SOCIAL MEDIA
for
SOCIAL CHANGE
Stacey Diffin-Lafleur Senior Director, Marketing and Communications United Way Ottawa Stacey Diffin-Lafleur is an innovative senior communications strategist with more than 18 years of experience in the high tech and communications and non-profit industries. Versatile with extensive experience in media relations, marketing communications, investor relations, internal communications and analyst relations she is consistently recognized for delivering superior results. Stacey is highly effective in creative uses of emerging communications tools and passionate about the potential for Social Media. Stacey is the Senior Director of Marketing at United Way Ottawa where she leads the web, writing, media relations and special initiative communications activities for the organization. She has worked in the past in marketing and communications roles with Chipworks, Tundra Semiconductor, Accelight Networks, Stentor, and Telesat Canada.
Keenan Wellar Co-Founder and CEO LiveWorkPlay Keenan Wellar is co-leader of Ottawa-based charitable organization LiveWorkPlay.ca, which supports people with intellectual disabilities to experience life as included members of the community. Keenan’s abilities in marketing and communications have been reflected most profoundly through the organization’s media relations and robust social media strategy. At a time when voluntary organizations are struggling with succession and sustainability, LiveWorkPlay has grown its volunteer core and diversified its funding. Recognized in 2010 with a United Way Ottawa Community Builder Award, Keenan is an active community volunteer, providing pro bono workshops for non-profit organizations at local, provincial, and national events. He has an MA in Applied Linguistics and a Professional Certificate in Public Sector and Non-Profit Marketing from the Sprott School of Business.
Our Social Media Odyssey
June 2011
Stacey Diffin-Lafleur
5
Intro
• @theStacey - a little bit about me and this presentation
• What is United Way Ottawa?
1. Why social media?
2. Barriers? Who said barriers?
3. Where we started
4. Tools we used
5. Results
6. Lessons learned
6
Who we are
• NPO – Ottawa chapter established 1933
• Building stronger, healthier communities
• Engagement is our business
• Workplace campaign model – 1800 campaigns; 14,000 volunteers
• We market on a shoestring – volunteer support is key
7
Demographics of who’s doing
what…
8
Stats
“We don’t have a choice on whether we do
social media, the question is how well we do it.”
-Erik Qualman (Socialnomics)
9
Did we have any barriers? Yep.
• Corporate culture
– IT owning gateways (no Tweetdeck,
sites blocked, no access to Myspace,
bandwidth restrictions)
– Facebook and Twitter … those are for
playing… not for working
– Hey….we’ve always done it this way
– Fear of letting go – losing control of
the messages
10
Baby steps…
• Basic website
– No robust online donation
tool
• EBlasts
– Really just invitations
• E-newsletter
– Low subscriber base, not used to engage
All push marketing, no conversation…
11
Broadening our reach to meet…
• Home-based business
• Entrepreneurs
• Smaller retail outlets
• Students
• Next Gen
• Everyone who’s not part
of a workplace campaign
12
We changed it up
• And..
– met a lot of the SM folks in town and
out, asked a lot of questions, ate a lot
of lunch
– Held a SM lunch and learn for United
Way staff to demonstrate potential
– Got the Director’s Network at United
Way Ottawa using Yammer
13
We changed it up
– Used Twitter and Facebook to promote the Malcolm
Gladwell visit…a lightbulb went off in the organization
– Put a plan in place…
…and the rest is history
14
15
Next Step: Let’s start the
conversation
• Met service partners @ twestival
• Desire to do more SM outreach
• Build deeper/personal engagement w/ UW
• Recognized the power of “trusted networks”
• Began outreach tools development
16
One of our SM tools
• Record.Share.Donate.
• Speaker’s Corner
18
Our SM tool (mobile)
19
Our SM tool
• Other UWs excited about potential
• Sponsor came forward
• Building more tools and expanding reach
20
Some results
• 68% year/year increase in page views at www.unitedwayottawa.ca
• 6,500 pageviews of donated video page on United Way Ottawa site
• 200+ user generated videos submitted
• Nearly 200% increase in total online $$$
• Tripled the # of online donors
• More than 1,500 people follow United Way Ottawa’s official account on Twitter – grows daily
• More than 3,000 my colleagues, this add up to reach!
21
Some results
• Using mail platform to track our EBlasts and open rates and fine-tuning
• Schmoozefest sold out (past attendance was low)
• Kindness – reached 27,000 people in one day with <50 tweets
• New people involved with us? Yes.
22
See anyone you know?
23
And in video…
24
Lessons I’ve learned
• Set clear, realistic objectives
• Start small – do it well – then grow
• Not everyone will get on board -
immediately
• Measurement – be prepared to defend
your results – not a traditional
transaction – it’s just not linear anymore.
25
Lessons learned
• Work within corporate culture to help
more senior execs and busy VPs to
understand the value of Social Media –
get them involved, show them results,
engagement will follow. – St. Bernard Project/UW Nt’l Conference
– Facebook help from employee body – engage,
harness, share
– Bloggers invited to events as media - good ideas
spread. It’s all about telling the story to the right
people.
26
Lessons learned
• Listen, ask questions, don’t be afraid to get
involved
• SM is a great engagement and awareness
tool and a low-cost, high return piece of our
overall marketing strategy
27
Changes we’ve made happen
• No webmaster – now an Online
Experience Officer…(found via Twitter)
• No longer just a media site – now a
newsroom
• No longer static content - now a
conversation
28
Questions….
• Thank you
@TheStacey
Will your social media strategy get you murdered in a lake?
Keenan’s social media passion: made, not born!
Found guilty of a crime Against society
Found guilty of
having an intellectual disability
LiveWorkPlay
Turning moments into movements
The situation for people with intellectual disabilities in my community of Ottawa and in general across Canada is that only about 1% own their own home, and only about 10% rent their own home – so we have some 90% of individuals living in some type of institutional residence.
A life transformed, a community transformed
LiveWorkPlay
Turning moments into movements
Website and Partner Websites
715 Views of Moira and Caroline [So Far]: Important Events Analytics
Social media analytics bring surprising levels of understanding and transparency to relationships
I-J: Posted on Facebook and LiveWorkPlay.ca
H: Posted on WordPress at keenan.wellar.ca
F-G: Shared with YouTube friends/subscribers
C-D-E: Featured in stories on partner websites
A-B-C: Post-conference presentation buzz
For some,
social media is understood as a tool, a job, a skill, a choice…
For me and others,
social media is understood as the most profound confluence of human discourse the world has ever seen…
When pursuing social change – whether it is a community where people with disabilities belong, or another desired social transformation – how leaders (both individuals and organizations) choose to understand social media has profound consequences for themselves and the world.
Marketing? Me? No no no, I work for a charity!
Hello, my name is:
LiveWorkPlay Marketing
Budget!
Where it all started…
Top 30 20 in Canadian non-profit
community?
If only we’d been trying!
(YouTube is more than kittens and hits to the groin)
Being completely current on social media is a simple matter of the impossible, so
reinvigorate your joy of discovery!
My advice is learn all the tricks you can while you’re young!
Is your organization engaged in marketing?
How well is your organization positioned in the competitive world of social marketing?
Do you have an integrated social media strategy?
How can social media help improve the rest of
your marketing and communications work?
Are you concerned with outputs or outcomes?
Social media is an opportunity to both enhance and challenge your organization’s mission-oriented pursuits!
“Master of the obvious” questions and statement…but…
Looking at how survey respondents use commercial social networks, the most popular role is:
1) traditional marketing—to promote the non-profit’s brand, programs, events or services—with 92.5% of survey respondents indicating this role as the purpose of their presence on commercial social networks.
2) the second most popular role is for fundraising (45.9%).
3) third program delivery (34.5%)
4) fourth market research (24.3%)
It’s not like Keenan shaves his head and wears black…
Seth Godin on leadership:
Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. The scarcity makes leadership valuable. If everyone tries to lead all the time, not much happens. It’s discomfort that creates the leverage that makes leadership worthwhile…if everyone could do it, they would, and it wouldn’t be worth much. It’s uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers. It’s uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail. It’s uncomfortable to challenge the status quo. It’s uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle. When you identify the discomfort, you’ve found the place where a leader is needed. If you’re not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader.
Some non-profits may fear that social media resistance is futile…
Those who are in proper mission-oriented focus will understand it as a new universe of opportunities…
To err is human!
But we can adopt marketing Strategies that aren’t doomed to fail from the outset…
Do as we say, not as we do:
social media engagement (non) strategy
Hi, I’m the CEO of a local charitable organization. I don’t have time for social media, but our summer intern is posting some of our press
releases on Facebook, you should check those out and make a donation!
The conversation
might lead somewhere but it definitely didn’t
start with an ask for $20 before you’d
start conversing!
Monetizing social media is like monetizing the conversation
you had while waiting for your mocha java!
Do your practices alienate young people?
Treating Facebook updates and
Twitter tweets the same?
You are losing out with one or
both audiences.
You are putting disregard for
authenticity on public display.
On Twitter, 95% of re-tweets happen in the first hour!
On Facebook, updates have a full day life span!
Are you expecting a mob of supporters to magically appear?
Charity begins at home – build your tribe!
The perfect social media
storm…
Not an act of God, an
outcome of a marketing
plan!
Andrea and I are interested in training with a team of LiveWorkPlay members to participate in this fun event
either by walking or jogging the 2K, 5K, 10K, or half marathon.
Social Media “Loss Of Control” Can Be A Great Thing!
Looking at how survey respondents use commercial social networks, the most popular role is:
1) traditional marketing—to promote the non-profit’s brand, programs, events or services—with 92.5% of survey respondents indicating this role as the purpose of their presence on commercial social networks.
2) the second most popular role is for fundraising (45.9%).
3) third program delivery (34.5%)
4) fourth market research (24.3%)
Contact information and slides (available next week):
http://tiny.cc/marcom2011
@keenanwellar