A talk I did for the New York Junior League about how to approach social when advocating for your cause.

1. Using social media
for fun and non-profit
Porter Mason
Deputy Director, Social Media
U.S. Fund for UNICEF
@portermason, facebook.com/portermason

2. Using social media
for fun and non-profit
• Treat it like a party (not a podium)
• Consider your audience
• Consider how it works
• Do the hard work

3. Treat it like a party (not a podium)
@portermason, facebook.com/portermason

4. Treat it like a party (not a podium)
• One-to-one conversation is key
• Many one-to-one’s happening in public
• Talk like a friend, not a commercial
• You get what you give

5. Treat it like a party (not a podium)
• Don’t feed the trolls (be polite, disengage)

6. Consider your audience
@portermason, facebook.com/portermason

7. Consider your audience
Put yourself in their shoes.
• What do you click on in Facebook?
• What annoys you in Facebook?
• What’s important to them?
(Hint: it’s rarely your cause)
• Let empathy guide you

8. Consider your audience
Where are your people online?
• Where are your closest friends?
• Where is your family?
• Where are you acquaintances?
– From work?
– From school?

9. Consider your audience
Why are people on Facebook?
• Keeping up with family and friends
• Updating others on their lives
• Sharing photos
• Dating
• Killing time

10. Consider your audience
Why are people on Twitter?
• Something big in the news just happened
• To feel closer to celebrities/famous people
• To see what friends are doing right now
• To stay connected at events
• Killing time

11. Consider how it works
@portermason, facebook.com/portermason

12. Consider how it works
Facebook
• EdgeRank – What Facebook shows you
• Notifications
• Likes, shares, comments
• Lists and targeting
@portermason, facebook.com/portermason

13. Consider how it works
Facebook
• EdgeRank – What Facebook shows you
– Facebook doesn’t show you everything
– Prioritizes people you tend to interact with
– Prioritizes topics those people like
– Prioritizes volume of conversation
– Keeps interesting posts in front of you for a while

14. Consider how it works
Facebook
• Notifications
– Default settings
– Commenting
– Tagging people
– Location

15. Consider how it works
Facebook
• Likes, shares, comments
– Likes are low-effort, but also low-impact
– Shares require more effort, but are potentially low
engagement
– Comments are high engagement, but don’t
require support

16. Consider how it works
Facebook
• Lists and targeting
– You can create lists of friends based on anything
– Some are auto-created for you
– You can target posts by list
– Treat everything as ultimately public

17. Consider how it works
Facebook
The sole goal of Facebook:
To keep people on Facebook.

18. Consider how it works
Twitter
• The feed
• Notifications
• Hashtags
@portermason, facebook.com/portermason

19. Consider how it works
Twitter
• The feed
– People see what’s just been posted
– If they don’t happen to check when you post,
they don’t see it
– Caveat: retweets resurrect old posts

20. Consider how it works
Twitter
• Notifications
– Default settings
– Direct messages
– @-replies
– Retweets
– Favorites

21. Consider how it works
Twitter
• Hashtags
– Do a quick search
– Join relevant ones
– Don’t attempt to start your own lightly
– Don’t become spam

22. Consider how it works
Twitter
The sole goal of Twitter:
To make you feel like you’re missing
something when you’re not on Twitter.

23. Do the hard work
@portermason, facebook.com/portermason

24. Do the hard work
• Build to asks
• One ask at a time
• Be specific about what you ask for
• Make things easy
• Plan, coordinate, be persistent
@portermason, facebook.com/portermason

25. Do the hard work
• Plan, coordinate, be persistent
– Be ready to give people more to do when they ask
– Plan to have conversations in public
– Make your cause look inviting
– Encourage event participants to post
(and don’t overly worry about what they post)
@portermason, facebook.com/portermason

26. Thanks!
And one last time:
@portermason
facebook.com/portermason

27. P.S. Further reading
• The Thank You Economy, Gary Vaynerchuk
• The Networked Nonprofit, Beth Kanter
• The Cluetrain Manifesto, several authors
@portermason, facebook.com/portermason