The panel

-       Rob Dyson: Whizz-Kidz, @robmdyson

-       Jamie Sport:  British Red Cross, @BritishRedCross

-       Madeleine Sugden: KnowHow NonProfit, @madlinsudn

-       Kim Townsend: Media Trust, @kimtownsend

-       Alison Morris: Media Trust, @AlisonMstweets

-       Martin Keane: Third Sector Lab, @keanearrow

-       Rachel Beer: beautiful world, @rachelbeer

-       Warren Puckett: Provokateur, @thehighlandway

Themes

An overview of the Q&A in the most general sense sees panellists urging organisations to use a simple, integrative to approach to social media. Discussion points touched on included:

-       Multiple Twitter accounts, strengths and drawbacks

-       Rules and regulations for Twitter usage, why less is more

-       Integrating SM with other marketing activity

-       How to handle negative comments

-       Volunteer tweeters

-       Who’s doing it right and what they are doing

Recurring questions or discussion points and answers:

We have several different departments (Fundraising, campaigns etc) as well as regional teams of trainers and volunteers. Do you think it’s worth setting up several accounts – one for each? – ThomasJones

“I’ve blogged over here about my thoughts on multiple Twitter’s (for example). Personally I think it can put supporters into silos that we create. I might be a beneficiary, but also a fundraiser, and interested in campaigning – but I don’t want to have to follow three feeds to hear about each topic! I’d prefer a conversational and integrated voice that gets me talking about all of the ways I can be involved.” – RobDyson

“I think it’s a good idea to look at your organisation from an outsider’s point of view and question which parts can benefit from distinct presences on multiple accounts. It can be easy to fall into the trap of reflecting internal structure instead of how real people perceive you – to that end, I don’t think a fundraising specific Twitter account (for instance) is generally a good idea because every day people see fundraising as part of your core brand. On the other hand, there may be value in setting in different accounts where messaging is specific, niche and different from the majority of your updates. For example, the Red Cross provide a huge variety of different things so we might split out education messaging from our main news feed. Think about the audience rather than the organisation of your charity.” – JamieSport

“I’d echo what’s being said by the panel about being wary of multiple accounts. creating silos within the organisation’s social media presence can lead to confusion amongst supporters. I’d say that most supporters are passionate about a cause rather than about the organisation supporting it. I always find a single, unified voice from an organisation to be much stronger, particularly when that organisation is adding something new or different to the conversation.

There are so many different social media accounts for big media companies, such as The Guardian and the BBC, but I trust the organisation to give me updates about the things I care about, in their own unique way that makes me follow them on Twitter, rather than, say, The Daily Mail.

Another argument against maintaining multiple accounts, apart from the added burden on time & resources, is that too many charities are internally-focussed and their social media presence (and websites) often reflect their management structure, often to the detriment of usability and a lack of awareness of their supporters’ wants & needs.” – edcox

Where you have more than one person accessing a twitter a/c say, any tips for ensuring that consistency of identity? We’re so small that it’s fairly easy for people to talk and agree message often, but obviously much social media is very much about writing whilst on the move, when lines can’t always be agreed or discussed. – PaulTno1

“I met a representative of a well known charity who were signing off every single tweet.” – rossb82

“@rossb82 Sounds like a recipe for disaster…” … “Good Q about multiple contributors. This may sound obvious – and probably not a big issue for a small org – but make sure that the various people behind your Twitter/FB presence talk to each other! So long as you have an agreed editorial voice beforehand, there shouldn’t be a problem splitting out social media coverage.

As Rob says, too, it can be handy to initial tweets – especially if the various tweeters have particular specialties. You might also want to write in your bio who those initials are; it makes an organisation seem like real people, which is never a bad thing” – JamieSport

“@JamieSport – and others – I’m actually quite astonished that there are as many organisations as I hear about with a sign-off process for individual tweets – or even that several emails have to go back and forth to agree on them before they go up. Perhaps at first, but you’d have to move to something more organic and reactive, otherwise you lose the immediacy of the medium” … “staff need to have some guidelines and be on message, but should then have freedom to engage in dialogue, in real time, if possible, with supporters online. This is surely only something that staff need to be able to do in any context though, e.g. at a conference, in the pub, by email?” – rachelbeer

“I would say that if you pick carefully in the first place, you should have very little problem with social media. I am absolutely loath to recommend big long policies being written, there is very little value to be had there and they just put people off.

I think that allowing people to be natural is great. We simply note the person by initials, people can check the bio to see who they are conversing with. I think people have come to expect different personalities coming through, which keeps it fresh.

In terms of maintaining the brand, it should not be a problem in most cases. Most people are singing from the same hymn sheet in terms of their org and by allowing freedom to engage in social media, we can really seem them flourish.” – MartinKeane

“Would each panel member be kind enough to offer one essential tip and provide a link to a web site or blog to help a third sector organisation in developing an effective social media strategy?” – AndrewStorey

“If I were to give any advice to an organisation who is developing their social media strategy, I would stress how important it is to A) Be authentic – because if you aren’t you won’t build trust and B) Have something of value to say (content). Many people filter out anything that doesn’t satisfy both these elements.

At the end of the day social media is not the message, but the method. Now that the novelty is wearing off, it is becoming part of the framework of daily communications.” – provokateur

“3 quick social media tips for all charities are:
1) be sure why you’re using the channel before you start (and senior managers saying ‘we want one’ isn’t sufficient)
2) be sure who you’re going to talk to through that channel. Do your research.
3) have a goal that isn’t simply ‘more followers/friends’ – what are those followers/friends going to do for you?” – AlisonMorris

“My essential top tip is to think offline about what your digital identity is before you dive in online. What will your online personality be? What will you talk about? What tone will you use? Is there anything you don’t want to talk about?” – kimtownsend

“How do the panel measure the effectiveness of their social media channels? Is it more than how many ‘likes’ or ‘retweets’ are gained? Are social media strategies linked to further business objectives, and how is this best tracked?” – rm8398

“I am a bit of a numbers geek, but I like to keep an eye on click-throughs on links, spikes in visits to particular web pages, downloads, volunteers or bookings, and compare that with tweets and other comms activity. We connect CoTweet to bitly, for example, and getting a handle on google analytics has been essential.

It is a bit of work, but one that you might already be doing as part of your regular marketing KPIs? Depends on your social media activity goals… Are they defined and SMART?” – AlisonMorris

“I like Sprout as a tool for monitoring and measuring impact.” – provokateur

“@AlisonMorris Nice tip – tracking numbers clicking through your urls and where they’ve come from is a great way of re-strategising which of your soc med channels are most effective and which approach. Nice point ” – RobDyson

“The absolute best free monitoring tool I use is Backtype. Combined with Klout and real-time brand monitoring (we use a paid for service but there are free versions), you should have a pretty comprehensive view of what’s being said about you online.” – JamieSport

Food for thought …

On using volunteers as Facebook and Twitter advocates

“As long as they’re properly trained and passionate I see no problem with using volunteers to tweet on behalf of an organisation. Both Relationships Scotland and Oxfam Scotland have a mix of staff and volunteers – identified by initials – tweeting, blogging and using Facebook on the org’s behalf. Keeping social media purely the preserve of an internal media team is outdated and often unhelpful.

I think it’s important to have a social media policy but, as Tom points out, this doesn’t have to be lengthy and unreadable. As Sara Thomas, MND Scotland, pointed out at #BeGoodBeSocial you might simply want to have a single statement which covers what would otherwise be a huge document.” – ThirdSectorLab

“I think social media is as strategic as any media plan – and so volunteers will need be well versed in the aims, voice and tone of your org. It’s good to get someone who *gets it* and gets your org. Have you tried tapping into Vodafone’s World of Difference volunteers? We’ve got two great interns right now. and they blog as part of their placement.” – RobDyson

” … And I reckon the issue of involving volunteers in social media is similar to involving volunteers in anything: training, support, trust, skills, aptitude, appropriate policies…” – RobCook

“Part of what we do is to encourage people who work in the media industry to volunteer to help charities and communities communicate. In order to get more people to sign up we encouraged the volunteers who engaged with us the most across the country to become volunteer champions for us. They often tweet from their own accounts to their followers to encourage them to volunteer with Media Trust. This is something that has worked really well for us.

Why not give the people who engage with your charity the most a role in metioning your work on social media platforms?” – kimtownsend

On dealing with negativity

“Negative comments are A Good Thing. The way we treat critical comments on blog posts, Twitter, Facebook etc is “We’d far rather have these comments in our environment where we can engage than off our radar where things can spiral out of control”. As Rob said, you’ll also find supporters pile in and advocate on your behalf if you allow or encourage debate.

It will happen anyway; it’s a question of whether you want to pretend it won’t or listen.” – JamieSport

“@edcox – broadly speaking, there is so much to be gained by engagement with supporters and stakeholders through social media, the benefits far outweigh any risks.

Receiving negative comments is a real possibility, but these also offer the opportunity to engage further – and to a level that is really interesting and meaningful – which can be turned into a positive. The organisations that really embrace this will be the ones that are really embraced!” – rachelbeer

“I am a strong believer that supporters want to be part of every section of the journey with you, involve them with the issues. Maybe start a blog which talks about dealing with funding issues and how they can help by volunteering, donating, etc. I 100% believe that supporters do want to help, if they know a charity has issues, they will rally round. Create a real community around the issue and take advantage of the amazing enthusiasm they have for the cause.” – MartinKeane

On content

“@RobCook I try and reply to all @’s – but I’m losing the battle replying or responding to #followfriday or #charitytuesday – they’ve become meaningless.. Let’s kill ‘em off…? ”…”I’d also advise any / all charities come along to a free nfptweetup or BeGoodBeSocial event too to share and learn with peers ” – RobDyson

“I reckon it is great to see a charity account mixing their campaigns/project tweets with their personal tweets. I agree that too many mundane “I’m putting a brew on” tweets will rub people up the wrong way.

I think there can be a happy medium though. For example, writing tweets which link the two. “Off to parliament to discuss the price of fish” and then a link to content including. We know what Tom/Dick/Harry are up to then, but we also get to learn about why they are doing that.

Cake tweets are fine too….only with a twitpic though ” – MartinKeane

“Agree with your point about organisation structure determining the content of tweets. Always a risk. But so is having to put a tweet request into the web team, three weeks in advance cos ‘that’s the process’ and it’s all managed centrally. We need to remember that twitter is about listening as well as talking. If teams have their own accounts, it’s much easier to listen and learn from the right people and build those connections. This not so easy to do if your account is a central one.” – madlinsudn

On organisations that are doing it right

“I love what Macmillan do with their forums. People with experience of cancer can log in and support each other. They have a bespoke social network and a live chatroom. Really great use of social media to meet their aims and bring people together.” – kimtownsend

“For innovative examples of campaigns you should check out Osocio’s new 3+1 posts. I’ll be writing one for them soon.” – ThirdSectorLab

“In terms of doing it right. I love Oxfam Scotland. They get it so right, they really show me that they care about supporters and want to get involved in a discussion. They have the perfect blend of staff and volunteers, demonstrating that supporters are at the very heart of their social media presence.
They have a great Citizen Journalism blog as well, which regularly features fascinating and thought provoking content. Smashing stuff all round really. I feel like they add something to the discussion too, which is crucial.” – MartinKeane

“I think the International Committee of the Red Cross is doing brilliant stuff (@ICRC_English).
The ICRC deals with some extremely complicated topics such as conflict, detainees and international humanitarian law but they still manage to pluck out what’s relevant to a mass audience and sum it up succinctly. They really illustrate how content is still king; they’ve only been active in social media for ~1 yr but have nearly 50k followers.” – JamieSport

You can read all of the questions and comments from the session here.

Tags: Charity, communications, Guardian, social media, Twitter Tips