Where are my people?

Photo by Mehrad.HM

You’ve seen those nonprofit fundraising challenges, haven’t you? A funder or corporation puts up some funds—donation or matching grant money—and asks nonprofits and their supporters to compete for it. Maybe it’s a race of donations or votes, or perhaps memberships to a group on FaceBook. Our own Giving Challenge was an early example. Target is running one now, and there have been many in between.

If you’re connected with a nonprofit, I suspect your first thought on hearing news of one of these is “Wow, there’s money on the table. We could use some of that.” Then, especially if the competition is an online one, you may reach for the email list and crank up the copywriting.

Can we stop right there and engage in a bit of longer-term thinking?

Make fans, not spam.

John Haydon’s post Dogs are cute when they beg – you’re not is a terrific on the opportunities and pitfalls of going after challenges with your email guns blazing. I want to talk about just one of his points for winning:

Focus on getting your cultists to vote – No. Go one step further. Create platforms for them to campaign on your behalf (Facebook Groups, Twitter campaign pages, Blogs).

What’s a platform? John lists a couple of examples. It’s an online place to hang out, a place for supporters to gather. Think pub more than classroom—though learning may well take place. Here’s the important characteristic: platforms let your fans run.

So how do you “Create platforms” for your most committed supporters? The good news is there’s lots of platforms out there, and you may not have to hire a techie like me to code you one. Bad news is that there are lots of platforms, and finding your people can be a challenge.

So why not start small and start cheap. You’ve already got committed supporters. Where are they online right now?

Where are my people?

One of the great points to come out of all the Twitter activity at NTEN a few weeks ago was this gem, an exchange between Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer. The two shared a couple of key thoughts to help nonprofits approach social media—and find their people online.

While Facebook’s millions seem like a juicy target, so many people also make it hard to gain traction.

Let’s take Maddie’s note for the sound advice it is. So just how do we see where our audience is?

Let’s get tactical

As an example, let’s pretend we’re with a nonprofit that focused on clean drinking water overseas. Let’s find out where supporters might hang out online. We’ll use the search phrase “clean water Africa” as an example. In real life, you’d use all the tricks Google has taught you—searching proper names, competitor names, etc. The links below will take you to results of each search, so you can compare.

• Google web search gives us largely institutional results. Big nonprofits, major news site results. Though notice one from Hermanu, a blog, that’s worth investigating. Generally speaking, what you see in these results are the most long-term popular matches. If Hermanu is a person, she may be too busy to help you.
• Google blog search has more timely results. Not only does Google lead with the blogs that it thinks cover the subject, but subsequent posts are labeled with the posting time. My results show a post from 7 hours ago. These blogs may be institutional or personal. But you should try to get to know them. An RSS reader will help you keep up with the latest. Or Google can send you email alerts when particular phrases turn up.
• Twitter search gives nearly real-time results. These are posts by people who care. Pay particular attention to who posted, and any names that begin with the @ symbol. I don’t know who Ray Beckerman is, but with tweets like this, I’d want to introduce myself.
• Hashtag search. While you’re looking at Twitter search results, pay attention to words starting with #. Called hashtags, these mark topics of conversation. Click on one to see the thread. Twitter search can give you RSS results of this, so you can subscribe in your feed reader to keep up.
• Post blog comments. Most bloggers aren’t paid, so a little appreciation can go a long way. A comment says you were there for the conversation.
• Ask around. Take a donor to lunch. Or better, take a donor’s kids to lunch. Ask them where they go online and where they learned about your cause. Ask them what they think you should do. You don’t have to act on any suggestion, but I expect you’ll be surprised.
• Don’t forget forums: Ashoka, Idealist, Care2. Your business may have specialized places were the experts linger. Web search and reading blogs will help you find these. Once there, how can you encourage the community? Posting or answering questions is probably a good start.
• Search the activity aggregators: FriendFeed and Facebook. FriendFeed has great discussions, from Twitter and elsewhere. Search gives real-time results. Facebook has so many people, but it’s privacy controls make it difficult to see what’s going on. Google can help find public pages, at least.

Sound like a lot of work?

“I don’t get all this social media,” my friend Dave says, “At bottom I guess I don’t like people.”

There’s lots of ways to farm this out. There are social media experts who can take care of this stuff for you. You can hire a 20-year-old and let them run. You can buy your clients computers and sign them up for Twitter. Or, like CharityWater’s Scott Harrison, you can do social media yourself. The best approach depends on your personality and your business goals.

I do know that the essence of social media is person-to-person. And your long-term aim should be finding people to help with that outreach. Every person you do reach—in person or with these social media tools—has the potential to carry your flag. Why not spend some of your time helping them know how they can best carry it. Think of it as teambuilding.

Then, next time a challenge comes along, you just may find yourself with willing help to win it.