Grantmakers & Social Media: One Foundation's Story

Why social media?One foundation’s story

Social Media and Grantmakers SessionGrant Managers Network Conference

March 2011

Marie DeatherageDirector, Communication & Learning

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Don’t even think about using social media

without an overall communication strategy and planImage from Wikimedia Commons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Donteventhinkaboutparkinghere_retouched.jpg

• Donteventhinkaboutparkinghere.jpg: Anselmmartinhoffmeister• derivative work: Kfranco (talk)

Iʼm going to begin talking about social media by not talking about social media. Don't even think about social media without overall communication goals, plan, strategy

Dougfirtrees: http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1212033Image Citation:(?) Dave Powell, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

Perspective is everything

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we like to use nature analogies. For example, if you are looking only at social media, you're only seeing trees.

http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=5389991

Image Citation:(?) Tom DeGomez, University of Arizona, Bugwood.org

If you are looking only at a single social media tool, you're looking at tree bark.

http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=0017056Image Citation:(?) William M. Ciesla, Forest Health Management International, Bugwood.org

Need to know the forest and what lies beyond it, where itʼs located, what context itʼs in, etc.

Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?

To develop a solid communication plan, strategy, you must begin by asking why and keep on asking why… until you know why you want to communicate, what you want to happen as a result of your communication. (E.g., many orgs/foundations begin by saying want media coverage. Why? What people to know about us. Why? So they will give us money. Why do you think being in the media will make that happen? etc. etc. Eventually get to information that identifies who your audience is and where/how they get information. You need to know your story, your message...

http://www.grantcraft.org/?pageid=1196

http://comnetwork.org/resources/research.html

Lots of communication strategy resources for foundations, e.g. these from GrantCraft (Foundation Center) and Communications Network. Good to remember that private foundations like MMT have different communication needs than nonprofits and businesses and even community foundations. We aren’t trying to attract donors or sell anything. For us its more about what can we do to make the experience dealing with MMT as pleasant and helpful as possible and passing on any other knowledge and other resources we have.

MMT communication tools through the years

• 1996: Meyer Memorial Trust gets a website

• 2003: New website, email list

• 2004: Active blogging

• 2005: Added RSS, videos

• 2006: Forums

• 2007: Wiki

• 2008: Twitter

• 2009: Facebook, Flickr, Slideshare

• 2010: New website (incorporated all social media into it)

Not accomplished all at once. A journey not a destination. Hereʼs what MMT has done as an example of one foundation. Caution: when you know what one foundation does, you know one foundation. Your needs might be different from ours. Timeline shows incorporating new tools as they come along, requires keeping up with developments in social media, staying engaged. Helps if staff use in personal life and have geeky tendencies. Foundations

Through all timeline, MMT's website remains at the center of all our communication, that's where we are able to explain things fully, offer rich variety of info. Often our other communication leads people to our website.

Website also features social media, inviting visitors to explore. Offer options, don't force folks to do only one way. More of a reward rather than stick approach.

It’s SOCIAL mediaNot about doing, about being

Photo used under Creative Commons, Western Lowland Gorilla Cincinnati Zoo, Photographer: Kabir Bakie. From Wikipedia http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gorillas_2609. jpg

Social media is about interaction. Participation. Exchange. Conversation. Engagement. Use technology to be social. People are social. Web 2.0 is social. MMT is social. Always asking ourselves if there is a way to do something that is interactive, that invites participation.

Image used under Creative Commons, Valeria Maltoni, Conversation Agenthttp://www.conversationagent.com/2009/10/what-the-connected-company-looks-like.html

The Internet exponentially increases opportunities to be social

For foundations, social media offers a great way to achieve transparency. The Internet is a great leveler.

Once we discovered the Foundation Center’s Glass Pockets project, it gave us a great way to measure just how transparent we are and identify ways we could improve our transparency. We were really proud when we learned we were identified as the first foundation to meet all the Glass Pockets criteria.

MMT's biggest communication challenge when first started and began developing communication plan: Being seen as accessible and human. MMT was the biggest foundation in PNW (not now, but when we began), once of largest in nation, size was intimidating, reputation was you had to know trustee or staff member, due diligence make too hard for many, nonprofits suspected we would rather watch our money pile up higher and higher rather than give it away. Our website gave us an opportunity to be accessible, open, social, invite conversation with real people who are willing to show you their high school photos.

Web uses human voice, our staff section shows us as human, open, can contact directly. [One of our staff members prefers to talk like a pirate sometimes :)]

We make our communication conversational, including blogs, email news alerts, you might say we dare to be dorky. Even talk about other things, things real humans talk about. If you havenʼt read The Cluetrain Manifesto by David Weinberger, Doc Searls, Christopher Locke, Rick Levine (http://www.cluetrain.com/), I recommend it as the single best source in how to be a good conversationalist on the web.

Get to know the tools

Number and range of tools can be overwhelming, esp. since new ones keep coming. Cultivate geeky people whose DNA makes them keep up with them within and/or without organization. Subscribe to Beth Kanter’s blog as a first step. Follow Foundation Center & NTEN. And look beyond foundations and nonprofits... there’s a lot to be learned from the world of business too.

Fit the tool to the jobUsed under Creative Commons: Henrik Kniberg’s Keynote slides from Scrum Gathering, Cape Town

http://blog.crisp.se/henrikkniberg/2010/09/01/1283373060000.html

Otherwise you run the risk of using the wrong tool for the job or using the tool wrong. You need to know where to find people you want and need to reach, and/or figure out how to entice them where you are.

• for listening (@meyermt, #s, name, etc)

• ask questions

• RTs of others, resources

• for breaking news, immediate action items

• followers are first in line

MMT uses twitter for quick short announcements, announce big news here first, links to good resources, convos that can be conducted in short messages. But mostly for listening. What are people saying about MMT? Get asked questions for fast/short response. What are people saying about things we're interested in. Do quick short surveys. Crowdsource. Retweet. Share.

E.g., announcement of new grant fund made Trending in PDX! used twitter and facebook to invite folks to sit at MMTʼs table at function when we had empty chairs. Third party platforms make easy to use for listening, quick conversations, being real.Who to follow? Those you would like to chat with over coffee. Those who would like to sit with you over coffee.Who to follow less loaded than who to friend.

One day last fall, got a tweeted question from a grantwriter/consultant to NPOs about how MMT integrates social media, we had a dialogue on twitter for a few minutes...

Later found out she used in a presentation on grantwriting with NPOs. This means that a foundation’s use of social media (e.g, twitter behavior) is being used by NPOs/grantwriters as measure of foundation’s information value, accessibility, openness, etc.

• more backstory

• great for listening

• 2-way: comment/like

• photo ops

• management issues

Facebook. For things that take more room than twitter. Inside scoop. Not as time sensitive. (E.g., construction) More about our work at the margins. E.g., Mission Day. Also good for listening because convos more extended, often easier to track.

Facebook requires policy decisions, like who to friend? Who and what to like? Assign to someone responsible and knows legal and other policy issues. Importance of sharing some info in profile. Do you like org if give grant, do you tie to grant monitoring? What if do badly, then unlike?

YouTube, where we put all our videos, then embed them in our website. Makes them more social because allows comments, others to link, etc. Also find videos relating to MMT that others put up.

Slideshare underutilized by foundations, great resource and opportunity for knowledge sharing.

Something that’s not usually listed in social media but is one of most social acts foundations can take is Creative Commons. We do this for all MMT produces, maybe the most important social media tool of all.

The GMN 6 essentials honey do list

• Follow & Friend Beth Kanter @kanter

• F&F Foundation Center @fdncenter

• Read The Networked Nonprofit

• Participate in NTEN

• Use Creative Commons

• Look outside NPO/philanthropy realm

mmt.org@meyermt

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