Social Networking

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Social Networking

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What Well Cover

• What is social networking?
• Examples
• Stats
• Metrics
• Convincing your boss
• Step-By-Step Guide

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What is social networking?

• Two-way communication and collaboration
• Interactive way to connect with supporters

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Differences
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From a Strategic Perspective

• Need to be where the people are
• Opportunity to expand your universe and reach
  an otherwise untapped audience
• Should be integrated into your overall
  communications plan

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A Supporters Network

• Supporters have their own networks that they can
  tap into

Image Credit businessweek.com
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Keeping Things in Perspective

• Not a silver bullet for your organizations
  communication goals
• Dont have to be on every social network to be
  successful
• Email program is still very important

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Examples
There are a lot social networking sites out there!
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Facebook Group v. Page

• Common Facebook Question
• Whats the difference between a Group and a Page?

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Facebook Group v. Page

• Groups
• Better for organizing on a personal level and for
  smaller scale interaction
• Only groups under 5,000 members can send email
  blasts
• Pages
• Similar to an individuals page
• Better for brands, businesses, or movies who want
  to interact with their fans or customers without
  having them connected to a personal account
• Able to exceed the 5,000 friend cap

Source Howard Greenstein http//mashable.com/200
9/05/27/facebook-page-vs-group/
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Stats

• How popular are social networks?
• What do the numbers look like?

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Growth Over Time
Highlights February, 2005 8 August, 2006
16 December, 2008 35
Source Pew Internet American Life Project
Survey December 2008 Survey
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Demographics
White, non-Hispanic 31 Black, non-Hispanic
43 Hispanic 48
Men 35 Women 35
18-24 75 25-34 57 35-44 30 45-54
19 55-64 10 65 7
Urban 34 Suburban 26 Rural 23
Source Pew Internet American Life Project
Survey December 2008 Survey
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User Cross-pollination
Source www.andersonanalytics.com
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Demographic Comparison
MySpace (June 2009)
Facebook (June 2009)
Change.org (June 2009)
Source www.quantcast.com
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Comparison Monthly U.S. People
Source www.quantcast.com
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Comparison Monthly U.S. Visits
Source www.quantcast.com
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Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report

• Conducted between February 20 and April 15, 2009
• 980 nonprofit professionals responded
• Some Key Themes
• Facebook is the most popular _at_ 74
• Avg. community size 5,391 members
• Time on Facebook 94, 2 years or less
• Time on Twitter 94, 1 year or less

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Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report

• Staff and budgets (real but small)
• Four-fifths are committing at least one-quarter
  of a full-time staff person
• Responsibility over the social network efforts
• Most likely owned by the comms and marketing
  depts, followed by fundraising and exec mgmt
• Long term
• More than half intend to increase social network
  project staffing over the next 12 months

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Popularity of Social Networking Sites
Source Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report -
April 2009(Sponsored by Nonprofit Technology
Network, Common Knowledge, and ThePort)
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Average Size of Communities
Source Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report -
April 2009(Sponsored by Nonprofit Technology
Network, Common Knowledge, and ThePort)
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Side by Side Comparison
46.5 of nonprofits have a YouTube page, with 268
subscribers 43.2 of nonprofits have a Twitter
page, with 291 subscribers 26.1 of nonprofits
have a MySpace page, with 1905 subscribers
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Metrics

• Different types of metrics to look at
• of friends, fans, members over time
• of new names
• of donations
• of video / photo views
• of blog and wall comments
• of voting participants
• of blogs linking to or covering the stories
  (consider quality)
• of friends recruited
• of donations

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Metrics

• Examine the numbers
• Quantify tangible AND intangible results
• Compare time money spent against results
• Benchmark against other contests and other
  nonprofits

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If Your Boss Needs Convincing

• Go under the radar and try things out
• Present results that are tied to specific goals
• Get them on the network if theyre willing

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Step-By-Step Guide

1. Create a Plan
2. Create Content
3. Make Friends
4. Track Engage

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1. Create a Plan

• Why are we joining a social network?
• Which social networks demographics most mirror
  the group that you want to reach out to?
• Who's going to maintain/update the social network?

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1. Create a Plan

• Set priorities goals
• Decide which metrics you want to use to measure
  success
• Dip your toe in and start small

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2. Create Content

• What information are you sharing?
• What are you asking supporters to do?
• How can people get involved?
• Is the content on your social networking site in
  sync with the content on your Web site?

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3. Make Friends

• Stack the deck (start with your base and your own
  friends)
• Be super-responsive to questions that are posted
• Reach out to new communities
• Friend and network with other related orgs
• Give supporters a way to invite their friends

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4. Track Engage

• Monitor your initiatives and track the progress
• Experiment and learn from your own lessons
• Keep engaging your supporters with content that
  is
• Interesting
• Meaningful
• Updated
• Relevant

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Contact Info

• New Organizing Institute
• [phone]
• info_at_neworganizing.com
• www.neworganizing.com
• www.twitter.com/neworganizing