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Up next in our series of guests blogs is Paul de Gregorio who found Amnesty International’s presentation on its social media campaign for Burma particularly thought provoking:

I’m a massive advocate of NFPtweetup and can’t thank Rachel enough for suggesting that I come along to NFPtweetup 8 last September. I’m not a social media expert by any stretch, but I’m a fundraiser obsessed about the power and potential of new technologies to connect people with causes.

What I really like about NFPtweetup is the sense of community that builds up around the event. I blogged about it last year “The deal is that if you go with a friendly, co-operative and sharing attitude you can leave with lots of new ideas, a lot of inspiration and some new friends (real actual ones to supplement your online ones!).” And still feel the same about the event today.

I was really looking forward February’s event as Amnesty were due to talk about their Burma campaign, however events in Egypt in January took over so the focus of the Amnesty presentation in February was their social media activity around that issue.  So I was really pleased to Amnesty’s Burma campaign on the agenda for Wednesday night’s event.

The campaign was a really simple one to explain to the public.

Providing radios to the Burmese people would give them access to independent media not controlled by the state and show the strength of international solidarity for the protection of their human rights. That’s it.

And radios are cheap. Really cheap. £12.50 would buy a radio that would help a family or community learn more about their rights.

Run in two phases and supported across a huge range of marketing channels including paid search, Facebook advertising, outdoor, Amnesty’s blogs and social media presence, the campaign was a runaway success:

• The initial target of 4,000 radios was smashed with 14,000 being purchased and distributed.
• 82% of donations came via social media.
• Over 2,000 people took an extra campaigning action after donating.

What I particularly loved about the campaign was the use of SMS as a method for supporters to buy their radio.

This campaign was perfect for SMS response. You see the ask, make the emotional or rational connection, reach for your phone and get involved. Simple.

What was great was the way Amnesty communicated with donors after their SMS donation. Obviously the downside to SMS response is that all you have is a supporter’s phone number, you don’t know their name! But in a way this is perfect, because it enabled the Amnesty in-house call centre (staffed by volunteers) to call donors, thank them for their donation and expand on the work of Amnesty. I didn’t ask the question on Wednesday, but I imagine these people were asked to join Amnesty and I’m sure it was a great success.

It’s a great example of how fusing campaigning and fundraising together can really work across multiple channels with social media at the core.  The idea was simple, it was conceived by Amnesty staff who connected what was needed on the ground with a clear and compelling creative approach. And it was brilliantly executed.

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Kevin Baughen attended this year’s event and wants to explain why what he learnt at the NFPtweetup, wasn’t quite what he expected.

Actually, this title is a bit misleading in that social media is such a dynamic area that there is nearly always something new to learn from pioneering types and organisations who are prepared to invest a little time (and occasionally funds) into trying something unproven.

That said, amongst the excellent presentations and conversations at last night’s 11^th event, there were still a few surprises for me that I thought I’d share:

1. Some charity organisations were at the vanguard of the social media movement and actually using social media tools and approaches to engage with their staff and supporters before it was coined social media.  Adrian Cockle’s session showing just some of the ways that WWF are using these tools highlighted a couple of examples of early adopter behaviour not always credited to the charity sector.
2. There was actually very little content about Twitter specifically!  This might sound daft for a meeting that’s labelled a tweetup and it certainly isn’t a criticism.  It’s just very clear that Twitter is only one tool which needs to be integrated with others to generate maximum benefit from our social media efforts.
3. People think QR codes will work just because they are cool and funky.  Ashley Clarke of beautiful world shared a cracking example of London Underground advertising which used these tools, no doubt placed because of the tech-savvy and cosmopolitan nature of commuters.  But, escalators move too quickly for anyone to get a good scan/photo on their phones and, wait for it… there’s seldom enough signal underground for phones to open the associated web pages!  Doh! Shouldn’t fitness for purpose be the only test we use to judge whether a social media tool is viable or not?
4. Amnesty UK’s Digital Editor Sam Strudwick shared an outcome that on the face of it seems blatantly obvious but should probably have occurred to more of us sooner.  Donors engaged through social media channels might prefer their money to go towards something tangible and of direct, linked benefit, rather than an overarching project.

Amnesty’s campaign to encourage people to buy radios rather than donate money during their Break the Silence campaign in Burma last year, delivered much better than expected fundraising results.  In many cases, the ‘donations’ doubled from expected levels and were generated from new audiences that hadn’t been involved with the charity previously.

And the biggest non-surprise?

Integration is key to success.  I’m so glad to have heard this countless times throughout all the sessions and the breakouts.  No tool (including web, social media, PR etc) stands alone and all the successes we heard about from pretty much every organisation relied on the integration of social media with other marketing and communications tools.  This also means integration across teams and departments – yes that means considering fundraising and campaigning objectives at the same time…

It ain’t rocket science and reinforces what many of us in the sector have been saying very loudly for a while… there are no prizes for using social media well; we win by using social media AND other activities to deliver what we always needed to deliver.

Here’s to the next event and even more shared learning, updates and surprises.

Image by Carol Garbiano via sxc.hu

Kevin is a founder for bottom line ideas,  a company that links organisational strategy to realistic marketing, communications and fundraising strategies.

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