App puts social actions in the palm of your hand

Guest post by Glenn Vander Laan
Co-founder, Crowdshout

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, educators, activists, general public.

The idea for Crowdshout hit my business partners and me back in November 2011, a few months following the Arab Spring and during the Occupy Wall Street protests. We realized that despite all of the tools and technology out there to support advocacy, something was missing. The advent of social media and the smartphone was helping to change the world right in front of us, but it was clear to us that all of the puzzle pieces were yet to fall into place to fully enable and empower groups of people.

Social media is providing real-time visibility to the social, political and consumer issues that affect us as individuals and as a society. The rapid dissemination of information has changed the game for governments and corporations in both positive and negative ways.

While social media has been embraced as a large part of an overall communication strategy, it can also be used as a powerful weapon by people in reaction to unpopular plans and policies. Institutions must now consider how to react to public opinion — from a Change.org petition, Facebook campaign or a viral video on YouTube.  In addition to this, the portability and capability provided by smartphones to access social media have allowed groups of individuals to communicate and organize very quickly and effectively in support of causes.

What was missing?

As we looked around at the advocacy landscape, it was clear that while a few high-profile causes have had a tremendous amount of visibility and success, the majority of worthy, important causes do not generate enough attention and action to reach their goals. Perhaps what’s even more important to consider is that the attention and support they do generate does not lead to any specific actions that could make a difference. This has been the main complaint that many have raised regarding what’s referred to as “slactivism” or “clicktivism” — that the actions are too insignificant or detached to have any lasting value.

While Change.org, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and blogs are viable platforms to disseminate information and raise awareness, they do little to assist in shaping a strategy and directing behavior to effect change over time.

Thus, the need for a new generation of digital advocacy tools that contain built-in action and that can be used to help build and drive an ongoing campaign.

Social action at your fingertips

Crowdshout redefines social activism for the mobile age. We built Crowdshout as a mobile application to put social action in people’s hands so you can stay involved and connected to the causes you care about. By leveraging the power of the smartphone, we use location and calendar-based information to drive coordinated actions designed to make a difference.

On the Crowdshout platform each cause is configured with a set of action tools to help promote the cause.  Action tools include sending email messages, tweeting on Twitter, posting to your Facebook wall, making phone calls, and reading the latest news items about the cause. We also have plans to incorporate more than a dozen unique action tools into the platform to drive targeted group behavior in support of causes.

Our goal was to make it very simple for cause participants to take a series of actions. We leverage a concept we call “micro actions,” a number of small tasks taken by individuals that get magnified through group participation. When you join a cause, the tools for that cause are configured into the notification system of your phone to remind you to perform the actions at a specified time. The tools are predefined email templates, filled out phone scripts completed, suggested Tweets and Facebook posts, and individuals are asked to take action at specific times over the course of the cause campaign. The timing aspect is important because one of the unique capabilities of the Crowdshout platform is coordinating actions by many people at the same time for maximum impact.

Think about creating a “tweet storm” on Twitter, or initiating a phone campaign blitz to light up the telephone switchboards of U.S. senators or representatives.

Crowdshout is offered in two ways. First, as an open platform we invite individuals to join and create causes and action plans, and invite your friends or other Crowdshout users to help you in taking actions to make a difference. If you are an organization or a group and would prefer a “branded” experience, Crowdshout is also offered as a service. The Crowdshout app can be rebranded to fit the look and feel of your organization while leveraging all of the Crowdshout tools and infrastructure to provide a specific branded experience for your supporters. You can check us out at crowdshout.com, download the Android app on Google Play or look us up during SXSW Interactive starting Friday.

What do you think? Would you use Crowdshout?

Related

• 10 top tools for cause & advocacy campaigns (Socialbrite)

• Resources for social advocates (Socialbrite)

• Social Advocacy Toolkit (Socialbrite)

• E-campaign resources (Socialbrite)

• Social fundraising tools for nonprofits & causes (Socialbrite)

• Advocate Interactive: Blending nonprofit advocacy with for-profit tactics (Socialbrite)

• Growing nonprofits and social movements with NationBuilder (Socialbrite)

• Empowered.org: Out to grow grassroots movements (Socialbrite)

• Causes reinvents itself as a campaign center (Socialbrite)

The post Crowdshout: Social advocacy made simple appeared first on Socialbrite.

Understand the nuances of Facebook ads to find the best fit for your objectives

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, businesses, Web publishers, bloggers, social media managers, individuals.

Facebook ads differ from almost every other type of Internet ad in at least two important ways:

1) Facebook ads target the interests expressed by users in their profile details, the pages and groups they like, and updates they post on their Timeline (new job, new relationship, new baby, etc.).

2) Facebook ads also scale word-of-mouth marketing to a massive degree by leveraging the recommendations between friends – a network of 140 billion connections Facebook calls the “social graph.”

Nonprofits and other organizations considering Facebook ads can look at this summary of four different types of ads, with an example of each, plus a handy chart at the end of this post:

Marketplace ads

1A Marketplace ad is an ad located in the right-hand sidebar of Facebook on desktop browsers (not available on mobile devices).

Marketplace ads allow you to include a headline, body copy and image. If you’re promoting a Facebook page, a call to action for liking the page appears below the ad.

Marketplace ads can be targeted to any subset of Facebook users.

Sponsored Stories

2A Sponsored Story is a story about a page, event or app that appears in the news feed (Web and mobile). The content for Sponsored Stories is derived from stories generated from people who talk about your page or RSVP to your event.

For example, if you’re advertising an event, stories about people RSVPing to the event would appear as a Sponsored Story in the news feed.

Page post ads

3Page Post ads are posts from your Facebook page that you can promote to existing fans, friends of fans and even non-fans. These ads appear in the news feed and in the sidebar of Facebook (on the Web).

The main difference between Page Post ads and Sponsored Stories is that Page Post ads can be shown to anyone on Facebook, regardless of their connection to your page.

Promoted Posts

4Promoted Posts are Facebook’s answer to the novice marketer who may not have any experience using Facebook ads or those who just prefer to advertise in the simplest way possible.

Promoted Posts are Facebook page updates that you can promote to existing fans or fans and their friends, simply by using the “Promote” feature located under every update on your Timeline.

The other main difference is that you only pay for reach based on a flat rate for various different ranges of people. In many cases, Promoted Posts seem to have the highest click-through rate of all ad types.

An explanation of all four Facebook ad types

Click here for a larger downloadable version

Advertising objectives

Before you spend any money on Facebook ads, you need to determine what your goals and objectives are.

• Do you want more Facebook page fans?
• Do you want more exposure for your page posts?
• How will you use ads to build your email list?
• Who are you trying to reach and what do you want them to do?

Having very clear answers to these questions will help you spend your ad money wisely.

Which Facebook ads have you tried for your nonprofit? Did they work?

The post 4 kinds of Facebook ad types compared appeared first on Socialbrite.

How nonprofits can use infographics to demonstrate supporters’ impact

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, businesses, Web publishers, bloggers, social media managers, individuals.

People support your organization for one reason: They view your organization as the agent of change they seek.

If they had the resources, they’d make the changes they desire by themselves. But they don’t, which is why you’re in their lives.

So when you tell the story of your cause, you need to show how supporters ultimately create the outcomes.

Nonprofit storytelling with infographics

One powerful way to do this is with a set of infographics like the Best Friends Animal Society created.

What’s really great about this infographic is that it’s broken down into five separate infographics, which makes the information even more digestible.

Five tips for creating powerful infographics

Best Friends Animal Society does a number of things right with their infographic. Here are a few:

1. Keep it simple. The information should be instantly understood through pictures and words.
2. Make it beautiful. No one wants to share an infographic that’s ugly. Make sure you spend the money and hire a graphic artist who can create a beautiful infographic. (Here are 20 tools to create infographics, including our favorite, Canva.)
3. Make it easily shareable. Users should be able to share your infographic with one mouse click on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. If you use WordPress for your website, you’ll find a number of plug-ins that will add a sharing feature to images.
4. Put it everywhere. Make sure you post your infographic on your Facebook page, your Pinterest board, and even Instagram. This allows people who call these places their home to easily see it.
5. Promote it. Just because you build it doesn’t mean people will come. You need to have a marketing communications plan that uses your biggest assets, like your email list, to promotes the infographic.

Have you seen an effective infographic about a cause? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post Five tips to create powerful infographics appeared first on Socialbrite.

Is your nonprofit considering using promoted posts on Facebook? With promoted posts, all you’re paying for is an increase in reach. There is no guarantee that you’ll get more comments, likes and shares, even though that’s what you want for long-term success. The more comments, likes and shares you get on a post, the more you’re leveraging true word of mouth.

So the key to investing your ad dollars wisely is to promote only posts that are already getting a lot of likes, comments and shares. You do this by ranking your most recent posts by virality within Facebook Insights. Watch the 4-minute video above for the complete rundown.

The post How to get the best results from Facebook promoted posts appeared first on Socialbrite.

Broaden your reach without spending a dime

Lately there has been a backlash from people saying that Facebook is forcing people to pay to have their page updates reach their Facebook fans.

While it’s true that many Facebook pages have seen a drop in reach, it’s not due to some conspiracy to force page administrators to buy ads. And it’s definitely not happening to all pages.

Below is a graph from Jon Loomer’s insightful article that actually shows an increase in activity for more than 1,000 Facebook pages:

The truth is that the drop in reach for many pages is a caused by an increase of more relevant posts in their fans’ news feeds.

EdgeRank isn’t unfair, it’s just impartial

Facebook has always used an algorithm to determine what content Facebook users will most likely prefer in their increasingly noisy news feeds.

The pages that have recently seen a huge drop in reach obviously didn’t make the cut. Especially if they were too spammy.

Marketers who are whining about all this need to put down the tissues and realize that promoted posts are simply one option among many to amplify reach.

Here are 13 more ways you can reach your supporters.

Analyze your top 10 content items

1Go into your Facebook Page Insights and rank your content by virality. This is the fastest way to see what’s resonating with Facebook users.

Seek out patterns. Are they mostly photos? If so, what subject do they have in common? What about conditional sharing? What can you learn from the comments in these updates? You get the idea.

Post awesome content

2When you understand what’s been working on your page, you’ll do it more! But how can you go beyond what has worked?

Ask yourself:

• What would it look like if your posts were unbelievably remarkable?
• What would get people talking?

The bottom line is that content is king on Facebook. Take full responsibility for yours!

Optimize targeting

3Administrators of Facebook pages with more than 100 fans can target updates based on gender, relationship status, educational status, age, location and language.

This means that updates that pertain to fans in a specific location, or to a certain age group, won’t be seen by fans outside of that segment. And on the flip side, a higher percent of those reached by these targeted updates will like, comment on, and share them.

Don’t cross-post

4I’ve written about why cross-posting is a bad idea before, so you can read more about that here.

Briefly, the intent of cross-posting is to save time and effort, which is not what’s needed to create a vibrant community.

Post at the best time

5There’s lots of research that suggests that nighttime is the best time to post, particularly around 8 pm.

This makes sense when you think about it. Most people work during the day, come home and have dinner, and then relax, watch TV, and check their news feed.

Post on weekends

6Also supported by research is the fact that weekends are awesome times to post. People generally have more free time on their hands to see what’s up with their Facebook friends. Plus, because very few brands post on the weekends, there’s less competition in the news feed!

Create interest ists

7Interests are user-curated topical lists made up of people or pages. For example, Mari Smith created a list called Facebook Experts & Resources that includes 76 people and pages that Mari has hand-picked.

This means more Facebook fans, more engagement with your content, and more viral reach for your posts!

Use your blog

8If you have a blog, you have a huge opportunity to increase visibility for your Facebook page simply by linking to relevant page updates within blog posts. Making a regular habit of quoting Facebook fans in your blog posts not only creates more awareness for your Facebook page, it also shows your blog readers how much you care about your supporters!

Use events

9If you’re like most nonprofits, events are central to how you do business. Use Facebook before, during, and after each event to build your Facebook fan base, and increase attendance.

Use webinars

10If webinars are a central part of your communications plan, think about using your Facebook page as a post-webinar discussion board! This leverages the concentrated attention you have during your webinars to boost your Facebook Page fan base and reach. This approach is the core strategy for CharityHowTo and Social Media Examiner.

Use email marketing

11Most nonprofits have have an email list that’s about 10 times as big as their Facebook page fan base. Amplify reach for your page by linking to one of your top updates in the course of your normal email communications. Because the content has already been vetted by your fans, your email subscribers will naturally like, comment on, and share it as well with their Facebook friends.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg on what you can do with email marketing.

Use Pinterest

12If your fan base is made up predominately of women, you need to be using Pinterest.

You can create more reach for your Facebook Page photos by reposting them on Pinterest and linking back to the page update. The reach report within Facebook Insights will show you how well this is working.

Tell fans to get notifications

13You already know that when Facebook users like your page, they still might not get your updates in their news feed. One way to help them remedy this is to tell them how to get notifications like I did with this page update.

Learn more and share your thoughts

If you want more ideas, check out the free 30-minute webinar on my Facebook Page.

Now it’s your turn.

What’s an awesomely creative idea you’ve discovered to create more visibility for your Facebook page updates? Share your ideas for everyone in the comments section below.

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Infographic: Tactics to increase fan interaction

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, educators, journalists, general public.

American Express Open Forum recently published an infographic of Facebook engagement stats and recommended tactics for improving engagement rates on your Facebook page content.

Although this infographic isn’t specifically for nonprofits, the data and tactics still apply to nonprofits.

Improve your Facebook engagement

Here’s a summary of the most useful bits from the infographic:

1. Post short updates – Updates with fewer than 80 characters get 23 percent higher engagement rates (sigh).
2. Post images – Photos get a 39 percent higher rate of engagement than all types of content on the whole.
3. Use emoticons – Using emoticons increase shares and likes by 33 percent.
4. Try caption contests – Asking fans to write captions to interesting photos increases comments by 550 percent.
5. Respond quickly – 25 percent of Facebook and Twitter users expect a response to inquires and complaints within 60 minutes. Facebook community guidelines help immensely with this!
6. Run a photo contest – Encourage fans to post cause-related photos for a chance to win something amazing. Note that a third-party app needs to be used for photo and video contests.

People first, tactics last

If your takeaway from this infographic is a plan for Facebook success, you’ve got it backward. Tactics should always come after:

1. Understanding your people
2. Developing clear objectives
3. Developing a smart integrative strategy

Have you guys tried these tips? What tactics have worked best for you?

The post 6 ways to improve your Facebook fan engagement appeared first on Socialbrite.

PostPlanner, the tool for managing content on Facebook, has powerful features that allow you to automate content curation. The service allows you to schedule posts for the different pages that you manage and optimizes content specifically for Facebook.

Nonprofits use their Facebook pages to engage potential donors and raise awareness, but organizations are often too consumed with daily activities to keep their Facebook pages updated on a regular basis.

With PostPlanner, you can dream up and schedule your organization’s updates days, weeks or even months in advance to ensure that you’re constantly in front of your fans. Whether you’re launching a contest or promoting an event, PostPlanner allows your organization to stay connected without constantly logging in. With PostPlanner’s branded version, you can even add your own icon and link it back to your website or Facebook page.

PostPlanner has recently added two new features to help make your outreach even easier:

1. Automatically pull the latest content from your favorite blogs and Twitter users.
2. Discover trending content that is already going viral on various social media sites.

I explain more about PostPlanner in the video above.

Related

• PostPlanner: A branded publishing app for Facebook
• PostPlanner: Publishing to Facebook make easy

The post How to automate Facebook content curation with PostPlanner appeared first on Socialbrite.

10 essential steps for using Quora effectively

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, educators, journalists, general public.

Guest post by Brannon Cullum
Movements.org 

Quora, the question-and-answer site that launched in 2010, helps you to collect, organize, and share information, expertise, and knowledge. The founders, two former Facebook employees, want Quora to be a place of “knowledge that people trust.” Quora is a place to ask questions you may not normally search for on a search engine like Google or Yahoo.

For the most part, answers come from people with some particular interest or expertise in a question’s topic area. Responses tend to be thoughtful and informative, and take a longer form (certainly longer than Yahoo! Answers), which helps facilitate in depth discussions and conversations.

There are a number of ways that nonprofits and grassroots organizations can use Quora, including:

• Finding topics directly related to your particular issue area and monitoring what people are saying
• Adding your own knowledge to discussions
• Taking advantage of many of the professionals (especially in tech and journalism) that are using Quora to ask questions about topics like strategy, web design, social media tools
• Finding new contacts/experts in issue areas you care about
• Researching an issue area

Create your Quora account

1Point your browser to Quora.com. To create an account, you have the option of using your pre-existing Facebook or Twitter account, or an email address. Quora asks that you use your real name on the site.

Confirm your account

2 You will get an email or message asking you to confirm your account.

Spice up your profile

3 Set up your profile by clicking on your name in the top right-hand corner. Add a headline, such as your profession or interests, and a photo. You can also add a more detailed description about yourself

Search for topics that interest you

4 Each question on Quora is tagged with one or more topics, so one of the first starting points is to find topics to follow. When you visit your Quora homepage, questions that fall under these topics will populate your main feed. On the search bar at the top of the page, you can search for topics of interest to you. When you go to that topic’s main page, click the green “Follow Topic” button on the right-hand side if you want to follow it.

Follow like-minded members

8 Like other social networks, you can select other community members to follow on Quora. If you have a particular person in mind, you can search for that user in the main search bar. On any person’s main Quora page, click the green follow button to follow that person. You can see questions that person has asked or answers he or she has shared. You can also connect your Quora account with your Facebook and Twitter accounts so you can automatically follow those friends who are on Quora or import your email contacts to see who in your network is on Quora. Like Twitter, you can see who the people you follow also follow (and who are their followers). This is a helpful way to find new people to follow.

Tip! If you prefer to ask a question anonymously, click the “visibility” setting at the bottom of the text box. You can select “Anonymous.” Once you have added the question, click the link that reads “Make Anonymous” in the “add answer” section. Anonymous questions won’t show up in the homepage of your followers and anonymity applies to the question and its answer.

Edit existing questions

9 Many members of the Quora community improve the site’s content by editing questions, adding topics to questions, and summarizing answers. To edit a question: When you are on a particular question page, click the “edit” link next to a question or click “Add question details. ”To add additional topics to a question: When you are on a particular question page, click the “edit” link next to a question, type in a topic, and click “add.” To add a summary: If you want to summarize answers to a question, click on the “Options” menu in the upper right-hand corner of the question page and select “Create Answer Summary.”

Cast your vote

10 Users can vote answers up or down. so that the “best” answers get pushed to the top. The more votes an answer gets, the higher up in the responses it goes. To vote a question up or down, click on the up or down arrow to the left of any answer.

Tip! Remember, the most popular answers may not be the most accurate.

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