Below is the full transcript of my interview with Alex Steed, where we discuss the opportunities non-profits have with using social media. The highlights are at Six Ways Non-Profits Can Use Social Media, a recent post at my blog at FastCompany.com.
Rich: I’m here with Alex Steed today. Alex works with Opportunity Maine, a group that tries to promote education for Maine’s future. He’s also an independent candidate for Maine’s House of Representatives.
Alex has a long and robust history in social media marketing. He also works with a lot of non-profits, so today we decided to talk to him a little bit about how not-for-profits can use social media.
Thanks for being here, Alex.
Alex: My pleasure, Rich. Thanks for having me.
Rich: There are obviously a number of ways in which non-profits can use social media. Can you talk a bit about how they could use social media as a tool for community engagement, both for funders and sponsors?
Alex: One thing that is not different at all from the pre-social media era—and this is a bit different from how businesses have come along—is that the non-profit has always been about establishing deep-rooted relationships with its supporters, its supporters being people who are offering funding, or folks who are on the receiving end of what the non-profit is offering, or board members.
Before, the way that we would handle all of that was often through telephone calls or sending cards or emails about what we were up to with regard to what the non-profit was accomplishing. That would be something that would happen and still happens by way of the newsletter every month or so, if even.
As everyone is, especially those who are in the emerging social marketing and social media space, we’re now trying to be in touch with our supporters far more often than that. We’re trying to remind supporters of all levels that we exist on a regular basis, thus in a very rudimentary way we’re competing with Facebook feed space along with every other business and individual who’s trying to get attention there.
Also, we’re using these newer and emerging technologies, such as Foursquare, in the case of, for example, a volunteer opportunity with a non-profit. If we’re doing something here on this day in Portland, where we’re clearing a trail, it might be interesting to use a location-based technology to let people know what sort of opportunities exist within the non-profit or charity.
Rich: Are there certain tools you see that non-profits are looking to more readily than others? Are there some missed opportunities perhaps?
Alex: What has been really interesting has been looking at the insular, very-targeted social media spaces. I guess they wouldn’t even be targeted to social media, but just the new abilities with the web.
The non-profits that I’m working with are extremely interested in finding out not just how to communicate outside of the non-profit, but how to communicate inside. I’ll have an organization come to me and say, “We want to build a highly specialized intranet where we can get in touch with each other and make sure that we’re all on the same page, and ensure that we’re reporting our progress correctly, etc.”
It’s largely often just a matter of setting up a simple wiki or a work project management system. I’ve been a big fan of something as simple, easy, interesting and straightforward as PBworks to help non-profits figure out how to stay in touch with each other and not just how to stay in touch with the outside of the organization.
Non-profits get it with regard to knowing they need to be in touch with their supporters, especially to be in touch with potential funders.
Where they don’t necessarily get it, in my experience, and where they’re really figuring out some interesting stuff on their end and maybe not so dynamic stuff where you and I are concerned, is where they’re finally figuring out that there are these really easy-to-use and free pieces of software that help them communicate with each other.
Rich: You had mentioned cleaning trails. Part of non-profits is putting on events either to raise money or awareness or whatever it may be. Are there specific tools you recommend for putting together these events, building bonds, and maybe following up with the attendees after the event?
Alex: I’m always surprised at how unsexy my answers are to these questions, but I’ve had really good experience with Eventbrite, and with something as simple as just Facebook’s Events, and setting up with smaller populations, events through something as easy as Google Cal.
The thing you have to balance often, especially with people who are within the non-profit crowd, is not getting too sexy and not getting too robust or over the top. It’s largely because a lot of the people who are substantially engaged in these fields are still populations that are largely intimidated by the technology.
As much as it feels like every single person in the world is on Facebook now, they’re not. And when you’re trying to target an audience that you just want to get to an event—you know I live in rural Maine, so we do the bean supper thing a lot—we’re just trying to get people to come to a bean supper as it were. We’re doing something as simple as sending out G-Cal event invites.
But when we’re doing something bigger, Eventbrite is really great. In their follow-up with you with regard to following up with the attendees, they almost make you feel bad based on how intense their automated process is with regard to suggesting you be in touch with the attendees. If you’re not as in touch with them as they suggest, you sort of feel inferiority as compared to their algorithm.
Rich: Do you know of any non-profits that use social media for reporting to board members? What are the benefits of using social media in this way?
Alex: I don’t know any non-profits that use social media specifically to report to board members. But I’m working with one organization that Opportunity Maine is contracted out to do some work for, and its board members are actively viewing the organization’s social media presence in order to maintain an understanding as to how many people are engaged. There are monthly board meetings and there are board reports, and that is the end of the reporting process.
But also, we’ll get emails that say, “It looks like the YouTube page hasn’t been updated in a while. Do we not have any content to put up on that? Do we want to pay special attention to that?” This is coming from board members. “Is there any reason why our Facebook traffic has slowed down?” They’ll ask questions like that. It seems as though they’re beginning to very holistically incorporate social media action and activity into their perception as to how well the organization is doing.
Rich: How about using social media as a tool to keep communication coming in between the team members?
Alex: I guess this started for me about five years ago, which I think largely is probably because I work so much as a freelancer or on short-term contracts where I’m not necessarily in an office or in an organization.
Going back to talking about PBworks as a wiki and something as simple as G-Chat, 75% of my communications with people who I’m working with, either clients or people I’m working with on projects together, is often happening through G-Chat or through keeping each other updated on a wiki.
In particular, with the non-profits I’m working with, they tend to be a little more project-oriented or a little more event-oriented, thus I have to constantly be in touch with people, but not necessarily constantly be on the phone with people just to make sure that we’re updating each other on the status of each other’s respective responsibilities.
Also, in order to not be constantly hounding the clients or hounding whatever superior is existing within a project with questions they don’t have to be answering, I’ve found that in order to erase a lot of top-down or down-up communication which wastes a lot of time and resources, I’ve started to communicate a lot more laterally, especially with team members, by way of using wikis.
Rich: Obviously, fundraising is often a big part of many non-profits. Are there any tools out there that you’ve seen or you’ve used in terms of social media that have helped with fundraising?
Alex: I continue to return to Sprout, which I think is an amazing tool. The Sprout Builder is an amazing tool for being offered the opportunity to tell about your organization or event, or issue a story while fundraising for it.
Actually, to be completely honest, with the exception of stuff I’m doing on my campaign, I haven’t done any specific fundraising for a non-profit for about six months. So my reportage is about 6 months old, which as you know in our field could potentially mean that this is a 10-year-old report.
But I’ve had really great experience with Sprout, which is a widget that allows you to tap into PayPal. It sort of builds itself into the web space so that it allows you to better illustrate the story of the organization you’re trying to raise money for, or the initiative you’re trying to raise money for. They also have the ability to integrate quite nicely into Facebook’s fan pages or “like” pages, whatever we’re calling them nowadays.
As you know, the greatest thing about social media for both businesses and organizations is the ability to illustrate an entity’s story and incorporate its narrative because we’re trying to be authentic. Sprout does a fine job of offering an opportunity to be able to be and do those things.
Rich: How about blogging and online video, something that a lot of small businesses use? Is there a place for that when it comes to non-profits? How do you make that happen when you’ve got an all-volunteer board?
Alex: That’s an exceptional question. Online video in particular is one I’ve been finding to be extremely resonant lately. There’s a demand from the organizations for video.
I think it works quite nicely. Video itself is inherently viral, not in the national viral or global viral phenomenon way, but in that if you have a video and you’re tagging people, people still love to be featured somewhere. They still love to be featured talking about things. If you tag someone in a video, and then you put it up online, they’re sharing that around and they’re basically helping you evangelize for the organization.
I’ve been shooting a lot of video, especially with regard to organizations that are working on initiatives and are looking for support for their initiatives. It’s really easy to get people to get on camera and say why they support X, Y or Z. Then they’re especially predisposed to send that around and spread the message on the organization’s behalf.
With regard to blogging, that was such a good question when you asked about being on an all-volunteer basis. It can really be either a good thing or a stagnant thing. I think it’s very rare that it’s a bad thing to have an organization blogging, especially when tapping into the volunteer work basis.
It’s a good thing when you have people who are energized and get the idea that they’re trying to tell the story of the organization and they have access to the blog. But you especially want to be working out policies on what is okay and what is not okay, and where there will be repercussions and where there will not be repercussions. That doesn’t differ very much from a business.
When it can get stagnant is when people say, “We want to start a blog and we want to say something,” and they don’t have a whole lot of freedom from the higher-ups within the organization or from whoever initiated this idea. Many organizations are extremely concerned with messaging and extremely concerned with getting a grasp on sticking to the mission statement, etc. These are all things that are very valid concerns, but can lead to people who are very passionate having their passion fizzle very quickly.
Rich: What are some things that non-profits should avoid when it comes to social media?
Alex: This is such a part of my life. I believe in these causes and I try to get people to rally around them. I get bands to play free shows, and I get people to donate money and resources. But as a result, every time someone sees you coming, they think you’re asking for something, so I try to work with non-profits to help iron out their ratio of narrative to ask.
Some of these non-profits have a busy season. They have two or three months in which they’re doing their primary whatever it is they do. They have a couple of times a year in which they’re really pushing for funds.
The rest of the time is essentially a really good opportunity to be telling their story and sharing what it is that makes that non-profit great. Success stories and “Meet this person within the organization,” and all of these different things fill that. It isn’t just ask, ask, ask. People get fatigued about those sorts of things.
I think the best thing for the non-profit to do is focus on telling its story in dynamic and interesting ways that they have not yet considered doing, and to look around at success stories within that arena. Beth Kanter’s blog is sort of the bible of this entire area because she has been focusing on this in a huge way for the past 10 years. You can find a lot of successful case studies and stories there.
For the non-profit to really focus on telling a positive, interesting, resonant, and dynamic story about themselves is for a couple of different reasons. One is so that people don’t get “donor fatigue” and “ask fatigue” and don’t want to avoid you every time they see you.
Two, it’s a really good opportunity to do that right now largely because all of these channels of information that we’re watching on a regular basis, be it through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or now Foursquare and all these places, are really being polluted by people who are just self-promoting in a very rudimentary way.
Now I get “friended” once a day by someone on Facebook whose profile is basically a business name. It’s like “Alan’s Power Blasting”.
Rich: Oh, I love that guy!
Alex: Yes, he’s my favorite.
What a good opportunity to share a really positive and interesting story or series of stories about your organization, and really stick out in a place that is going through a small bubble of self-promotion pollution.
Rich: Alex, that was some great information. I appreciate you sharing it with us. Where can we find you online?
Alex: I have a very basic here-I-am website at AlexSteed.com.
As you know, so many of my efforts are focused on this campaign, which is at Facebook.com/steed2010. I’m going to have a website, but really I just love the ability to have conversations with people on Facebook. It has been a really great place to base that. People can check me out at one or the other.
My campaign is very frugal. It’s a local house campaign. But at the same time, I’m trying to focus on issues that are probably interesting to folks in our arena, especially with regard to transparency, the web, and government. Hopefully, people will check that out.
Rich: Thanks a lot, Alex. I appreciate your time.
Alex: Excellent, Rich. Thank you so much.
Rich Brooks
Social Media Advisor
Tags: Alex Steed, NFP, non-profit, not-for-profit, Social Media
I think social media has some opportunities that non-profit groups can use to get their cause noticed, but like Alex said we think everyone is on Facebook, but there not. Its hard to target a small audience, but if you have a presence on the social media sites, the people will come eventually.