Social Media for Social Good by Heather Mansfield

GK was lucky (or should I say blessed) to have Microsoft now part of the GK family and us a part of theirs. Aside from the Microsoft grant that GK received, we also get to participate in a Social Media for Social Good workshop that they organized for their adopted non-profits, which includes us. And hopefully they'll continue to include us in their future workshops too. Thank you Microsoft!

With Heather Mansfield. I finally get to meet her in person. Fan mode here. :) It was an honor and a great privilege listening  and learning a lot from her! 

Guess who's in your line of sight when the elevator door opens: our dear Executive Director, Kuya Luis.

Last Dec 15, 2011, The Social Media for Social Good workshop was held in Microsoft's office in Makati City and we were invited to join the said workshop. And guess who the speaker was? It's Heather Mansfield! I do agree with the description given to her when she was introduced, a Non-profit Social Media Marketing Rockstah! She definitely is, because I've been following her blog since I started to realize and see the big role of social media to spread the inspiration and stories of hope of GK online. I love the simplicity and the tips and best practices of other non-profits that she always writes about and support. Very articulate and comprehensive for a newbie in the social media marketing world like me. She inspires me! And I dream to be able to write and share my journey as GK's digital/online marketing coordinator just so I can inspire more people and groups particularly non-profit organizations that even if we're short on financial resources to spend for our marketing, it won't stop us to spread our cause, our stories, our inspiration, so we can be heard, and reach and inspire more people. And there's no better way, and cheaper way to do that but to utilize online tools: websites, blogs and social networking sites.

Some points that I took with me after listening to her which are definitely worth pondering:

• Gone are the days that you are the only one broadcasting and controlling the message, the traditional communication. That's why social media is such an "in" thing these days because it gives the consumers, the donors, the volunteers, the partners the opportunity to share their side of the story. Of course they want to be heard. And that's definitely a plus point for you too because it will surely help you tell your story since you get to know what appeals to them, what will move them and inspire them the most so they'd want to volunteer and be involved in your cause. 
• Age range of people in the social media: 25-34 yrs old (coming of age => age range of donors). I was actually amazed by this trivia. It's not only the tweens and teens that rule the world wide web these days and it's a good news for non-profit like us. 
• Spin a story in a positive way. A photo or a video is the best way to tell a story. A picture is worth a thousand words.
• Follow/Like/Subscribe to large nonprofits similar to yours in mission and programs and watch/mimic them. They usually hire digital consultants and for those of you who can’t and doesn't have enough resources to hire one (like us!), you can learn from them, and you get to save from hiring one. Ha! (On my next post, I will be giving examples of non-profits that you can closely watch and mimic based from our workshop, or better yet, head over to Heather's blog).
• "You get out of social media what you put into it! There’s no such thing as overnight success on the Social Web." True story.

So stay tuned for my next posts. You might learn something new and interesting that could help you and maybe even convince you to try, see the relevance and importance and explore online tools to help you with your current dilemma on how to come up with practical yet efficient marketing strategies. Until the next post!