Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Why Should Nonprofits Bother with Social Media?

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Why bother?When people hear that I consult to nonprofits on communications, sooner or later, they ask me, “Dennis, is it really worth it? Can I raise funds for my organization on social media?”

I’m sorry, folks, but those are two different questions.

Question 1: Are Social Media Worth It for Your Nonprofit?

First, think about what you’re trying to accomplish with your communications. As we saw yesterday, you need a strategy. Who are you trying to reach? What do you know about them? If you engaged them successfully, what would they do?

If you know the answers to those questions, you will know whether or not social media are an important part of your strategy. Even if they are, there are ten things you should take care of before you ever start on social media.

But in the end, chances are social media will be worth it for your nonprofit. Why? Because you need loyal supporters.

People give their first gift to your organization for a variety of quirky reasons. When they  continue to give, it’s for one reason: because they have come to know, like, and trust you.

You will win loyalty by giving people ways to get to know, like, and trust your organization…and nothing lets you do that more often, in a more convincing way, at less cost, than social media.

Question 2: Can I Raise Funds on Social Media?

Let’s turn this question around. When you go on Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram, are you looking for a chance to donate?

No?

Well, neither are your donors.

People use social media to stay in touch with their friends. Your challenge is to make people regard your organization as a friend.

A friend who asked you for money every time he came over to your house would soon stop getting invited. If your organization asks for money whenever you’re online, people will stop inviting you onto their screens.

The 80-20 Rule

If you really understand social media, you will follow the 80-20 rule. 80% of the time your organization is on social media, share content that’s interesting to your audience.

  • Engage in conversations with them. You know they’re interested if they’re the one who brought up the topic!
  • Post information that they won’t find everywhere else. Make them feel smarter.
  • Post “fun” content that they will enjoy. If it relates to your cause, great, but as long as it doesn’t actually conflict with it, it’s all good. Friends are not all business–and you want to be their friend.

20% of the time, call your audience to action.

  • Poll them, or ask them open-ended questions.
  • Invite them to lobby their elected officials, online.
  • Offer them a chance to volunteer.

And yes, perhaps once in a great while, you can ask for money. It will work better if it’s directed toward a specific, tangible goal, and if they can track their progress toward that goal in real time. General appeals rarely work on social media.

So Tell Me Again, Why Should I Bother?

Maybe you shouldn’t. If your specific donor pool isn’t on social media– because of language barriers, for instance–maybe you shouldn’t be either.

But if your audience is on social media and you’re not, what you’re telling them is, “You’re not worth it to me.”

You won’t spend the time to reach them where they like to be? Then you are not their friend. And over time, they will give their attention, time, and money to the organizations that make them feel valued. Being one of those organizations–that’s why it’s worth it.

 

Marathon: 4 Lessons Boston 2013 Taught Me about Communication

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“Oh my God,” I said, “I have friends in that race!”

I can’t remember exactly how I first heard about the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, but I know that was the first thing I said.

And I know the first things I did: turn on the radio, and get onto social media.

I spent a lot of that Monday listening for news, then sharing it with the immediate world via Twitter and Facebook.  That Patriots’ Day and the week that followed taught me four lessons I will never forget.

  1.  Write only what people care about.  On Monday, I cancelled any tweets I had pre-scheduled. I ignored any other topic.  I wrote only for people like me who said “I have friends in that race. Are they all right? What’s really going on?”
  2. Write what I know better than other people.  I live in greater Boston, and the local NPR affiliate, WBUR, is my soundtrack every day.  Simply by listening to the radio and following other Boston-area friends on social media, I knew more than 95% of the people in the country.  What I knew, I shared.
  3. Be a source of reliable information.  There were a lot of rumors flying around, and the media were more often fanning the flames than keeping their cool.  We were better off reading the Onion or the Borowitz Report than the New York Post (or watching CNN).  I made sure to pass along only what seemed certain–and even then, I gave my sources.
  4. Listen, and engage in conversation.  When I heard about friends who reported they were safe, I spread the word.  When people asked questions on Twitter, I used @ messages to write them back.  I followed the #boston hashtag to keep track of the conversation in real time.

Looking back at it, it occurs to me: these four lessons are not just for crises.

If you want people to pay attention to what you write, you should write what people care about and what you know best, giving reliable information and engaging in conversation, every time you post, tweet, or talk or email.

Only, don’t write as often every day as I did on Patriots’ Day 2013.  Because communicating with your readers is not a sprint.  It’s a marathon.

Chopsticks, Hammers, and Social Media

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My dear father could never master the use of chopsticks.  He resented people who did.  ImageWhenever we went out to a Chinese restaurant and other people reached for the sticks, he would grumble, “A fork has always been good enough for me.  I don’t know why it’s not good enough for you.”

I think of my father sometimes when I hear colleagues ask why they need to use social media.  I’m a big believer in print, video, and face-to-face contact myself, but I have to wonder: how much resistance to adopting social media comes from the fear that we won’t use them well?  That we’ll be still dabbing away with tools we don’t understand while other people have eaten our lunch?

This fear is unnecessary.  Anyone can learn to use social media well enough for company.  Once we stop worrying about how to master them, then we can really ask why–and get good answers.

Contrary to what enthusiasts sometimes think, it is not self-evident why organizations should use social media. I see people who leap on board each social media trend as it comes along.  They remind me of the saying, “To the person who owns a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”  Social media are tools.  One size doesn’t fit all.  We need to know what they can do, and what we want to accomplish.  Then, we can pick the right tool for the job.

Here are some questions we can ask ourselves to figure out what we really need, whether we are communications conservatives or early adopters:

  1. Who are we trying to reach?
  2. Where does our audience spend its time, and how do they like to get their information?
  3. What can we do for them?
  4. What are we hoping to get them to do?
  5. How much time can we invest?

Then, and only then, can we figure out which social media we should use, and how.  That’s a social media strategy.

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