Social Media for Social Good: Q&A with Heather Mansfield pt. 2

In Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits, author Heather Mansfield draws on over a decade of social media and nonprofit experience for clients like The National Peace Corps Association, Safe Kids, and The National Wildlife Federation. Her book provides nonprofits with tools and effective strategies using social medial and mobile web technology. Currently, Heather is on a national book and training tour. We recently caught up with Heather for a Q&A about her new book, and how growing non-profits can best reach the public and spur positive change.


Q&A with author HEATHER MANSFIELD pt. 2


Q: With social media promotion, what are the pitfalls of relying solely on dominant platforms such as Facebook and Twitter? Ideally, what does a comprehensive marketing plan look like in terms social media mix?

I am a firm believer in diversifying your brand online. Having your avatar spread throughout many different communities results in a synergy that grows stronger as your communities grow larger over time. Also, like never before nonprofits are enmeshed with for-profit companies like Facebook and Twitter that provide absolutely zero customer service and little to no support for nonprofits. Eventually, I think this is going cause an increasing sense of frustration and resentment by the nonprofit sector, and unless nonprofits go out of their way to diversify their brand to inspire competition, innovation, and social responsibility on the part of these companies, we will then be completely at the whim of the for-profit Web.


Q: For more established social nonprofits, how important is reinvention and how often should organizations revise communication strategies?

The nonprofits who excel online today were on Myspace in 2005, Facebook and YouTube in 2006, and Twitter in 2007. The Web moves very quickly now and those nonprofits that embrace early adoption and take risks on new tools are the best positioned to reap the benefits. It’s not so much reinvention, but rather always evolving and acting quickly – often on a good impulse. The truth is that the best nonprofit social media campaigns are the best not because of the tools, but because of the person behind the strategy and the avatar. The best social media managers love social media and are always experimenting with the Next Big Thing – usually years before it becomes the Next Big Thing. The old model of waiting for case studies to come out to prove a tool works before a nonprofit starts to use it is dead.


Q: In addition to the book release, you’re also doing a nationwide social media and mobile technology training and book tour. Can you tell us your goals for the tour and how those who participate can actually help support deserving nonprofits while learning more about social media?

The book tour is a fundraiser, and honestly, I don’t think a book tour being launched as a fundraiser has ever been done. As of today, it has raised more than $11,0000 for partner nonprofits. Launching a book tour as a fundraiser is the nonprofit psychology at work in me. The tour is more about making the world a better place than making a profit. I have to practice what I preach, or I wouldn’t have any credibility in the nonprofit sector. Beyond that, I love to train in person and this tour is allowing me to reach nonprofits all over the country and Canada. So far, the feedback has been very good. The content of the training is based on the book, thus packed with a lot of How-To’s and best practices which is what most nonprofits are looking for these days – proven methods that work.



Q: Finally, today is the era of the Mobile Web, or Web 3.0. How is this changing the landscape as we speak and where do you think social media and nonprofit communication are headed next?

Nonprofits are tragically falling very far behind in mobile! I think it primarily has to do with what I mentioned above about nonprofits now expecting Web-based tools to be free or they won’t use them. Now is the time for early adoption, but a couple hundred dollars at least is required to experiment with mobile and most nonprofits won’t pay it. Smartphones, tablets, and texting are changing how supporters and donors consume content, and that means nonprofits need to change how they present their content. Internet TV is going to transform the sector as well, but from what I can tell most nonprofits haven’t even considered mobile or Internet TV. That said, the early adopters of the Social Web – the Humane Society of the United States, Oxfam, Peta, The Nature Conservancy – they are just now beginning to launch well-thought out mobile campaigns and “TV” stations and when they do, others usually follow. I just wish for the sake of nonprofits and social good in general that it would happen a little faster. ☺

Thanks again for this interview.

Continued success from everyone at What You Can Do!


Heather Mansfield is the owner of DIOSA Communications, principal blogger at Nonprofit Tech 2.0, and author of Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits. She also created and maintains the “Nonprofit Organizations” profiles on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, and Foursquare, which cumulatively have more than 500,000 Friends, Followers, and Fans. A pioneer in utilizing social media for the nonprofit sector, Heather has fifteen years of experience utilizing the Internet for fundraising, community-building, and advocacy. To date, she’s presented more than 100 social media and mobile technology trainings throughout the United States and over 500 webinars to audiences worldwide.

Using Social Media for Social Good: Q&A with author Heather Mansfield pt. 1

In Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits, author Heather Mansfield draws on over a decade of social media and nonprofit experience for clients like The National Peace Corps Association, Safe Kids, and The National Wildlife Federation. Currently, Heather is on a national book and training tour. Training participants will also help other organizations, like the American Indian Center for Excellence, and goodnik.org, who will receive a portion of their paid workshop fees. We recently caught up with Heather for a Q&A about her new book, and how growing non-profits can best reach the public and spur positive change.


Q&A with HEATHER MANSFIELD


Congratulations on the release of Social Media for Social Good!

Thank you!

Q: In your book, you draw on over a decade of social media and nonprofit experience, tell us what prompted you to embark on this comprehensive guide and what key tools you hope to pass on to readers?

Most nonprofits these days are very low on staff and resources and they just don’t have the time to experiment with tools or get the training they need when it comes to social and mobile media. That’s what I do 10 hours a day, six days a week. I experiment, test, and through a process of trial and error learn what works and what doesn’t. I wrote this book to share that knowledge with nonprofits so they can better communicate and ultimately execute their mission and programs. The brutal truth is that most nonprofits do not understand the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc. tool sets and are making obvious mistakes. Even if they aren’t aware it, most nonprofits need a little help fine tuning their social and mobile media campaigns.

Q: In a striking contrast with social media as we know it today, you tell of your first online fundraising campaign: emailing friends and family on Yahoo! to raise funds at the Guatemalan school where you volunteered. That was in 1997. Please give us your impressions of how social media has changed non-profit efforts and why those daunted by technology should embrace social media tools?

The most obvious difference from today’s Internet to that of 1997 is that there’s no one Internet fits all anymore. In 1997 the only Web-based tools available to nonprofits were websites and email and that’s how nonprofits primarily reached their online supporters and donors. It was simple. Then in 2003 that began to change with the launch of blogs. Today, there are thousands of Web-based tools and communities that nonprofits can tap into, but more importantly, who uses what tools and communities is usually directly related to age, location, class, and race. So, if nonprofits want to reach all potential supporters and donors, then they need to use and integrate a wide variety of Web-based tools and communities into their communications and fundraising plans.

Some nonprofits – primarily executive staff – still tend to think of social media as a fad (much to the chagrin of younger staff). They aren’t seeing the bigger picture which is that the Web is now constantly evolving and social media with each passing day is becoming more deeply integrated into the structure of the Internet as a whole. In the next decade as we migrate over to the Mobile Web, social media will be the foundation of the next chapter of communications and fundraising, and those nonprofits that have yet to embrace and integrate social media into their communications and fundraising plans are going to be a severe disadvantage.


Q: What You Can Do provides individuals with simple action steps they can take to help solve social problems from poverty, to hunger, to domestic violence. For those involved in social activism, public engagement can be difficult at first. As an expert and leader in non-profit fundraising and community organizing, can you tell about one of your most difficult undertakings and how you were able to garner support, or make the best of the situation?

I think the biggest problem facing all nonprofits today is that information overload is resulting in an increasing numbed down, collective response to our calls to action online. These days people are bombarded all day and night with bad news and negativity. Many people just can’t take it anymore and are starting to tune out. Even I struggle with it… social media burnout. So, I take time away from social media and my communities to disconnect and reconnect in person with friends and family. Nonprofits need to do this as well to recharge, and resist the urge to spin and perpetuate the bad-news-is-always-breaking news cycle. Share more success stories, be kind and generous, and for the sake of your own well-being and that of your communities, ban, block, delete, and report the Internet trolls. They have gotten out of hand over the last few years and are creating an Internet meme of gloom and doom that’s affecting our mental health, our collective sense of hope, and our economy i.e., unconfident consumers do not make donations to nonprofits.


Q: Most important advice to social entrepreneurs and nonprofit start-ups in devising comprehensive communication and fundraising campaigns?

One of the downsides of social media is that nonprofits have now become too accustomed to expecting Web-based tools to always be offered for free. Even if a premium version of a tool only costs $25 a year, many nonprofits just won’t pay it. That is a huge mistake! You have to spend at least a little money to make a little and hopefully a lot of money. If you need to hire a designer to create a new banner for your blog, do it. If you have to pay $50 a month for a premium “Donate Now” vendor, please do so. If you need a custom-designed avatar, then by all means necessary, find the funds in your budget somewhere. The era of winging on the Social Web is over. Donors and supporters expect polish and professionalism in the execution of social media campaigns. It’s tragic really, how many nonprofits are spending hours upon hours blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking while making mistakes that severely hamper their ROI (Return on Investment) simply because they haven’t been willing or empowered to spend a little money or taken necessary training.

Check back later this week for Part 2!


Bio: Heather Mansfield is the owner of DIOSA Communications, principal blogger at Nonprofit Tech 2.0, and author of Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits. She also created and maintains the “Nonprofit Organizations” profiles on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, and Foursquare, which cumulatively have more than 500,000 Friends, Followers, and Fans. A pioneer in utilizing social media for the nonprofit sector, Heather has fifteen years of experience utilizing the Internet for fundraising, community-building, and advocacy. To date, she’s presented more than 100 social media and mobile technology trainings throughout the United States and over 500 webinars to audiences worldwide.

Show us your cans!

Since moving to New York City a little over a year ago, the prevalence of hunger has become an impossible issue to ignore. I have always felt passionate about this issue since I was a young girl who boldly told my Mom to ship the food I was unable to finish at the dinner table to the children she informed me were without food in other countries. Now I see just how many people are without enough food, and I get angry about just how much is wasted everyday. With the holidays just around the corner, I’ve been reflecting on previous holiday engagements I have had with family and friends in the past years. The one thing they all have in common, in addition to the warm fuzzy feelings and holiday cheer, is an over abundance of food.
If you have ever felt like you had to unbutton the top button of your pants to prevent it from flying off and hurting someone, as I have, you probably could have eaten less at a holiday meal. Also, if you’ve ever had so many leftovers that you had to eventually throw them away before they turned into a science project in your refrigerator, as I regret to inform you I have done as well, you probably could have purchased less food at the grocery store for your holiday celebration.
Here in good ol’ ‘Merica, many of us are more privileged than we realize, and live in a world of excess and over indulgence. I know you know what I’m talking about, especially at many of our favorite stable chain restaurants where the size of an entrée is comprised of enough food to feed the entire table! While you’re shopping this holiday season, before you grab the ingredients for the additional side dish you could do without, or that extra pie, maybe stop to consider your health and waistband, but also the unavoidable fact that there are just too many people who are less fortunate and don’t have enough to eat. You can use that extra bit of cash to buy cans to donate to a local food drive.
I feel very passionately about this, and will definitely be reconstructing my holiday season with others in mind. I hope you will join me so we can spread some cheer and make sure others have a nice meal to brighten their holiday spirits!