1. Increase awareness
2. Raise funding
3. Increase volunteering

In this post, we will focus on trying to using techniques we feel have worked for iridium’s clients and give you working principles of what you should concentrate on to raise awareness for your cause.

Increasing awareness

As social media continues to dominate internet timespend, it is but obvious that this is a channel you need to capitalize on and increase your reach at minimal cost. However, as NGOs occupy a major chunk of social media space it becomes necessary for you to not just differentiate but also have a much more interesting and involved approach towards social media engagement. Opening a facebook and a twitter account, pestering your network to like the page or to follow your twitter handle, although essential isn’t the be all end all of things. Here are three simple principles for you to follow:

The messaging:

Your product is as good as your message. Short or long, it must communicate something to your users, fans and viewers. Updates thus are the point where you either get shared or hidden or get your page unliked. Someone who likes your page would obviously be looking to learn more about your cause and you should try to keep your updates in line with this. Communicate what you want to but ensure that your tone is conversational and maintains the standard you have started with. Use a lot of videos and pictures which communicate your message directly with the minimum lag in understanding. Not only will your message get watched, read or viewed, it also has a higher likelihood of being shared which is what actually contributes to enhanced reach.

The engagement:

Speak to your fans. Let no comment/post go unreplied to. This helps build a rapport with your fans and can be a pleasant surprise to them when you speak to them in a friendly way. Without becoming intrusive, stay connected with your fans and engage them. Keep a cheerful tone and stay at it!

Social plugins:

Get a facebook like box, get a twibbon, get a youtube channel and spread the word. The more places that you garner social sharing, the more chances of you increasing your reach and spreading awareness to a greater demographic.

Follow iridium Interactive on twitter and facebook and stay current with the latest on social media and campaigns.

“It is our nature to be social”

Last week as I spoke at the NASSCOM Emerge Friday 2.0 and while sharing my experience on the Causeaneffect.org NGO initiative, it dawned onto me that social media has always been around, only its importance has accentuated in the last few years. Attending conferences all over the world and presenting the case of social media and the experiences of iridium Interactive, it was pretty apparent that social media has no barriers across countries, it is a unified digital revolution that has been transforming our lives, only under different names since more than a decade. How has it changed our lives has not been introspected yet.

Here are the some of the reasons how social media has changed our lives and why we should make the most of it.

1.       It has made us more social, we know a lot more people than we would a few years back.

2.       Larger networks- college friends, school friends, people we meet at social occasions, relatives, and friends met though friends, this used to be our typical networks, social media has exponentially increased our networks.

3.       More vocal about your thoughts- Forums, blogs, tweets, status updates are allowing us to speak our mind, wondered why? Because we know we will be heard by some or many.

4.       Enhances PR skills- you do not have to take PR lessons to talk to people on social media.

5.       Converse with like minded people on these social networks.

6.       Get in touch with thought leaders, influencers and even people who inspire you.

7.       Reconnects with old connections- People you have lost in touch with since a decade can be traced from any corner of the world (provided they are on these networks themselves) on the wide world of social media.

8.       Your virtual network is always ready to help. All it takes is to put forward a question and there you will have experts recommending the best to you.

9.       Ease of companies to get in touch with their consumers and vis a vis.

10.   Looking for a job or looking to hire someone, your professional network helps you find the best fit.

Social media brings out the extrovert you. All that matters in social media is your network, communities, connections and finally your discussions with them. Social media has reduced distances both for individuals and companies.

Have you seen a change in your social profile by social media, do post what you have gained from social media.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

Image Source-Rosaura Ochoa from Flickr

Social Media Policy or the policy that keeps employees within boundaries is much needed for any company who wants to control its social media endeavours.

iridium Interactive has come up with its own Social Media Policy that will aid their clients and their own social media activities. Our intent was to keep it as simple as possible and not confuse our social media representatives with complicated legal jargons. Absorb this and become ready for social media. Also read the social media etiquette blog as it is closely related to this policy.

Iridium’s Social Media Policy Compliance:

Social media is a loose term for widely used social networking platforms like Facebook, twitter, Linkedin, blogs and other public forums. We believe as a business, Social Media can substantially boost our company’s development, performance and services. In our endeavor to utilize the inherent benefits social media has to offer, these are the official guidelines that have to be adhered to while using social media solely for business purposes.

These guidelines apply to those who are actively or indirectly participating and contributing to the company social media activities. Social Media being vast but traceable, it is important that some amount of training will be provided for social media compliance. Dynamic as the social media sphere is these guidelines will also be evolving as new tools surface, keep a continuous track and stay upto date with these changes.

Strict that these guidelines may seem, this is solely for the purpose to participate in a responsible manner while safeguarding our company’s reputation and be in line with the unsaid social media laws.

Guidelines:

• Create a Balance- Yes we are giving you access to the social networks in office like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. It is your responsibility to make a balance between work and socializing, unless it is for your company. Your work commitments come before your personal online activities.
• Permanancy- Posts, comments, tweets all become permanent once you have published it. Think a lot before publishing any content on behalf of the company.
• Professional Profile- remember to identify yourself as a company employee and the post you hold, this will provide transparency to our company and you, which will be duly noted in the social media ecosystem. This is how you would portray yourself in to your clients and coworkers.
• Although you are representing the company, social media activities involves your own discretion and thoughts. Make this very clear!!
• End Credits: Give credit and source to any information taken from external sites and photographs used. It is important to acknowledge others hard work and borrowing without intimation is like stealing.
• Politically correct: Sensitive topics related to any caste, creed, religion or political group should be avoided.
• Rise Above the Noise: If someone is making rude comments on your blog or other social networks do not engage into a row over the matter. Instead listen to what they have to say and politely respond back.
• Confidentiality- restrain from giving away any confidential information. So take a smart stance and protect your company’s privacy policy.
• Competitors- Do not be harsh about them at any point in any social network . Be politically correct and stick to facts and figures with enough reliable sources.
• Courtesy- Be polite, do not engage in any arguments with any reader. Rude comments to be handled diplomatically.
• Made a mistake- Permanency may be one big disadvantage of social media admitting to a mistake and making the change will improve credibility.
• Second opinions- get the posts checked by your supervisor/employer before publishing.
• Personal Blogs- If you have your own blog and you do mention where you work, mandatory to include a disclaimer stating “Posting on this blog are strictly my own and do not contain/represent iridium Interactive’s opnions.

Image Source: Intersection Consulting from Flickr.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

social media for NGOs

Organizations need a variety of online supporters. They need customers who buy their products, evangelists who promote their brand, mavens who add intellectual value, their own employees who speak out and increase the goodwill towards the brand and a silent audience of undecided’s who fall in none of these categories. Large organizations are blessed with followers and fans instantly. Their timelines and fan pages are bombarded with complaints, compliments and a lot of spam. Small organizations need to work harder and smarter to achieve their social media objectives. But what about NGOs? How does one leverage social media for NGOs?

Traditionally, a commercial enterprise like, say, Starbucks would look at engaging with its customers and looking to improve their overall experience at their outlets. NGOs on the other hand have the unenviable task of converting their followers and fans into donators or volunteers. No value offered besides educating a girl in Zaire or feeding a family in Cambodia. Listed below are a few steps which we @iridiuminter think can help you meet your social media goals. But before you start, a word of advice. Do go through our previous posts about building your social media presence. You need a certain stand with your number of online connections and quality of tweets/posts/links before you attempt these. Running any of these ideas with a fan page of 6 and a twitter timeline of 50 isn’t going to get you anywhere close to your goals. If you are serious about using social media for your NGO, be patient and be prepared.

#1 Build your audience

Your potential supporters are scattered all over the internet. Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook all have a plethora of individuals who could be of extreme value to you. You could drill down and find networking sites catering to niche audiences and create strategies to engage them. Mind, the word “engage” in the social world means not to bombard but to politely involve followers and followees into conversations they are interested in. You are involving yourselves in a conversation so be nice and keep at it. Post interesting stuff on your blog, related to your mission, and see how you can keep this relevant to the world in general. Keep your tone positive if you can, gritty if you must and cynical never. Be consistent, be patient and your audience WILL grow.

#2 Connect with Influencers

Influencers are those people who figure on thousands maybe millions of lists and whose words and actions have the highest chance of being replicated by others. Now, connecting with them is a bit like getting to hang out with the cool gang in school. Your NGO thus needs to be at a certain social media standing (x no. of followers, fantastic blog, gazillion fans etc) before you approach them and involve them in your conversations. You should, obviously, be doing great work in your field. Engage them again and work towards building a relationship where you could count on them to help you socially. Approach them with a plan where they could tangibly help you, hope they agree and then hold on to your seat as you see your campaign take off. Continue engaging.

#3 Innovate

If you have that respectable presence on the social media sphere and are connected to several influencers, it is time to innovate. As part of your NGOs social media efforts you could : Create contests if you can offer something exciting, start a donation countdown with a real time view to donors as to where their money is being spent, start a donor marathon with your influencers pledging to support you with x amount of money or resource or commodity, anything in fact. You never know what may click. And continue engaging.

#4 Tell a Story

All great, big or small mission work starts and ends with a story. No matter how much we overdose on technology, humans remain humans. We feel connected with a story. Social networking sites offer you a perfect place to connect with humans who could be interested in stories such as yours.There is a 3 x higher probability to be accepted as part of the social community, engage and influence your audience, when you share authentic, real-time stories with them. You will be surprised when you see who begins to rally behind your NGO and how quickly you can expand your mission reach. So stay real and tell stories just as they happen.

This process and the ideas mentioned are definitely not exhaustive. What thoughts do you have for NGOs trying to use social media?

Image source: UNHCR on flickr
Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

Here are few ways you can start your social media activities:

Facebook Fan Page/ Profile: With hits more than Google, Facebook is emerging as a social media giant. They also provide a good platform for advertising and getting in touch with your customers and create your community in the long run.With their recent new editions to enter pretty everywhere on the web, facebook is expected to become the platform for consumer behaviors and brand advocacy.

Twitter: This is one platform that allows you to market your company within 180 characters. Easy as it seems it provides immense marketing capabilities.

Company Blog: This is one way small businesses can add great value to their firm. This can be a great way to share knowledge, the company culture with the world. Smart companies are again and again proving to be the ‘employer’ of choice not through their flashy websites anymore, but by the blogs. One key reason, company blogs bring the real story, videos of people fresh and alive. Interaction is the hot button.

Linkedin: I have already spoken on reaching out to your professional network through Linkedin. Make contacts, get in touch with like minded people, find potential employees and even get recognized in your field of  work. Linkedin with its virtual networking opportunities is something much beyond your face-to-face networking.

And finally measuring your return on influence from social media, to analyse your progress in the social media space is one thing you should do even before you venture engaging with people online.

There are so many other means to start off with social media, these are the most popular ways of taking off and therefore my sweep-take. My next blog will talk about how small businesses can start off with facebook and its various applications.

There is one most important thing that has to be mentioned time and again, no matter how many social networks you are present in, what matters most is your presence, make yourself felt and do it the right way. Quality always wins over quantity as humans relate with people who respond and connect..slowly winning the social trust.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

Image Source: Jon_Marshall’s Photostream on Flickr

Marketing has completed a full circle with social media. It started with making products customized to the needs of the consumers, then with the modernization of industries consumers were happy with what they were being provided for by the companies. With the advent of Social media, customers want a say in the products being offered to them, whether they are small businesses or large. Thus bringing in the importance of small businesses to reach out to their customers to understand their needs and build a rapport with them.

I have provided examples of some small businesses who have had a complete turn around  with the use of social media. Lets take a look and re-use the success formula:

@coffeegrounds a simple coffee shop in Houston has doubled its visitors by simply engaging with their consumers online on twitter. Cordial interactions with consumers has led this coffee shop dealer to increase their customers twofold. Twitter provides a whole new platform to any business that are willing to take out time to get in touch with their consumers that will eventually lead them into a lifelong relationship of loyalty and trust with them.

Key Take Away: Small things make big impact …..start your twitterate..tiny but big steps!

Another example that best describes what I am explaining here is that of @zappos is an online retailer who led corporates to use twitter. This explains their stupendous success with social media. Their gregarious interactions with customers online and readiness to help is the reason why they have been a phenomenal success in social media.

As rightly quoted by Tony Hseih- “Zappos.com is a service company that just happens to sell shoes”.

These are just two examples in small business social networking success as more and more small companies enter this arena there will be more social media success waiting to be accoladed on blogs and other social media forums.

I am curious to know your social media success formulas are..Do write in and I would love to add yours to this Small Business list with full credits to your success story…!

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

This is a snap shot of Virgin Atlantic’s facebook page that updates their customers on the current status of their flights. With no clue themselves this is the best they can do to inform their customers. This is a live example of terrific use of the power of social media through customer engagement. Virgin Atlantic may not have the solutions to #volcano, but they are staying connected to the people who matter the most to them through facebook. A recent global social media study proves that over 70% of companies are using Facebook to engage with their customers, capture their perceptions and behaviors.It is now one of the key business destinations in the virtual space.

KLM also took a proactive approach to caution their passengers not to go to the airport instead check flight status on their website using their facebook fanpage.

Coming from the same company on the other hand Air France chose to remain reluctant to keep their customers informed about this unforeseen phenomenon and basic formalities on refunds and rebooks.

As #volcano continues to erupt and blinden the air space, companies (airlines specially) should make use of this and appease these aggrieved customers thus demonstrating real-time crisis management and creating a long term goodwill. KLM and Virgin Atlantic have been swift in being approachable to their customers.

The big lesson here – Companies, enterprises that hold themselves back from responding, engaging with their clients through social media are loosing a vital thread of communication and goodwill. “No social media” can be compared with “no website”, if we turn back our clocks”

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

Strengths

• Analyzes what is being said about your company. This produces value for the company.

• Decoding the noise and chatter of user generated content which is of great relevance to a company and its brand.
• Encourages direct consumer interactions.
• Allows companies a real time view on consumer perceptions about their brands.
• Helps develop a marketing plan from consumer interactions and conversations.

Weaknesses

• Limitations of technology, ultimately requires a human touch to it.
• Huge volumes of data to process from numerous sources and innumerous languages.  Difficult to make a one stop technological solution.
• Its such a huge media space which is rather intimidating to a beginner.
• Ongoing disagreement between the data compilation over being comprehensive and insightful, which is rather difficult to achieve both successfully as yet.

Opportunities

• Potential to become a hygiene factor for every company with more technology improvements making monitoring more effective.
• Monetization of social media. Many companies have profited from social media and many more to yet to venture. This medium offers immense opportunities.
• SME’s who felt left behind due to their lack of resources to spend on advertisements can now capitalise social media without any penny spent to advertise their brand.

Threats

• There are no defined industry standards, will make it difficult to benchmark success and outcomes.
• Many new entrants/ board room level executives do not really understand the how to take advantage of user generated content.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeanlouis_zimmermann/3055864480/

As I would put it, these free tools are good as long as you can wade your way around it and get the output you are looking for from these tools. But if you are lost with these tools, which I know many do in the beginning, then you might have to look into other alternatives.

There are some more shortcomings of these free tools:

Firstly, these tools can be used to assess a campaign or strategic prerequisite, but not for a large amount of data in an all-inclusive Web 2.0 coverage.

Secondly, free tools are just the tip of the iceberg; they do not have the ability to go into the details. They can only introduce you to the listening tools.

Thirdly, machines are great data retrievers but it’s the human touch that makes it into valuable information. This is one big shortcoming of automated, free monitoring tools.

The need of an analyst arises at this point when you have the What, Where, and When answered, but the most critical, Why? and How? are still left to be answered.

Why do consumers think this way about my product? How can I change their perception? An analyst like Iridium can help you draw insights from the data and develop a strategy.

So for all the companies waiting to explore social media, your customers are waiting to hear from you! Begin now to at-least play with the new set of social media monitoring tools. Next, begin taking expertise from social media experts who can take your brand, your voice to the next level. Its not too late…take the first mover advantage!!!

Watch out for more from me as I will take you through a deeper understanding of the Social Listening space…its time to evolve!

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

Also known as social reputation management, or online reputation management, social media monitoring serves more than gathering metrics on your social media initiatives.

There will be a lot of metrics that can be gathered but making some sense out of these numbers is what is required.  In fact, I would say social media monitoring should not be done after you enter social media; this can be done even before you enter the social media marketing. By this not only will you have awareness about your brand, you will have the right intent to begin your social media initiatives.

Here are some basic reasons to monitor social media in case you are new to this terrific listening tool and its scalable capabilities:

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.