Photo by Marta Evry

Has this happened to your nonprofit? One staff person or select members of the communications team are assigned to manage all of your organization’s social media. While this might make sense, it can be a lonely and complicated job speaking for an entire organization to the outside world.

Instead of siloing social media into “that stuff that so-and-so does,” what would a more integrated approach look like?

Since social media relies on social networks, let’s examine junctures in various organizational relationships where social media could be useful.

1. Relationships between staff and colleagues

Email is probably a big part of your relationships with colleagues. Sure it’s useful, but many of us are feeling overwhelmed by it these days. Social media can help lighten the burden and actually make email more useful. I’m thinking in particular about those “have you seen this?” emails. Imagine if staff shared interesting articles or videos with hashtagged tweets or even a collaborative Pinterest board or Storify?

Use social share buttons on websites or in your browser to easily categorize and save information that you want to share with colleagues. Curating this newsfeed-type delivery system might seem daunting, but the most important items have a way of rising to the top. Strive to make email an efficient tool primarily used for dealing with work-related tasks. If you’re actually looking for more information on the issues you work on, use a combination of listening tools like RSS Readers like Feedly (for subscribing to key blogs, Youtube/Vimeo channels and Google Alerts), Tweetdeck or Hootsuite (to follow hashtagged conversations on Twitter, etc.) or even your Facebook newsfeed.

2. Relationships with program participants

We’ve all struggled with whether or not our website really reflects all the great work that’s happening in our organization. This is why blogs are important. Over time, short concise updates build a more complete and current picture of your nonprofit’s work. An editorial calendar can help you think through upcoming news hooks or events to tie your work to. But who’s going to do this, you ask? Think about easy ways to digitally “capture” your work as it’s happening. While professionally created photos or videos can be an important part of your communication strategy, it’s also possible to document the work of your organization easily and cheaply.

If your nonprofit focuses on social services, be sure to think through issues related to possible confidentiality of participants, especially when they’re minors. Print out a release form for interview subjects to sign (click here for a PDF sample). For public events, encourage all of your staff to document events and activities with fun mobile-based apps like Instagram for photos, SoundCloud for audio, or Vine for video. Rather than just assigning written blog posts to staff, ask staff to record short participant interview clips with audio or video that don’t require lots of editing. You can ask program participants to partner with you in capturing your work. For example, design activities or trainings that actually result in media content that you can use for your organization. Instead of activities using paper and markers, try mobile phones or video/audio recorders.

3. Relationship with volunteers and supporters

While your staff curate information online (see #1 above), your social media followers and supporters can “eavesdrop” on these conversations and look to your staff as thought leaders on your issue. But to move beyond a “broadcast” mindset, you can also involve volunteers and supporters directly in your communications strategy. Like staff, invite them to help capture events with video, audio, or photos. To cultivate your own mediamakers, recognize and thank them regularly. Also pay attention to the measurement tools provided by social media to see what your supporters like best. That way, you’ll have a better sense of what to make more of.

We often hear that “social media is not for broadcasting but for conversing.” While this is true, I think this is a scary proposition for many nonprofits. Many wonder who has all that time or energy to converse with all the people in your multiple relationships that we’re detailing in this post. I agree that social media should be “conversational” in tone. Drop the advocacy-speak or wonky terms no matter what tool you use. This does not mean “dumbing down” your communication: just make it sound like the way someone really speaks.

Tip: It’s difficult to avoid a more formal style when you’re managing the organization-branded Twitter account or Facebook page. If you need to have direct conversations with your organization’s social media fans or followers, respond as an individual staff person. If this is uncomfortable for you, try setting up a specially created account that you use for work-related communication.

4. Relationships with broadcast journalists

If we want journalists to cover the important issues we work on, we should help distribute their reporting. News organizations are watching their web traffic to make editorial and advertising decisions. The more readers, viewers, or listeners that we send their way, the more likely they will report on our issues in the future. In social media terms, this means sharing links to articles and not copying/pasting text into emails. When tweeting, google the journalist’s Twitter handle and cite them when you share their media. And publicly thank them for great work!

5. Relationships with funders and donors

All nonprofits struggle with quantifying their work for funders and donors. To illustrate your work, you can repurpose much of the digital content that your staff, program participants, and volunteers have made. At the same time, analytics on your website, Youtube videos and Facebook page reveal lots of information about the value of your work. But look beyond the number of Twitter followers, video views or Facebook fans. Examine how others are sharing or talking about your content, how extensive your reach is and how this has changed over time. Use these numbers to explain what funder and donor support make possible.

P.S. I could have added a sixth relationship: with consultants like me. But I’m hoping this post will get you started with several ideas that can also be applied to other relationships.

Let me know what you think of the advice above. Which ideas are useful for your situation? What did I miss?

This is a video I made for Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) using old audio “tape” from a conversation with someone in immigration detention. I was inspired by my colleague Bianca Giaever’s excellent video “The Scared is Scared” to use text and other images to illustrate the story.  Upworthy shared it which resulted in over 7,000 views!

I’ve been learning more about the attributes of radio storytelling since attending the excellent Transom Story Workshop. As a result, I’ve been experimenting more with audio as part of social media content strategies with my clients.

And now coincidentally, I’ve just published two blog posts for these two different (but overlapping?) audiences. Check them out:

• Nonprofit Technology Network: What Nonprofits Can Learn from Public Radio about Storytelling
• Transom.org – A Showcase & Workshop for New Public Radio: How Radio Producers Can Make the Most of Social Media 

If you’re like most people who work at nonprofits, you’re inspired by quietly changing the world each and every day.

But sometimes it’s not easy to stay inspired – especially because you’re a human being with good days and bad days!

Re-inspire your sense of mission by participating in the Heart & Soul grant

The CTK Foundation has just launched the 2012/2013 Heart & Soul Grants, with over $55,000 to assist nonprofits like yours in accomplishing your mission.

But, more important than the money is the process for applying, which is unlike any other grant program!

How do you apply for these grants?

All you have to do is submit a 4-8 line poem expressing the heart of your mission at www.communitytech.net (orgs must be US-based 501 c3s).

The intent behind submitting a poem is for you to refresh, nurture and reawaken your sense of mission!

The Grant Application opens today (12 noon CST on 12/3/12) and closes at 12 noon CST on 1/7/13.

The Heart and Soul grant will provide one eligible nonprofit organization to receive the main award:

• A $10,000 cash and
• A professionally written and recorded song by the Grammy Award-winning group, The Original Blind Boys of Alabama.

Both the song and the accompanying $10,000 grant will help the selected nonprofit to better accomplish their unique mission in their community.

If you have questions about the grant, please see the FAQ page on the Heart & Soul site.

Additional 2012/2013 Heart & Soul Grants include:

• $10,000 HHS Grant — available to an Austin, TX-area nonprofit specializing in the provision of At Risk Children and Families — a gift from the Cipione Family Foundation of Austin, TX
• Two $5,000 Grant Awards to 2 US Nonprofits
• Five $1,000 Grant Awards to Community TechKnowledge, Inc. customer organizations attending the 2013 Outcomes Immersion Certification Training
• $20,000 in matching cash grants to nonprofits for CTK software purchases
• Three autographed guitars: one by The Original Blind Boys of Alabama, one by Los Lonely Boys, and one by Sunny Shipley

What is the CTK Foundation?

The CTK Foundation was established by Community TechKnowledge, Inc., to recognize and celebrate the work nonprofits do and seek to promote the use of technology in managing the accomplishment of their mission.

For regular updates or questions about the Heart & Soul grant submissions and awards, check out the CTK Facebook Page.

With that in mind, I created this recent experimental piece about Antoine Jenkins who I met recently  on a canvassing trip to Las Vegas. As soon as I met Antoine, I knew I’d found a great “character” for a story.

While recording Antoine, I kept thinking about an excellent presentation by Planet Money’s reporter Robert Smith at the Third Coast Audio Festival. Smith carries a diagram of a story structurein his wallet: a story “embryo” by Dan Harmon, the creator of the TV Show “Community.” See the stages in the diagram on the left.

I realized that for a better story, I needed to record Antoine  going somewhere and doing something. So I made a point of following him as he canvassed for the Obama campaign. Antoine had already entered an unfamiliar situation and had to adapt to it. I included all the door knocking to show the drudgery of the task and how unfulfilling it could it. In the end, Antoine meets an actual voter. But how did Antoine change in the end? I think he felt more confident and like he contributed something important to Obama’s campaign. For me, this was an exercise in constructing an effective story. Let me know what you think.

If your organization wants to do the same, how would you put together a compelling story about a supporter or the community you serve?

Read more on these blogs that shared my audio story. 

• LAist: 14-Yr-Old Angeleno Knocks Door-to-Door in Las Vegas for Obama
• Colorlines: Fourteen-Year-Old From Inglewood Explains Why He’s Canvassing for Obama in Nevada

Here’s my audio recap of the project:

For me, this was an interesting experiment in commissioning, scheduling and curating audio content from a number of producers around the world. It took some work but we managed to post content every week day during the fellowship. I also love how these stories are so unique and engaging in their own way.

We’d love to continue the project in 2013 and truly commemorate Studs’ work by revisiting the jobs and interview subjects in his book.

In the meantime, you can check out the stories at WorkingNow.org or over on SoundCloud. But below is the Master List of all the stories we’ve shared so far:

Google+ Hangout on Air:

Example of Integrating Easy Content Creation into Your Social Media Strategy

Today as part of the SPIN Academy in New York, I did a presentation on how to share effectively via social media. I invited folks from the excellent Undocubus/No Papers No Fear to join us via a video chat: B. Loewe, Marisa Franco and Tania Uzueta. Here’s the link to my prezi: 6 Ways to Share Effectively. This was my first experience using a video chat in a live presentation… so I apologize for the shots of the back of my head.

I’m excited by Google+ Hangouts on Air because it’s a great tool for easily recording interviews with folks without assigning them to write or make something for you (see # 6 in my prezi).  And after all, even CNN and the LA Times are using webcams these days!

Here’s a step-by-step checklist for recording your own Google+ Hangout on Air:

1. Make sure all participants have Google+ accounts. It’s easy if you already have a Gmail account. Click here to start.
2. In order to record the hangout, you will also need a Youtube account associated with your Google+ account. If you’re signed into your Gmail or Google+ account, click here to set up your account. Alternatively, look under “More” in the drop-down menu along the top. Unfortunately, the account needs to be in a real person’s name not an organization’s.
3. Before inviting people to participate in a hangout, you need to enable “Hangouts on Air.” Go to Google+ and look for “Start a Hangout” (look in the righthand columns, different depending on web browser).  Click on ”Start a Hangout” and a new window will open. Under the boxes for adding names and a title, there’s a checkbox for “Enable Hangouts on Air”. Click the box and a pop window will appear. You’ll need to agree to the terms and possibly verify that you’re a real person via a code sent by text to your mobile phone.
4. Before the hangout, add the people you want to participate into your Google+ Circles (your lists of riends, acquaintances, etc.)
5. Figure out a time to speak with the participants in your Hangout. You can have up to nine people participate.
6. At the appointed time, go to Google+ and  click “Start a Hangout.” In the new window that opens, start typing the participants name and wait for their full names to appear.

• Type a title for the hangout (you can change this later on Youtube).
• Click “Enable Hangouts on Air”
• Then click “Hangout”
• Once everyone arrives, click the red “Broadcast” button on the upper right to start recording.
• At the end of the chat, click the red “End Broadcast” button.

7. Google+ will automatically add the recorded video to Youtube where you can watch, edit and share the video.

Cool, right?! Let me know how it goes.

The audio-sharing website, SoundCloud, recently selected a project that my Transom Story Workshop classmates and I proposed as a SoundCloud Fellowship. Our idea “Working Now” is to create and share stories about the working lives of people today in the US and around the world. We also want to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the book “Working” by oral historian/radio producer Studs Terkel.

Studs’ book is about “a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday though Friday sort of dying.” To honor Studs and his legacy, we want to re-introduce his methodology to a larger audience through a SoundCloud Fellowship demonstration project. We also want to help strengthen the “spoken word” community on SoundCloud and encourage others to make “radio stories”.

We’re launching a new website WorkingNow.org but you can follow the project on SoundCloud at WorkingNow and on Twitter at @WorkingRadio. Send us your stories!

As part of my work with SoundCloud’s Heroes program, I interviewed two people I know who are using SoundCloud as part of their art.

• Sara Harris of Hear in the City: Radio Realities from the Urban Landscape . Sara’s show focuses on local environment, arts, education, and culture in and around Los Angeles.
• Jen DM and Rick Gradone, make up the electro-pop duo “Hi Fashion”.  

Stay tuned for more interviews with other “Soundclouders” in the near future.

I just got back from two and half weeks in Georgia and North Carolina where I was part of two great gatherings:  the first-ever SPIN Academy in the South and the Southeast Immigrant Rights Conference in Raleigh, NC.

You can check out my Prezis from the conferences here:

• Digital Dinner Party: Using Social Media to Talk about Immigrant Rights in the South
• Audio Storytelling

Above is a video that was recorded by participants in my social media session at SPIN. For four days up on a hilltop in the Amicalola Falls Lodge, we discussed building communications skills and movement strategy development. Not only was the location inspiring and renewing, the activists themselves brought great energy. I grew up in North Carolina so it meant a lot to me to meet amazing activists who are working at the forefront of the struggle for true immigrant rights.

My presentation on audio storytelling got a great reception. And the social media workshop was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate what I’ve been discovering about social media and activism: integration is key! So we integrated content creation into the workshop: participants interviewed each other.

Two weeks later, I presented at the Southeast Immigrant Rights Conference in Raleigh, NC. I was even more inspired by the 150 participants at this conference (NC really represented!). Below is a quick audio file that participants in my workshop made with Opportunity Agenda talking points on immigration reform. (Stay tuned for more samples of audio & video storytelling…)

At both conferences, I lost count on the number of times the word “story” was used or demonstrated. Storytelling is now an integral part of organizing for social justice movements across the country (a la Marshall Ganz’s Public Narrative). If storytelling can be integrated into community organizing, how can we also make media creation part of this work and document our stories? Nonprofits and community groups love flip chart paper: we generate sheets filled with magic marker notes. Why can’t we do the same with digital media?