Social Media Goodness Podcast Show #2

Culled from these very blog pages, here’s the 2nd show for Social Media Goodness.

Should nonprofit organizations use social media? Why? How?

Listen to Social Media Goodness.

Would love to know your thoughts!

Social Media Goodness Podcast #1

Started up a new little podcast.

This is geared toward nonprofit organizations & do-gooders wanting to learn how to use social media marketing for social good.

Will define terminology, explain tools, give brief case studies, etc. and hope it is helpful!

Listen to Social Media Goodness.

Dissecting Social Media Workshops at The Chronicle of Philanthropy

I enjoy the “live” discussions at The Chronicle of Philanthropy although I must admit I’m a bit surprised that they don’t do their live chats with a live chat client but instead rely on an auto-refreshing page. Still, they are touching on some of the key issues surrounding nonprofits using social media sites like Digg, Facebook and Twitter so that’s a great service to anyone in the nonprofit world who is struggling to make sense out of these new tools.

I do, however, have some bones to pick about their discussions.

First, they don’t seem to vary their experts. What I found from the initial discussion on the topic of social media that I attended in November was that their guests – Chris Garrett, author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, and John Haydon, a sales consultant and author of Twitter Jump Start: The Complete Guide for Small Nonprofits – don’t seem to have well-rounded backgrounds in social media. I took issue with much of their advice the first time around although they also did provide some good advice intermittently.

So I was surprised that they brought on the same experts for a second round rather than bringing in some fresh voices and perspectives. Maybe they thought they were offering continuity to their readers, however, what really concerns me is that the nonprofit world could and should be benefiting from advice from the top minds of social media – all of whom are willing to participate and provide their expertise – and yet through The Chronicle of Philanthropy, nonprofits are limited to two perspectives, both of which are more narrow in scope.

Why Nonprofits Should Use Social Media

When it comes to marketing, nonprofits – like many companies – tend to go for the familiar. What do we know? What have we done in the past? Direct mail? Check. A print newsletter? Check. A fundraising event? Check.

Whether or not these tactics have actually been successful in the past, they tend to be the typical course of action. Even if they are not cost effective or time efficient, more often than not, everyone at an organization can at least agree on the statement “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

Unfortunately, today’s funders and constituents are no longer consuming their information in the same ways. Today’s marketing tactics are not familiar. So how does a nonprofit with limited capacity get up to speed?

5-Part Social Media Process (Amy Sample Ward)

Amy Sample Ward blogs about nonprofit organizations and have distilled the process of moving forward with social media into 5 parts. Don’t let the simplicity of her ideas fool you – these are the foundational building blocks of any social media campaign (or marketing campaign or…) but are so often overlooked.

Her 5 parts are:

1. Audience

2. Resources

3. Success

4. Technology

5. Evaluation

Read what she has to say.

I Heart PitchEngine

I’ve been using PitchEngine as part of integrated social media campaigns for my clients. We’re all still ramping up to have the multiple elements required for an effective social media release, however, here are some early examples of SMRs I’m working on:

Pick. Click. Give. – http://pitch.pe/2592

Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Awards – http://pitch.pe/2507

I feel like the SMRs are a living, breathing organism as we continue to gather the multimedia components and set up the social network and microblog presences to truly make it more effective.

Earlier this year, I wrote about PitchEngine for Web Worker Daily. Here are some excerpts. You can read the entire review as well.

Two years ago, a company called Shift Communications introduced the concept of social media releases that incorporated social networks, microblogs, audio and video elements into text releases. A year later, they expanded their concept to include social media newsrooms, spiffing up the traditional text-heavy online newsroom with more multimedia bells and whistles. PitchEngine is a freemium Web app and hosting service that helps non-techies – and even non-PR-types – to build their own social media releases and social media newsrooms.

…

PitchEngine is first and foremost for the person who wants to build a social media release but doesn’t have the technical skills. You can create as many brand accounts as you want for free. Brands represent you or your clients and projects.

Building a social media release includes integrating a company’s Twitter account, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., as well as easily embedding audio and video. The finished product has all the links and elements easily accessible in and around the main press release text. The release is hosted for free for 30 days and then expires and is no longer available which is a suitable duration for an effective PR campaign, however, also an incentive to purchase a subscription for a more permanent social media newsroom.

…

Sure, the biggie PR wire services will probably step up as competitors to PitchEngine in the near future but they won’t be able to be as social media savvy, nimble nor as affordable as Kintzler’s venture. There has also been a recent backlash regarding using social media for marketing and public relations as there is bound to be with the adoption of any social platform for commercial purposes. The conversation about social media marketing has only just begun.

Are you using social media releases for your campaigns, particularly for social causes? If so, how and where? We’d love to see examples!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Back to the Basics of New PR
• In 2009, Social Media Will Be So Over

What is a Social Media Marketing Campaign, Really?

I’ve been working in the Last Frontier (Alaska, of course!) using social media to stay connected to my industry (Internet) as well as friends and colleagues in the Lower 48 and worldwide. My company’s latest project is testing the power of social media marketing campaigns to reach highly-targeted audiences.

So what is social media marketing?

I define social media marketing as using online-enabled sites, applications and tools in an integrated way to empower others to share your message. So this could mean everything from uploading videos that others can pass along to having pages on social networks where others can not only “friend” your organization but also encourage their friends to connect.

While a campaign is usually carried out for a set period of time, the reality of the Internet is that once you upload anything, it tends to live on whether you want it to or not. A social media marketing campaign can leave a larger and longer-term footprint than you might think.

Getting Social in Alaska

The campaign I’m working on in Alaska is called Pick. Click. Give. (http://www.pickclickgive.org) and is very region-specific. The call to action is for Alaskans to consider giving to an Alaska nonprofit when they sign up for their Permanent Fund Dividend (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund) in 2009. In case you hadn’t heard while Sarah Palin was on the campaign trail, every Alaskan receives an annual check from the profits of the Alaska oil and gas industry.

Many Alaskans use their PFD to pay bills or to put toward a major purchase such as a new car. The Pick. Click. Give. campaign is trying to not only build awareness of a new way Alaskans can donate while applying for their PFD online but to encourage Alaskans to engage in individual giving.

Will having Pick. Click. Give. on YouTube, mDialog, CauseCast, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networking and sharing sites reach the right audience? That remains to be seen.

But by carefully selecting the social media sites, applications and tools for rolling out a campaign online and immediately engaging some of our target audience to participate, we should be able to reach the right people. And all of their friends. And their friends…

What social media campaigns are you working on or do you support?

Can Social Media be used for Social Good? (Harte of Marketing)

From Beth Harte:

“From what I have seen so far, social media gives non-profits the ability to reach out, spread the word, develop communities, and have conversations in ways that traditional marketing never could─or at least not in a way that wouldn’t potentially eat up an entire year’s marketing budget.”

Read more of what she has to say.

You can also read a profile of her on Social Media Today.

Social Media For Social Good: Follow Up (Connection Cafe)

Did you miss the webinar “Social Media for Social Good” on Dec 17? Register to receive a recording at: http://www.convio.com/socialgood. Both Emily Riley from Forrester Research and Beth Kanter from Beth’s Blog gave presentations.

Read an interview between James Young at Connetion Cafe and the presenters.

Social Media for Social Good (The Buzz Bin)

Geoff Livingston will be teaching “Social Media for Social Good” at Georgetown University.

Per Geoff:

Here’s a sneak preview of the syllabus for MPPR-785-01, “Social Media for Social Good,” including the text books…

Social media offers organizations an indispensable tool set for a wide variety of philanthropic activities including activism, education, donor and volunteer development, and direct fundraising. Because of its inherently personal and community-based nature, social media provides an ideal canvas to work within, allowing causes to not just communicate, but also to activate and invigorate significant grassroots activity.

Read more…

And here is his class reading list – perfect for anyone looking to better understand the use of social media for social good.

• Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger, The Cluetrain Manifesto
• Seth Godin, Flipping the Funnel, nonprofit edition (eBook)
• Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, Groundswell
• Geoff Livingston with Brian Solis, Now Is Gone
• Jack Trout and Al Ries, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
• Ben Rigby, Mobilizing Generation 2.0
• Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point
• Allison Fine, Momentum

Awesome picks!