Should Organizations Be Sassy On Social Media?

It’s no secret that social media has experienced incredible growth over the last couple of years. 67% of online adults use social networks, according to Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. In addition, almost all nonprofits have a social media presence. Unfortunately, the old rule - good content is still king, seems to have been forgotten by many organizations on social media, particularly on Twitter. Yes, the 140-characters can be limiting, but as campaigners working on creating social change on the ground it’s critical that we use online channels like social media to raise awareness, debunk myths by the opposition, and inspire people to take action. And that means we need to get super creative and sometimes even sassy, funny, and show emotion (you know be human) when talking to our community on social media.

Last night my colleague Danny Brown, co-author of Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing shared this hilarious conversation on Twitter between three major brands, HTC, Samsung, and LG. The conversation started with @HTC_UK tweeting “Last night we won the “Hottest phone of 2013” at the Mobile Awards” It then linked to a picture and they ended the tweet with “#ouch @SamsungMobileUK.

HTC accomplished two important things here. They announced a big award the company won to their community and then took on their competitor Samsung by using humor and a bit of sass. Samsung and LG responded with funny comebacks – the best one being from LG. They mocked up a great photo with text overlaid that said “Calm down dears. It’s only a phone.” Check out the screenshot that documents the conversation exchange between all three brands, courtesy of GeeksAreSexy.net.

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Kiss Vanity Metrics Goodbye

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at Politico’s Emerging Tech Leaders series with Politico journalist Jessica Meyers. During our discussion, Jessica and I talked about nonprofit and political campaigns obsession with vanity metrics. As social media becomes a bigger part of our online communications and outreach, the nonprofit and political campaign community has become way too focused on numbers rather than real engagement. Why is engagement important? Because engaging people and mobilizing supporters to advocate for social justice and policy change is how we help move the needle.

Just because you have 500,000 followers on Twitter doesn’t mean your organization has 500K people who are advocating for your issues. I would much rather see organizations have 5,000 people who were committed to their campaign then 500K people who weren’t really engaged on the social justice issues your organization was advocating.

The other problem with relying on vanity metrics is that it dilutes social media’s real purpose – to be social. These days I’m seeing a lot less socializing and conversations and more promotional content such as blog posts, press statements, fundraising appeals, etc. This is one way communications and there is nothing social about it.

Is your organization caving into vanity metrics like focusing your social media goals on generating FB Likes and Twitter followers instead of much more important and strategic goals like fostering relationships with your community and  mobilizing your base? If you answered yes, it’s time to reassess your social media goals and how you measure success. Here’s a few suggestions to start thinking about as you begin to plan your new social strategy. And remember the best analytics is the human brain - meaning you are going to have to spend time analyzing and documenting metrics yourself. Don't just rely on tools and expect it to give you the full picture.

Focus on Target Audiences

Are we fostering meaningful conversations with target audiences?

Focus on Influence

Do the people we seek to reach look to our organization as a leading authority? Do they come to us first for the latest information and resources?

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Organizations: Learn to Connect the Dots

A new study of 244 nonprofit participants by Avectra and NTEN show that nonprofit organizations are either tracking a lot of engagement metrics ranging from email open rates to activity on Facebook or don’t do it all. Unfortunately, many of the organizations tracking engagement metrics are not applying the data to make informed decisions about their programming, online strategy, fundraising, and outreach.

1 in 10 survey participants said the reason that their organization did not measure correlation was because they did not how to determine it related to fundraising, event participation, donor retention, etc. Another reason why organizations may not be focused on measuring the correlation is due to limited staff capacity. 80% said they had less than 1 FT staffer focusing on this work. This is one of the reasons why a social CRM system like Small Act can be helpful to nonprofits. About 25% of the organizations said they would invest in a social CRM or related product to help collect and analyze this data.

Check out some of the highlights in their infographic based on survey data.

• 88% of organizations track email open rates.
• 86% of organizations track Facebook activity and 72% track mentions on Twitter.
• 69% track sharing and their social media reach.

When organizations were asked what kind of an impact these metrics had on their strategic outcomes.

• 23% measured it in connection with their free events.
• 20% measured it in connection with their open rates.
• And from a social media perspective 16% said that that they measured it in connection with their organizational Facebook page.

If You’re Going To Use Social Media, Do It Right

Last week Amy Sample Ward and I held a webinar with Care2 on Social Media: You’re Probably Doing it Wrong. We had a terrific conversation about some of the themes we discuss in our book Social Change Anytime Everywhere such as how to manage an online crisis and avoid alienating your community. We also discussed how to foster meaningful conversations with your community. Here are three of our favorite tips that we shared.

Don’t Rely On Automated Updates

What was the first thing you did after hearing about the shooter that killed 12 people and injured 58 at the Aurora movie theater in Colorado? Perhaps you jumped on to Twitter or Facebook to look at what friends were saying or sharing. Maybe you turned on CNN to watch the story unfold. I bet you did not expect to see these tweets from the NRA.

It turns out, that this tweet was sent out via Hootsuite and was posted as an automated tweet by one of the official NRA accounts. It’s times like these when you realize how automated tweets can make your organization look insensitive and out of touch to breaking or tragic news that is unfolding. We recommend that if you need to schedule social media posts, you do so sparingly and be prepared to delete them quickly if breaking news is happening.

Don’t Insult Your Followers

There is a lot we can learn from branding guru Guy Kawasaki who has over 1M followers on Twitter including how he mishandled constructive feedback about his automated tweets about a German Shepard eating like a human video following the Boston Marathon bombings. After his followers asked him to stop sending out the automated tweets, Guy tweeted back “Loving how people with less than 1,500 followers, are telling me how to tweet...”

It’s natural to have moments when we feel annoyed about something someone has said to us on Twitter and Facebook. But as representatives of our organizations it’s critical that we not take things so personally and certainly not take it out on our community by insulting them. Instead a better approach would have been for Guy to say “Thanks for the suggestions folks. I hear what you are saying.” This situation caused Guy negative publicity, which could have been avoided if he did not lash out and insult his community. While Guy is not an organization, he is a well-respected thought leader, so his personal profile is a significant part of his brand and business.

Apologize When You Mess Up

When the revolution in Cairo was taking place, the marketing folks at Kenneth Cole thought they would send out a "clever" tweet about this historic moment. The tweet said: “Millions are in uproar in Cairo. Rumor has it they heard about our Spring collection.”

People were livid with Kenneth Cole because they found it tasteless to hijack this moment for marketing purposes. Things bubbled up very quickly. People began blasting Kenneth Cole publicly on social media. The media also began writing about the tweet and the negative response they were receiving. After the company heard the negative feedback, Kenneth Cole himself issued an apology on Facebook, Twitter, and on their blog.

What are your favorite tips for doing social media right?

Creating a Virtuous Cycle of Engagement For Millennials

While members of the Millennial Generation, now the largest generation in our nation’s history, are widely known for a desire to give back to their communities or be part of large social change movements – the way Millennials define their engagement tends to be very different from the way organizations do. 

When you ask a Millennial, “Do you support a nonprofit or social cause?” The resounding answer is, “Yes!” When you follow that up by asking, “How do you support that organization?” You’re likely to hear answers like, I signed a petition, changed my avatar on Twitter, or liked them on Facebook.

Now, ask an organization if Millennials are supporting their cause, and they say, “No, we just can’t figure out how to reach them.”  There in lies the disconnect between Millennials who believe they are supporting activism versus what organizations see as truly engaged participation.

With that in mind, organizations must embrace the notion that how they define engagement will be different. A one-size-fits-all approach is nearly impossible and will only meet the needs of a small segment of your audience – typically the super-engaged Millennials.

So, how do we convert a new generation of organizational champions into loyal and passionate advocates and donors? And how can we best position organizations so they are able to capture the limited time, dollars and attention spans of a generation always on the go? We’ll be the first to say, there’s no silver bullet. But there are a few concepts that we introduce in Cause for Change: The Why and How of Nonprofit Millennial Engagement that we hope will help your organization navigate this ever-changing space.

In Cause for Change, we introduce the Virtuous Cycle of Engagement as the core to building an organization’s Millennial engagement strategy. Here’s what the Cycle looks like – starting with the inquisitive and conscious consumer and moving toward deeper engagement as activists and ultimately true influencers or peer agents.

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Social Media: You're Probably Doing It Wrong

Let's be honest, social media is progressing and changing every single day and most people don't have the time to keep up with the most effective way to do social media. Don't worry though, we can help you change that. Join me, Allyson Kapin, Co-founder of Rad Campaign and Blogger-in-Chief of Care2's Frogloop blog and Amy Sample Ward, Membership Director of NTEN for this free webinar.

Amy and I will provide concrete advice from our new book Social Change Anytime Everywhere on what you need to be doing to build and mobilize your communities through multifaceted campaigns and by integrating social media into your online communications and outreach. We'll also walk you through crucial crisis management tips to keep on hand and how to overcome common social media obstacles as well as learn from your mistakes.

Social media is like a cocktail party and it’s your job to help everyone create more real world impact. Register here to get the party started!

"Social Media: You're Probably Doing It Wrong"
THURSDAY, MAY 9TH, 2013 at 2PM ET

In this webinar you'll learn:

• How to build a multichannel campaign calendar to leverage social media with other online communications and outreach.


• Social media tips directly from our new book, Social Change Anytime Everywhere


• Social fundraising - when is social media the right place for this? We'll provide you a behind the scenes peek at engaging, exciting, and successful social fundraising campaigns.


• The importance of a Social Media Hand Guide and how to create yours.


• How to manage an Online Crisis and avoid alienating your community.

This webinar is FREE but available space is limited, so please register today!

About the Presenters:

Allyson Kapin – Co-Founder, RAD Campaign
Allyson has been named a "Top Tech Titan" by the Washingtonian, one of the Most Influential Women In Tech by Fast Company and one of the top 30 Women Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter by Forbes for her leadership role in technology and social media. As Founding Partner of Rad Campaign she leads the firm’s client and online strategic services.

For over a decade Allyson has helped non-profit organizations and political campaigns create dynamic and award-winning websites and online marketing and recruitment campaigns. She is an expert in the latest trends in social networking, blogging, online video, and other online tools and strategies and advises her clients on how to cost-effectively incorporate them into their Internet plans and online campaigns. She has also been a featured speaker on web design, Internet marketing and social media at national conferences.

In 2007 Allyson founded Women Who Tech: A Telesummit for Women in Technology working in the non-profit and political campaign world, championing women who are inspiring change and transforming technology. Allyson also sits on several Advisory Boards including the New Organizing Institute, the Green It Consortium and the Planning Committee for NTEN's NTC conference as well as O'Reilly's Gov 2.0 Expo. She started the Radical Tech blog for Fast Company focusing on trends in technology and Web 2.0 and serves as the Blogger-In-Chief for Care2's top-ranked nonprofit communications blog, Frogloop.

Amy Sample Ward – Membership Director, NTEN
Amy joined NTEN as the Membership Director in March 2011, after previously serving as the Community Development Manager for CDI (Community-Driven Innovation) at TechSoup Global, leading the strategy for the global NetSquared Community both on and offline, as well as steering the development of programs, services, and events that build community around the world.

In addition to Social Change Anytime Everywhere, Amy is co-author of Social by Social: A handbook in using social technologies for social impact. She's contributed to various publications about social media and online engagement, and since 2008, I has contributed to the Stanford Social Innovation Review with monthly posts on the Opinion Blog. A regular on the conference circuit, Amy has spoken at numerous conferences, workshops, and training days in the US, the UK and beyond.

Amy has worked in private philanthropy, advocacy nonprofit organizations, web design companies, and as a consultant. She is a graduate of Valparaiso University where she focused on English & New Media Journalism, though her informal education is – thankfully – a varied and on-going, life-long journey.

Justin Perkins – Director of Nonprofit Services, Care2
Since 2006, Justin has worked with Care2 on over 250 campaigns to recruit millions of supporters for nonprofits across a wide variety of social and environmental issues. He also launched frogloop.com, a leading nonprofit marketing blog. Justin developed one of the first social network ROI calculators to help nonprofits plan and evaluate their social media efforts. He is passionate about helping nonprofits use a data-driven, efficient approach to online marketing.

Justin has an MBA from the University of Colorado and has worked a variety of jobs ranging from organic farming, to starting a human rights nonprofit in Congo, to launching an artisan roasted-nut company in Colorado. He volunteered on the Strategy Committee for the Boulder Farmers Market, the Board of Prevent Human Trafficking, and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Citizen Effect. Justin enjoys climbing peaks, trail running, skiing, and lives in Colorado with his little family.

REGISTER NOW and attend this FREE Expert Webinar on THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2013 at 2PM ET

Infographic: How Facebook Turned Red to Support Same-Sex Marriage

On March 25^th, the Human Rights Campaign posted the red version of its logo on their Facebook page in anticipation of the Supreme Court hearings on Prop 8 and DOMA. The status update read: “Who’s wearing red tomorrow? Show your support for marriage equality – make your image red tomorrow.” And that is exactly what many of their 1.4M followers on Facebook did.

Over the next 24 hours, 2.7 million more Facebook users updated their profile picture compared to the previous Tuesday, according to data released by Facebook. Many of the profile images were either HRC’s red logo or a creative take on the logo. People adapted HRC’s logo with pop culture images from Game of Thrones, the comic Peanuts, Star Wars, and more. Celebrities ranging from George Takei to Madonna shared the red logo and messages of support. Inspired by how the Internet turned red last week, I dug into all of the great data results from the campaign and created an infographic to help tell the story of the HRC campaign.