This two-day, intensive workshop is an immersion into the world of social media and nonprofits. It is designed for small planning teams from nonprofit organizations who are ready to roll up their sleeves for two days and dive deeply into understanding how to craft a social media strategy and to experiment with tactical approaches. Participants will also get exposure to some of the tools and how they work. Day one will begin with a high level overview covering what, why, and planning considerations to build and deploy an effective social media strategy. It will cover a variety of tactical approaches - listen, participate, content, and community, sharing examples from nonprofits.

During the second day in the morning, the two-person planning teams from organizations attending will take what they've learned from Day 1 and begin to craft a plan for a social media experiment that can be implemented following the workshop. Working in small groups, they will have an opportunity to share with colleagues. The afternoon session will use an "over the shoulder" format and include hands-on learning, demoing the tools, answering questions, and having fun. Participants will leave the workshop with an idea or two to test, basic understanding of social media concepts and tools, and where and how to find follow up information and other nonprofit practitioners via the WeAreMedia wiki.

> Register Now!

Or if you are registering 2 participants at the same time:

> Team Registration!

(Please note that both participants must be associated with a single organization to take advantage of the streamlined Team Registration.)

Workshop Prerequisites

• Participants have some experience of social media (have read a blog, have a profile on a social networking site, or use RSS) and have a basic understanding of the terms. They may have already implemented a social media project in their organization.
• Participants have basic computer and web literacy skills.
• Two person teams from each nonprofit organization must include a key decision-maker (executive director, board member, or senior program or marketing staff) and a person responsible for the implementation (marketing or technical) for the entire workshop.
• Pre-workshop reading and assignments must be completed before the session begins.
• Each organizational team will set up a blog (Blogger.com hosted) prior to the start of the workshop and use to post workshop pre-workshop assignments, workshop written exercises, and post workshop reflections.
• Free wifi will be available and participants are strongly encouraged to bring their own laptops so they complete workshop assignments electronically and have access to online materials housed in the wiki.

Workshop Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Make decisions about how to effectively integrate social media into your organization's overall web communications plan so it supports your organization's mission.
• Understand how to design and implement a social media experiment that enables listening, participation, content creation, or community building and is appropriate and realistic for your organization.
• Evaluate the results of your social media experiment and use the information to improve your next social media strategy experiment.
• Experience a variety of web tools that are essential in listening, participation, content creation, and community building tactical approaches.

• Day 1 (pre-workshop exercise)
• Day 2 (post-workshop exercise)

• Each organization will set up a blog as a workshop "notebook" to take notes, write reflections, and get to experience social media tools first hand. Each organization's two-person team should include one person who is technology-comfortable and will support other people from the organization who may post to the blog.
• The key to mastering a new topic or skill is immersion. Technology, particularly social media, can be overwhelming. So, taking the time for a deep dive will lead to success.
• The workshop agenda will incorporate time for reflection and time for each team to do a little planning.
• Participants will use and contribute to the wiki before, during, and after the workshop.

 Travel

• Workshop sessions will be held at the Marine's Memorial Club, 609 Sutter Street, San Francisco.
• Participants are responsible for making their own travel arrangements. 
• If you need a hotel, we've created a map with a few good options.