nfptweetup

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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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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In anticipation of tomorrow’s NFPtweetup event, we hear from Ade Cockle from WWF-UK with a preview of his session titled ‘Tweeting and Roaring’:

Towards the end of last year I started preparing a presentation for colleagues from around the lovely, messy network of global WWF offices on what we’d been up to in social media.

After a bit of scribbling obvious things down, I realised we’d been doing social a lot longer than the term’s been in common use. Back in 2007 we launched our footprint calculator with a built-in community for users to share their tips, successes and frustrations. These days I wouldn’t dream of building that kind of tool from scratch, but it was pretty sophisticated – it’s got threaded conversations, diaries, friends, groups, avatars with your ecological footprint badged on top of them and shared team goals and progress graphs. It’s even got a profanity filter. Testing that was one of the more surreal days in my time at WWF.

We had a great success later on in 2007 when Poke managed to persuade us that building a MASSIVE paper boat and plane to bring attention to the climate change bill was a great idea. While they made for a great media stunt, the online activity was almost textbook blogger outreach – a sprinkling of behind-the-scenes access, copy written for humans, not journalists and a handful of celebrities on camera.

On Wednesday I’m going to be talking about those two projects in a bit more depth, and comparing them with a couple of more recent projects – one obvious, one a bit less so, and giving you a few insights into how we’re addressing some of the bigger questions around social media within the organisation.

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With NFPtweetup just around the corner, I thought a great success story might inspire people to get in the digital mood and get out their tweeting thumbs. A lot of people talk about social media in terms of ROI and fundraising, but sometimes it’s worth something that you can’t put a price on.

Four days, 2.1 million signatures, 192 countries and 10 territories: Social media fights Ugandan anti-gay legislation

A social media movement has made history for Ugandan citizens, an international community of LGBT supporters and human rights activists across the world. Millions took to their keyboards and touchpads following news last week that Parliament in the Pearl of Africa were trying to re-introduce an ‘Anti-Homosexuality bill‘ which could sentence ‘offenders’ to death. Upon hearing the proposal, the global neighbourhood pulled themselves together through various social media channels and collected more than 2.1 million signatures in firm opposition to the Ugandan Parliament.

The bill was met with two powerful adversaries, AllOut, an organisation defending LGBT rights, and Avaaz, a political activism website who both set up powerful and wide-spreading campaigns through social media and other online channels. The weight behind the combined movements managed to successfully force out the genuinely threatening proposed law just four days after they launched.

Bishop Christopher Senyonjo in Uganda highlighted the importance of campaigning across the world.
“International pressure is necessary, these are issues of justice and love for other human beings … Personally, it means a lot to me to know that my brothers and sisters in the USA and Europe and other countries in Africa are in solidarity with us in opposing this bill.”

On 13th May, Avaaz posted this on their site: ‘Over 1.6 million of us signed the petition opposing the anti-gay bill, tens of thousands of us called our heads of state, and we helped make the attack on gay rights in Uganda a major international news story — and it worked.’ Similar triumph was felt from the AllOut team. ‘Over 500,000 around the world signed the petition to stop Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality bill. The international outcry was heard and Ugandan Parliament has adjourned for this session – but the fight isn’t over yet’

The success is testament not only to the power of the human spirit but also a well run campaign on a wholly suitable medium; an instantly updatable, global and straightforward mode of communication which people are already engaged with. AllOut co-founder Andre Banks attributes around 60% of their website traffic over those crucial days to Facebook and Twitter. This doesn’t even account for the huge amount of news and buzz offline or on other websites that was created thanks to the high public profile it was allowed through Facebook and Twitter. Social media has always been quite a successful medium for lobbyists and campaigners, but events this week have really shown how quick and impactful it can be in the face of injustice.

Personally, I noticed the AllOut campaign through my Twitter feed, and signed my name and email address to the bill so instantly and easily that I could’ve easily forgotten all about it had I actually ticked the ‘opt out’ box for notification emails (they’ve got me there). Having never engaged with the organisation before, I’m almost sure that I wouldn’t have had the chance to put my name to a campaign that I’m more than happy to support without hearing about how simple it was to get involved through social media. I don’t think it’s that people wouldn’t have cared about the campaign had it not been so accessible, it’s that even if they had had the opportunity to happen upon the news elsewhere, there are so many injustices that need changing, that a small clicktivist (although I’m hesitant to use that term as it’s loaded with negative connotations) task allows people to feel like they’ve really contributed – without getting lost in the ocean of tricky asks and long emotive copy that many of these equally (for the most part) worthwhile campaigns are inhabiting.

Lucy J – beautiful world.

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In the last of our series of guest posts, Felicity McLean tells us why NFPtweetup makes her happy and shares five key points to take away from last week’s event.

I love a good collaboration, be it a strategic partnership, a skill sharing session or just a group of girls on a Sunday afternoon, there’s something about coming together that makes my heart tingle.

This is exactly the feeling I get at the NFPtweetup – a sense of real camaraderie, skill sharing in a time of restricted resources and an excitement surrounding a burgeoning communications strategy.  Social media has taken off, but it’s gaining speed and recognition from the 100+ sector leaders driving change at the NFPtweetups.

After presentations from keynote speakers, discussion on recent trends in social media (applicable on varying levels to those of varying expertise – again a great aspect of the NFPtweetup collaboration) conversation kept boomeranging back to one point: brand integrity, and the risk or resource that social media brings to this.

I took away 5 brilliant bits of advice from Rachel Beer’s breakout session:

Risk it with user generated content: Should we be giving free reign of our charity website to our service users? This comes down to the question of who we regard to be the ‘expert’, how much we try to protect our brand: Voice, messaging and level of support.  Fiona McLaren’s campaign work surrounding recent activity in Egypt is a fantastic example of value adding UGC: create a Twitter hash-tag surrounding the event and either feed in user content directly from this or compile a shortlist of brilliant, clever and interesting content from your hash-tag as a blog post.  The latter allows you to pick and choose the best bits of input and information and allows editorial control over platform decorated with user generated content.  Brilliant value adding stuff, for free!

Personalise your Twitter avatars: Should we be using the charity logo or a personal photo? A logo encourages credential and standing, but photos offer a personal voice.  It’s a question of restriction on your brand and voice, and many charities opt to use a personal photo with a charity branded Twibbon.

Use Co-Tweet: This is a tool working specifically for charities (or other organizations) with multiple tweeters at one account.  Co-Tweet enables users to attach initials after each tweet, adding a personal touch (or someone to blame!) and dispelling anonymity.

Create a caricature for your social media voice: Archie the Goat for Oxfam is a social media phenomenon – funny, value adding for the reader and seemingly unrelated to Oxfam.  Yes, it appeals to a wider audience but is it a wasted opportunity for direct marketing and fundraising?

Tweet people like people: I have always been a firm believer in communication from a personal level, not a professional level.  Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook do not warrant formal sign offs or corporate jargon, it will only alienate the reader and others reading your stream.  This is why I say Tweet people like people.  Listen, advise, engage.

I come away from each and every NFPtweetup inspired and bursting with ideas, and I don’t doubt the next one will be any different.

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We had a record turnout of 124 people at the NFPtweetup last week! Thanks to Amnesty International UK for making this happen by donating such a fantastic venue for the evening.

As resident NFPtweetup live tweeter (alongside Rebekah Hah), I’ll attempt to sum up the evening in 140 characters:

Biggest yet, interesting, satellite vans, informative (as ever), clicktivism not slacktivism, new faces & new ideas, fun, freebies, beer!

Here are some of my favourite tweets from the evening, or see #NFPtweetup 10 tweet doc for your favourite:

And finally, smile it’s NFPtweetup 10:

Already looking forward to the next event in May (we think this will be either the 25th or 26th, for those of you who want to save the date – we’ll announce ASAP).  Hopefully see you then!

Teri

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Following Howard Lake’s guest post yesterday, NFPtweetup newcomer Becky Coleman shares her experience:

I’m a relative newcomer to the world of social media; at easyfundraising we started using Facebook and Twitter to communicate with and about our members and causes just over a year ago. It’s been a steep and incredibly rewarding learning curve but I’m aware of the vast potential to do even more.

So being a bit of a newbie and keen to know more, I jumped at the chance to venture down to the big smoke and pick the brains of the terrifically talented social people who organise and attend the #NFPtweetup.

I first heard about the #NFPtweetup last year from Graham Richards and was lucky enough to get a ticket to the first event of 2011, being held at Amnesty International’s HQ in Shoreditch. I had a few specific aims in mind:

1. Get there without getting lost

Didn’t get off to a great start with this one but fortune smiled on me and the first person I asked for directions turned out to be the lovely Lucy from tweetup organisers, beautiful world, who kindly escorted me to Amnesty International – and without laughing at my poor map reading skills either.

2. Make some new friends – and meet some old ones

This turned out much better than aim number one. Within minutes of arriving, I met Janet Stollery of Calvert Trust – a meeting I know I found incredibly useful and I hope she did too.

A brief glance at the name stickers we all wore allowed me to put more faces to names and I was pleased to meet my long-standing ‘virtual’ friend Howard Lake of UK Fundraising in the flesh. I’m happy to report he is every bit as nice in real life!

I was also pleased to make the acquaintance of @ycharity, @chasecare, @thenspcc to name just a few.

3. Learn

The evening was split into two speakers, Jonathan Waddingham from Just Giving and Fiona Mclaren from Amnesty International UK, plus three break-out groups for further discussion and finally a panel debate.

Jon’s talk focussed on donation apps and how fundraisers can make best use of them, while Fiona showed us how Amnesty engaged their supporters to play a part in the Egyptian Crisis.

Both speakers were fantastic and for me I think the most interesting fact of the evening came from Fiona – during the Egyptian Crisis, for the first time, Amnesty recorded more referrals to its site from social media platforms than anywhere else.

I was torn between the three break- out groups and would happily have attended all of them but plumped for Rachel Beer discussing developments in the social world – which ended up ranging from the new updates to Facebook to how choosing an engaging Twitter avatar is not as easy as it seems!

Lastly the panel debate – the main focus was whether fundraising via social platforms could be classed as ‘slacktivism’, the general consensus being ‘no – any action taken by a fundraiser or supporter is valid and useful in its right’.

4. Be inspired

Well the event certainly succeeded on this point too. It was hugely enjoyable as well as being massively stimulating and I’ve taken so many ideas away with me that will enable us to help our causes do and raise more.

Throughout the evening, live streaming of tweets tagged #NFPtweetup kept the discussion lively but this one from Chance UK really stood out for me. Well said.

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Following last night’s event, NFPtweetup scores 10 out of 10 from Howard Lake. Here’s why:

It’s an odd state of affairs when cutting edge technology becomes so widely adopted and accepted that it is just part of the background. It is even odder when that process happens in a very short time.

Last night the 10th NFPtweetup event took place. In just over two short years, the event has moved from the upstairs room of a pub where about 20 of us squeezed in to share and learn about charities’ use of Twitter, to the roomy surroundings of Amnesty International UK’s (AIUK) London head office. Now the event is booked out within hours of tickets becoming available: it is a must-attend event for many people.

Incidentally, I regard the pub birthplace as a very good omen. Amnesty International was inspired by two students toasting freedom at a bar, and plenty of fine fundraising initiatives have been developed on licensed premises.

NFPtweetup has grown, but the original ethos is still there, I believe. And that is an impressive achievement these days, when you can fork out £300 or more to attend a social media conference for the charity sector.

Why is the event so valued?

• Its informal nature encourages many delegates to ask questions and share advice
• While there are many experienced social media people present, newcomers to the event and to social media are welcomed
• You get to hear from people who have experience and results to share, not just the theory. And they are usually current. Last night for example we heard detailed information from Fiona McLaren of how AIUK dealt with the protests in Egypt. This even covered events at the Trafalgar Square rally (#feb12global) just four days before.
• Although run and sponsored (ie. paid for!) by commercial organisations (JustGiving, beautiful world and Pixel Philosophy), and attended by some for-profit people (that would be me), there’s no hard selling going on. Although JustGiving’s Jonathan Waddingham gave the opening presentation, he pointed out that this was his first presentation in all 10 NFPtweetups.
• NFPtweetup walks the talk: the physical event is augmented by being shared on Twitter (via the #nfptweetup hashtag) and by live video (thanks noonanmedia.com). Those who can’t make it can still get a pretty good sense of the event, and engage with those there. People aggregate the content too and share it, sometimes live during the event, or the next day with links to Slideshare presentations, videos and photos.

And use of phones/laptops for sharing during the presentations is positively encouraged of course. Indeed, at the end of the event Rachel Beer gave the postcode of the post-event pub so that people could find it via their mobile devices.That made me smile too.

Indeed, NFPtweetup is still an enjoyable event. You learn, get to speak buzzwords like ‘gamification’ and ‘slactivism’, and laugh as tweets on the twitterfall screen behind the speakers take a turn for the bizarre, courtesy of the sector’s joker Sir @robinbogg.

My favourite lesson or thought of the evening was appropriately summed up in two related tweets:

Thank you NFPtweetup. You were ahead of your time, and now you’re bang on time. More please.

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Following yesterday’s agenda, you might have noticed Wednesday’s NFPtweetup is all about integrated campaigning and fundraising.

We’ll hear from Adrian Cockle, and learn how WWF-UK turned a tweet into a roar. We’ll also hear from Fiona McLaren and see how Amnesty International UK responded online to the protests in Egypt in recent weeks – including crisis mode stats (!)

Later in the evening, the panel debate will begin to explore some of the questions below – as well as bring the discussion to the floor:

• The challenges and opportunities of integrating campaigning and fundraising
• Has social media/the social web fundamentally changed campaigning and activism? Does their existence make charities’ jobs easier or have they encouraged ‘slactivism’ and made it harder to generate meaningful/long-term engagement?
• Do donors/fundraisers and campaigners have different preferences and demographics?  Should we expect supporters that donate to become activists or campaigners or vice versa?

If there is something you’d like us to explore further, please let us know: comment below, tweet @NFPtweetup, or wave at the person with the microphone tomorrow night!

See you tomorrow,

Teri

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