A free resource for nonprofit organizations, NGOs, civil society organizations,
charities, schools, public sector agencies & other mission-based agencies
by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

Social Media Bursts / Microblogging
for Mission-Based Organizations

(nonprofits, government programs, etc.)

It used to be called microblogging. It includes tweeting, or posting to Instagram or Tik Tok, or sending to a group you've set up on What's App. It's short messages, just a few words, maybe a few sentences, less than 300 characters of text or a video of less than 30 seconds.

Is it something your nonprofit, library, government agency or other mission-based organization should be thinking about?

Yes. And if you decide it's not for you now, that's fine - but you need to revisit that decision in a year - maybe even sooner. And you also need to be prepared for the lifespan of the popularity of a platform to be only about a year or two.

Introduction
Content Suggestions
Which Platform?
Texting Your Location
How to Get Followers
What about a Post Going Viral?
Live Tweet Chats/Live Micro-Blogging
Evaluate Your Efforts!
Who to Follow To Learn More
Also See...

Introduction

Microblogs, including tweets on Twitter, are a great vehicle to help organize political demonstrations in countries run by corrupt governments (and an effective way to spread misinformation). It's a great way to get information about an upcoming event, to send reminders, and to take advantage of trends-of-the-day. Snapchat is still a popular microblogging site for teens, as is TikTok, both for short videos recorded with your smart phone (or at least looking like that's how they were done). Instagram is wildly popular with people in their teens and 20s - but that could change by this time next year.

How can nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), libraries, government programs, and other mission-based organizations really use microblogs or social media bursts to promote their work, increase attendance at an event, get donations, increase awareness about something or mobilize or support volunteers? Should they even try?

Remember that the primary goal of a nonprofit, NGO, government agency or mother mission-based organization in using social media isn't for its messages to go viral (to be retweeted/resent on a massive scale). Rather, it's to reach the right audience with a message that builds or affirms your program's credibility with them, or to prompt them to learn more about or even attend an event, or to get people to donate, or to encourage a behavior change. If you post a message that is shared by thousands of people but it doesn't result in any of that, have you really benefited at all? Social media use should amplify all of your other messaging, including what you are sharing on your web site, on your YouTube channel, in your paper newsletter and in your programs.

Whether or not your organization should invest in using Twitter or another microblogging platform depends on just two things:

the audience you are trying to reach - is that audience on whatever microblogging platform you are going to use? Is that an audience you don't reach any other way? Or is it an audience that would like to receive your messages in addition to already being subscribers to your email newsletter, your blog, Facebook, etc.?

what information you want others to receive about you - are organizations and agencies you want information from posting such information to a micro blogging platform that you aren't already getting by liking them on Facebook or subscribing to their email newsletter? Or is the information something you want to receive daily, even immediately?

Content Suggestions

Most microblogs / social media bursts are experienced mostly on smart phones. Think about what people want to see on their smart phone as "breaking news" or something that makes them go "Wow" or even "hmmm....".

Here are messages they probably are not going to care about:

The new annual report is out!

Here's a photo of our Executive Director on a panel!

We have a new parking lot.

It's not that you shouldn't send those messages via, say, Twitter. But you need to post just as many messages that are time-sensitive, or would make someone go "Wow", or even smile:

Vote on state bill to prevent Dalmatian fur coats comes up this afternoon. Call your state rep now! More info on our web site.

Volunteers are gathering at our offices to greet our executive director on her return from Afghanistan. She arrives in 1 hour. Come & cheer!

Here is a video of our executive director, who just returned from Afghanistan, with volunteers cheering her return!

A volunteer had to leave our booth at county fair; we need someone to come down ASAP & fill in! Please reply if you can!

The annual meeting starts in one hour; we really hope you will be there!

Online survey of volunteers closes in 24 hours. If you have not completed it, please do ASAP!

Look at this photo of smiling faces of people who attended our amazing event last night.

We've published a new book!

We have a new video on YouTube that shows just how much fun it is to work at our organization!

Online poll at CNBC NOW re: pet ownership. Please participate & help advocate for your pets!

So you first have to define what you are going to use microblogging for. You might want to have different microblogging activities for different purposes:

You might want to require everyone who is going to attend an upcoming training to give you their cell phone numbers, so you can send them a reminder text message the morning of the meeting, and even another an hour before, to assure peak attendance. You could use WhatsApp or Telegram to do this quickly. There are many others that will do this for a small monthly subscription fee (and are probably more secure).
You might want to create a second Twitter account only for your volunteers or your activist network, and posting messages that are only of interest to them; for them to get these messages, they will need to "follow" (subscribe) to your network feed.
For any video you share on Tik Tok or SnapChat, you might want to also share it via YouTube, with full descriptions and appropriately closed captioned, so that it can reach a wider audience, you can also tweet it and share it on Facebook with a link, etc.

Which Platform?

Which web-based microblogging platform should you use? The one or ones that many of those you want to reach are using. How will you find that out? You will ASK. Survey your staff, volunteers, donors, and other supporters. And you will have to survey yearly, because what people are using changes - particularly with young people. Your survey doesn't have to be formal - you can just ask at a meeting, "Raise your hand if you have an account on Instagram..."

Be very careful about using text messaging for micro blogging - sending text, via phones, to a group. People don't want to be overwhelmed with these kinds of messages and are more likely to unfollow you if you send too many of these "bursts" via text messaging. Be strategic. Always have an answer to the question, "Why would our followers want to know this right away?" Think about how much YOU would want to receive such messages via your phone.

Some organizations post the same message across all of their microblogging activities. For instance, a notice about a new blog posting may go out on the organization's accounts on Twitter, on Facebook, and on the status updates of one or more staff members' LinkedIn accounts. Others pick and choose: a notice about a training schedule change may only go out on the organization's Facebook account. If you do send the same message across social media platforms, you to need to tailor that message for each platform. Do NOT use a gateway that automatically posts what you post to Facebook to Twitter, or vice versa: these are different platforms and what works on one platform does NOT work on another.

Be ready to change your strategy: you need to revisit your social media platform choices in a year or two. You also need to be prepared for the lifespan of the popularity of a platform to be only about a year or two.

Texting Your Location

Another microblogging practice is a person sending a text message to all of his or her friends/ cell phones, or via a status message on the person's Facebook account, or via his or her Twitter account, saying where he or she is:

Jayne just entered the Starbuck's in Carnationville.

Yes, of course the practice has jargon names: mobile check-in services and location-based networking. Whatever.

Nonprofits, NGOs, libraries, government programs, and other mission-based organizations can leverage this practice to help create more awareness about their organization:

At the start of your volunteer recognition event, display a message on an overhead projector and ask all attendees to take out their cell phones or smart phones and to text it or tweet it right at that moment to everyone in their contact list, their followers or via their status update to their contacts. The message could be I am at the recognition event for volunteers of such-and-such organization. Great time! And then ask everyone to then turn their phones OFF!

As a volunteer starts his or her first shift staffing a table at a public event, ask them to send out the message Come to such-and-such event @ number street address & look for me @ the such-and-such booth! Stop by & say hi!

Ask attendees at your opening night for the season at your nonprofit theater to send the message I'm @ opening night of such-and-such at name-of-theater. Call xxx-xxx-xxxx for tix. On with the show! And then ask everyone to then turn their phones OFF!

Ask students attending a class your nonprofit is providing to text a message at the start or at the end of the class. Learning/learned to do such-and-such at name-of-organization. It's fun/tough/exciting/challenging/interesting!

After the volunteer firefighters finish putting away the equipment after a particularly intense or large emergency response, encourage them to send a message, as appropriate, to their network, such as, Just finished response to factory fire in such-&-such-area. More than xx volunteers responded. Photos soon @ Flickr.

These messages get a personalized, informal message out to your supporters' own networks -- their friends, neighbors, colleagues. These messages from your supporters shows how active your organization is and further builds awareness about your activities. These messages can generate interest among new volunteers and new audiences, attract larger numbers of attendees to an event, and augment your other outreach efforts.

However, think about appropriateness as well: you don't want people showing up to an event you have shared online but that isn't open to the public. You don't want to violate confidentiality. You don't want to share information about where a person is if that person actually does not want people to know where they are. What do you want as a result of posting these kinds of messages: to show how active and vibrant you are? To show how busy your organization is?

If you encourage your volunteers, event attendees, etc. to text-their-location at the start, during or at the end of an event, track the results: do you see an increase in the number of phone calls or emails to your organization regarding volunteering? An increase in phone calls requesting more information? More attendees to an event? Ask your volunteers and other supporters as well what kind of responses they get per a message they have sent out to their network.

How to Get Followers

Some people judge microblogging success by how many followers they have. For nonprofits, I don't. Numbers just aren't that impressive.

You don't just want followers: you want a particular kind of follower. What kind? It depends on the purpose of your microblogging activity.

If your microblog activity is limited to current volunteers, then your follower numbers are going to be limited to the number of current volunteers you have. If all your volunteers you want to follow you aren't, find out why - ASK!
If you create a Twitter account to promote new resources your organization publishes or produces, who do you want to receive these Tweets? Don't say "Everyone!" Are you hoping every volunteer follows this feed? Every donor? Every local press person? Identify every demographic you want to follow you and then reach out to that demographic as appropriate.
If you want people who are passionate about a particular issue to follow you, then you have to make sure you tag your posts appropriately so they will find them, and that you reach out to these demographics.
You might want to create another Twitter account that is focused only on legislation related to the mission of your organization, and focus messages on what followers can do to take action.

A way to get followers or to reach beyond your followers, is to tag your Tweets. For instance, any time I use the following words in a Tweet, if I have room, I put a hashtag in front of them, so anyone that follows these keywords can see them as well:

#volunteer
#volunteers
#nonprofits
#ngos
#humanitarian
#ICT4D
#inclusion
#Tech4Good
#CSR

This means that, say, anyone interested in ICTs being used as a part of development activities in third world countries and that does a search on a particular day for the phrase ICT4d is going to see any Tweets I've done recently that include that term.

Your tags will probably be different, depending on the focus of your organization or department. How do you find what tags to use? By looking to see what similar organizations use, and by searching for tags you think might be in use.

What About a Post Going Viral?

One of the most hyped things about microblogging is a message going viral, meaning that many of the people who receive it are so moved by it that they forward it to others, and many of those who receive it do the same, and on and on.

Messages go viral because they are funny, because they are breaking huge news ("Elvis is NOT dead"), or because they point to something incredibly cool (like the space shuttle breaking through the atmosphere, as viewed by someone on an airplane). These messages often make the news, but they are incredibly rare.

When does a Tweet from a nonprofit go viral? When it meets one of the aforementioned requirements:

It tells people what number to text from a cell phone in order to donate to an area that has just been hit by a major disaster
It announces that your new baby panda exhibit has a webcam
It announces that Elvis has joined your board of directors, with a link to photo proof

The reality is that most nonprofits or NGOs are NEVER going to have news this big EVER. If you are donating most of your planning to how to make a post go viral, you are missing the point of microblogging's value to nonprofits and NGOs.

Live Tweet Chats/Live Micro-Blogging

A live tweet chat event for a nonprofit, NGO or other mission-based organization could be:

A Q & A with your high-profile executive director or other high-profile, oft-in-demand staff person - someone people really want to talk to
An event with your volunteers where they talk about what they have liked most about being a volunteer with you, what they've learned, etc.
Brainstorming ideas for green living
A Q & A with experts about some issue your organization addresses: helping aspiring actors and dancers, leading exercises with seniors, spaying and neutering pets, etc.

It needs to be something simple; you cannot do anything that's too involved, like exploring ways to reduce violence against women, or dealing with teen pregnancy, or addressing long-time misunderstandings between two religious groups, etc. Your goals for such an event need to be simple.

Also, remember that anyone who wants to can see this event happen. It's an entirely public event.

I live tweet a lot, usually unofficially, when I attend an official government event, like a public meeting with a US Senator. I also have live tweeted from whatever company I'm working for at the time.

For instance, in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2014, I live-tweeted for the 2014 United Nations Social Good conversation, which took place over one day in 170 countries and 45 languages. The UN hosted a live, onsite, in-person event in Kyiv, and I live-tweeted from the event via the UNDP Twitter account, tagging the tweets with #UATech4Good. You can see what this looked like on Twitter here.

In October 2018, I live-tweeted a candidate forum that featured all the people running for city council in the town where I live in Oregon. You can read the archive of my live-tweets on Wakelet.

A live tweet chat event is NOT for everyone. It's an intense experience that requires a lot of preparation before the start and a lot of concentration during the event by the tweeter, and for it to truly be a "chat", it requires a lot of excited people who know how to participate (and want to!).

The fundamentals of a successful live tweet chat event:

A live tweet chat event has a definite start and end date, though many participants will tweeting before and will keep tweeting afterwards. Myself: I prefer just an hour for such events.
The event requires that all participants use the same tag on every message they tweet as a part of the live event. This tag has to be communicated to all participants before the event. Participants follow the event by doing a search for that particular tag. For the TechSoup event regarding using Twitter, the tag used was #NPtwitter.
The event requires a lot of promotion on other venues: you should list the event on the events sections of LinkedIn and Facebook, put the details on your web site, blog about it, include it in any email or print newsletters, and talk about it ion the organization's blog and on its Facebook profile. Post about it to online discussion groups you are a part of, as appropriate. Staff should also be encouraged to talk about it in their own status updates on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Use status updates on your various online networking accounts and your Twitter feed to remind people of the event two hours before the event, again an hour before, and again as the event is starting.
Have your welcome message, opening question, some questions for midway through and your ending message already written and ready to copy and paste into your Twitter feed at the appropriate time.
Arrange a core group of folks each with at least one question prepared and ready to copy and paste into their own Twitter feeds during the event if questions don't start immediately. This core group should also already have at least one resource or advice statement ready to copy and paste into their own Twitter feeds during the event, to ensure there is something being posted at least every 60 seconds. This core group can be designated employees or volunteers; talk with them beforehand so they know exactly what they are supposed to do.
Have someone designated to thank every person who posts a question or an answer during the event. They can thank three or four people at once: Thanks to @jcravens42, @ebarnhart & @LCMoy for great questions re: nonprofits & Twitter. #NPtwitter. Now all of the followers of these people are going to see this Tweet, and have the tag to click on to jump in and see what's going on. You've just reach more people with your event! This is a great task for an online volunteer.
Encourage participants to retweet questions and answers. Most will feel encouraged to do this if they see others doing it, so make sure your core group for this event knows they should retweet something at least once during the event.
If you cannot answer every question that comes in, that's okay; save them and assure participants that all questions will be addressed on a followup web page or blog.
Capture every post and compile the information into a web page or a blog so others can read the key information from this event, and answer any questions that did not get answered during the event. This is a GREAT task for an online volunteer to do for you.

Evaluate Your Efforts!

Once you launch your microblogs, evaluate your efforts. If you encourage your volunteers, event attendees, etc. to text-their-location at the start, during or at the end of an event, track the results: do you see an increase in the number of phone calls or emails to your organization regarding volunteering? An increase in phone calls requesting more information? More attendees to an event? Ask your volunteers and other supporters as well what kind of responses they get per a message they have sent out to their network.

Look at your email, RSS, Twitter, SnapChat and other subscriptions numbers frequently. Survey users to ask what they like and what they don't about how you are communicating. Ask ex-subscribers why they left. Always have data to help you refine your micro-blogging based on subscriber (and ex-subscriber) feedback.

What's most important: measure your success with online tools by real outcomes, not number of subscribers, number of messages sent, etc.

There are many more suggestions about using micro blogging, including Twitter, to recruit and engage with volunteers, and to recognize their contribututions, in The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook.

Also See...

Handling Online Criticism
Online criticism of a nonprofit organization, even by its own supporters, is inevitable. It may be about an organization's new logo or new mission statement, the lack of parking, or that the volunteer orientation being too long. It may be substantial questions regarding an organization's business practices and perceived lack of transparency. How a nonprofit organization handles online criticism speaks volumes about that organization, for weeks, months, and maybe even years to come. There's no way to avoid it, but there are ways to address criticism that can help an organization to be perceived as even more trustworthy and worth supporting.
Using Real-Time Communications With Volunteers
A growing number of organizations are using real-time communications -- usually called "chats" -- to hold online meetings with volunteers, or to allow volunteers to interact with staff, clients, or each other. This resource provides more information on chats -- what they are, how agencies are using them to interact with volunteers, tips to encourage and maintain participation in chats, and where to find chat software. This resource was developed by the Virtual Volunteering Project.
Internet discussion groups for volunteers
Many agencies have created e-mail-based discussion groups or newsgroups for their volunteers. These asynchronous online tools allow agencies to easily make announcements to volunteers, and sometimes also allow volunteers to interact with each other, get suggestions and feedback, and ask questions. They can also serve as a written record of participation, concerns, trends and issues for volunteers. Unlike chats, volunteers can participate whenever they wish, and they don't need special software to do so. This resource was developed by the Virtual Volunteering Project.
Using Video to Support Online Volunteers/Remote Volunteers
Video is a great way to further support volunteers, and your computer probably already has all of the tools you need to make a video, or to engage in a live video conversation with others. Video isn't something to use only with online volunteers or remote volunteers (those providing onsite service at a different location than yours). It's also a tool you can use with new and current volunteers. In addition to an organization producing videos for volunteers, it can also work the other way around: volunteers can produce videos for organizations. This resource provides information on your options, and links to my own short video on the subject.
What are good blog topics for mission-based organizations?
The word "blog" is short for "web log", and means keeping a journal or diary online. Blogging is NOT a new concept -- people have been doing it long before it had a snazzy media label. The appeal of blogging for an online audience is that it's more personal and less formal than other information on a web site. Readers who want to connect with an organization on a more personal level, or who are more intensely interested in an organization than the perhaps general public as a whole, love blogs. Blogs can come from your Executive Director, other staff members, volunteers, and even those you serve. Content options are many, and this list reviews some of your options.
For Nonprofits Considering Their Own Podcasts:
Why It's Worth Exploring, and Content Considerations
I present my first podcast about... podcasts (transcript included). Specifically, I talk about how podcasts can be used by nonprofits, and just how easy it is to do.
Nonprofit Organizations and Online Social Networking (OSN): Advice and Commentary
OSN is buzz phrase used to describe special web-based online communities that are accessible only for community members, like LinkedIn and FaceBook. Is there a value for nonprofit organizations to engage in OSN platforms? This resource offers a realistic set of possibilities and considerations.
Evaluating Online Activities: Online Action Should Create & Support Offline Action
Hundreds of "friends" on an online social networking site. Thousands of subscribers to an email newsletter. Dozens of attendees to a virtual event. Those are impressive numbers on the surface, but if they don't translate into more volunteers, repeat volunteers, new donors, repeat donors, more clients, repeat clients, legislation, or public pressure, they are just that: numbers. For online activities to translate into something tangible, online action must create and support offline action. What could this look like? This resource can help organizations plan strategically about online activities so that they lead to something tangible - not just numbers.
Stages of Maturity in Nonprofit Orgs Using Online Services
What does a networking technology-savvy nonprofit organization look like? To help nonprofits think about networking tech standards they should pursue, and possible goals for the future, I've created this assessment of the states of maturity for a nonprofit organization's use of networking/online technologies.

Return to my list of resources relating to online culture & communities of volunteers

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Social Media Bursts / Microblogging for Mission-Based Organizations

(nonprofits, government programs, etc.)

Social Media Bursts / Microblogging
for Mission-Based Organizations