Worksheet: Listening with Social Media for NonprofitsCreated by:Chad Norman – Internet Marketing Manager, BlackbaudDanielle Brigida – Digital Marketing Manager, National Wildlife Federation

Originally delivered for Blackbaud’s 2010 Conference for Nonprofits, this hands-on, interactive worksheet covers the development of a social media listening program at your organization. In this worksheet, you will step through the process, including searching various services for keywords related to your organization, creating a social media listening dashboard, analyzing supporter tweets, and developing plans and workflows for responding. After filling out this worksheet, you will have the knowledge necessary to listen to what your supporters are saying about your organization via social media.

Upon completion of this worksheet, you will be able to:

Identify who you are trying to listen to Identify key terms that you should be monitoring Generate search RSS feeds based on key terms about your organization Create a social media listening dashboard Create a social media response plan for your staff

Let’s get started with exercise 1….

1) Who Am I Listening To?

Identify Your Social Media PersonasWhat kind of supporters are you trying to listen to?

Examples: women age 18-50; residents of Georgia; residents of Boston;

2) What Am I Listening For?

Organization and Staff MembersWhat is the name of your organization and key staff members?

Examples: Coastal Community Foundation; Justin Case (name of E.D.)

Keywords Related to Your Organization, Mission, or CampaignsWhat keywords might your supporters use in their social communications?

Examples: “animal rescue”; “Movember”; child welfare;

Local Community KeywordsIf your mission is local, what keywords should you be monitoring?

Examples: New York City; NYC; Florida; Dallas; southeast;

Twitter HashtagsWhat hashtags are related to your organization, mission, location, etc?

Examples: #SFO; #CHS; #OilSpill; #11ntc; #chsgreen; #unitedway

Twitter Mentions and RetweetsWhat Twitter accounts do you want to monitor?

Examples: @YourOrgsHandle; @YourExecutiveDirector; @YourEventHandle

3) Where Should I Be Listening?

Collect Tweets from Search.Twitter.comWhat were some of the keywords, phrases, and hashtags you identified earlier?

Examples: #chsgreen; CCF; Bob Smith; etc

Visit http://search.twitter.com and perform searches on those items. Find the RSS URL for these results, and paste them into the box below:

Capture mentions of your organization with SocialMention.comVisit http://socialmention.com and perform search for your organization’s name. Find the RSS URL for these results, and paste them into the box below:

Find Blog Posts about your organization with IceRocket.comVisit http://icerocket.com and perform search for your organization’s name. This will find mentions of your organization in blog posts. Find the RSS URL for these results, and paste them into the box below:

Discover conversations about your organization with BoardReader.comVisit http://boardreader.com and perform search for your organization’s name. This will find mentions of your organization in discussion forums. Find the RSS URL for these results, and paste them into the box below:

Find out who is linking to your website on Twitter with BackTweets.comVisit http://backtweets.com and perform search for your organization’s website. This will find Twitter links that point to your website. Find the RSS URL for these results, and paste them into the box below:

Hear the news about your organization first with Google AlertsVisit http://www.google.com/alerts and perform search for your organization’s name. This will generate results showing new web content that mentions your organization’s name. Select “Feed” under the “Deliver to:” drop down list. Find the RSS URL for these results, and paste them into the box below:

4) How Should I Be Listening?

Create an iGoogle DashboardIn this exercise, you will use iGoogle to create a social media listening dashboard.

NOTE: You will need a Google Account to complete this exercise

1. Open up iGoogle: http://www.google.com/ig2. Click the “add stuff »” link in the upper-right-hand corner3. Click the “Add feed or gadget” link in the lower-left-hand corner4. Paste in one of the RSS feed URLs from exercise 3 (start with Twitter Search), then press

the “Add” button.5. Close that box and return to your iGoogle home page (link in upper-left-hand corner)

The Twitter Search gadget should be visible on your iGoogle home page. You can change how many tweets are displayed, expand each tweet, or visit twitter by clicking the link.

Continue adding gadgets using the RSS URLs you created throughout exercise 3.

5) How Should I Respond to Social Media?

Create a Social Media Response Plan for StaffIn this exercise, you will identify what kind of mentions should be responded to, what the response should be, and who should be responding.

Social Media Content(Type of Tweet/Update)

Who Should Respond(Staff member or Team)

What Kind of Response(What to say)