by Bruce Newman

Largely because of its extensive reach and low costs, social media has rapidly become an important tool for social causes and non-profit organizations. Through the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email marketing, and numerous other platforms, organizations are able to target and reach huge numbers of potential donors and followers.

Being able to reach such a wide audience can also be a two-edged sword. Particularly in these financially troubled times, social causes and non-profit organizations are inundating a target audience who is increasingly becoming less responsive and more thick-skinned to their postings. This in turn requires that each of these organizations develop and implement an effective strategy designed to meet their specific goals (which can include increasing awareness, fund raising, attending a conference, etc.).

I recently began working with several organizations including Vassar Hospital/Dyson Center, Mid-Hudson Workshop for the Disabled and Kiwannis Club of Poughkeepsie in the following promotion which we posted as a Facebook event (scheduled for March 31^st of this year):

Leukemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow which many children are dying from. You know what’s sad? A LOT of us can help them. A simple cotton swab of your mouth to collect DNA can register you as a donor and a simple procedure can extract your bone marrow to save a life. Consider the HUGE impact you will have if you are a match for someone with leukemia!

(This event is scheduled on Thursday, March 31 from 3-7 pm at Vassar Brother’s Medical Center/Dyson Center for Cancer Care)

As we plan on making this an annual event, here are some more ways that we plan on promoting it using social media:

1. We will be visiting the www.facebook.com/causes app which currently has over 21 million active users. We will also be visiting the causes exchange (exchange.causes.com). This Facebook app will allow us to interact with many people and groups while enabling us to reach out to our Facebook friends.
2. We will probably also create a simple blog on Tumblr because it’s quick and easy (and free).
3. Since there are already numerous organizations involved with Leukemia and DKMS (“where Leukemia meets its match”) – with whom we are already working, we will enhance their Facebook and Twitter efforts by enlisting support and followers. This includes the loading of pictures onto their websites. One thing we don’t want to do is be in competition with anyone while still getting out our message.
4. We also won’t be doing any videos at this point. Although they can be highly effective, if you don’t have a reasonable budget, thousands of fans or a celebrity, they may not generate many completed views or results. Besides, for our specific cause, videos already exist including one by Shaquille O’Neil. If you do decide to use videos, I strongly recommend that you create several of them while making sure that you maintain a consistent theme across every video. (A consistent thread is crucial to a successful social media campaign.)
5. Discussions are also very useful. It’s a great way of building relationships, strategies and followers – particularly if it involves good, thoughtful content. This can be done on Facebook or on a site that promotes groups such as Yahoo Groups or Ning which primarily focuses on the development of a community. The reason why we probably will not use Ning is because we can’t donate the necessary time it requires to maintain and grow a group. Nevertheless, it can be a highly effective platform.
6. We will also use an email campaign to maintain contact with people who have expressed an interest in being a donor. This may include invitations to events, discussions, etc. throughout the year.
7. One thing you should always use social media for is to request help from others. We will be asking all of our friends and contacts to forward or retweet our message to their friends and followers. Remember, it’s social media; it’s supposed to be social and this is for a good cause.

In short, I will be participating in a social cause to help people suffering from childhood leukemia. I have included several of the steps in the social media campaign we recently started as a guide for anyone who would like to work with us or any person or organization looking to promote a social cause.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC. An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has developed winning social media strategies for companies of all sizes along with several well-received social media courses, services and products. Bruce is also the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader. Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog. Bruce can be reached at bnewman@prodinst.com.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Who would have thought 140 characters would be so pervasive? Not I, I admit.  And yet, Twitter has in several ways simply overpowered the social media landscape.

It’s hard to believe this has occurred. When you consider that 58% of Twitter users generate less than ten tweets and that the top 5% of users are responsible for 75% of the updates, it becomes readily apparent that a relative few are driving this entire platform.  The attention that Twitter has generated, however, has greatly eviscerated these statistics.

On November 10, 2009, Twitter and LinkedIn announced an agreement in which recent tweets would now be available from within LinkedIn and recent changes to LinkedIn updates could become tweets.  Since LinkedIn is a highly successful social media platform targeted for business professionals, this agreement represents a huge – and at no risk or expense – step for Twitter in building its business appeal and credentials.

This follows recent agreements between Twitter and Google and Twitter and Microsoft to index twitter messages in their respective Google and Bing search engines.  The advantage for Microsoft and Google is that their searches will now include real time input.  How they will present Twitter search results and how it affects their indexing and search algorithms is yet to be determined.  Regardless, it provides additional credibility and relevance to Twitter and the need to even more closely follow existing search engine rankings.

It should be noted that the purpose of this article isn’t to disparage Twitter, only to recognize its ever-growing reach.  Twitter provides real time information and feedback that can be crucial to the functioning and perception of many companies. Some companies have implemented successful Twitter (and social media) strategies.  However, the majority of companies have placed more emphasis on other social media platforms or excluded Twitter entirely.

Most importantly, how will this affect an end user?  At this point, it’s hard to tell.  Just by the nature of its agreements, Twitter’s value has increased and it must be given more credence when plotting social strategy.  If you use LinkedIn, for example, you should continue to regularly update your profile since people in your network will be automatically notified.  How will it affect search engine rankings?  Again, it’s too early to tell.  However, since search engines are putting more emphasis on context, person information and social media activity, the incorporation of a strategy that includes Twitter has now assumed greater importance.

All of these developments in this rapidly changing social media world denote its fluid nature and what has becoming increasingly apparent; the need for companies to implement a comprehensive strategy that allows them to effectively utilize social media to achieve their goals.
 
Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

The lure of social media is very strong.  Every day, we hear new statistics about its growing popularity, some YouTube video going viral or someone’s tweet (or response). Social media is now the most popular activity on the Internet and its appeal crosses all age and gender demographics. But that doesn’t mean that we should assume it’s the wherewithal for everything.

People used to believe that all they needed to create an Internet business was a website and that prospective customers would be automatically drawn to it.  That turned out to be untrue.  Today, many companies utilize advertising, search engine optimization and campaign planning to help generate Internet business.  “Build it and they will come”, is certainly not a winning mantra.

Social media falls in that same category.  Just because you may have a Twitter or Facebook account does not mean that you will become a social leader or even that people will follow you.  It’s not automatic and it won’t happen overnight.

When using social media, it is very important to create realistic social media goals.  If you’re Oprah, having a million twitter followers is realistic.  If you’re Bruce Newman, it’s not.  (In fact, I wouldn’t even want one million followers but that’s for another article when I discuss quantity vs. quality.)

Rules to live by:

1. Set realistic goals. They can be as simple as writing two articles a week or achieving 150 first level contacts in LinkedIn.  How you reach these 150 contacts, how frequently and to what extent you communicate with them and the building of the relationships is crucial.

2. Create a feasible social media strategy. Depending on your goals, this strategy may be simple or complex but it must be reasonable.  Of key importance is the realistic determination of the amount of time – usually on a daily basis depending on your goals – that it will require.

3. Do not be enticed by large numbers of followers.  It’s easy to generate large numbers of followers.  Along with the development of many social media sites has come the onslaught of automatic marketing programs designed to increase the number of followers.  Interestingly, what these programs don’t tell you is that a smaller number of active people in your network (i.e. followers, true friends, etc.) will provide a far superior response than a much larger number of random people who you count as contacts or followers. 

4. Realize that it takes months to generate a sizeable following.  Building relationships takes time; it doesn’t happen overnight.  As an analogy, think of meeting someone new at a party.  You like them and want to become friends (or more).  It may happen, but will take both time and effort to occur.  The same holds true for social media except that these relationships are instead, digital.

5. Follow the rules of proper social etiquette – be respectful, helpful and authentic.  In short, be yourself.  And be helpful.  

6. Don’t get frustrated. Social media is not a race. Ever hear baseball players say that the baseball season is not a sprint, but a marathon?  Think of social media in a similar fashion, though maybe as a half-marathon.  If your goals are realistic and you don’t reach them, fine.  Adjust them.  That’s the normal sequence of any plan – create and constantly adjust as you move forward.  The key thing here is to not get frustrated and stray from your original goals and plans (provided they were indeed realistic).  Many potentially successful social media campaigns have been prematurely cancelled or extensively re-worked because of insufficient time constraints or frustration.

Social media has opened the world to a tremendously exciting and interactive means of communication.  By properly abiding by its rules, understanding its strengths and limitations and by setting realistic goals, you too can benefit from its enormous potential.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.