Using Social Media to
Advance Your Mission WHITE paper | Nonprofit Series
WHITE
paper
Nonprofit Series
Contents Using Social Media to Advance Your Mission..........................................................2 Strategic Planning and Execution...................2 Identifying and Engaging Your Audience..................................................2 Investing in Staff and Resources.................3 Supporting Communication Efforts.................3 Augmenting Your Fundraising Program......................................3 Managing Your Reputation...........................4 Communication During a Crisis....................5 Measuring Success............................................5 Measurement Tools........................................5 Sentiment Analysis..........................................5 Conclusion.............................................................6
Visit therightbank.com to download other Pacific Continental Bank white papers in the Nonprofit Series: • Integrating Lean Management Principles in Nonprofit Organizations • Volunteer Management • Thriving Throughout the Stages of a Nonprofit Organization • Building & Communicating a Successful Brand • The Power of Social Media for Nonprofit Organizations • Creating an Effective Board of Directors • Donor Stewardship + Cash Flow Forecasting = Sustainability • Managing Risk within Nonprofit Organizations • Exploring Creative Means to Increase Resources for Nonprofit Organizations
Using Social Media to Advance Your Mission Nonprofit organizations have become increasingly sophisticated in how they employ social media to raise awareness and support, as well as inspire audiences to mobilize around a cause. Studies show the adoption rate for social media is higher among nonprofits than commercial businesses, indicating that nonprofits are leveraging the potential of the medium and investing resources to capitalize on its power and reach.
2. Obtaining executive management’s endorsement of a social media plan. 3. Investing in the resources (budget and staff) necessary to effectively execute the plan. There is no doubt a social media plan should be part of an organization’s overall strategic communications objectives. As such, the organization should consider how it intends to use social media and what networks are the most appropriate to meet its objectives. Is the organization’s social media outreach intended to develop and extend brand awareness, create engagement around a specific cause or mission, or support fundraising efforts? Perhaps the social media strategy is intended to accomplish all three. It is important to identify the overall social media strategy, seek agreement and buy-in from all appropriate stakeholders, then focus on executing the specific tactics.
As nonprofits delve further into the social media sphere, platforms continue to grow in terms of users and audience engagement. As of June 2012, Facebook had over 900 million registered users, Twitter over Once your target 100 million, and LinkedIn over 160 audience has million, while Pinterest became a top-10 social media site in less than been identified, a year. With that in mind, nonprofit show that you leaders and staff must understand value your the importance of directly accessing their audiences to expand their followers by reach and advance their missions.
Identifying and Engaging Your Audience
A critical component to the success of a social media initiative is properly identifying and understanding the audiences the organization seeks to reach. Audiences have sophisticated expectations of how to interact matching content with brands online. Once to their needs. Strategic Planning your target audience has been identified, show that you value and Execution your followers by matching As with all strategic marketing investments, content to their needs and interacting with them. maximizing social media’s effectiveness requires It is important to keep in mind that social media, careful planning. According to the “2012 Nonprofit by its very definition, is a two-way dialogue. Social Media Benchmark Report,” nonprofits Posting brand-relevant content is important, identified the three most important elements for but content decisions can also be influenced a successful social media program as: by ongoing discussions with the audience. 1. Formulating a strategy.
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Investing in Staff and Resources Executing an effective social media plan requires continuous commitment, which means dedicating staff and resources to monitor networks, create and update content, and provide thoughtful and timely responses to comments about the mission or organization. While collecting “likes,” “friends” or “followers” is important, that alone won’t necessarily result in ongoing support. Consistent and well-thought engagement is the key. Investing in the right staff and appropriate budget to manage this engagement can unlock the door to a world of positive momentum for the organization.
Supporting Communication Efforts
Augmenting Your Fundraising Program Although less than 20 percent of donors say they are directly influenced to give by social media initiatives, strategic exposure to a cause can create affinity that leads to future giving. An organization’s social media followers usually include a small percentage of mass influencers—people who blog, retweet, endorse and generally promote a nonprofit with messages on their own social networks. These influencers expand an organization’s reach and can have a positive impact on donor outreach, event participation and other fundraising strategies. While donors may not attribute specific giving directly to an online effort, social media can often serve as the impetus for charitable contributions.
Nonprofits use social media in many ways to Kent Youth and Family Services in Kent, Wash., is a communicate with their audiences, provide thought good example of an organization using social media leadership and advocacy for their work, as well as as a tool to communicate with its supporters and offer a forum for ongoing dialogue with their most boost fundraising efforts. Nathan Box, community ardent followers. Through social media platforms, relations manager, spends up organizations have the ability to to 40 percent of his time on organize their supporters quickly marketing and community around a certain cause, campaign While donors outreach, much of it online or issue. This immediate outreach may not attribute and in the social media sphere. can serve as a catalyst for followers He sees social media as an specific giving to an to repost information on their effective way to engage with the own social pages, creating a online effort, social organization's supporters, both groundswell of commentary media can serve from a marketing perspective and communication about the and as a way to reach existing nonprofit. Social media also as the impetus and potential advocates. The offers a platform to engage in for charitable organization is able to build new ongoing conversations about and/or stronger relationships by contributions. operational challenges, volunteer posing questions and gathering opportunities and trends that feedback on social media sites, may affect the organization. ultimately building a wider audience and greater Nonprofit organizations that employ social support for their services. media to cultivate relationships with their target Nonprofits such as Kent Youth and Family Services audiences better position themselves to gain exhibit an expertise that was, until recently, reserved support, raise funds and foster positive sentiments for more traditional forms of marketing such as about their brand, even during a crisis situation. email, direct marketing and event planning. This, in
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turn, changes the way they engage with their donor • Encourage followers to share positive content and volunteer communities. Recently, there has with their networks. been a subtle shift in methods of fundraising, from • Create a crisis communication strategy to address total reliance on the more episodic “big ask” of an negative comments or tweets – don’t wait for a annual campaign, to adding more continuous microcrisis to occur. funding approaches on an organization’s Facebook page, blog and/or website. For example, a nonprofit Nonprofits should develop a crisis communication will post a recent success story and place a “donate” plan to proactively address how to manage and button to facilitate an immediate donation. While disseminate messaging under negative circumstances. the fundraising numbers are still This would include basic small relative to more traditional protocols for posting content on forms, research suggests that Nonprofits should social networks and the proper nonprofits understand the value way to respond to negative develop a crisis and benefit of informing their content posted by others. It communities about successful communication is important to identify the outcomes, capitalizing on that person or people authorized to plan to proactively awareness in real time. post content on behalf of the
Managing Your Reputation
address how to manage and disseminate messaging under negative circumstances.
Building and protecting a positive reputation has always been an important component of any communication plan. With the proliferation of social media and its ability to quickly amplify messaging online, it is critical to execute strategies that maximize the organization’s positive image and minimize negative or potentially damaging content. Strategies include: • Seek brand perception feedback and input from followers and target audiences. • Monitor the content of online conversations to stay on top of what audiences are saying about your organization. • Establish methods and protocols to address concerns or reinforce the positives.
• Show collective interest and demonstrate support of other organizations or issues – don’t just promote your organization.
organization, ensure that posted content is always consistent with brand values, and train designated personnel to respond to negative posts professionally, timely and appropriately.
The national office of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation discovered how quickly controversy can erupt, causing a sterling reputation to be impacted. Acting on a new policy, the organization announced the decision to end its partnership with Planned Parenthood, an alliance that provided funding for breast cancer screenings, care and referrals. The decision resulted in significant negative publicity via social and traditional media. The foundation waited nearly a day to post a response on Facebook explaining its position. In the meantime, experts estimate that negative posts and tweets outnumbered positive posts by at least a 10-to-one margin. While the Komen organization reversed its decision within days, many felt the foundation did not respond quickly enough, nor did it have an effective social media strategy in place to mitigate 4
the backlash. The fallout from the controversy led to a decline in funding and officials resigning at the national level. Moreover, local affiliates, such as Komen Oregon, operating in Oregon and Southwest Washington, found themselves caught in the crossfire. They were compelled to vocalize their concerns and initiate damage-control tactics of their own.
Communication During a Crisis
Measuring Success Establishing concrete objectives is critical to calculating a return on investment (ROI). It is important to benchmark the activities to be measured prior to activating a social media effort. For example, if the goal is to increase an organization’s volunteer base, it is important to benchmark the number of volunteers and their longevity prior to implementing a social media campaign. Once the campaign has been implemented, continue to measure results to determine if the efforts stimulate a lift.
As the Komen foundation experienced firsthand, social networks have created an interactive communications channel that dispenses news instantaneously. “Citizen journalists” capture images Measurement Tools and content in real time and circulate it over their There are tools available to monitor content, networks with the touch of a button. If a crisis occurs provide audience measurement, track web or negative content goes viral, it is essential for the traffic and analyze how and where online organization to be prepared to manage the ongoing activity is taking place, including: communication flow. The old rules of command and control in crisis communication have changed with Google Analytics – A free platform used social media. While it is important to proactively for measuring web traffic, tracking links manage the messaging in a transparent and genuine and user activities. manner, the organization must be flexible and adapt to ever-changing Adobe Digital Marketing It is important to content from multiple sources. It powered by Omniture – is necessary to recognize and adjust benchmark the Offers tracking services, to the speed and immediacy of the including components for activities to be messaging in order to gracefully Facebook and Twitter. measured prior to address rumors and opinions SocialMention – Provides that may not be based on fact. activating a social real-time social media Creating a crisis communication media effort. search and analysis. plan for this purpose will allow the organization to be prepared and HootSuite – Twitter manager timely in their response. that offers helpful analytics. Social media is also an invaluable communication TweetDeck – Free personal browser to stay tool to reach out to supporters in a time of need, connected with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn such as effectively rallying volunteers to assist with all at once. an event or provide aid during a crisis or emergency. For example, social media proved to be an effective Sentiment Analysis tool to communicate with firefighters and support personnel during Colorado wildfire outbreaks With social media, it’s important to understand in 2012. the nature of the posts and comments others make 5
about an organization. Consider working with a consultant to monitor and assess content as it happens, as well as report on trends over time. Sentiment analysis tools can analyze Twitter feeds, blog posts and Facebook messaging, providing timely data on content. It is important to have strategies in place to reinforce the positive, and to address, or even mitigate, the negative comments. The key is to utilize the information to develop strategies to influence the desired response and feelings about the organization’s brand.
Conclusion Research clearly shows that nonprofits are utilizing social media networks to engage with their audience, as well as market to prospective supporters. Social media affords nonprofits a strategic way to enhance their reputations and provide topical and relevant news about the communities their organizations serve. It is also an effective marketing and advocacy tool to enhance fundraising efforts and spread the word about the mission in an authentic way that connects with the audience. With the appropriate investment in strategy, staff and resources, an organization’s social media program can provide significant benefits and build long-term, ongoing support from its online community.
Burk, Penelope. Donor-Centered Fundraising. Canada: Burk & Associates Ltd., 2003. Hart, Ted, Greenfield, James M., and Haji, Sheeraz D. People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2007. Sloan, Paul. “Pinterest: Crazy Growth Lands it as Top 10 Social Site.” CNET, December 22, 2011. August 6, 2012. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_357347187-93/pinterest-crazy-growth-lands-it-as-top10-social-site. Souza, John. “3 Steps to Measuring Your Company’s Social Media ROI.” Fast Company, July 26, 2012. August 1, 2012. http://www.fastcompany. com/1843675/3-steps-measuring-your-companyssocial-media-roi. “Top 5 Reasons Social Media Sentiment Should Be Your Focus.” Social Media Today, August 1, 2012. August 6, 2012. http://socialmediatoday.com/ ckettmann/664511/top-5-reasons-social-mediasentiment-should-be-your-focus. “Unmeasurable Success: Getting to the ROI of Social Media.” Social Media Today, May 22, 2012. July 26, 2012. http://socialmediatoday.com/513305/ unmeasurable-success-getting-roi-social-media.
Sources: “2011 Social Marketing Survey.” Chief Marketer, September 30, 2011. July 30, 2012. http:// chiefmarketer.com/research/cm-social-marketingsurvey-2011. “4th Annual Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report.” Common Knowledge, 2012. July 30, 2012. http://nonprofitsocialnetworksurvey. com/download.php.
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