Twitter hashtags for non-profits

Library of Congress photo

How do you get the word out about your charity, non-profit or fund-raising effort? Use Twitter as a listening tool to discover great ideas from others, and use Twitter as a talking tool to share your message efficiently.

Use popular Twitter non-profit hashtags, create your own hashtags (just lead with the pound symbol – #), double-up on hashtags (#nonprofits and #nptech), and localize (tell ‘em where your located – #toledo).

• Replace the word non-profit in a tweet with #nonprofit.
• Build your tribe with #FollowFriday. Highlight other nonprofit organizations and show appreciation to contributors.
• Follow #fundraising trends including #nptech
• Ready for an event? Set your hashtags (#[event] and [campaign] ). Make your group aware of the hashtags and consistently use them. Make sure that you produce a few tweets that explain what your hashtag means. Toledo’s #exclaim http://bit.ly/22XXaa is a yearly music festival – join us #nonprofit.
• Don’t forget to localize your event: #exclaim2011 set for #toledo
• #volunteer[s] follow the call – call them with the hashtag.

Find a Twitter chat

Build innovation and creativity by joining a Twitter chat with other non-profit teams. Look for others sharing ideas by attending a Twitter chat (all times Eastern).

• #npcons – nonprofit consultants (third Tuesday of the month, 4-5 p.m.)
• #smNPchat – small nonprofits (Host is Pamela Grow; every other Friday, 12-1 p.m.)
• #nptalk – nonprofit talk (Host is Nicole Harrison; every Wednesday, 3-4 p.m.)
• #ynpchat – young nonprofit professionals (Host is Rosetta Thurman; first Wednesday of month, 4-5 p.m.)
• #socentchant – social entrepreneurs (first Wednesday of month, 4-6 p.m.)

Best finds

• Nonprofit fundraising coach Sandy Rees – @sandyrees – has great ideas at Get Fully Funded.
• Clean design, digestible content: Jessica Journey – @jessica_journey – is a great non-profits resource.

 

Why do I need a social media policy? Because you do!

Hold on there, cowboy (or cowgirl). You might have already leapt onto the social media horse. You might already have active social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. But do you have a social media policy in place?

Social media can help create a buzz around your brand and help small businesses punch harder, but if used haphazardly or irresponsibly these same tools can damage your marketing efforts and your reputation.

Read more in the Toledo Free Press.

Basic social media explanation

Library of Congress Photo - When someone in your core social group comments on something that you’re interested in that affirmation comes with “social credibility.”

Traditional media broadcasts to very large groups of people hoping that a small percentage of that group responds to their appeal.

When I think about social media I think about a theoretical limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships.  

How many people can you share one additional piece of identifying info? “Oh, I know Janeile, she’s a member of Social Media Breakfast Toledo. Yes, I know Michael, his wife’s name is Amy and they own a small business.”

Dunbar’s Number and your tribe

Dunbar’s Number identifies your core tribe. The number lies somewhere around 100-230. Let’s say 150.

That’s your core social group – 150. When someone in your core social group comments on something that you’re interested in that affirmation comes with “social credibility.” Michael and I are former co-workers. We’ve spent time together, we’ve had lunches.” His comment, appraisal or review of something is elevated by our relationship.

Now Michael has 150 friends in his core. And Janeile is a friend of both Michael and I and she has 150 friends in her core. Now you can see how these social cores can extend indefinitely out to the same range as the big media broadcasters and beyond. My friends and Janeile’s friends and Michael’s friends and all of our friends and their friends add up.

Core on steroids

Now take a good solid social core and put it on steroids? Social Networking channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn allow you to develop and strengthen this core group. When you reveal information and insight your core rewards you. It’s good to be affirmed by our social group. This is who we feel comfortable asking questions and making statements and sharing photos and links and ideas.

That’s the power of social media – affirmation, credibility, knowledge. My group makes me smarter and faster. My group has my back.

Can your business provide this type of customer support? Can you make me smarter and faster? Will you watch my back after the sale?

Boomers in survival mode and social media

Facebook: 922 percent growth in 55+

Curious that Boomers and Gen-Xers are outpacing Gen Y in using social networking for business? The downturn in the economy has pushed, at the very least, 10 percent of the work force into survival mode. Social media proficiency and networking is mandatory for these groups seeking an edge in a very tight labor market.

“Gen-Xers, ages 31-44, tend to be the workers who use social networking for business, followed by the Boomers aged 55 and older, according to results of a new Citrix Online report released this week.”

Older Boomers (55+) have increased their business use of social media 79 percent in the past year, according to the report.

You think they’re still reading newspapers, or using dead-tree as their primary source?

Tracking Facebook growth since October 2007 (20 million users), iStrategyLabs.com notes 103 million U.S. based users in 2010. That’s a 144 percent growth rate since 2009 and includes a 922 percent growth in 55+ (954,680 to 9,763,900).

Numbers to consider when carefully dicing up your next marketing budget.

 

2 questions about social media business options

Do you feel that all types of businesses should use social media to advertise their business? Or should it depend on the business?

Every business can jump into the social media space. Not every platform is appropriate. On a base level, every business can use social media for reputation management and to monitor basic brand mentions. Service providers and retailers might need a more robust presence and multiple platforms to reach their entire customer base.

Twitter is great for real time customer service. I have reached out to airlines and software companies on Twitter and received a response or resolution within a few minutes to a few hours.

Facebook is perfect for retail and extending and expanding the sales experience for customers. A brass rod or steel manufacturer does not necessarily need a Facebook page, but a utility might be use Twitter to announce rapidly changing commodity prices to their customers.

There is a social tool and network out there to fit your community (customers). A better way to describe it is that there is a social media ‘conversational style’ to fit every customer set.

Are there any more unique ideas for social media sites that haven’t been addressed yet? Or in other words are the social networking sites we have now it?

Specialty sites that focus on topic, interests and social sites that anticipate buyer intent and purchase. Facebook and other sites serve this functionality right now by serving up advertising content that matches favorites and likes, but I’m talking about something much more robust.

Bring on social sites that coordinate topics like Thai cooking, paintball, cocker spaniels, and powerboating. Sites will not only serve the appropriate ads but collect more players, collaborators, and news events. Social networks that will actively build out friends and tools to fine tune the topic.

Why is social media important?

Social Media is a seismic shift in the way people are discovering and sharing information and content.

Long gone are the days of just a handful of publishing sources and powerful voices in your city, industry or area of interest. Well, not exactly gone, but they’re now sharing space with millions of individuals and groups telling their stories.

This fantastic resource is feared and underestimated because it’s so open, transparent and difficult to control.

Now is the time to adapt to the new ideas and find maps for the new territory. This democratization of content and the role people play in the process is the new broadcast pattern for ideas. Tribes of individual publishers are setting the pace and tone in this conversation. Everyone is listening, speaking, publishing and building authority.

Everyone.

Sweet sounds of massive social media word-of-mouth

When Dave Carroll and Sons of Maxwell created their ode to a smashed guitar they were writing a new chapter in social media conversation and massive word-of-mouth exposure.

In the spring of 2008, the Halifax band Sons of Maxwell was traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour. Carroll witnessed his Taylor guitar being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. The damage inflicted on his $3,500 guitar inspired a unique customer complaint.

Carroll decided to respond to an unsympathetic United with three songs and videos (1, 2, 3). In July 2009, the original United Breaks Guitars video gained over 10,000 views in the 30 minutes that it took to write this blog post. The video has since soared to 8,059,599 views.

As companies struggle to effectively spend marketing dollars, a massive word-of-mouth narrative that informs millions of people about your company in a very short time is gold. But a massive word-of-mouth narrative where millions of people learn something negative about your company in a very short time is a formidable foe.

Canada mopped up in the recent Olympics. Now the Canadian picker and his bandmates have produced the third song of their promised series and a customer care blog that could become a Canadian Consumerist.

Carroll’s customer care site summary clearly states:

One of the most annoying concepts far too many companies embrace when it comes to customer service is that of “statistical insignificance.” Their goal: “Get it mostly right, most of the time,” so that the number of customer service failures are so few in comparison to the number of satisfied customers or uneventful interactions that they are statistically insignificant (a.k.a., “not worth worrying about”).

What has United Airlines learned from this situation? If you are inspired to contact United Airlines regarding “customer service” expect your first two options be “praise or compliments” or “comments or feedback.” The welcome banter and legal summary wear you down before discovering option three – “complaints.”

It was easier to find this whistleblower page by a McGill University professor (alas, the usability of the page is like snaking though a long line in security).

The lesson learned is that customer service will not necessarily occur on your customer service platform or during your business hours.

Social Media Breakfast Toledo: Be a Resource

David Murray thinks your business should be a resource and not just a source of information. What does your business think?

David led Social Media Breakfast Toledo last week in the beautiful Green Room at the Toledo Museum of Art. More than 50 other entrepreneurs, business people, and social media types gathered for a breakfast conversation.

Murray, Director of Social Web Communications for The Bivings Group of Washington D.C., said that the principles that govern online relationships are no different than the ones that govern offline ones. His talk was the seventh event in the SMB Toledo series, which began in 2009.

Social media might be characterized by a common set of actions rather than tools. Stressing about covering every platform from Facebook, to Twitter, to Flickr, to YouTube, to Ning, misses the point. Instead of shouting and interrupting, you should be monitoring, focusing, and building a conversation about you and your business.

Here’s your 4-point takeaway (in addition to breakfast):

• Create a coherent content strategy
• Build sharp, shareable content
• Find spaces to anchor and seed these messages (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
• Resist the urge to ‘proudly announce’ and ‘share special offers.’

Do good things by simply sharing useable, actionable content.