is
that an audience you don't reach any other way? Or is it an audience
that would like to receive your messages in addition to already
being subscribers to your email newsletter, your blog, Facebook, etc.?
- what information you want others to receive about you
- are organizations and agencies you want information from posting such
information to a micro blogging platform that you aren't already getting
by liking them on Facebook or
subscribing to their email newsletter? Or is the information something
you want to receive daily, even immediately?
Most microblogs / social media bursts are experienced mostly on smart
phones. Think about what people want to see on their smart phone as
"breaking news" or something that makes them go "Wow" or even
"hmmm....".
Here are messages they probably are not going to care about:
The new annual report is out!
Here's a photo of our Executive Director on a panel!
We have a new parking lot.
It's not that you shouldn't send those messages via, say, Twitter. But
you need to post just as many messages that are time-sensitive, or would
make someone go "Wow", or even smile:
Vote on state bill to prevent Dalmatian fur
coats comes up this afternoon. Call your state rep now! More info on our
web site.
Volunteers are gathering at our offices to greet our executive director
on her return from Afghanistan. She arrives in 1 hour. Come & cheer!
Here is a video of our executive director,
who just returned from Afghanistan, with volunteers cheering her return!
A volunteer had to leave our booth at
county fair; we need someone to come down ASAP & fill in! Please
reply if you can!
The annual meeting starts in one hour; we really hope you will be there!
Online survey of volunteers closes in 24 hours. If you have not
completed it, please do ASAP!
Look at this photo of smiling faces of
people who attended our amazing event last night.
We've published a new book!
We have a new video on YouTube that shows
just how much fun it is to work at our organization!
Online poll at CNBC NOW re: pet ownership.
Please participate & help advocate for your pets!
So you first have to define what you are going to use microblogging
for. You might want to have different microblogging activities
for different purposes:
- You might want to require everyone who is going to attend an upcoming
training to give you their cell phone numbers, so you can send them a
reminder text message the morning of the meeting, and even another an
hour before, to assure peak attendance. You could use WhatsApp or
Telegram to do this quickly. There are many others that will do this for
a small monthly subscription fee (and are probably more secure).
- You might want to create a second Twitter account only for your
volunteers or your activist network, and posting messages that are only
of interest to them; for them to get these messages, they will need to
"follow" (subscribe) to your network feed.
- For any video you share on Tik Tok or SnapChat, you might want to
also share it via YouTube, with full descriptions and appropriately
closed captioned, so that it can reach a wider audience, you can also
tweet it and share it on Facebook with a link, etc.
Which web-based microblogging platform should you use? The one
or ones that many of those you want to reach are using. How will you find
that out? You will ASK. Survey your staff, volunteers, donors, and other
supporters. And you will have to survey yearly, because what people are
using changes - particularly with young people. Your survey doesn't have
to be formal - you can just ask at a meeting, "Raise your hand if you have
an account on Instagram..."
Be very careful about using text messaging for micro blogging - sending
text, via phones, to a group. People don't want to be overwhelmed with
these kinds of messages and are more likely to unfollow you if you send
too many of these "bursts" via text messaging. Be strategic.
Always have an answer to the question, "Why would our followers want
to know this right away?" Think about how much YOU would want to receive
such messages via your phone.
Some organizations post the same message across all of their
microblogging activities. For instance, a notice about a new blog posting
may go out on the organization's accounts on Twitter, on Facebook, and on
the status updates of one or more staff members' LinkedIn accounts. Others
pick and choose: a notice about a training schedule change may only go out
on the organization's Facebook account. If you do send the same message
across social media platforms, you to need to tailor that message for each
platform. Do NOT use a gateway that automatically posts what you post to
Facebook to Twitter, or vice versa: these are different platforms and what
works on one platform does NOT work on another.
Be ready to change your strategy: you need to revisit your
social media platform choices in a year or two. You also need to be
prepared for the lifespan of the popularity of a platform to be only
about a year or two.
Another microblogging practice is a person sending a text message to all
of his or her friends/ cell phones, or via a status message on the
person's Facebook account, or via
his or her Twitter account, saying
where he or she is:
Jayne just entered the Starbuck's
in Carnationville.
Yes, of course the practice has jargon names: mobile check-in services
and location-based networking. Whatever.
Nonprofits, NGOs, libraries, government programs, and other
mission-based organizations can leverage this practice to help create more
awareness about their organization:
- At the start of your volunteer recognition event, display a message on
an overhead projector and ask all attendees to take out their cell
phones or smart phones and to text it or tweet it right at that moment
to everyone in their contact list, their followers or via their status
update to their contacts. The message could be I
am at the recognition event for volunteers of such-and-such
organization. Great time! And then ask everyone
to then turn their phones OFF!
- As a volunteer starts his or her first shift staffing a table at a
public event, ask them to send out the message Come
to such-and-such event @ number street address & look for me @
the such-and-such booth! Stop by & say hi!
- Ask attendees at your opening night for the season at your nonprofit
theater to send the message I'm @ opening
night of such-and-such at name-of-theater. Call xxx-xxx-xxxx for
tix. On with the show! And then ask everyone to
then turn their phones OFF!
- Ask students attending a class your nonprofit is providing to text a
message at the start or at the end of the class. Learning/learned
to do such-and-such at name-of-organization. It's
fun/tough/exciting/challenging/interesting!
- After the volunteer firefighters finish putting away the equipment
after a particularly intense or large emergency response, encourage them
to send a message, as appropriate, to their network, such as, Just
finished response to factory fire in such-&-such-area. More
than xx volunteers responded. Photos soon @ Flickr.
These messages get a personalized, informal message out to your supporters'
own networks -- their friends, neighbors, colleagues. These messages from
your supporters shows how active your organization is and further builds
awareness about your activities. These messages can generate interest among
new volunteers and new audiences, attract larger numbers of attendees to an
event, and augment your other outreach efforts.
However, think about appropriateness as well: you don't want people
showing up to an event you have shared online but that isn't open to the
public. You don't want to violate confidentiality. You don't want to share
information about where a person is if that person actually does not want
people to know where they are. What do you want as a result of posting
these kinds of messages: to show how active and vibrant you are? To show
how busy your organization is?
If you encourage your volunteers, event attendees, etc. to
text-their-location at the start, during or at the end of an event, track
the results: do you see an increase in the number of phone calls or emails
to your organization regarding volunteering? An increase in phone calls
requesting more information? More attendees to an event? Ask your
volunteers and other supporters as well what kind of responses they get
per a message they have sent out to their network.
Some people judge microblogging success by how many followers they have.
For nonprofits, I don't. Numbers
just aren't that impressive.
You don't just want followers: you want a particular kind of follower.
What kind? It depends on the purpose of your microblogging activity.
- If your microblog activity is limited to current volunteers, then
your follower numbers are going to be limited to the number of current
volunteers you have. If all your volunteers you want to follow you
aren't, find out why - ASK!
- If you create a Twitter account to promote new resources your
organization publishes or produces, who do you want to receive these
Tweets? Don't say "Everyone!" Are you hoping every volunteer follows
this feed? Every donor? Every local press person? Identify every
demographic you want to follow you and then reach out to that
demographic as appropriate.
- If you want people who are passionate about a particular issue to
follow you, then you have to make sure you tag your posts appropriately
so they will find them, and that you reach out to these demographics.
- You might want to create another Twitter account that is focused only
on legislation related to the mission of your organization, and focus
messages on what followers can do to take action.
A way to get followers or to reach beyond your followers, is to tag your
Tweets. For instance, any time I use the following words in a Tweet, if I
have room, I put a hashtag in front of them, so anyone that follows these
keywords can see them as well:
#volunteer
#volunteers
#nonprofits
#ngos
#humanitarian
#ICT4D
#inclusion
#Tech4Good
#CSR
This means that, say, anyone interested in ICTs being used as a part of
development activities in third world countries and that does a search on a
particular day for the phrase ICT4d is going to see any Tweets I've
done recently that include that term.
Your tags will probably be different, depending on the focus of your
organization or department. How do you find what tags to use? By looking
to see what similar organizations use, and by searching for tags you think
might be in use.
One of the most hyped things about microblogging is a message going
viral, meaning that many of the people who receive it are so moved by it
that they forward it to others, and many of those who receive it do the
same, and on and on.
Messages go viral because they are funny, because they are breaking huge
news ("Elvis is NOT dead"), or because they point to something incredibly
cool (like the space shuttle breaking through the atmosphere, as viewed by
someone on an airplane). These messages often make the news, but they are
incredibly rare.
When does a Tweet from a nonprofit go viral? When it meets one of the
aforementioned requirements:
- It tells people what number to text from a cell phone in order to
donate to an area that has just been hit by a major disaster
- It announces that your new baby panda exhibit has a webcam
- It announces that Elvis has joined your board of directors, with a
link to photo proof
The reality is that most nonprofits or NGOs are NEVER going to have news
this big EVER. If you are donating most of your planning to how to make a
post go viral, you are missing the point of microblogging's value to
nonprofits and NGOs.
A live tweet chat event for a nonprofit, NGO or other mission-based
organization could be:
- A Q & A with your high-profile executive director or other
high-profile, oft-in-demand staff person - someone people really
want to talk to
- An event with your volunteers where they talk about what they have
liked most about being a volunteer with you, what they've learned, etc.
- Brainstorming ideas for green
living
- A Q & A with experts about some issue your organization
addresses: helping aspiring actors and dancers, leading exercises with
seniors, spaying and neutering pets, etc.
It needs to be something simple; you cannot do anything that's too involved,
like exploring ways to reduce violence against women, or dealing with teen
pregnancy, or addressing long-time misunderstandings between two religious
groups, etc. Your goals for such an event need to be simple.
Also, remember that anyone who wants to can see this event happen. It's
an entirely public event.
I live tweet a lot, usually unofficially, when I attend an
official government event, like a public meeting with a US Senator. I
also have live tweeted from whatever company I'm working for at the
time.
For instance, in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2014, I live-tweeted for
the 2014 United Nations Social
Good conversation, which took place over one day in 170
countries and 45 languages. The UN hosted a live, onsite,
in-person event in Kyiv, and I live-tweeted from the event via the UNDP
Twitter account, tagging the tweets with #UATech4Good.
You can see
what this looked like on Twitter here.
In October 2018, I live-tweeted
a candidate forum that featured all the people running for city
council in the town where I live in Oregon. You can read the archive
of my live-tweets on Wakelet.
A live tweet chat event is NOT for everyone. It's an intense experience
that requires a lot of preparation before the start and a lot of
concentration during the event by the tweeter, and
for it to truly be a "chat", it requires a lot of excited people who know
how to participate (and want to!).
The fundamentals of a successful live tweet chat event:
- A live tweet chat event has a definite start and end date, though
many participants will tweeting before and will keep tweeting
afterwards. Myself: I prefer just an hour for such events.
- The event requires that all participants use the same tag on every
message they tweet as a part of the live event. This tag has to be
communicated to all participants before the event. Participants
follow the event by doing a search for that particular tag. For the
TechSoup event regarding using Twitter, the tag used was #NPtwitter.
- The event requires a lot of promotion on other venues: you should
list the event on the events sections of LinkedIn and Facebook, put the
details on your web site, blog about it, include it in any email or
print newsletters, and talk about it ion the organization's blog and on
its Facebook profile. Post about it to online discussion groups you are
a part of, as appropriate. Staff should also be encouraged to talk about
it in their own status updates on LinkedIn and Facebook.
- Use status updates on your various online networking accounts and
your Twitter feed to remind people of the event two hours before the
event, again an hour before, and again as the event is starting.
- Have your welcome message, opening question, some questions for
midway through and your ending message already written and ready to copy
and paste into your Twitter feed at the appropriate time.
- Arrange a core group of folks each with at least one question
prepared and ready to copy and paste into their own Twitter feeds during
the event if questions don't start immediately. This core group should
also already have at least one resource or advice statement ready to
copy and paste into their own Twitter feeds during the event, to ensure
there is something being posted at least every 60 seconds. This core
group can be designated employees or volunteers; talk with them
beforehand so they know exactly what they are supposed to do.
- Have someone designated to thank every person who posts a question or
an answer during the event. They can thank three or four people at once:
Thanks to @jcravens42,
@ebarnhart & @LCMoy
for great questions re: nonprofits & Twitter. #NPtwitter. Now
all of the followers of these people are going to see this Tweet, and
have the tag to click on to jump in and see what's going on. You've just
reach more people with your event! This is a great task for an online
volunteer.
- Encourage participants to retweet questions and answers. Most will
feel encouraged to do this if they see others doing it, so make sure
your core group for this event knows they should retweet something at
least once during the event.
- If you cannot answer every question that comes in, that's okay; save
them and assure participants that all questions will be addressed on a
followup web page or blog.
- Capture every post and compile the information into a web page or a
blog so others can read the key information from this event, and answer
any questions that did not get answered during the event. This is a
GREAT task for an online volunteer to do for you.
Once you launch your microblogs, evaluate your efforts. If you encourage
your volunteers, event attendees, etc. to text-their-location at the
start, during or at the end of an event, track the results: do you see an
increase in the number of phone calls or emails to your organization
regarding volunteering? An increase in phone calls requesting more
information? More attendees to an event? Ask your volunteers and other
supporters as well what kind of responses they get per a message they have
sent out to their network.
Look at your email, RSS, Twitter, SnapChat and other subscriptions
numbers frequently. Survey users to ask what they like and what they don't
about how you are communicating. Ask ex-subscribers why they left. Always
have data to help you refine your micro-blogging based on subscriber (and
ex-subscriber) feedback.
What's most important: measure your
success with online tools by real outcomes, not number of
subscribers, number of messages sent, etc.
There are many more suggestions about using micro blogging, including
Twitter, to recruit and engage with volunteers, and to recognize their
contribututions, in The
Last Virtual Volunteering
Guidebook.
- Handling Online Criticism
Online criticism of a nonprofit organization, even by its own
supporters, is inevitable. It may be about an organization's new logo or
new mission statement, the lack of parking, or that the volunteer
orientation being too long. It may be substantial questions regarding an
organization's business practices and perceived lack of transparency.
How a nonprofit organization handles online criticism speaks volumes
about that organization, for weeks, months, and maybe even years to
come. There's no way to avoid it, but there are ways to address
criticism that can help an organization to be perceived as even more
trustworthy and worth supporting.
- Using Real-Time Communications With
Volunteers
A growing number of organizations are using real-time communications --
usually called "chats" -- to hold online meetings with volunteers, or to
allow volunteers to interact with staff, clients, or each other. This
resource provides more information on chats -- what they are, how
agencies are using them to interact with volunteers, tips to encourage
and maintain participation in chats, and where to find chat software.
This resource was developed by the Virtual Volunteering Project.
- Internet discussion groups for volunteers
Many agencies have created e-mail-based discussion groups or newsgroups
for their volunteers. These asynchronous online tools allow agencies to
easily make announcements to volunteers, and sometimes also allow
volunteers to interact with each other, get suggestions and feedback,
and ask questions. They can also serve as a written record of
participation, concerns, trends and issues for volunteers. Unlike chats,
volunteers can participate whenever they wish, and they don't need
special software to do so. This resource was developed by the Virtual
Volunteering Project.
- Using Video to Support Online
Volunteers/Remote Volunteers
Video is a great way to further support volunteers, and your computer
probably already has all of the tools you need to make a video, or to
engage in a live video conversation with others. Video isn't something
to use only with online volunteers or remote volunteers (those providing
onsite service at a different location than yours). It's also a tool you
can use with new and current volunteers. In addition to an organization
producing videos for volunteers, it can also work the other way around:
volunteers can produce videos for organizations. This resource provides
information on your options, and links to my own short video on the
subject.
- What are good blog topics for
mission-based organizations?
The word "blog" is short for "web log", and means keeping a journal or
diary online. Blogging is NOT a new concept -- people have been doing it
long before it had a snazzy media label. The appeal of blogging for an
online audience is that it's more personal and less formal than other
information on a web site. Readers who want to connect with an
organization on a more personal level, or who are more intensely
interested in an organization than the perhaps general public as a
whole, love blogs. Blogs can come from your Executive Director, other
staff members, volunteers, and even those you serve. Content options are
many, and this list reviews some of
your options.
- For Nonprofits Considering
Their Own Podcasts:
Why It's Worth Exploring, and Content Considerations
I present my first podcast about... podcasts (transcript included).
Specifically, I talk about how podcasts can be used by nonprofits, and
just how easy it is to do.
- Nonprofit Organizations and Online
Social Networking (OSN): Advice and Commentary
OSN is buzz phrase used to describe special web-based online communities
that are accessible only for community members, like LinkedIn
and FaceBook. Is there a value for nonprofit organizations to engage in
OSN platforms? This resource offers
a realistic set of possibilities and considerations.
- Evaluating Online Activities:
Online Action Should Create & Support Offline Action
Hundreds of "friends" on an online social networking site. Thousands of
subscribers to an email newsletter. Dozens of attendees to a virtual
event. Those are impressive numbers on the surface, but if they don't
translate into more volunteers, repeat volunteers, new donors, repeat
donors, more clients, repeat clients, legislation, or public pressure,
they are just that: numbers. For online activities to translate into
something tangible, online action must create and support offline
action. What could this look like? This resource can help organizations
plan strategically about online activities so that they lead to
something tangible - not just numbers.
- Stages of Maturity in
Nonprofit Orgs Using Online Services
What does a networking technology-savvy nonprofit organization look
like? To help nonprofits think about networking tech standards they
should pursue, and possible goals for the future, I've created this
assessment of the states of maturity for a nonprofit organization's use
of networking/online technologies.
Return to my list of resources relating to online
culture & communities of volunteers
Return to my volunteer-related
resources
Discuss
this
web page, or comment on it, here.
Quick Links
my home
page
my
consulting services & my workshops
& presentations
my
credentials & expertise
Affirmation that this is web site is
created & managed by a human.
My book: The
Last Virtual
Volunteering Guidebook
contact me
or see my
schedule
Free Resources: Community Outreach, With & Without Tech
Free Resources: On
Community Engagement, Volunteering & Volunteerism
Free Resources: Technology
Tips for Non-Techies
Free Resources:
Nonprofit, NGO & other mission-based management resources
Free Resources: Web
Development, Maintenance, Marketing for non-Web designers
Free Resources: Corporate
philanthropy / social responsibility programs
Free Resources: For people
& groups that want to volunteer
linking to
or from my web site
The
Coyote Helps Foundation
me on
social media (follow me, like me, put me in a circle,
subscribe to my newsletter)
how to
support my work
To know when I have developed a new
resource related to the above subjects, found a great
resource by someone else, published
a
new blog or a new Tech4Impact email newsletter,
uploaded a new
video,
or to when & where I'm training or presenting, use any
of the following social media apps to follow me on any of
these social media platforms:
Disclaimer: No guarantee of accuracy or suitability is made by
the poster/distributor of the materials on this web site.
This material is provided as is, with no expressed or implied
warranty or liability.
See my web site's privacy
policy.
Permission is granted to copy, present and/or distribute a limited
amount of material from my web site without charge if
the information is kept intact and without alteration, and is
credited to:
Otherwise, please contact me
for permission to reprint, present or distribute these materials
(for instance, in a class or book or online event for which you
intend to charge).
The art work and material on
this site was created and is copyrighted 1996-2024
by Jayne Cravens, all rights reserved
(unless noted otherwise, or the art comes from a link to
another web site).