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Social Media Now

Friday, April 10, 2015

by Dan Brady, Communications Manager, Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers

Recently the Forum Network’s communications staff members came together for a discussion of social media tools and tactics. When I first started at the Forum, social media adoption was just in its infancy in the Network. Our calls at that time were more focused on “What is Twitter?” and how to convince your CEO that social media wouldn’t be the either the end of all messaging control or “the thing that makes your mission go viral.”

Goals and Expectations

Managing expectations around social media is still key. For many, this comes down to having a clear understanding of goals and audiences. One example of a clear social media mission statement that I liked from the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers reads “ Social Media is a tool to tell the general public how philanthropy in New Jersey is having an impact in the state.” What I like about this statement is that is tells you exactly who the intended audience is and what the organization’s goal is when using social media.

As many regional associations have small staffs—1-4 person shops, often with no designated “communications” staff person—one statement that resonated with the group was that social media represented a “low effort, low expectation” opportunity. With limited capacity, social media is one part of an integrated communications strategy, which often also includes a robust web presence, email campaigns, newsletters, and more. Most content created or shared by regionals goes out over social media, but it is rarely the main vehicle for dissemination.

So is social media just another checkbox on the to-do list of regional association staff members? No. Several RAs expressed that they felt social media successfully amplified their organization’s and their members’ messages and provided a simple but effective member service.

Reaching Beyond Our Memberships

For many regionals, social media presents an opportunity to communicate with audiences beyond their membership. Engagement with legislators though advocacy has been successful, not only in engaging members, but also building relationships with lawmakers and the media. Regional associations are increasingly recognized as experts in the area thanks to their work through PolicyWorks for Philanthropy and Foundations on a the Hill. The America Gives More act was an inflection point for policy engagement through social media as regionals began to contact legislators and the media through direct Tweets, a tactic recommended by our friends at Independent Sector.

What Works

Our conversation covered a number of best practices and stories from the trenches of social media, but here’s a quick list of six tips for what works for regional associations:

  • Intentionality – Maintaining a calendar of all posts by type (member news, program announcements, etc.) can help track what members engage with most.
  • Hashtags for Programs – Develop a hashtag for programs, especially if they are recurring or part of a larger initiative. Embedding a Twitter feed of the hashtag on your program page is a great way to capture and display the energy around a topic among members.
  • Of course you have your organizational Twitter account, but individuals are more likely to engage in conversation with staff member accounts. Faces matter.
  • We’ve all heard that we should be asking questions on social media, but among RAs cold questions out to the hive mind don’t generate much response. However, asking follow up questions to mentions or replies almost always sees a result.
  • Twitter and other social media platforms can act as a proving ground for what will gain traction with members. This goes back to the “low effort, low expectation” model. By keeping track of what your audience is engaging with, you can later cycled popular content into newsletters or more fully-fleshed out web features. This is a great way to learn what new interests are popping up among members.
  • Social media is an amazing tool for reusing existing assets digitally. If you’ve just published an exciting new report, use a tool like Buffer’s Pablo to extract some quotes and place them on a background for sharing. A tip of the hat to Buffer, which received high marks all around from regionals currently using it.

The last five years has been a time of experimentation in social media. Luckily for the Forum Network, we have 33 regional associations all running separate experiments, sharing data, and reporting back what works best so that we can all succeed in our social media goals, whether that’s amplifying member voices or achieving policy change through advocacy. 

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