Last month, I was fortunate enough to attend the Practising Law Institute’s program on Social Media for Non-Profits and Public Interest Organizations. The Practising Law Institute is a Bronze Sponsor of Pro Bono Net and we are very pleased to partner with them. Liz Keith, Program Director at Pro Bono Net, and a Faculty member at PLI spoke with attendees in San Francisco, CA and was also broadcast LIVE via webcast to over 350 registered participants! Liz was joined by the Executive Director of OneJustice.org, Julia Wilson, and Pro Bono Net’s very own LawHelp Program Coordinator, Xander Karsten. The program offered three presentations meant to help non-profit organizations and public interest organizations start, maintain and grow their social media programs and campaigns. Below I’ve included a discussion on each presentation highlighting what my favorite pieces were within their presentations.
Liz Keith – Getting Started and Growing with Social Media
Pro Bono Net’s Program Director, Liz Keith, focused on starting and growing a social media program and highlighted ways organizations can identify which tools to use. She broke down a number of sites based on information gather by the PEW Institute and offered her advice. I’ve identified the top three that I felt were the most versatile and widely used.
According to studies done by the PEW Institute, Facebook caters to younger audiences, but has been rapidly growing among older populations in recent years. It is a great tool for connecting with audiences in a personal and less formal atmosphere. Liz suggests posting less than three times a day, and including some sort of media rather than just text. For example, the visual component to a Facebook feed is crucial.
According to the PEW study, posts that contain photographs get 53% more likes than those without, and link-shares that include previews of the content and photographs get considerably more attention. With all of the competition on Facebook, getting visual and creative can boost an organizations popularity and success on the platform.
According to Liz, Twitter is a platform better suited to timely messaging and personal broadcasting. The Hashtag (#) ability on Twitter helps to focus attention on a specific campaign, issue, or topic and can be a wonderful tool to communicate with your audiences. Building connections and tying messaging in with current events is much easier on Twitter than other platforms due to its fast paced nature.
Liz recommends posting more than once a day and advised that repeat tweeting may be necessary in order to get your message across to audiences. With twitter feeds being so populated, having image content can again help to attract users eyes, but it may still take a few tweets on a subject to garner the attention an organization is looking for.
It is also important to note that Twitter can be seen as more of a discussion based platform, as much of being a part of Twitter is responding, updating and connecting with audiences and the community.
LinkedIn is a very different kind of social media platform, with a much more professional edge. While Twitter and Facebook are often seen as an informal conversation, LinkedIn is where your audience connects around professional interests. Since users tend to be more professionally minded your messaging should reflect this.
While media and photos still increase attention, offering resources and connections to professional materials will be of more interest to users and audiences. If your organization is hoping to, or has already, established itself as a “thought leader” this is the platform in which to express it. LinkedIn is a great resource for developing relationships with other organizations, as well as leaders in the industry in which your organization falls.
Other Platforms
Other platforms mentioned and described in her presentation included Instagram, Pinterest, and Google+. Finding the right fit for your organization is very important. However, whether or not your organization decided to participate on a platform, it is imperative to claim the usernames and platform handles associated with your organizations name or nickname to prevent anyone else from using it.
With all of this information in mind, Julia Wilson took the stage to deliver a case study on OneJustice.org. Tune in tomorrow for the highlights of her discussion.
____________
This seminar/webcast was hosted by the Practising Law Institute. To register for any webcasts or seminars go to www.pli.edu for more information.
At the core of Practising Law Institute’s mission is its commitment to offer training to members of the legal profession to support their pro bono service. PLI offers pro bono training, scholarships, and access to live programs, Webcasts, and On-Demand archived programs, as well as an extensive Pro Bono Membership program. For more information about PLI’s pro bono programs and activities, please visit www.pli.edu/probono. Follow PLI’s Pro Bono Group on LinkedIn, and on Twitter @ProBonoPLI.