#blogchat 7-19 recap, how non-profits use social media with @wharman

Last night was another amazing #blogchat as The Red Cross' Wendy Harman joined us to talk about how non-profits can utilize social media! First, if you want to get a transcript of the #blogchat, go here - http://wthashtag.com/Blogchat and specify the date as from 7-19 to 7-19 to just get the tweets from #blogchat. It looks like that particular site only archives the tweets for a week, so make sure you get your transcript now! I created a folder on my desktop for #blogchats and save the pages as an html file, that seems to work well. Also, make sure you follow Wendy on Twitter, and also check out The Red Cross' blog, where she writes.

Here are some of the key takeaways for me:

PeaceMakerOrg: @wharman What do you think are keys for small NP w/o significant awareness when implementing SM? #blogchat

wharman: @peacemakerorg i think the key is to listen and learn - find your niche. Look for people who care about issues you care about #blogchat


Shanan_S: @wharman What was the greatest hurdle for you/ your org when you started using SM? #blogchat

wharman: @shannon_s biggest hurdle was and is fear of losing perceived control - it's a culture shift in doing business so takes a while. #blogchat

wharman: 2nd biggest hurdle is not giving in to the tendency to make your presence all about marketing instead of offering mission online. #blogchat

Shanan_S: @wharman So did you focus more on educating people about the benefits of SM or dispelling fears? First steps? #blogchat

wharman: @Shanan_S First step was showing them the existing conversation, which both educates about benefits and dispels fears at same time #blogchat

sarahmarchetti: @Shanan_S 1 of the things that @wharman did several years ago to prove value was use daily monitoring to show higher ups the convo #blogchat


PeaceMakerOrg: @wharman Are you finding any resistance among older audience that may not understand SM? How to avoid alienating them? #blogchat

wharman: @peacemakerorg it's a supplement/complement to other activities - haven't stopped other stuff so if ur not here won't bother you #blogchat


foxwebco: @wharman What scares non profits the most about using twitter & Social Media? I know of 1 with a protected account...#blogchat

wharman: @foxwebco loss of control scares nonprofits most (and everyone). I think also the fear that there's no ROI #blogchat


MackCollier: @wharman #blogchat Wendy what are some of the things TRC looks for from SM to know its working? How do you judge effectiveness?

wharman: @MackCollier our goal is to help people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies using socmed tools, so look for ... #blogchat

wharman: @MackCollier anecdotes, engagement, some more traditional number crunching (like evaluating FB insights) #blogchat


Shanan_S: VIDEO: Use Twitter to let family know you're ok in disaster: http://bit.ly/ZaZ4C #blogchat


websuasion_ryan: @wharman what are your strategies for finding & building your sm communities? Particularly given your message. #blogchat

wharman: @websuasion_ryan I'm lucky in that we were mentioned hundreds of times a day without having to work at it, but... #blogchat

wharman: You can use keywords to find people who care about issues you care about. Offer value, talk to them, and you'll build community. #blogchat


MackCollier: @wharman Can you link to the SM handbook you created for TRC? #blogchat

wharman: @MackCollier yes! Here's the social media handbook draft for our chapters http://bit.ly/HGkno #blogchat

kanter: @wharman what has been ur greatest challenge/success with handbook? our chapters http://bit.ly/HGkno #blogchat

wharman: @kanter greatest success? it's pretty field-generated. They helped write it, they asked for it, so it reflects their needs #blogchat

wharman: @kanter greatest challenge? Getting small outlier groups to hop on board. #blogchat


sarahmarchetti: @wharman once NP have basics covered-listening/participating, what are some more advanced ways to use SM? fundraising? campaigns? #blogchat

wharman: @sarahmarchetti I'm not personally huge on fundraising outright - I think an np shouldempower supporters to fundraise for it #blogchat

wharman: @sarahmarchetti as an np we should concentrate on executing our mission. If offering unique value, others will support. #blogchat

kdpaine: @wharman #blogchat give me enough data + I bet I could show "mission accomplished" fewer lives/homes/property lost :)

kdpaine: @wharman isn't the role of comms to fulfill mission, $$ raised is development, no? #blogchat

wharman: Yes! RT @kdpaine isn't the role of comms to fulfill mission, $$ raised is development, no? #blogchat

sarahmarchetti: @kdpaine slightly diff perspective since I was Development Comm, but I think that the whole org is responsible for FR in some way #blogchat

kdpaine: @sarahmarchetti #blogchat II agree, but most non-profits have pretty firm silos keeping the two apart.

kanter: @kdpaine yes, those silos create lots of problems esp w/ nonprofit sm strategy implementation #blogchat takes leadership 2 change


ADDcrafter: @wharman - maybe not at national BOD, but chapter boards should be raising $$ imho. #blogchat

wharman: @ADDcrafter we'd want the board to be raising money but we try to use our official socmed channels to provide mission related... #blogchat

wharman: content and to invite people in rather than yapping at em and asking for $$. Offering value keeps people around more than begging #blogchat

wharman: show them impact and why you should be supported by doing your mission. #blogchat


websuasion_ryan: @wharman regarding that value, what % of resources to you apply to content dev vs direct engagement? #blogchat

wharman: @websuasion_ryan I spend concentrated couple of hours in morning in engagement, bit of afternoon in content dev. and rest of day #blogchat

wharman: monitoring and jumping in where I can (and the rest in meetings!) #blogchat


That's some of the highlights I saw from the first 45 mins, and #blogchat went strong for 2+ hours last night, so please make sure you check out everything here.

BTW thanks to Beth Kanter and Betsy Stone for their great recaps of last night's #blogchat! If you do a recap post, please leave a comment to this post so I can add a link to yours as well! BTW if you want to follow #blogchat, it's every Sunday night at 8pm CST on Twitter!