nfptweetup

With less than a week to go to NFPtweetup’s 2nd Birthday event, on 24 November, we will be previewing what we’ll be hearing about from the people who will be presenting and sharing insights on the night, by publishing a range of guest blog posts.

Today, Matt Collins at Chance UK gives an introduction to what he’ll be sharing with everyone next week:

Social media is a powerful leveller. It brings the little charities who have just one member of staff with a passing interest in Twitter up to the top table to sit with the big boys; those with dedicated digital departments, whole teams tasked with utilising this powerful social force.

Then how come the digital world so often reflects the offline world? Often, it’s still the household charity names who attract the most followers, gain the biggest number of retweets, and the command the biggest influence. As in real life, so online.

So how do the little boys, the small organisations that make the vast majority of registered charities, run a social media campaign with next to no resources? How do you use what is undoubtedly a cost-effective medium when used properly to attract supporters? How do you make an impact with just goodwill and a bit of time?

We at Chance UK wondered the same thing a few months, and decided to try and find out for ourselves. We knew our main objective (to recruit volunteers to a very specific child focused role), we worked out a way we thought might get them interested in what it was we had to offer (tug at their heart strings and link their own personal, positive experiences to our cause) and via which of the plethora of social websites we wanted to do it (Twitter, Facebook and YouTube).

Our Big influence campaign started in October and was an attempt to get a place at that top table. We engaged our supporters, our followers and even a few celebrities. It didn’t quite work out as we’d hoped, but it taught us things we would otherwise never have learned.

Thanks to Matt for this little teaser.  We’ll look forward to hearing about how the campaign went, and what the team at Chance UK learned, next Thursday.

Look out for tomorrow’s post from Damien Clarke at KnowHow NonProfit.

Rachel