Social media

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Whether you’re trying to build supporters, boost donations, share success stories or network with like-minded organisations, there’s a social media outlet for everything. Whilst most organisations acknowledge that having a web presence and engaging in social media is crucial, finding the sites which will work for you can be a daunting process.

This section gives an overview of social media. It is structured around some of the key activities that you and your charity might be thinking about using social media for; encouraging sign up to campaigns, recruiting volunteers or demonstrating impact. It looks at how sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Blogspot and others can help your organisation raise its profile and have maximum impact in the world of social media. 

What is social media?

Social media (sometime called Web 2.0) describes websites that provide user-generated content. Whereas traditional media is controlled by editors, social media allows users to dictate the agenda.

It is therefore no surprise that with service user involvement and public support at the heart of what many charities do, engaging with social media is a must.

But with so many outlets and often limited resources, what are the best social media sites to invest time in? What can your charity not afford to miss out on? And once you’ve taken the plunge, how can you maximise your web presence and ensure you make the most of what social media has to offer?

How to decide which sites to use

Top considerations when choosing social media outlets.

• Target audience - when prioritising outlets, make sure you choose a social media platform that is used by the people you’re targeting. For example, It is no good spending time building a profile on LinkedIn (used as a professional networking tool) if the majority of your audience is teenagers who are heavy Facebook users. Do some research and have a look at who uses the various social media sites.
• Popularity - social media platforms that have millions of users such as Facebook or Twitter will mean more people are likely to see your organisation and therefore should drive more traffic to your website. However, there may be smaller, more niche outlets that are populated by people with a specific interest in your cause. Above all, make sure you choose outlets that are popular with your intended audience.
• User-friendliness  - you don’t want to spend hours and hours getting to grips with the social media outlet only to find it’s too complicated for your colleagues or supporters to engage with.  Think about how easy it is for your intended audience to use the outlet you choose; and how easy it is for you to manage it.
• Two-way communications - social media outlets that have comment and discussion boards, forums or the ability to leave messages are good for building dialogue between you and your followers. Be careful about how many of these sites you choose to be involved in though. If you invite people to join debates or ask you questions, you’ll be expected to respond!

Which sites to use for which activities

The table below shows some common activities and suggestions for which social media sites could be used.

For more information about what each site does, see our guide to popular media outlets (Word, 23kb).

How to use social media to meet your goals

Here are some practical tips about getting the most out of social media in your activities.

Running a campaign

As well as using traditional methods to drive your campaigns – marketing materials, website, print and broadcast media, events etc – social media is good way to boost your potential audience.

Before running a campaign using social media, consider the following points:

• think about your audience - which websites and social media outlets do your intended audiences use? Which platforms will you therefore prioritise for your campaign?
• interaction - a key part of social media campaigns is interaction with your prospective supporters. This group will become your biggest advocates and should feel passionate about spreading the word about your campaign to more people to build more support. Allow them to talk to each other by creating ‘campaign’ pages on sites such as Facebook. Encourage supporters to recommend the campaign to their friends and to pass on links and spread the word. They might also write blogs, upload photographs or share videos on campaign activities they’ve undertaken.
• be fluid - like any campaign, those driven through social media shouldn’t be static. It’s important to keep updating information and introducing news aspects to the campaign so people maintain interest. Multimedia might play a role here – allowing you to refresh content by presenting short videos, podcasts or hosting interactive web chats.
• be prepared - if your campaign goes well, it may be that you get lots of website hits, queries – and hopefully donations. Make sure you are prepared for that
  

Case study: TakeBackParliament campaign on Facebook.

Boosting donations

If you are trying to raise funds for a specific campaign or even for your organisation as a whole, then social media can help push your cause. In particular, remember to:

• publicise your targets - overall targets with manageable and realistic milestones are crucial to any call for donations. Social media can be useful for keeping your supporters up to date and encouraging others to help you reach targets. You could update Twitter and Facebook followers on progress e.g "we're only £1000 off our target for the XXX campaign".
• show what donations will do - the more you can tell people what their money will be specifically used for, the better. These types of message are strong when used on social media especially if you use audio, video or a game to accompany them. For example, you might say: "giving £10 a month to charity XXX will ensure a hot meal every day for a homeless person". Post this on your Facebook page, perhaps with a short video clip showing the type of person you could help. Tweet about it, add it to YouTube, get people to talk about it. It should also be clearly visible on your website.
  

Case study: child's i foundation buy a brick project

Sharing knowledge 

Many social media outlets thrive on people offering advice, sharing resources and promoting expertise. Charities can use these sites well to help demonstrate their impact and reach more people. Here are a few suggestions for maximising those opportunities:

• knowledge-sharing websites – KnowHow NonProfit is a great example of an online community where organisations and individuals with a common interest can get advice and share ideas. There are hundreds more sites for specific topic areas – mumsnet and Begrand.net are examples in the family sector. Consider joining these forums and offering advice where appropriate.
• tweet advice – the MediaTrust does tweets throughout the day with tips on a different communications topic each day. You might think about doing something similar, providing your followers with an insight into your knowledge and expertise, but also some practical advice.
• showcase service users - encourage service users and those involved in your organisations to get involved in your social media 
• ensure stats are visible - think about revealling a compelling statistic on your Twitter feed every week, relating to your field of work
• Wikipedia – here you can contribute to definitions and explanations of a whole range of  topics and on a variety of subjects.

Alerting people

Whether it’s a new campaign or a breaking piece of news – use social media to alert your followers quickly. 

• Micro-blogging sites such as Twitter are great for sending out instant, short messages to your followers. To widen the numbers of people seeing your message, use the hash tag function (#). This ensures your message will get posted on relevant discussion threats. For example if you’ve got a conference on an issue relating to Big Society, post your comment followed by #bigsociety and it will be seen by all those accessing that discussion thread.
• Social networking sites including Facebook will alert people when a new message arrives from a group they’re part of. If you’ve got information to convey, using this method can be quick and effective.

Recruiting volunteers

Many charities look for new ways to increase their volunteer pool, social media can play a part in helping attract volunteers to your organisation. Here are a few points to consider:

• ensure you have a presence of social networks - Facebook has millions of users from all walks of life. There are thousands of groups where people with similar interests will post comments, debate and support. Find these groups, join them and post information about your organisation – and the fact you’re looking for volunteers
• tweet it - if you’re looking for more volunteers, say so! Twitter is a great way to put a message out quickly. Encourage people to ‘retweet’ to followers they think might be interested.
• volunteer voices - if potential volunteers can hear from existing volunteers what it’s like, they might be more encouraged to put their name forward. Consider adding ‘vox pops’ of volunteers to your website, YouTube and Facebook pages.

Recruiting staff

As well as the traditional methods of newspaper and trade magazine advertisements, a cheaper alternative is to advertise vacancies through your social media networks. Many organisations tweet their vacancy and encourage others to retweet – providing a link to your website where the job description and application details appear in full.

You could also use LinkedIn, the professional network, to draw attention to your vacancy. Again, those interested should be referred to your website for more details.

Building communities

Social networking is a major part of the social media scene. Whether you're using Facebook, Bebo, MySpace or Twitter, there are numerous outlets for bringing people together, hosting discussion and generating ideas.

Building communities is a major part of what non-profit organisations try to do – and a key function of social media. 

See social networking: best practice for tips and advice on how to best make use of social networking for building communities.

Influencing agendas, positioning your organisations

Social media can be a key means to positioning your organisation – reaching a wide audience and giving it a voice. 

• Contribute to relevant debates - keep an eye on the top blogs in your sector/area of interest and post comments if you’ve got something to add to the debate. Similarly on Twitter, ‘follow’ people who comment on topics relevant to you organisation and if they tweet something interesting, message them back – and/or retweet to your followers. 
• Be relevant and interesting - tweeting or blogging can be great for giving your organisation a voice and help with positioning. However, to ensure you make the most of social media, it’s important not to ‘tweet’ or ‘blog’ or ‘post’ on various outlets simply for the sake of doing so. Make sure whatever you do is relevant, timely and interesting to your followers.
• Your organisation’s reputation is at stake - if you are using social media on behalf of your organisation, remember that whatever you post on a website, blog or Twitter reflects on your organisation. You should consider with colleagues what tone you want to present in your social media activity and what topics you want to comment on and which should avoid. Do you want to be seen as informative, knowledgeable, reliable – or opinionated, challenging and confrontational?  As with all traditional marketing and PR material, it’s important to have some key lines that you can draw on across various topics so that you can react quickly to social media trends.

Generate feedback

Knowing your audience and addressing the issues that matter to them is importance for any organisation. Social media can help you communicate effectively with your current and potential supporters - and respond to their feedback:

• create a dialogue between your organisation and its audiences – whether that’s the public, service users, politicians or the media. Use your Facebook page and Twitter feed to pose questions and encourage followers to share views.
• be responsive - remember, if you want people to ask questions, then make sure you respond to them promptly and in sufficient detail.
• keep blogging - blogs are a great way of putting your organisation’s views into the wider world – and inviting responses to them.  Aim to build up followers and encourage them to post comments and give you feedback.

Communicate internally

More and more organisations are using sites like Facebook as a cheap way of communicating with staff. You can set up ‘closed’ groups to create a message board on certain topic – inviting staff to contribute ideas as well as keep up to date with the latest news and updates from the organisation.

"Social media is not for me"

If you don't use social media in your personal life you may see using it professionally as a daunting prospect - you know you should but don't know where to start. Here are some of the common barriers which stop people from just having a go.

• "You need to be very IT literate" Most social media outlets are simple to use. You don't have to be technical, just know what you want to say and to whom. Why not start with Twitter, it is easy to set up and use. It may give you the confidence to experiment with other sites.
  
• "It is going to cost for not much return" Most sites are free to use and set up. At the start as you build your followers it may seem that you're not getting much back. Stick with it and you'll find yourself reaching more people.
  
• "I don't have the time" Yes, it will take time but if it is going to help you connect with people and / or raise money, isn't it worth it?
• "I need to get it right first time" Using social media is all about trial and error. See what works for you. As with any marketing or communications, different messages and media will work with different audiences.
  

Useful links

• Traffikd.com is regularly updated and lists social media outlets under different categories – including health, news, music and technology.
• Social media questions (ICT champions) - practical guides written in plain english.
  

Have your say

What social media sites are you using? How have they helped you in your work? What barriers have you found? Share your experience by adding a comment here or joining the communications and the media forum.