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Social Media Best Practices Guide

W RI TI N G 3 01 5 SE RV I CE LE A R N I N G P RO J E C T

Writing 3015 Professional Writing University of Utah Professor Max Werner Erin Olschewski, Cory Jensen, Benny Agana, Jaron Johnson
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Table of Contents
INSTAGRAM .................................................................................................... 3 LOGISTICS.............................................................................................................................. 3 BASIC INFORMATION ........................................................................................................... 3 ESSENTIAL TIPS .................................................................................................................... 5 DIVERSITY STRATEGY.......................................................................................................... 6 FACEBOOK ...................................................................................................... 7 BASIC INFORMATION ........................................................................................................... 7 ESSENTIAL TIPS .................................................................................................................... 8 DIVERSITY STRATEGY........................................................................................................ 10 NEWSLETTERS.......................................................................................... 1211 BASIC INFORMATION ..................................................................................................... 1211 ESSENTIAL TIPS .............................................................................................................. 1211 DIVERSITY STRATEGY.................................................................................................... 1312 BLOGS.......................................................................................................... 1413 BASIC INFORMATION ..................................................................................................... 1413 ESSENTIAL TIPS .............................................................................................................. 1514 ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................... 1514DIVERSITY STRATEGY .............................................................................................................................................. 15 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................ 1216 DIVERSITY STRATEGY ............................................................................................................ 1615
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Instagram
Logistics
B R E A K D O W N

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nstagram is an incredibly popular social media tool that can be used to market your organization in a very visual way. More than 40 million photos are uploaded each day and there are approximately 100 million active monthly users.1 Instagram is an excellent way to broadcast Wasatch Community Gardens happenings because it is so visual and one of the most diverse social media sites out there right now.2

For this section, as well as the remaining three sections, the guide will be broken down into three main chunks: Basic Information, Basic Information Essential Tips, and Diversity Strategy. Basic Information will go Essential Tips over general, must-have knowledge about the social media platform; . Diversity Strategy Essential Tips will address the strategic and most important advice for best utilizing the platform;, and Diversity Strategy will look at some pointers for using the site or tool to expand your organizations demographics.

Basic Information
Sharing. One of the beautiful things about Instagram

is that it not only captures moments in a simple and elegant platform that can be seen by limitless followers, but also that it possesses the capability to easily connect to other social media platforms including Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Flickr, and Foursquare.

http://www.giftworksconnect.com/2013/08/giftworks-guest-blog-julia-campbell-15-ways-nonprofits-can-use-instagram/ http://mashable.com/2014/01/23/racial-breakdown-social-networks/
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Filters. Instagram allows you to either upload photos youve already taken to the app

and then apply filters, or snap a photo right as the moment is happening and then apply filters directly. Either way, filters are a basic, but not always necessary aspect of Instagram. Using filters that compliment your photographs is tasteful and adds the Instagram touch; however, certain photos are best left unedited. For example, the photograph on the left did not use a filter, whereas the photograph on the right did. Each photo serves a different purpose: the one on the left, while artistic, captures the natural beauty of Monument Valley with no edits; the one on the right also captures the beauty of the dead sunflower, but focuses more on the artistic aspect of the photograph. For that reason the filter works well with the photo on the right.

Filters are a great feature of Instagram, but the moral of the story is: dont overuse and dont use when not necessary. Some pictures are better left with #nofilter.
Video. One of the unique features of Instagram is its 15 second long video capabilities.

You can either record a video through the app or upload a section of a video already stored on your phone. Videos are much trickier than photos, so dont attempt to shoot video unless you have video or dont mind it looking amateur. However, if you have a short bit of an advertisement, or clip use it!

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Hashtags. A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) and

used to identify messages on a specific topic.3 Hashtags started with Twitter and soon became a key aspect of Instagram as well. Hashtags are an integral part of getting your photos out to a larger audience, beyond your followers.
THE DOS AND THE DO NOTS OF HASHTAGS.

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DOS:

Track what hashtags are popular in the nonprofit world and use them Hashtag topics that are relevant to your picture #organicgardening Keep your hashtags simple and limited #GiveLoveUT
DO NOTS:

Put more than onelots of words in a hashtag #welovegardeningitssocool Put apostrophes in a hashtag it wont link properly #wheresthekale?

Put too many hashtags on a photo #green #garden #fun #volunteer #grow

Essential Tips
Follow other nonprofits. Its a great idea for Wasatch Community Gardens to get a

feel for how other nonprofits, especially in similar fields display and use their Instagram effectively. Look at number of followers and then number of likes when determining an effective user.
Follow your followers. Following your supporters shows that you are interested in

what theyre doing and what moves them.4 Additionally, this will allow you to see what type of pictures they post and that others respond positively to. photos is a powerful way to market and demonstrate what volunteering with a garden might look like. Take pictures of volunteers, gardens, food, parties, and whatever else is a

Show direct impact. Expressing what Wasatch Community Gardens does through

http://www.adlibbing.org/2013/12/16/hashtag-etiquette-dos-donts-hashtags/#.UzEC7PldXlY http://www.giftworksconnect.com/2013/08/giftworks-guest-blog-julia-campbell-15-ways-nonprofits-can-use-instagram/
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direct reflection of your work. However, dont hesitate to post silly pictures occasionally to show that you are casual and fun.
Involve your followers in your marketing. Photo contests are very popular on

Instagram and a great way to get your followers directly involved in the marketing.

Have pre-set hashtags for volunteers or attendees of a given event to tag their own Instagram photos with so you can view, and even use them later, like #tomato14 Have followers post photos of their tomato sandwiches from the Annual Tomato Sandwich Party and tag the Wasatch Community Gardens Instagram to win a tshirt. In addition to having them tag their photos with a set tag, like #tomato14, you can broadcast an image on your social media platforms announcing a photo contest where you select the best photo with the tag #tomato14 and the winner gets their photo posted on all of your social media sites.

Diversity Strategy
Posting photos of diverse volunteers and gardeners. By showing the different

populations that Wasatch Community Gardens works with and supports, followers are more likely to feel compelled to get involved. People respond well to seeing others like themselves on social media.
Follow lots of different people. Diversity can be comprised race, ethnicity, age,

income, geographic, or any number of other factors. That being said, as Wasatch Community Gardens has such an inclusive mission, all of these factors of diversity can be expressed in a small way by following all sorts of users. Following users of different ethnicities, ages, geographic locations, and gender expressions will allow Wasatch Community Gardens to observe patterns and likes of these users.

Develop and show your partnerships. One of the neat things about Salt Lake is we

have so many different nonprofit organizations that range from organic gardening to helping refugees. As a nonprofit, were sure you have a strong network of other organizations, both in your issue area and otherwise. Show those partnerships through your Instagram; share their pictures, have them share yours. Support their causes; their followers will be more likely to check your organization out.

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Facebook
Facebook is a social media tool that allows non -profit groups to reach out and interact with people like never before. In order for a non-profit organization to work effectively on Facebook engagement is required;, and if that organization is trying to reach out to diverse groups with in a community specific actions areis required.

Basic Information
According to BIG Insights February 21012 American pulse survey 26.8% of Hispanic Internet users spent six or more hours on social media sites, versus only 8.5% of total Internet users. The same poll indicates that 80% of Hispanic adults in the U.S. use social media. Thats more than Non- Hispanics atat 70% and African Americans at 75%, plus more than 2/3 of Latino Internet users say that they use Facebook.
Comment [TJ1]: Site the source. Thanks!

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Essential Tips
Reach. The first metric that any Facebook manager should be tracking is overall

reach. Reach is a pretty obvious metric, its simply a measure of how many people to whom your message is being delivered. , hHowever, many non-profit organizations look at the wrong metric to gauge overall reach. Many organizations look only toward their fan count to judge their success. A wellmanaged site of 500 can have a much deeper impact than a poorly run site of 5000. Fan count is important, however to access and track reach effectively, you need to look beyond fan count. The best course of action would be to look to the number of people talking about the organizations page, and then also take into account the reach numbers. Facebook provides both of these numbers on the insights tab at the bottom of the screen of the any organization page. Together, these two sources of information will provide a far better picture of your organizations reach than merely reading a fan count number. In order to increase the diversity of an organization this reach is key. Connect with Latino community groups and track the success of your Reach by using the suggestions above.

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Engagement.

Engagement
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Reach alone will not create impact when trying to connect with community diversity groups through Facebook. Engagement combined with reach should be used to achieve maximum efficiency. No matter how large an organizations page may be, if people arent engaging your content, your page will fail to fully interact with the desired demographic. Facebook provides good tools for measuring overall engagement on an organizations page.
Race distribution: Utah population

Suggestions. Suggestions

Non-profit organizations that use the free app Actionsprout on their pages have shown that use of that app is one of the most powerful ways to measure engagement relative to fan count. A page of 5000 that engages 100 people on an average post is not performing as well as a page of 1000 that engages 75 people on an average post. If your organization is using a personal page, then it would be wise to note that Facebook does not allow the

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use of apps on such pages, and you should switch to an organization page in order to use this and other helpful apps.

Diversity Strategy
Social Connection.

Connections to community groups through Facebook and measuring your success through these methods will surely help your organization reach deeper diversification. Not only are there many Latino groups that use Facebook, but many other community groups that represent the many other nationalities that live here in
.

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Hispanic Population by Township: Utah

Salt Lake City. Connection with the Islamic centers of the greater Salt Lake Area and with groups that area affiliated with refugee placement will prove to be fruitful in your

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organizations quest to reach out and include the diverse groups here in Salt Lake City.

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Newsletters

mail newsletters are a very easy way to send out valuable information to a large number of specific people. With technology these days most people instantly receive notifications. Listed below are some ways that Wasatch Community Gardens can effectively use e-newsletters.

Basic Information
Electronic newsletters are sent via email and are an easy way to reach your audience. It is aThey have become a must in the world today and is a simple way to keep your audience informed and involved with your organization and have become a must have in the world today. With people receiving thousands of newsletters we have listed below some of the ways you can make your newsletter stand out from the rest.

Essential Tips
Less is more. People have a limited time to spend digging through their emails. Be

direct and to the point with the message that you want to convey to your volunteers. Too much information will overload potential volunteers and scare them off.
Put action links. The most effective ways of email communication is to list an event or

opportunity with a hotlink that sends them to more information through website or other media source. Be sure to include links to Wasatch Community Gardens Facebook, Instagram, blog, website, and any other social media venues.
Let the subject stand out. Grab your readers attention and entice them to read

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further into your newsletter. Catchy words make the reader want to do more than skim the surface.

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Keep the information relevant. Give your volunteers the information that they want

to hear! Give recipes or history or how to be involved so they can look forward to something each newsletter. Put pictures in it to keep it colorful and involving.
Be consistent. Whether its daily, weekly or monthly send your volunteers the emails

regularly to keep them involved and not surprised by the email. An unexpected email could be marked as spam or could cause a volunteer to become an uunsubscribe request. correct, the information is accurate, and to guarantee the links all work.

Double Check. Send the e-Newsletter to other coworkers to check that the spelling is Evaluate. Use website trackers such as StatCounter to see how much attention your

newsletter gets. Determine why one email gets the audience more involved and expand on that quality. W whether it is thate specific time of day, or the information that is within.

Diversity Strategy
Include activities for all ages. Have events that get everyone involved and excited

about local produce and gardening. Show pictures of all ages getting involved and being excited. during the work hours might best suit a desk job businessman, a late night email after the kids are in bed is perhaps prime time for a stay at home mother. Decide what target market you are aiming for and play to their strength.

Timing is key. Each volunteer has a prime time to access their email. Sending an email

Comment [TJ2]: Id add something at the end of this section to make it more conclusive. I dont think it needs to be long, but just something to briefly say, NEWSLETTERS ARE USEFUL! Or maybe just something at the very end of the guide?

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Blogs

logs are a website in which someone writes about personal opinions, activities, and experiences. There are thousands of websites that allow individuals, non-profits, and companies to blog. Out of thousands of websites that allow blogging, we recommend one of the following: Tumblr, WordPress, or Blogger, because they are the most user friendly and easily integrate for other forms of social media (i.e. Facebook, Webpages).
4 Reasons why you should blog

1. Blogging will help drive traffic to your website as well as any other social media sites you may have. 2. Blogging will help establish your authority both online and in the market place. Many of the best blogs answer common questions for customers and potential customers. 3. Blogging helps increase long term results. Every blog you write is another web page indexed. This shows search engines your webpage is constantly updating, thus a hierarchy is created for search engine and your company will begin to show up more prevalently in online search engines. 4. Blogging allows you to test a campaign or marketing idea before you even consider implementing it.

Basic Information
What day should you publish your blog? Thursday is the optimal day to publish

your blog. If you are unable to publish a blog on Thursday we recommend posting your blog on a Wednesday or Friday even the occasional Monday blog has been successful. Avoid publishing your blog on Sundays and Tuesdays as they are shown to have the lowest success rate. If you choose to blog multiple days a week make the days sequential, i.e. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Even though
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Comment [TJ3]: Source?

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Tuesday is shown to be one of the least favorable days to blog when coupled with a preceding or ensuing blog the number of views it receives increases substantially.
What time should you publish your blog? You should publish your blog between

the hours of 8am and 12 pm. The highest number of views and shares is found between the hours of 9am and 10am. Therefore it is highly beneficial to have your blog published before 9am.

Essential Tips
Abbreviations

Addresses 500 S. instead of 500 South Months Nov., Dec., Jan. instead of November, December, January Measurements o Lengths Avoid use of apostrophes or quotation marks. Use lower case units, with a single space in between figures that contain a period after each abbreviated unit. Example It is 6 ft. 4 in. tall. o Weights oz. (ounce), lb. (pound) Dates Use consistent formatting with the MM/DD/YYYY format. Fractions Use numerals. 2 cups flour, not 2.5 cups flour.
Numbers

Spell out numbers under 10. Use numerals for numbers 10 and above. When referring to age ranges uses numerals. For ages 6-12. Always spell out dollars instead of using the dollar sign ($).
Titles

Keep titles short, aim for titles that contain no more than 10 words.
Images

Use images only when necessary. Make sure images are relevant and relate to the topic. Always try to wrap text around an image, so your text doesnt get broken up. This increases your blogs readability and gives it a cleaner overall look.
Jargon

Avoid using jargon; you may know what it refers to but your readers wont.
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Voice

Everyone has a different writing voice. It is important to have each author express their personality and maintain a constant voice throughout each blog post.

Diversity Strategy
Multiple Authors have multiple authors for your blog. While it is crucial to have a

single voice in individual blog posts you can have multiple authors for your blog. Each blog author will capture his/her own audience as they write varying blogs.
Hyperlink/Reference. Hyperlink and/or reference your blog with your other social

media sites. Doing this informs people when your non-profit has published a new blog. In addition to letting people know when a new blog is posted it allows Facebook users the ability to share a direct link to your blog on their wall or with their friends.

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