alyssagardina.com - nonprofits

Why #FollowAMuseum was a social media success

agardina — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:28:31 +0000

Today, museums, organizations, visitors and enthusiasts around the world celebrated the first #followamuseum day. Organized by Jim Richardson of the blog Museum Marketing (UK), the campaign asked Twitter users to share their favorite museums to follow and discover new ones as well.

By all accounts, this campaign was a success. As a person who tweets for a museum, I was fortunate to see our replies stream fill up with people suggesting us as a museum to follow, new followers saying hello and retweets of content we were sharing that had nothing to do with the #followamuseum hashtag. According to Social Mention, #followamuseum was mentioned once every 13 seconds. The event organizer estimates that there were over 6000 tweets with the hashtag today. So, why was it successful?

It mobilized preexisting advocates. Nonprofits have an advantage when taking part in conversations on social media. For better or for worse, many people feel passionate about their cause. Fans of museums had an incentive to promote their favorite museums on Twitter: by providing this information, they demonstrated their involvement with the museum's mission.
It provided focus in a cluttered medium. Hashtags are primarily used to tag tweets on a similar subject. The #followamuseum hashtag could be followed in Twitter Search or via a third party application, allowing museums & users to easily find and follow new organizations.
It engaged on a worldwide scale. In preparing for the day, the organizer did something very smart: he created a directory of museums on Twitter. Rather than relying on disparate Twitter lists and Twitter search, he centralized the cause and organized the museums geographically.
It united organizations that share a common cause. Museums have very little to lose in promoting one another. Odds are, not much business is lost when a visitor chooses to go to one museum over another. Frequently, it's beneficial for organizations within a city to promote each other, in hopes of growing cultural tourism. All day, museums were sharing their favorite counterparts on Twitter and thanking each other for mentions.

What could other industries do with a #followa_______ day? There could be days focusing on educational nonprofits, on colleges, on... wineries. Essentially any industry that's populated with distinct Twitter users that share valuable information could have one.

The Power of Video – YouTube for Nonprofits

agardina — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:29:52 +0000

When you’re marketing a nonprofit, most of your campaigns are going to focus around a story. A life you changed, an impact you’ve made, a reason to give. Thus, your social media involvement should also tell your story. Video is a fantastic way to tell these stories in a visually engaging and meaningful way. And you don’t need a professional crew to do it!

Here are some basic things you need to get your video campaign off the ground:

A Flip video camera ($149-$199) or you can apply to get one for free through Flip Video Spotlight
Editing software (I use iMovie, but you can also try Final Cut Express)
A YouTube nonprofits page

The YouTube nonprofits page is incredibly important. Once you’re approved, you can brand the page and add information about how viewers can donate to your cause. Corporations pay thousands of dollars to brand their YouTube pages, but nonprofits get to set theirs up for free! All you need to do is supply the graphics – dust off those Photoshop skills!

A lot of nonprofits fear the leap into online video, thinking that you need to buy tons of equipment, like a lighting kit, $10,000 camera, $5,000 editing software, but you really don’t. A great example of a nonprofit doing it right is the Anaheim Ballet. They’re #3 in subscribers and #3 most viewed in the non-profit category on YouTube. They’re not filming in HD, their graphics aren’t made for Hollywood, but their videos are engaging, informative and personal. They tell a story.

We all have stories to tell – grab your Flip camera and start filming! It’s as easy as lights, camera, action.

(Coming up next: TubeMogul: Taking your video beyond YouTube)

Social media and nonprofits: don't try to go it alone

agardina — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:47:14 +0000

Nonprofits are often all about collaboration. Fundraisers, mailing, events, we're great at working together as a team when we're on deadline. When we're immersed in long-term projects, however, we often get so focused and immersed that teamwork is the last thing on our minds. I came in late to the #blogchat discussion on Twitter on Sunday night, but still had a really interesting discussion with some other nonprofiteers about who does social media for their organization.

If you're doing social media for a nonprofit, you're probably in the marketing or membership department (no offense to education, volunteers or accounting, them's just the facts). In addition to running Twitter, Facebook, a blog, Flickr and YouTube, odds are you're also taking care of reports, administration and plenty of other department-related tasks.

First, breathe.

You are not an island. You're more like a penninsula.

Second, don't be afraid to ask your coworkers for help. Sure, some may think that Twitter is just for talking about what you had for breakfast or that Facebook is for college kids. But here are some tips to get even the most technologically-afraid coworker contributing:

Start with blogging. Odds are good that someone else in your organization is writing grants, reports or guides. Give them the advice to write in smaller paragraphs, and ask that they send their post to you via email before posting it. Comb through it, add some links, include a photo, and (voila!) you've got a new voice and perspective on your blog.
Offer an incentive. This may otherwise be referred to as bribery, but it works. I've offered to bake cookies for anyone that posts on the blog - not exactly honest, but it gets people in the game.
Show concrete results. If you can show that you've gotten event RSVPs on Facebook, donations on Twitter or a great contact through LinkedIn, you've got their attention. Nonprofits are usually open to outside the box thinking, as long as you can show it's worth the time. Need some more reasons? I've got plenty.

Nonprofits have a lot to gain by building a presence on social media. Conversation, awareness, resources - they're all pretty much there for the taking. Working slowly but surely, you can get your coworkers involved and really build a stellar online presence. Questions? Contact me. I've got the bribery thing down.

(And yes, this is my first post in awhile. Pot calling kettle, I've been too busy. I'm back now, though, I promise!)