nfptweetup

We’re busy preparing for tonight’s NFPtweetup event but thought we’d take a short break to share our next session preview from Scott Mullins, Digital Media Officer at The British Heart Foundation:

Every year in the UK, 27,000 people die from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. That means a population roughly equal to that of Gibraltar collapses, stops breathing normally and dies because their heart has stopped working properly. More worryingly, only 1 in 10 survive a cardiac arrest when they’re out of hospital.

Part of the problem is not enough bystanders are stepping in to help. Our survey found have-a-go heroes were put off because they didn’t know anything about CPR; they were worried about getting sued; and were anxious about giving the kiss of life.

So how did we go about solving a problem like out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates?

Well, sometimes to go forwards you have to take two steps back. We stripped the life-saving message back to its simplest form: hands-only CPR. We then built a funny, relevant and shareable campaign with Hands-only at its core and released it to our audiences before it was on TV.

Join me and couple of chums and we’ll endeavour to tell you a little bit about how Vinnie Jones and our campaign managed to clock up one million YouTube views in 5 days and two million YouTube views in just over a month.

And why it’s already making a difference and saving people’s lives.

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In the first of our session previews we hear from Matt Collins, Head of Marketing at Beatbullying, as he introduces the world’s first global online march…

To mark Anti-Bullying Week, Beatbullying led the first digital demonstration against bullying to the doors of No.10.

Thousands of children and adults created colourful avatars at www.beatbullying.org/bigmarch, spent time being educated and entertained in the virtual Big March Park, and set off across the websites of some the UK’s biggest companies and charities to call on the UK government to protect children from bullying.

We then set ourselves the challenge of topping the Big March. The natural next step was to take the movement against bullying to the global stage. This time, we’re calling upon the United Nations to enshrine explicitly in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: “The right of every child to be safe from bullying, violence and the fear of violence by their peers as well as from abuse by adults.”

So thousands of cute little avatars, including ones for Stephen Fry, Pixie Lott and Desmond Tutu, will cross the websites of MTV, Girlguiding UK, and other charities and corporates from all over the world. We’ve harnessed the incredible power of the internet to join bring children’s rights organisations from Canada, Australia and beyond together in the fight for children’s rights.

How did we do it? Is there still time to join? And can you get a personalised avatar of your own done? Look forward to telling you on the 16th…

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We want to say thank you to everyone who came to NFPtweetup 12 and for making it such an enjoyable event. We feel lucky that not only did we have a brilliant turn out of people, but that those people asked some really insightful questions that helped to steer some fascinating breakout sessions. We’re excited that around 1200 #NFPtweetup tweets were sent on the night; lots of questions, comments and love!

Thanks also to Amnesty International UK for agreeing to host the event again and being really helpful throughout the whole thing and thanks to JustGiving and Facebook for sponsoring, making the event possible.

As is tradition, below are a few of our favourite tweets:

Not that this was an exhaustive list of our favourites. We wanted to embed our Storify of the event into this post but it was too crammed full of lovely and interesting tweets for this short blog. I wouldn’t hope for us to be able to fit even a summary of the all of the great tweets that were sent into one little blog post anyway.

We really do hope that you can all join us for cake, party hats (and maybe a few third sector digital presentations) on our third birthday event on November 24th. Watch this space for more information or tweet us any ideas you have for hosts or presenters for future events.

Lucy J

P.S. If you haven’t had a chance to fill in our short survey, please do so we can use everyone’s feedback to make the next event even better!

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In the first of our series of guest posts after NFPtweetup 12 last night, we hear from Lisa Hopkins as she shares her ‘view from a newbie’:

I was thrilled and delighted to be welcomed to last night’s 12th NFPtweetup.  Friends in the sector had long spoken highly of this paradise for passionate and enthusiastic people working in the charity / NFP sector to come together and share ideas.  Having followed the event on Twitter in the past I was intrigued to go along myself and see what it was all about.

I don’t know what I expected, really, but if I think about it, I thought it would have more of a casual, coffee morning vibe…  Instead what I found was a fabulous lecture theatre space full of buzzy charity and digital people, excitedly waiting for the presentations to start.

It was a little bit daunting, actually!  But spotting the snacks and drinks at the back gave me a reason to stride into the mix and start rubbing shoulders.  It was definitely a strange experience to keep seeing people I recognised and trying to place them – when I had never met them in real-life, just on Twitter.  Once I was over that small oddity I grabbed a glass of wine and settled in for the presentations.

My day job is in fundraising but my career has thus far been distinctly un-digital – but I have a burgeoning interest in digital and social media, so I was very excited to hear about something very different to my day-to-day.  The three speakers were clearly well-prepared and knowledgable about their topics and the whole event struck the perfect balance between professionally run and fun to attend.

When the breakout groups were announced I didn’t hesitate to join James Sadri’s session to talk some more about Greenpeace’s VW Darkside campaign.  For me, talking about this kind of campaigning – rather than direct fundraising – was a bit of a revelation.  I’m so used to measurable KPIs – return on investment, pledge rates, average values – so a campaign with no clear end date and that thinks about success in such different terms, was really inspiring to me.  And being in a room full of friendly people keen to share thoughts and opinions was brilliant.

I really wanted to be actively involved in tweeting about the event as well as participating and that proved a challenge – multitasking perhaps something I could refine a little! – but it was worth it as hearing in the moment what other people are thinking about what’s being presented added another dimension again.

On every level I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and found a lot of food for thought.  If I could do one thing differently I think I would have forced myself out of my comfort zone and spoken to more new people – so my tip to anyone reading this ahead of the event is to just talk to people.  Say hello, engage and interact.  Those strangers I did converse with proved to be friendly, funny and welcoming and I look forward to hearing more from them in the future – both on Twitter and hopefully in real life too!

I must say a massive “thank you” to Rachel and Teri for organising such a fabulously geeky (in the BEST way) and fascinating event, and I definitely look forward to attending more in the future.

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In our final guest post, we hear from Jennifer Begg as she tells us about her first NFPtweetup experience:

As a number of people on Twitter will be able to confirm, I was quite excited about my first outing to NFPtweetup on Wednesday.  I have been following the event for a little while and have been reading the blog for tips since we launched our charity campaign in December last year. Although I work full time for the Guardian, my interest in this area comes from a very personal campaign to build a school in Cambodia in memory of my mum who passed away suddenly Nov 5th 2009. After launching the campaign in December and setting up our JustGiving page,  I’ve been obsessed with finding ways to spread the word and use social media to the best effect. Luckily, I work for an organisation that puts a high premium on digital and social media so during my six years here there has been a lot to get involved with and learn from.

Now usually if you’re really excited about something, it turns out to be not quite as good as you’d hoped – not so with NFPtweetup! I arrived on my own having only really spoken to a couple of other delegates throught twitter but was imediately made to feel welcome. The room had a terrific vibe of anticipation, energy and enthusiam. I can’t remember who tweeted it but the best description of walking into the room was: “it’s like a life size game of Guess Who” with people trying to recognise their Twitter friends in person from their more familiar avatar.

All three presentations were thought provoking, interesting and informative. I really got the sense that despite the high technical level of knowledge in the room, each presentation had something for both the expert and the less experienced. The thing I love most about charity poeple is the unceasing enthusiasm for their organisations and campaigns and that really came across with both Adrian from WWF and Sam from Amnesty International.

Ashley’s overview on the latest in Social Media News really set the scene for his workshop which followed. After a nervous start where Teri broke the ice with the first question, the atmosphere mellowed and soon we were animatedly discussing QR codes, ROI, Social Search Rankings and the importance of managing expectations. We were still deep in discussion when Jonathan Waddingham returned to wrap things up (this is where I’d like to apologise to Ashley for eating into his round of applause with my questions – he definitely deserved a louder one!). And so to the pub…

Not only did I manage to put real life faces to some twitter avatars but I made lots of whole new connections, learned new things and have already set up a couple of brain storming sessions with fellow NFPtweeters. This to me spells a successful and fun evening and I’m already excited about the next one.

 

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Esther Freeman enjoyed taking digital seriously with colleagues at the NFPtweetup. Here she explains why she thinks it’s a good idea to consider social networking in your marketing efforts.

Last week I was having dinner with my brother and he asked me whether I’d seen any good films lately. I mentioned that I had really enjoyed The Social Network.

He raised an eyebrow at me.

“It’s written by the same guy who did The West Wing,” I replied.

He sneered. “But it’s about Facebook!”

I wanted to shake him and shout: “WHICH IS AT THE HEART OF THE ONE OF THE BIGGEST  COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION WE’VE EVER KNOWN.”

To be honest his response isn’t that unusual. One of my clients asked me once: “Why would we want to do social networking? Isn’t it just about what celebrities had for breakfast?”. Non communications colleagues can also be very fearful of social media, especially those working with vulnerable children. Words like ‘privacy’, ‘cyber stalking’ and ‘online grooming’ get thrown around at any mention of developing a social media presence.

What’s interesting about hearing from larger charities at the NFPtweetup is that they seem to have buy in right from the top. The fact that the Chief Executive of WWF can ask if a digital campaign is “quite absurd enough”, or that the directors at Amnesty International trust their digital comms team to tweet even in life and death situations.

I have taken an organisation through the implementation of social media; travelled along a very rocky road with distrustful, sometimes hostile senior managers; and then come out the other end. I’m pleased to say this organisation has turned a corner and is starting to do some really innovative work with online tools.

I learnt a lot from the experience so I thought it worth sharing a few points on how to engage non communications colleagues, and the techno-adverse, into social media.

1. Remember, the people who tend to be most hostile are often those who are most fearful: they don’t understand it; they feel the world is progressing too fast around them; they’ve heard too many scare stories in the media.
2. Don’t tackle the naysayers as a group – they will work each other up into a frenzy. Work on your Chief Executive first. Once the Chief Executive is on board it will be easier to get the others.
3. Acknowledge their fears and discuss policies and strategies for managing those. But don’t dwell on it too long. Talk extensively about the positives, giving solid examples of where social media has proven outcomes. The NFPtweetups provide rich pickings for this.
4. Press on them the importance of social media in today’s society – the Obama election campaign; Bin Laden’s death; Japanese tsunami warnings. These are significant historical events that prove social media is not a flash-in-the-pan.
5. Finally ask, can you afford not to be on social media? When the Department for Education said it was freezing all communications grants, one of my clients was only able to hold on to most of theirs because they negotiated a deal with the Department to run the campaign on a digital platform (obviously a lot less expensive than a national advertising or traditional media campaign). If that charity hadn’t had a social media presence they may have just lost that money.

Esther Freeman runs Ms Wanda’s Wisdom, a social enterprise that provides PR and social media support to charities, not-for-profits and ethical brands.

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Keeping on top of everything going on in the digital realm is no mean feat. So in one handy presentation I’ll be looking at the main trends that have been emerging in the news over the last few months and looking at their possible impact on digital strategies. I’ll be looking at the following;

• Social search and referral
• Campaign monitoring
• Growth of mobile

Within each area, I’ll give some practical advice so you can make the most of the latest developments and new technology. Following that, I will be running a breakout session to answer any questions you may have.

Can’t wait to see everyone for what is sure to be another brilliant NFPtweetup!

Ashley Clarke – beautiful world

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In our second guest post before our 2nd birthday event next Wednesday, we hear from Damien Clarkson, Marketing and Communications Manager at KnowHow NonProfit:

At KnowHow NonProfit we are delighted to be taking part in the second birthday of NFPtweetup next week. Since its launch, it has championed the sharing of user generated content within the charity sector. So it seems fitting that at the ninth tweetup that I am going to speak briefly about part of KnowHow’s UGC journey.

In August this year we were on the cusp on launching our user generated platform, allowing anyone in the KnowHow community to create wikiable ‘how to guides’ on any subject related to working in a non profit organisation. We wanted to make it really easy for people to share their experience to help others. To get the ball rolling we created guides on writing a content strategy, using Twitter effectively and putting on fundraising event.  We thought we were ready to go with the product but we were wrong. We had made basic mistake – we hadn’t consulted our users. We thought the testing we had planned would rubber stamp what we had created and we’d launch the next day.

The usability testing exercise involved 15 people from different backgrounds attempting to use the platform. None of them totally understood the proposition or how to use the platform. I sprouted a few extra grey hairs but we learned a lot.

Three months later and we’re about to release version two. At next week’s NFPtweetup I’ll briefly show what we are hoping to achieve, some of the lessons learned from usability testing and ask for further feedback. Over the coming months we’re keen for NFPtweetup attendees to give feedback and create their own ‘how to guides’ to help us create a user-friendly, usability tested user generated space for the nonprofit community ready for launch in the new year.

I will look forward to seeing you all on the 24^th.

@damienclarkson

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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

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