Top 18 Ideas for Using Twitter for Social Enterprise

As you may have heard, Carbon Outreach is very busy on our upcoming Social Media for Social Enterprise book series, starting with Twitter and Facebook for Social Enterprise. Don't worry, we share the love, including 250 complimentary copies to social enterprises internationally via each individual book page. We've also created the [below] QR code to make it simple to learn about our new ebooks series.






We are also having a launch networking event in New York City on May 16. To learn more about our events in New York City, join our Marketing & PR for Social Enterprise Meetup.

The following recommendations include some real and some fictional tweets to show examples. Without ado, below detail 18 top recommendations for making your twitter presence a success:

1.   Start off with your social media strategy document. Over the next weeks, we will talk more about social media strategy, but some recommendations can be found on the Social Media Examiner or this popular SlideShare by Vanina Delobelle. Constantly check your Social Media Strategy to make sure your objectives are being met—monthly and quarterly.


2.    Determine who are influencers in your industry based on leaders of businesses you’ve likely heard of (for example @greenbiz @triplepundit @treehugger. Find out more on green twitter users to follow via http://mashable.com/twitter-environmentalists or visit our top recommended twitter environmentalists). You can also follow and join Twibes groups or Twitter lists for great users.

3.   Follow regularly. Namely of individuals and businesses/organizations that influence in your industry. Questions to ask when reviewing profiles of influencers: How many followers do they have? How many lists do they appear on? How many tweets have they written? Have you seen them retweeted (RT) by others you know and trust?


4.    Use a Twitter client on your desktop or mobile to streamline your interface and easier access. Twitter clients include PeopleBrowsr, Seesmic, Tweetdeck and Tweetie among numerous others.

5.    Create Twitter streams for your events. Don’t ignore the Twitter stream throughout the program, rather, have one employee managing the stream to ensure conversation, and answer any questions or feedback about the event when it happens. Make sure to watch out for negative feedback and address it when it happens.


Sample tweet: Great point! RT @honeyberk Always make sure you have a strategy in place when encouraging employees to engage on #Twitter or FB #sm4socent


6.    Create specific sales for your social media followers. While you don’t want to constantly sell yourself, this is a great way to get out information about your sales. You can also create a Sales Coupon on http://twtqpon.com/. You can also create free trackable QR codes with a number of websites including using QReatebuzz, linking followers to your own website or microsite for social media specials.


Sample tweet: We're offering a complimentary copy of Facebook for Social Enterprise! Click this QR code to get your book today! http://bit.ly/hjGQHT #sm4socent


7.   Update consistently; around 1 or 2 times (or more) daily is a good number for regular updates. Don’t worry, you can schedule tweets via Hootsuite and other twitter clients.


8.    Taut about your fundraising efforts. Provide the opportunity for potential donors to contribute (financially & in retweets). Whether followers will be directed toward your Facebook page, website, blog or otherwise, if you’re considering a fundraising campaign, update your followers regularly via Twitter about your campaign (and measure your results: see below).


Sample tweet: Have you checked out our donation tool on Facebook? http://bit.ly/findoutnow #nonprofit

@Tweetsgiving Has made some great successes, See Beth Kanter's article on their fundraising efforts 

9.  Let LinkedIn know you're tweeting. Connect your LinkedIn company page to your Twitter account with the Twitter application to see your most recent tweets.

10. While your at it, encourage your company's LinkedIn users to add their company and/or individual Twitter accounts to their profiles. When adding Twitter accounts to personal profiles, individuals can choose to have their own instead of their company tweets appearing by editing "Which Twitter account would you like to share from?"

11.    To automate or not to automate? There has been intense debate on whether or not you should automate your blog posts to feed into Twitter & Facebook or not. Depending on the amount of content, I'd recommend using automated feeds to direct your blog posts into Twitter & Facebook. This promotes your blog and also that you're connected. 


Connect your blog to your Twitter accounts (and Facebook through NetworkedBlogs). Also, create a Twitter widget on your blog (this can include either a ‘Follow Us’ button) on your latest tweets or a hashtag stream for an upcoming event/ advertising campaign on your blog page.

12.    Syndicate and publicize. If you let others publish your blog posts, this can magnify your reach, for instance on green media outlets like Ecorazzi, Elephant Journal, etc.).


Sample tweet: Our Founder, Erica Grigg, recommends on @TreeHugger: "Dare to be a Social Enterprise!" http://fb.me/EvGC7HVJ


13.    Let your website users know you're on Twitter. Connect your Twitter account to your website, along with your other social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, too!).


14.    Have a tweet-up. Meet your fellow Twitter users together at a bar near your headquarters—throughout the country for an even bigger launch party or other event (like Triple Pundit did at their Sustainable Media Happy Hour at SXSW [on the top ten of social media gatherings in the world]).

15.    Have a sponsored Twitter chat like #agchat #csrchat. Learn who are influencers in your industry, learn from your participants and use those chats like a focus group. Make sure you monitor these conversations well and have personal conversations with numerous influencers before moving forward. Having a great group interacting is pivotal for the success of a chat.

16.    Connect your eNewsletter to Twitter. This is very straightforward when using Constant Contact for example.


17.    Use http://bit.ly, Google's Goo.gl, or HootSuite's http://ow.ly to measure the success of each tweet. Then, you’ll be able to determine how successful each tweet was, which will help you determine ways to write tweets that will get more clicks. 3BL Media started a link sharing service in 2009, too, however cannot track click through rates, which is a shame.

18.    Measure your success. See how many Twitter followers you have with applications like http://www.twittercounter.com. There are many ways to judge the success of your Twitter campaign, including Klout or HootSuite/ PeopleBrowsr social media analytics reports.

Contributors: Erica Grigg is Founder & Chief Marketer at Carbon Outreach. She's trained hundreds of social enterprises on social media, and co-authoring several books on Social Media for Social Enterprise launching May 2011 reserve your complimentary copy today. Find out more about Erica on her LinkedIn page and follow her @ericagrigg and @carbonoutreach on Twitter.


Tim Watson is CTO and co-Founder at Carbon Outreach. He's worked in the online advertising and technology space for 15 years. Find out more about Tim on his LinkedIn page or follow him on Twitter.

Dare to be a Social Enterprise

This article was originally published on Treehugger yesterday.

Green business, triple bottom line business, social enterprise, non-profit, ethical company; green certified; B Corp or responsible business; are we talking about the same thing? And if so, we should dare to call ourselves, "Social Enterprise"!


Today, the idea of "social enterprise" is a buzzing phrase, especially the UK. There, the Social Enterprise Coalition counts social enterprises at 62,000+ and contributing around $32 billon+ (or £24 billion) to their economy, all while employing 800,000+ people. Social enterprises are starting to have a stronger voice with local government and among other bigger businesses over the UK.


In London, one key social enterprise foundation, UnLtd, holds a $150+ million (or £100 million) endowment for business development for only the most innovative and sharp social entrepreneurs.


The phrase, "Social Enterprise" started the early 70's with conversation in, "Sociology and Social Movements", which isn't online funny enough. The phrase was also made famous within a 1981 report on "A Management Tool for Co-operative Working" by Freer Spreckly.


The stories of social enterprises are the key to their success. In the process of trying to change the world, social enterprises have garnered not only success but admiration by their customers. Think about Seventh Generation or TOMS Shoes, for example.


After recently reading The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz, I was moved by her path across South America and Africa researching real-life social enterprises. At the same time, I've also heard of start-up stories from other social entrepreneurs who started in the late 80's, like Christine Esposito, who is now President, Terracom Public Relations.


And the stories of social entrepreneurs are memorable.


In 2011, the Harvard Business Review is talking about, "rethinking capitalism". In opposition with purely money hungry business, social enterprises offer an alternative business model that focuses on helping community, being financially feasible, while also maintaining organizations' clearly stated social or environmental missions.


Social enterprise is getting more and more popular, with now around 90K+ hits on Google (compared to say, 100 million+ of 'Facebook login'). People are becoming curious about this topic, and Americans are tentatively moving away from donor-centric business models. Whether you're a for-profit or not-for-profit, understanding your cause-based company as a social enterprise.


And yet, I've asked several businesses (not named) that might label themselves as "social enterprises" which still call themselves non-profits or green businesses. I'm not against defining your organization strictly as a non-profit, it just seems quantifying our shared value through organizations like associations, clubs or groups, we could help re-dine business.


Social enterprise is already re-defining business and the development of corporate social responsibility, corporate philanthropy and socially responsible investing among many other industries. But if we all were labeled, "social enterprise", we could move quicker.


So let's just admit that we're the face of business change. Social enterprises throughout the USA are making great strides for re-defining the role of capitalism.


Let's dare to be social enterprises.


Erica Grigg is Founder & CMO of Carbon Outreach. Carbon Outreach is a marketing and digital advertising consultancy focused entirely on social enterprise, non-profits and corporate philanthropy programs. Erica organizes the Marketing & PR for Social Enterprise Meetup in New York City, and is running training seminars from April to July 2011. Find out more about their events at http://carbonoutreach.com/events and follow her at http://twitter.com/ericagrigg. Follow Carbon Outreach on Twitter at http://twitter.com/carbonoutreach. Erica blogs on the Carbon Outreach blog and speaks at numerous events across the United States to provide opportunities for social enterprise development.

15 Tips for Well-Publicized Facebook Events (Like the #ChicagoGMF)

Over the next several weeks, we'll launch both a series of books and trainings in the New York City area. At Carbon Outreach, our mission is to develop social enterprise in NYC and beyond, so I would love to hear from you if you're wondering where to go next with your marketing or digital advertising campaign. 

The below article includes several pictures from the Green Metropolis Fair. Our client, the Green Parents Network, put on this great event in conjunction with Mindful Metropolis, and the event used social media tools, including Facebook and Twitter very effectively. We wanted to define the ways--particularly for Facebook (used in conjunction with Twitter) to help make your next event as successful.

Without ado, below are 15 recommendations for making your next Facebook event a success: 

1.    Have a clear way to RSVP if it isn’t via Facebook (i.e. through your website, Eventbrite or Brown Paper Tickets [the fair trade version of Eventbrite]).

2.    Tweet about the event and note, “Facebook friends are especially encouraged to RSVP via Facebook".

3.    Invite friends that’d be interested in the event. It helps here for your contacts to be organized into personal groups on your profile (easily dividing the family members from business colleagues).

4.    Don’t be consumed in the number of people who’ve RSVPed, it’s really about the conversation the event creates. In defining metrics, how many mentioned your event on Twitter, how many RSVPed and how many conversations did your event start?
 
5.    Invite current Facebook page fans to attend.
 
6.    Publicize the Facebook page on the event website itself (for example, on Meetup.com, you can put this in the “Comments” section or on EventBrite, you can put this in the “Description” section).
 
7.    If you’d like, you can have participants have duplicate RSVPs. Depending on whether this is a large (500+) event or small (20+) seminar, you may be able to e-mail individuals about social media channels.
 
8.    Inform participants about your event hashtag (like #fsq4socent or #sm4socent, make the tags individual, rather than generic. The reason is because #green #chicago and other tags are often already used frequently, whereas this tag is talking about a specific event). When you categorize your hashtag, you’ll be able to quantify how many tweets happened AND people are more likely to RSVP and contribute. 

#ChicagoGMF Hashtag stream during the Chicago Metropolis Fair, 16 April

9.    Engage your participants to e-mail their friends or colleagues with a special offer if necessary. Ask them to share the event on their Facebook wall.
 
10.    Once your participants have RSVPed, post up an @reply to mention the event to your Facebook Fans, as well as on your personal page. This cross-posts the event from your Facebook Page to the event page.
 
11. If you're partnering with other organizations, make sure to @reply them to CC their Facebook fans.


12. When you create status updates about the event, feel free to @reply to groups/pages that would be interested in learning about or RSVPing to the event.


13. Make sure your partners have publicized their Facebook fans RSVP to the event.
 
14. Create a video for your event, and include the official website to RSVP as well as the Facebook event URL (in customized bit.ly format makes things easier).


15. Bonus: Creating a microsite (rather than being at http://yoursite.com/event it's http://yourevent.com) for the event improves SEO and a better advertising experience increases the likelihood that you'll have more/bigger partners.

Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. She's trained hundreds of social entrepreneurs, CEOs, non-profit and corporate philanthropy leaders about how to use social media marketing tools. To learn more about Erica, follow her on Twitter @ericagrigg or connect with her on LinkedIn.

11 Rules for Social Enterprise Using Facebook Ads

Last Saturday, we had a great time running the Social Media for Social Enterprise #sm4socent training for a host of engaged and highly participatory social enterprise leaders. We had lots of feedback and questions that we'll learn from and expand our ability to encourage within our next event in May on Foursquare for Social Enterprise #fsq4socent.

Many participants were very interested in Facebook, Twitter, Blogging and Video, so we wanted to answer some questions to those participants and others. We love social enterprise, and we want to see it grow. Therefore, we'll use the Carbon Outreach Blog to provide information and insights into Social Media, including Facebook, YouTube and Foursquare.


NOTE: We don't think hundreds of thousands need to "Fan" and interact with your page, but we'd certainly recommend engaging with your current followers and maintain that same level of engagement throughout your growth. We believe that social enterprise should utilize social media to create conversations with their customers, donors and/or partners. 


Without ado, we'd like to offer 11 key recommendations for using Facebook advertising to increase fans & expand participation:


1. Create multiple Facebook ads that target fewer people. This refines who will click on and, "Like" your product or service.


2. Make sure your daily budget makes sense for your organization or business. There are two methods: pay per click (CPC) or pay per thousand impressions (CPM). Choose cost per click when you want more impressions (increasing awareness campaigns versus increasing sheer click-thru's).

3. Define your market! Inside and outside Facebook, defining your target market is especially important. Who are you selling your product to? Who do you aim to raise awareness to? Who wants to sign your petition? Who do you want as a partner/sponsor?


4. Test out multiple ads at the same time to see which works best. 


5. Include eye-catching picture, says Facebook. The better the picture, the more likely your viewer will engage--either clicking on ad, RSVPing to the event or visiting your website. 


5. Monitor your click through rate (CTR), if you see a decline, edit the creative (ie words next to picture)

6. Think long-term, how will more Facebook Fans equate to better marketing, improved brand imaging and/or more sales or partnership dollars?


7. Create ads catered to reach your target audience including interests, age, city/state and within language preferences.

8. When making your Facebook ad link to your Facebook Page, have the landing page provide information that encourages them to "Like", including an infographic or graphic

9. Measure initial conversions in Facebook Advertising as well as Facebook Page Insights


10. There are several ways for users to get involved. Create your Facebook ad to enable Ad viewers to RSVP to an event, "Like" your page, participate in a poll or visit your webpage

11. Make sure your Facebook Ad works in conjunction with other methods of outreach (for example paired up with Twitter, encouraging Followers to "Fan" on Facebook)

3 Great Social Media Campaigns Social Enterprise Should See (Pt 3 of 3)

In the middle of writing our upcoming eBook around social media tools (releasing late April 2011), we've been reviewing numerous case studies that you might want to know about.

Are you attending our upcoming training in New York City on, Social Media for Social Enterprise on April 9? There, we'll chat with social entrepreneurs, CEOs, Presidents and CSR leaders, among others, on using social media for social good. To learn more about all the events Carbon Outreach is organizing in New York City click here.

If you're one of the above groups and curious about what's happening in social media and what's next--and are reading our blog--we want to offer YOU a discounted ticket by joining our Marketing & PR for Social Enterprisegroup on Meetup @ethicalprnyc on Twitter. There, we have monthly Panels/Talks around multiple issues facing non-profits, green business and corporate social responsibility campaigns.

Without ado, below are 3 case studies around social media that worked really well.

1. 350.org

350.org is an international campaign that's building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis—the solutions that science and justice demand. Our mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet.

Communications objectives

In an interview with Clint O'Brien's, Care2's VP of Nonprofit Services with Phil Aroneanu, 350.org's Social Media Manager, Aroneanu stressed the importance for leaders in movements to listen and to provide infrastructure where people feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves. This may be why they partner with local leaders across the world, including inspiring "350 Messengers" like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as No Impact ManVandana Shiva, among numerous others. 

Results

• Numerous blogs and news outlets have covered 350.org's social media successes. 
• Phil Aroneanu, Social Media Manager, was awarded Care 2's Impact Prize last week. In 2010, 350.org increased the number of events organized from 5,626 to 7,189 according to one NYU Blogger 
• Their YouTube channel has had 1M+ views
• Despite some problems with their Twitter account (every time I click through on a non-web API, I get some other user) 350.org has 28+K followers on Twitter. 
• 350.org has 139K+ Fans on Facebook

2. Greenpeace

Since 1971, Greenpeace has acted as an environmental instigator--mother nature's PR advocate if you will. According to the Greenpeace International website, "We exist to expose environmental criminals, and to challenge government and corporations when they fail to live up to their mandate to safeguard our environment and our future."

How? Through promoting open, informed debate about society's environmental choices. We use research, lobbying, and quiet diplomacy to pursue our goals, as well as high-profile, non-violent conflict to raise the level and quality of public debate.

Communications objectives

Connect with loyal Greenpeace activists, potential new audiences.

Create an online space where potential new [and already loyal] audiences could engage online

Increase online fundraising opportunities

Results

• On Facebook, Greenpeace International has 783K+ Fans 
• On Twitter, Greenpeace has 190K+ Followers 
• On their YouTube channel Greenpeace has receiving 13.8M+ total upload views
• Greenpeace Executive Director says, "Social Media can Change the Planet" on CNN noting the success of their Kit Kat campaign 

3. Seventh Generation

According to their website, the mission of Seventh Generation is, "to inspire a more conscious and sustainable world by being an authentic force for positive change." Within the past year things have taken a slight change at Seventh Generation since the termination of their Founder Jeffrey Hollander who led the company to successes so far.

Communications objectives

• Engage with their target audiences across multiple online platforms 
• Provide places to resolve customer service issues 
• Become an industry leader in ethical, environmentally-friendly cleaning products 
• Drive up user-generated content
• Educate consumers about environmentally-friendly cleaning products

Results

• On Twitter, they have 26K+ followers 
• On Facebook, they have 172K+ fans 
• On YouTube, they have 526K+ total upload views 
• Their campaigns has "gone mainstream" Brandweek noted in Jan 2010, though as of recent, many have talked far more about what's next for Jeffrey Hollander as well as reasons for his departure.

4 Social Media Successes Non-profits Should See (Pt 2 of 3)

In the middle of writing our upcoming eBook around social media tools (releasing circa April 2011), we've been reviewing numerous case studies that you might want to know about.

Are you attending our upcoming training in New York City on, "Social Media for Social Enterprise" on April 9? There, we'll chat with social entrepreneurs, CEOs, Presidents and CSR leaders, among others, how to use social media for social good. To learn more about all the events Carbon Outreach is organizing here.


If you're one of the above groups and curious about what's happening in social media and what's next--and are reading our blog--we want to offer YOU a discounted ticket by joining our Marketing & PR for Social Enterprise group on Meetup (@ethicalprnyc on Twitter). There, we have monthly Panels/Talks around multiple issues facing non-profits, green business and corporate social responsibility campaigns.

For you QR code ethusiasts, we've made it easy to get to our upcoming, "Social Media for Social Enterprise #sm4socent" training discounted tickets. Just scan the code in to your left.

Without ado, below are 4 case studies around social media that worked really well.

1. Truth Campaign

Run by the American Legacy Campaign is a non-profit with the aim to uncover facts about the tobacco industry. According to their website, "Legacy is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit."

Further, "The Foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use. We want to help all young people reject tobacco, and give everyone access to tobacco prevention and cessation services."

Communications objectives

• Give survivors of tobacco a voice, successfully portraying videos across their website and YouTube channel
• Legacy aimed at engaging youth, speaking in their language and "change the way they approach quitting"
  
• Aiming to connect with vulnerable populations – youth, low-income Americans, the less educated, and racial, ethnic and cultural minorities
• Social media is just one element, Legacy notes, "we work through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns"

Results

• On YouTube, they've received 577K+ total upload views
• On Twitter, they have only 400+ Followers
• On Facebook, they have 93K+ Fans
• The have super SEO: try typing "truth" on Google. Find their website with #1 ranking. This is way different from RED, who is really difficult to find on Google.
  

Challenges

• The 'About Us' is fuzzy on the website. Is this a non-profit or company itself? From the consumer perspective, you have to visit their YouTube channel to learn it's organized by the American Legacy Foundation.
• I was surprised to learn that American Legacy Foundation was actually established (funded) through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between the tobacco industry, 46 state governments and five U.S. territories. See their homepage for more. Kinda ironic the tobacco industry has to pay for ads against itself.

2. United Nations World Food Programme

The World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. According to their website, "In emergencies, we get food to where it is needed, saving the lives of victims of war, civil conflict and natural disasters. After the cause of an emergency has passed, we use food to help communities rebuild their shattered lives."





Communications objectives

• Provide ways which social media users can use games and social networking to provide more meals for hungry people across the world
• Ensure social networks either drive donations to WFP or themselves provide meals for the hungry
• Partner with a variety of social media-friendly ventures like Zynga, makers of FrontierVille and Yo!Ville
  to raise awareness of hunger across the world

Results

• On Twitter, they have 103K+ Followers
  
• On Facebook, they have 74K+ Fans
  
• On their YouTube channel, they have 5.2M+ total upload views
  
• Since 2007, the launch of their Free Rice Word Game has fed 4.2M+ for a day in countries like Bangladesh, Uganda and Cambodia
• Another campaign spawning from this is WeFeedBack, which has fed 88K+ children, funded by the likes of PayPal

3. Create the Good

Create the Good is an organization that connects AARP members, friends and families with ways to make a difference. From the logo, it's clear this an AARP-driven campaign, according to it's website, the Create the Good Program is, "where good people get connected to opportunities to make a positive impact."

Strategy

• AARP uses the Twitter account to network and point out members of the organization who are making a difference in the world.
• On Twitter they also help promote other organizations and media channels making a positive impact on the lives of others.
• Twitter also educates others about regional opportunities to get involved with good projects.

Results

• The Create the Good Website-driven Social Network has 118K+ community members
  
• On Twitter, they have 7.7K+ Followers
  
• On Facebook, they have 5.3K+ Fans

4. Twitchange

According to their website, it's the Worlds Only celebrity Twitter auction, TwitChange, is an online auction in which fans bid on the chance to be followed, mentioned or retweeted on Twitter by their favorite celebrities for charity. Proceeds from the 2011 International Women's Day Charity Auction will benefit CARE.

Communications objectives

• Utilize celebrity branding to raise money for charity
  
• Be available throughout the year to raise awareness of Twitchange
• Enable the yearly event to grow in size, as well as increased popularity and publicity

Results

• One campaign raised $1.5M+ for tents in Haiti, as well received 35M+ visits in 4 weeks
• On Twitter, Twitchange has 44K+ Followers
• On YouTube, they've had 36K+ total upload views
• Mashable recommended their work during the Consumer Electronics's Show giving them an award, also writing on the, "social good" of Twitchange, and its influence on Twitter