This week Pesel & Carr attended Social Media Club Melbourne’s ‘Social Good’ panel event. Focusing on effective strategies for using social media in the non-profit sector, panellists Melina Schamroth, Richenda Vermeulen, Cairin Conway and Tim Norton discussed their experiences with organisations such as Oxfam, World Vision and SunSmart Victoria, sharing their advice and answering questions from the crowd and from Twitter.
The importance of having a clear story and understanding of your organisation’s purpose was a key take-away point from the discussion. Without having anything to offer their followers in terms of information, entertainment or other value, an organisation has little basis to call on these followers for contribution – be that donations or volunteering of time. A phrase that was repeated throughout the conversation was that organisations should “give, give, give…and then ask. Then give some more.”
Some interesting points arose that are worthwhile for any digital communications program, surrounding Twitter and hashtags, blogger outreach and establishing a company blog, monitoring and measuring digital reach and converting social media engagement into donations or action.
For a summary of the event and the fantastic tips and pointers that emerged through the discussion, check out this Storify timeline of the evening’s tweets.
