10 Social Media Things I’m Thankful for This Year

Coming up on Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a top ten list of things I’m thankful for when it comes to social media.

10. Restricted social media like Path to share with a select group of people.
9. Getting up to the minute news via Twitter.
8. Learning what rhymes with purple from Pinterest.
7. Meeting a co-presenter online and working virtually with her for a year before meeting in real life.
6. Facebook hasn’t changed my privacy settings for a while…oh wait, nevermind. They just did again
5. Foursquare rolled out updates for local merchants (including nonprofit merchants)
4. Instagram was opened up to Droids.
3. More books specific to nonprofit use of social media have been published including these three gems: 1, 2, 3.
2. That share button on every piece of mail, email, and website is increasingly important.

and the number one social media thing I am thankful for this Thanksgiving season is…

1. Using Social Media for Nonprofits Gangnam Style

Creators – Social Media and Gender Part 2

I wanted to follow up my last post on social media and gender by sharing some new social media and gender information.  A new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that of people who post online new videos and photos they created account for 46% of internet users.  People who repost videos and photos created by others account for 41% of internet users.

Studying these 87% percent of internet users, they found that 12% use Pinterest.  They also found that women prefer Pinterest and 19% of all women online use Pinterest. Does your agency target women as constituents, donors, or volunteers?  Pinterest might be the way to reach them.

What if you wanted to reach a younger audience?  The same study found that the same number of people use Instagram. more than one-quarter of all internet users aged 18-29 use it.  Sounds like Instagram may be a way to go if this is your audience.

Are you strategically considering demographics when choosing which social media tool to use?  You should.  It can mean the difference between reaching your targeted audience or speaking to an empty room.

photo from Suite 101

Pinterest Tutorial

Since I wrote about Pinterest earlier, I wanted to share a video about how to set up and use Pinterest. Pinterest is a social media pinboard now used by more than 10 million people per month. If you’re interested in the demographics, more women than men have started use it.

Now how can your organization use it? Well, Pinterest has a pinboard with lots of examples including using it with blogging, education, YouTube, and many more. Here’s a story on fundraising ideas for Pinterest.

Do you use Pinterest for your organization? If so, share your boards in the comments section.

Spamalot?

Let’s talk about spam and social media.  Not the canned meat delicacy but the nasty unwanted stuff.  When you think of spam you probably think of email.  But social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. are also avenues for spam.  

A story by Bloomberg Business Week states that as many as 40% of all social media accounts are spam.  Why would spammers target social media – because they can.  And because it’s easier to reach a larger audience via social media than it is to send spammy emails.  

Putting spam and social media together leads us to two things.  First, make sure you don’t click on links on social media sites you don’t know and make sure your social media passwords are very secure.  In fact why not change them regularly, including after you read this post.  Second, think about the types of information you share on social media platforms.  Is it really important content?  Is it something your readers/friends/followers would consider spam?  Would the social media platforms consider it spam?  Here’s a list of what the various platforms consdier spam.

We’re #3!

Pinterest is now the #3 social network according to a new Experian report. That’s pretty amazing for a social network that was launched 2 years ago and still requires you to get an invitation to be on it. Being third means more people use it than LinkedIn, Tumblr or Google+.

Some people call Pinterest a new version of a scrapbook. Other’s aren’t sure what to think. Now that they’ve finally addressed who owns the rights to the images that get posted, people are joining and visiting in droves. Traffic on the site increased 50% between January and February 2012.

The Ronald McDonald House of Southern Alberta has a great Pinterest board. It includes a category of “Things that rhymes with purple” – note that their main color is purple. They’ve used it to engage people and share stories through pictures. Hat tip to my new friend from Calgary, Derek Bechtold, for putting me on to their Pinterest board.

Do you have a board of Pinterest? If so how do you use it? Let us know in the comments section.

Timelines, they are a-changing

If you have a Facebook page for your organization be prepared for a change on March 30, 2012. Facebook is changing all pages over to it’s timeline format.

What does that mean for you? Well, since there is a change in layout, you’ll want to make sure you have branding and graphics correctly sized and ready for the change. You can opt in to the changes to see what your page will look like.

You’re going to need to have a cover photo. This is a larger photo that individual Facebook accounts with the timeline already have in place. Dimensions for the image should be 850px by 315px. Make sure the image you choose for your cover photo is this size or stretches to the size without distortion. Mashable has a post with some fun cover photos for some brand pages. You have time to be creative with your cover photo if you start now.

There will no longer be the ability to set a default landing tab. All people will go to your main Facebook page. You can have up to 12 tabs for your page. The tabs will be located below your cover photo and you can arrange the tabs to your preference. Other changes include Pinning (like Pinterest), how to access administration of the page, and page messaging.

Another hat tip to John Haydon on his insightful how-to videos. Here’s a video on how to change your Facebook page over to the new timeline brand pages.

With all of these changes, there will likely be benefits to us. First, it should enhance branding capabilities. Hopefully it will increase engagement.

If you have already converted to the new timeline, let us know about your likes and dislikes of it in the comment section.