At the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference, we -- Carie Lewis, Beth Kanter, David J. Neff and Jordan Viator -- had the great opportunity to lead a session entitled "The Real Housewives of Social Media". Funny Photoshopped pictures were displayed of us, we sported aprons to hype the theme, and we shared information and case studies on various aspects of social media campaigning.

The Strategy
by David Neff of Ridgewood: Ingenious Communication Strategies

If 2009 was the year everyone and their mom jumped into the social media pool, then 2010 is the year of strategy. It's time to go beyond listening and responding and get into several key areas: monitoring, running bold campaigns, adding video, and fundraising in online social networks.

While I was with the American Cancer Society, we were inspired by an amazing monitoring system developed by the Humane Society. They built an iGoogle dashboard and fed RSS feeds based on information they were seeking in online social networks.

You can make one, too: type in Cancer (or your own keyword) at search.twitter.com and see what results are returned. Then, grab the search RSS feed and add it to your iGoogle. Now, anyone can log in to monitor this. We used this technique for DIGG, forums, Twitter, Bing, and Google and then set up various searches along with monitoring of certain Twitter feeds.

Adding fundraising to social media campaigns is another key focus area for nonprofits. In 2008, I helped start the Frozen Pea Fund against breast cancer. Each Friday in December, we asked people to donate the cost of a package of frozen peas to help fight breast cancer. When people logged in on Fridays, they saw hundreds of frozen pea avatars from people who were fighting breast cancer. (Think of the impact the folks at Movember are having, only online.) You see something like that and ask "Hey! What's this all about"? BAM, time to tell the story. All this inspired by a single woman who had a breast cancer diagnosis and took one photo of herself holding a package of frozen peas on her chest.

The Tools
by Jordan Viator of Convio

Social media tools tend to be "bright, shiny objects" with which organizations become enamored. But putting the cart before the horse -- or tools before the strategy -- should be avoided to ensure the effectiveness of your campaigns.

You shouldn't choose the toolbox for your organization until after a strategy has been defined -- at which point the following should be considered: fish where the fish are, use tools that make sense for your audience, know there is no "one size fits all" plan and map tools directly to your strategy.

Once the above points are addressed, the following toolsets can be considered, along with their fundamental attributes:

Social Networks allow for extensive networking, sharing personal interests, interconnecting groups, and sharing content with different groups. (Facebook, LinkedIn)

Blogs offer a human voice, newsworthy information and experiences, and a forum for feedback -- and empower supporters to engage with and share ideas around your stories and news. (Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger, Convio CMS)

Microblogging enables real-time sharing of "bite-size" information, quick news, and update links and real-time collaboration. (Examples: Twitter, Identi.ca, Plurk)

Communities present safe areas for select groups, can be private or open, have options for in-depth discussions or sensitive information, outlets for question/answer format and support around delicate topics. (ThePort, Ning)

Multimedia content sharing is a powerful tool for storytelling, providing content that is easy to share and embed. It tends to be ideal when catering to the emotional side of issues and is well-utilized for user generated content. (YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, Picassa)

Two examples of the above tools working for nonprofits include a remarkable Twitter success story from Free The Kids and the creative use of social sharing in Pathfinder's Girl2Woman.

The Secret Ingredient
by Carie Lewis of the Humane Society of the United States

I'm convinced the secret ingredient in social media is DRAMA. You can't be knee-deep in social media activism without it. People are talking about you. The key is to be smart in your response: know when and how to say things -- and when to say nothing at all.

Why? Have you heard of Motrin Moms? #Amazonfail? The Dominos Pizza Booger? (Ew!) These social media PR nightmares can happen to anyone. As a victim of a "twitterstorm", I have a few survival tips.

1. Know there will be haters and know how to cope. Find someone who is thick-skinned to listen to the negativity and respond in a professional manner.
2. Identify the usual suspects and DNFTT (do not feed the trolls). Keep an internal list of your repeat offenders. Know when to respond and when not -- pay attention to people's tone and influence.
3. Build a monitoring system for your needs. NO ONE can afford to ignore what's being said about them. Planned attacks usually occur after business hours, so monitoring is not a 9-5 job. Our monitoring includes:
   • Tweetdeck for iPhone
   • Dual office monitors -- one for work, one for Tweetdeck
   • "As it happens" Google Alerts for name, acronym, CEO's name
   • An iGoogle dashboard aggregating web alerts
4. Make your commenting policy known and fair. Post your commenting policy on your Fan Page's info tab. If you delete something, tell your fans. If someone's abusing your policy, use blocking features. Be transparent.
5. Stay on top of the latest trends so you're prepared for "the next big thing". Foursquare has been deemed the "Twitter of 2010". How could it benefit your organization?
6. Get staff and executive buy-in. Get them on Facebook and Twitter. When you need resources or want to try something new, they'll "get it"!
7. Be proactive. Take the time to build your fan base and trust -- they'll defend you naturally. Follow, participate, and create hashtags and memes. Retweet followers, answer questions, and comment back. Develop volunteers, brand ambassadors, even employees!
8. Have a response process. We monitor sites in real time, evaluate what's necessary to respond to, develop responses with PR, deliver responses the same way generated, monitor following conversation and alert Communications in daily meetings.
9. Crisis communications is not new -- just add social. Listen to "what" and "who". If you don't know, SAY you don't! Watch your tone and be respectful of reactions. Explain how you'll address the specific issue and prevent it from happening again.
10.  Address the employee issue, the looming "social media policy". Don't assume anything is common sense. My personal motto is never post something I wouldn't want my mother to see. Remember that what gets put on the Internet, stays on the Internet!

The measurement techniques
by Beth Kanter of Zoetica

In covering measurement recipes, my points were simple:

1. Measuring Cup: Identify the right results and pick the right metrics to measure it.
2. Egg Timer: Track your time, because working on social media can give you ADOLAS: AD - Oh Look, A Squirrel! If you track your time and have specific tasks, you know what you're getting from your time investment. It's just one step away from looking at ROI. I had a funny picture of a Squirrel and shouted out Squirrel at random points during the presentation. This started a twitter hashtag #squirrel.
3. Funnel: Measure the whole funnel! I shared some learnings from my Birthday fundraiser on Twitter and Facebook. I talked about the importance of finding influencers at the first step and shared a few tips and tools. I shared some thoughts about using Social Network Analysis tools to analyze your Twitter network.
4. Test Kitchen: Having low-risk experiments using metrics are very important. I shared a few points about how I use A/B testing with my Facebook Fan Page
5. Season To Taste: This was a point about actually looking at your data to reap insights.

In Conclusion

Social media is an ever-changing area that becomes more exciting, more complex and better understood with each passing day. 2009 year was hyped with campaigns like Pepsi's Refresh Challenge and the Humane Society's IHOP Campaign, and 2010 will no doubt be an exciting year with more lessons learned, established best practices and noteworthy case studies.

In the meantime, just remember: be mindful of the strategy, "kitchen tools", measurement recipes, and secret ingredients most pertinent to your organization, and you can make your own personal recipe for success!