Tweeting for the Common Good: Part II

Making the Most of Social Media

“It’s actually pretty fun,” says Scott Fraser, Annual Fund Coordinator for Neighborcare Health (NH), about coordinating the organization’s outreach through social media tools, Facebook and Twitter. “It doesn’t take as much time or effort as people think,” he insists.

Both NH and Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation (VGMF), the fundraising arm for Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, have active Fan pages in Facebook and organizational accounts in Twitter.  These tools allow NH and VGMF to update supporters, donors and partners on health center activities, news and priorities.

As of 7/8/10, NH had 150 "fans" in Facebook and 118 "followers" in Twitter.  VGMF had 291 "fans" in Facebook and 113 "followers" in Twitter.  Fans and followers are individual supporters who have elected to receive regular updates from their chosen organizations.

NH began using social media in late 2008 while VGMF started in the spring of 2009.  A quick glance at the Facebook Fan pages for either organization shows a smattering of similar posts, such as promotions/reminders for upcoming organizational events; a variety of photos including, staff, clinic sites, events, event participants and donors; organizational announcements; news or promotion of partners/partner events; and links to news about the specific health center or health care for low income individuals.

Both organizations have also used social media as a platform for fundraising campaigns or events.  VGMF used Mother’s Day to raise funds via the online tool, Café Give, while NH recently used Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic to their website, where donors could contribute to its' spring fund drive. NH, and to a lesser extent, VGMF, have also used social media to raise awareness around particular policy issues.

In Washington, where budget cuts threaten funding for Basic Health, the insurance program for low-income residents, NH regularly encourages its followers/fans to take action in support of maintaining Basic Health funding levels.

Other nonprofits have launched high profile campaigns to inspire the public to act.  Using a variety of social media tools, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and FlickR, Oxfam’s 2006 campaign pressured Starbucks into signing a licensing agreement with Ethiopia that ultimately resulted in more profits for that nation’s poor coffee farmers.  The viral nature of social media, which allows individuals to reach out to friends, then friends of friends, then friends of friends of friends, is precisely what makes these tools so powerful, and useful, for cash- strapped nonprofits.

Both NH and VGMF cited similar goals for using social media.  The top three were:

• To build and cultivate donor base
• To raise organizational visibility
• To promote organizational activities/events

Britt Rosenberg, Individual and Corporate Giving Officer with VGMF calls Facebook a “good tool for connecting with people,” while Christine Rontal, VGMF’s Executive Director, says it’s an “easy way to promote (activities and events),” to engage donors and to simply “stay on people’s radar screen.”   Over the past year, VGMF has doubled its donor base, though Rontal is quick to note that social media plays only a small role in gaining new donors. “It’s a great way to build your base of support,” she says, “but it also helps supporters become more aware of VGMHC.”

Fraser praises the ease and convenience of social media which can be done from anywhere at anytime. NH's  annual Pumpkin Push, a 5k special event fundraiser attracts a large number of fitness-minded participants. Through social media, Fraser hopes to turn more Pumpkin Push runners into long term donors. “Our challenge,” says Fraser, “is that we have a variety of constituents we are trying to reach. I think of all those constituents and try to post materials that would have the broadest reach.”

Recently he posted “healthy pantry makeover” tips suggesting healthy snack foods like pre-cut veggies or low fat, low sugar food products. These posts, he said, resulted in new followers, including a nutritionist, personal trainer and health food bloggers.  “The subject matter you chose,” said Fraser, “can bring surprising new fans.”

Fraser, Rontal and Rosenberg, offered a number of tips to health centers who are considering or have just begun to tinker with social media.

#1. Build up your resources first.

Both NH and VGMF have a small handful of staff to oversee fundraising, PR and marketing efforts.  Rontal says VGMF looked to its staff, board and junior board to build its fan base in Twitter and Facebook. Its junior board, known as Virginia Garcia CONNECTS, was especially helpful in bringing new faces to the organization.  VG CONNECTS is composed of professionals who fundraise and network on behalf of the organization, and Facebook offered a natural fit for this under-40 crowd.  “It helps,” says Rosenberg, “to have a group that can spearhead the effort to get your fan page going” and spread the new to their friends.

Health center staff is another great place to start for gaining fans.  Staff can benefit from receiving organizational updates, especially when health centers operate several geographically distant sites.  “Neighborcare Health staff,” says Fraser, “learns more about our different sites (via Facebook) then they might otherwise.”

#2. Assign the task to someone familiar with social media.

Rontal says it’s important to task the right person with maintaining social media accounts.  “Find someone who already uses and enjoys (Facebook or Twitter) in their free time.” That person “will be more efficient in updating content” and is more likely to have used all the add-on tools available, such as video feeds and event promotion.

#3. Generate content from internal and external sources

Content can be gathered from a variety of places, including newsletters, local media and internal announcements.

Rontal, Rosenberg and Fraser recommended signing up for newsletters, Google news alerts and the occasional (related) blog to source content. Everything is fair game, including posts featured on the Facebook or Twitter pages of your partners. As Fraser puts it, “social media is a great, inexpensive way to use other people’s work.” Not only does it allow you to inform and educate your constituents about a partner, Fraser notes, “it’s a great tool for cross promotion.”

For example, Swedish Medical Center reposted NH’s spring appeal for donations on the Swedish Facebook page and Twitter feed, thereby reaching hundreds of new individuals.  “It’s almost like a type of in-kind support,” remarked Fraser.

#4. Use social media in combination with, not supplanting other outreach tools.

According to Rontal, social media involvement should be kept “quick and streamlined,” especially when it comes to fundraising. Social media, she says, “will not bring in donations but it will help you cultivate your donors,” so that the request for funding is more likely to result in a donation.  “The best way to ask for a donation,” says Rontal, “is still face to face.”

#5. Embed social media links/addresses into any/all organizational marketing material, including website, printed items and email signatures.

Four hundred million people are on Facebook, and more than 1 million are on Twitter. Odds are, some of them may be your patients, staff members or donors.

#6. Spend only the minimum time needed to keep content fresh and relevant.

Fraser, Rontal and Rosenberg agree that it’s worth the effort to maintain these tools, as long as the effort is kept at a minimum. Rosenberg is tasked with maintaining VGMF’s social media accounts, although the 5-person staff of the Foundation contributes content ideas.  The same can be said for Fraser, who maintains NH’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. Neither person reported spending more than a half-hour/day on social media, and both indicated that content dovetailed with the communications priorities of their respective health centers.  Both NH and VGMF have a yearly communications calendar to coordinate public relation, marketing and fundraising efforts.

All three sources agree that it can be difficult to measure the return on investment for social media tools.  Both Facebook and Twitter offer internal statistics that allow organizational users to track and better understand its fans and track participation (or response) to its posts.  Beyond that, however, the tools are so new it’s hard to attribute specific outcomes for larger organizational PR, marketing or fundraising goals.  As Fraser observed, “we can sense (social media) will be valuable, but we don’t have the analytics yet to measure it.”

Interestingly, both groups plan to rework organizational websites to interact seamlessly with a social media interface.  This will allow the health centers to drive more traffic to the new site, although Rontal notes, “it’s important to have a reason to send people there.”  

Fraser is excited about the possibility of reaching more people through interactive media like podcasts, video and even an organizational blog featuring contributions from NH clinicians, senior staff and donors. “It just gives people more ways to be engaged in our organization,” he said. And engagement, after all, is the key ingredient to a happy, healthy community.

On the web: Facebook Marketing: Designing Your Next Marketing Campaign

NACHC's Sample Social Media Guidelines (for download)

Article written by Leah LaCivita