Uploaded byBeth Kanter
COF Riding the Wave of Digital Engagement
This document discusses effective strategies for using social media for civic engagement and advocacy. It presents a maturity model from "crawl" to "fly" for various social media practices like culture, capacity, measurement, engagement, and content. It provides examples for each level of maturity and recommends focusing developmental efforts in specific areas to advance to the next level. Effective practices include defining goals, measuring performance, cultivating influencers, experimenting, and leveraging networks. An example is provided of an organization that used a blog, social media events, and recognition to engage legislators on their priority issues.
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COF Riding the Wave of Digital Engagement
- 1. Riding the NewWave: Effective Social Media for Civic Engagement Beth Kanter, Master Trainer, Blogger, Author COF Family Foundation Conference - January 27, 2013
- 2. If you can’tfly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” Inspiration
- 3. Maturity of Practice:Where To Focus CRAWL WALK RUN FLY Linking Social with Ladder of Network Building Communications Results and Engagement Strategy Networks Many Champions work for Development Content Strategy you Pilot: Focus one Culture Change program or channel Best Practices Multi-Channel Engagement, with measurement Content, and Measurement Measurement and Incremental Capacity learning in all above Reflection and Continuous Improvement
- 4. Maturity of Practice:Crawl-Walk-Run-Fly CRAWL -1 WALK-2 RUN-3 FLY-4 Categories Practices CULTURE Networked Mindset Institutional Support CAPACITY Staffing Communications Strategy MEASUREMENT Analysis Tools Adjustment LISTENING Brand Monitoring Influencer Research ENGAGEMENT Ladder of Engagement CONTENT Integration/Optimization NETWORK Influencer Engagement Relationship Mapping
- 5. Maturity of Practice:Institutional Support CRAWL WALK RUN FLY Social media policy is Social media policy Social media staff All staff use social drafted and gaining has been discussed position includes media effectively to support through and reviewed by facilitating training support organization “road shows” with legal and approved other staff to use objectives and there is departments and by leadership social networks and a formal work flow in legal counsel mechanism for the event of crisis. ongoing updating of Legal vets issues in policy that includes collaboration with good working social media staff. partnership with legal
- 6. What happens whena nonprofits legal counsel’s position is a blanket ban on using social media?
- 7. Best Practice: LegalCounsel Is Nonprofit Social Media Manager’s Best Friend • Social Media policy is a living document • Establish Good Working Relationship • Track and Share Articles • Vet Issues • Meet when there isn’t a crisis • Bring in social media savvy lawyers
- 8. Maturity of Practice:Networked Mindset CRAWL WALK RUN FLY Understanding of Listening to and Comfort level with Leadership is networks that are cultivating greater comfortable using connected to relationships with organizational decentralized decision- organization networks based on openness and making and collective mapping networks. transparency. action with networks. Leadership is using Considers people inside social networks and and outside of the comfortable with organizations as assets showing personality. in strategy. • Openness, transparency, decentralized decision-making, and collective action. • Listening and cultivating organizational and professional networks to achieve the impact • Leadership through active participation. • Sharing control of decision-making • Communicating through a network model, rather than a broadcast model • Data Informed Culture
- 9. Blending Network StrategyWith Communications Strategy From CEO to CNO Tweets links related to organization’s mission and work as a bipartisan advocacy organization dedicated to making children and families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions.
- 10. Thought Leadership Through Content Curation SEEK SENSE SHARE Identified key blogs and Summarizes article in a Engages with aligned online sites in issue area tweet partners Scans and reads every Writes for Huffington Post Presentations morning and picks out best
- 13. Maturity of Practice:CWRF – Content CRAWL WALK RUN FLY Shares content that Uses an editorial Uses an editorial Uses an editorial may be relevant to calendar to align calendar to align calendar to align audience, but not content with content with content with consistently and not objectives and objectives and objectives and measuring audiences to publish audiences to publish audiences to publish across channels across channels across channels consistently – aligns consistently and consistently, with program and measures measures advocacy calendars performance performance, and uses data to plan content
- 14. Maturity of Practice:CWRF – Content Little Bits Measurement Result Metrics Analysis Question Consumption Views Does your audience care about the topics your Reach Followers content covers? Are they consuming your content? Engagement Re-tweets Does your content mean enough to your Shares Comments audience for them to share it or engage with it? Action Referrals Does your content help you achieve your goals? Sign Ups Phone Calls Revenue Dollars Does your content help you raise money, recruit Donors Volunteers volunteers or save time?
- 17. Maturity of Practice:CWRF – Influencer Engagement Influencers: Influence means the power or ability to affect someone’s actions. Influencers are people who can influence your stakeholders or mission. Influencers can be journalists, legislators, business leaders, or individuals in your network who inspire others to action, etc.. CRAWL WALK RUN FLY Not Using Follows and engages with Has formal influencer or Mobilizes influencers or influencers on social champion program, champions easily, channels but not part of a communicating through especially to respond to a formal champion or private channels, and crisis or critical campaign. ambassador program or providing content to Influencers invite others. strategy. share. Engagements in C-3 Appropriate Ways
- 18. Maturity of Practice:CWRF – Influencer Engagement Unleash Resources Recruit Research If your influencers are legislators, make sure you research and understand whether their social media presence is their office, personal, or campaign presence.
- 19. Engaging Influencers WhoAre Legislators • MomsRising Mission: To build a more truly family-friendly nation, as well as to work toward the economic equality of women and mothers. • MomsRising Top Line Goals: Grow the movement, garner media coverage to change the culture, win legislative policy changes, engage with traditionally underrepresented communities, experiment and learn new online and on-the- ground tactics, and listen to and serve our members/our constituency.
- 20. Define Goals &Key Metrics Goal: Win legislative policy changes • Key Metrics (example): - Number of target policies moved forward or passed - Number of relevant bills introduced - Number of legislators who champion the issue - Number of offices where MR has a contact/relationships - Number of cold calls to offices (Will also look at associated metrics for content for social media channels Consumption, Engagement, Conversions, Financial – for their members)
- 21. Strategy - Blog • Publishing and promoting legislators’ blogs
- 22.
- 23. Blog – Addons & social media • Leaders share blog on their Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest feeds • Share blogs links with grassroots members in that district – demonstrates engagement with leadership • Conduct related Facebook & Twitter chat regarding carnival and related blog • Invite member of Congress to MomsRising radio or related media/podcast
- 24. Strategy – SocialMedia Events • Tweet & Facebook chats • Designate hashtag time/place for engagement • Request leader provide resource & input • Spanish/English • Invite policy partners
- 25. Strategy – Awards/Recognition • Awards & Recognition creates conditions for these engagements
- 26. Measurement and Insights JoyfulFunerals Metrics Mondays
- 27. What resonated? What have you thought about before? What was new?
- 28. Effective Use ofSocial Media for Advocacy • Focuses on the right developmental steps to get to next level • Clear definition of success and audience • Uses measurement and metrics to make better decisions and get better outcomes • Good working partnership with legal counsel – not based on fear • Leverages networks for greater impact • Not afraid to experiment and place “Little Bets”
- 29. Thank you! www.bethkanter.org www.facebook.com/beth.kanter.blog @kanter onTwitter http://www.bethkanter.org
- 30. Arkansas Advocates forChildren and Families Medicaid Toolkit Rollout Blog served as a “home base” for content All social media contained link http://bit.ly/ARMedicaid
- 31. Toolkit had alot of good content Facebook cover photo Link to our Medicaid Report County-level Medicaid Data “Ravine” Graphic Sheets
- 32. Experiments Promoted Facebook Post- $50 Results: • 12,491 “people saw this post” • Exceeded most popular post by 11,000 • 117 likes • 42 shares • 80 new page likes, better than $1/like • Drove more than 80 hits to our site • Twitter drove more than 20 • YouTube video has 500 views! • Website had 700 page views day of release, normally average 100 or so Other Notes: • Arkansas Times used our data for print feature • News organizations accepted our “extend” Medicaid framing
Editor's Notes
- #2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/doegox/2085419215/Riding the New Wave of Civic Engagement with Digital MediaNonprofits are expanding their efforts to influence public policy through e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook. How should foundations respond to these new tools? Hear how digital media is being used, a foundation’s legal liability for its support, and how to evaluate the work.Presenter(s): Daren Garshelis, Counsel, Alliance for Justice; Beth Kanter, Author, Blogger, Trainer, Beth's Blog; Kate Wing, Program Officer, Gordon and Betty Moore FoundationSession Designer(s): Susan Hoechstetter, Senior Advisor for Foundation Advocacy and Evaluation, Alliance for Justice; Kate Wing, Program Officer, Gordon and Betty Moore FoundationMeeting Room: Atherton, Tower Meeting Room
- #3 Change with NGOs doesn’t happenovernight … leaders lead but you have to bring your organization along.If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
- #4 Framework to guide my coaching and peer learning design over the yearsThere are different stages of development for networked nonprofits. The Crawl StageCrawlers are not using social media consistently or measurement processes; they also lack a robust communications strategy. Crawlers can be small or large nonprofits that have all the basics in place, but they either lack a social culture or resist transforming from a command-and-control style to a more networked mindset. These nonprofits need to develop a strategy. Even with a communications strategy in place, some organizations may face challenges to adopting a networked way of working. If so, they should start with a discussion of the organizational issues, followed by codifying the rules in a social media policy. They should also anticipate learning and benefiting from inspiring stories from peers.The Walk StageNonprofits in this stage are using several social media channels consistently, but may not be strategic or fully embracing best practices—maybe they don’t engage with users, or they only share content and messaging produced by their own organization. These nonprofits need to create a social media strategy to support short- and long-term objectives, such policy change or increasing public engagement on an issue. Walkers internalize listening, and use the data they collect to improve engagement and some content best practices.These organizations implement small, low-risk projects that collect stories, learning, and metrics to help leadership better understand the value, benefits, and costs. Walkers should focus on one or two social media tools, going deep on tactics and generating tangible results and learning. They must identify low-cost ways to build capacity internally, such as integrating social media responsibilities into existing staff jobs. Capacity is built with support from leadership and a social media policy formalizes the value and vision.The Run StageRunners use more than two social media channels as part of an integrated strategy, identifying key result areas and metrics that drive everything they do. They have a formal ladder of engagement that illustrates how supporters move from just hearing about your organization to actively engaging, volunteering, or donating to your organization. This is used to guide strategy and measurement. They visualize their networks and measure relationships. These organizations practice basic measurement religiously and use data to make decisions about social media best practices.In these organizations, a single department does not guard social media, and staff are comfortable working transparently and with people outside the organization. The board is also using social media as part of its governance role.To build internal capacity, runners invest in a community manager whose job it is to build relationships with people on social media or emerging platforms. These organizations know how to create great content, and use an editorial calendar to coordinate and curate content across channels. They are routinely tracking the performance of their content strategy and adjust based on measurement.The Fly StageThese organizations have institutionalized everything in the running stage. Flyers embrace failure and success alike, and learn from both. Flyers are part of a vibrant network of people and organizations all focused on social change. They use sophisticated measurement techniques, tools, and processes.http://www.flickr.com/photos/oreoqueen/3235090633/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathandesign/7031920221/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdfbrasil/2416260064/sizes/m/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/http://www.flickr.com/photos/levymh/6891554365/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/
- #5 The maturing of practice framework includes looking at 7 best practice areas for networked approaches and social media – and some specific indicators – and looking at what they look at the different maturity levels. If you remember the application form, it asked you questions and that’s how I came up with the scoring system. If you were “crawl” you got 1, Walk 2, Run 3, and Fly 4 – and then I average the scores for the group. I also could come up with a score for your organization overall.So, if you got a 1.5, it means that you are on your way to walking.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtsV5h84LWk0dFhENWFXVzBwZ2lWOGlzazZSek5Iemc#gid=1
- #7 However, I realize that in some nonprofits the relationship between in-house legal counsel or the organization’s lawyers is based on fear and control. As a social media nonprofit professional mentioned in a Facebook thread recently, “I’ve observed interesting dynamics with legal counsel over social media with the result of increased paranoia among employees or a blanket ban. Often, the lawyers start from a position of fear and declare that no one can use social via work. Period. ” This can have a chilling effect on an organization’s social media strategy to say the least. It runs counter to the “networked mindset” that is so important to being a networked nonprofit and building networks and movements.
- #8 In-House Seminars: Kami Huyse mentioned that in her work with some clients, particularly hospitals, social media use of all employees and HR comes up as an issue with the legal department. One approach is to bring in a law firm that specializes in social media and do a seminar for staff to help them better understand what can and cannot be done legally.Structured Working Partnerships: Lovisa Williams who works with the Department of State says it is important to work closely with the legal advisor in your agency or organization and to cultivate a relationship of mutual trust and respect. She works in partnership to vet issues that arise from their social media policy and online community management. Like any good partnership, this takes work and doesn’t happen overnight. It is important to understand the legal’s point of view and their expertise – and be ready to compromise. Lovisa also says don’t just call your legal department when there is a crisis, work with them to share best practices and thought leadership on social media. She has also established a policy working group that consists of a mix of social media experts and lawyers. She also observes that addressing one issue is like “Whack a Mole” but others pop up. That’s why it is good to have an going relationship and a policy group. Being proactive is also important.Establish Good One-on-One Working Relationship: Dan Michel who is responsible for social strategy at Feeding America says it is important to establish a good one on one relationship. Take your legal counsel to lunch! He says that she has been invaluable on advice on both organizational posts and personal posts involving the organization and how to follow social media best practices and say out of trouble. Dan mentions that their biggest legal concern is violating UBIT Guidelines with sponsorships.Track and Share Articles: Lovisa regularly sends a social media digest of interesting policy and legal articles related to social media. She regularly reads and summarizes posts that discuss social media policy best practices and what to avoid. For example, this recent article in the NY Timesabout HR issues and your social media policy would definitely be something to send along to your legal counsel and get advice on how to implement some of the legal recommendations.Keep Your Social Media Policy Up To Date: As the field of social media practice matures and new techniques and platforms come into use, so do new legal issues. It is important that your social media policy is a living document that reflects current practice. Don’t cut and paste another organization’s policy! Social media professionals Janet Fouts and Lovisa William pinpointed a few: Copyright and identifying the brand with false information (Infographicsetc). For those that work in government agencies, issues such as privacy, first amendment, intellectual property issues, contract law, Terms of Use, public perception issues, personal vs. professional, management of mobile apps, security, impersonation issues, hacking, requests from law enforcement or other governments, and compliance with laws like making our information accessible, archiving official records, and others also come up.However, I realize that in some nonprofits the relationship between in-house legal counsel or the organization’s lawyers is based on fear and control. As a social media nonprofit professional mentioned in a Facebook thread recently, “I’ve observed interesting dynamics with legal counsel over social media with the result of increased paranoia among employees or a blanket ban. Often, the lawyers start from a position of fear and declare that no one can use social via work. Period. ” This can have a chilling effect on an organization’s social media strategy to say the least. It runs counter to the “networked mindset” that is so important to being a networked nonprofit and building networks and movements.
- #10 Bruce Lesley is one of a growing number of nonprofit executive directors and senior leaders that use Twitter. And, he isn’t tweeting about what he ate for breakfast or one of his personal passions, basketball. He uses Twitter to curate information related to his organization’s mission and work as a bipartisan advocacy organization dedicated to making children and families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions. He also uses content curation for sources for his guest blogging. His use of Twitter (and his organization’s use of Twitter and all communications channels for that matter) serve this intent:First Focus is working to change the dialogue around children’s issues by taking a cross-cutting and broad based approach to federal policy making. In all of our work, we seek to raise awareness regarding public policies impacting children and ensure that related programs have the resources necessary to help them grow up in a healthy and nurturing environment.If you take a look at Bruce Lesley’s Twitter stream, you will see that he is curating information on public policies impacting children. Bruce does his own curating, using Google Reader and FlipBoard. Any individual or nonprofit organization can curate information using these tools. They can make it strategic by linking the information to their mission. But what is the secret sauce to doing it well?
- #12 Note: This is not only the big outcomes, but also the evidence of peer learning work. ]You all have been doing amazing work since we last got together and your growing skills and networks really paid off recently with regard to the Supreme Court’s decision on the ACA. In her blog, Beth highlighted this day as one of those opportunities to balance strategic communications with the spontaneity of social media. You all jumped on this historic event and demonstrated your social media smarts, including:Being flexible and keeping it simple;Using multiple channels and shaping content for each channel;Leveraging the organic sharing properties of Facebook;Having a broad narrative in mind in advance (win, lose or something in between);Getting your social media ambassadors and “super-users” to help spread your message;Curating content from trusted sources; andFocusing on the story after the immediate announcement and providing analysis.There was a huge amount of activity across our network on decision day and it really was a great demonstration of putting into action what we have been learning as a peer community.
- #19 Page 215 “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit”
- #22 -Link their advocacy calendar with their content/social calendar-Research – who is interested in this issue-Do they have a relationship with the office-Invite them to share original writing on their blog – blog carnival-Their members appreciate being educated on the issue
- #23 Once they get content on the blog, they share this content, link, thank
- #24 Don’t have to create new materialExpands the work
- #27 http://www.flickr.com/photos/40991157@N02/3923081100/
- #30 http://bit.ly/network-leadership