"USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO EXTEND

YOUR PROGRAM'S MESSAGE" WEBINAR

September 28, 2010



CAROLYN PHILLIPS: I'm really glad that you're with

us today to listen in and learn and hopefully share some

information about using social media to extend your

program's message.

Liz has done a great job pulling this one together.

So thank you, Liz.

And we're lucky to have the folks with us that are

going to be sharing their information, their words of

wisdom. So listen up.

Liz is going to walk you through some of the basics

about the webinar system just so everybody's on board with

what we're doing.

So Liz, here you go.

LIZ PERSAUD: Thank you, Carolyn.

Hey, everyone. This is Liz Persaud, training and

development coordinator with the Pass It On Center. And

welcome to today's webinar, "Using Social Media to Extend

Your Program's Message."

Before we jump into the content of the webinar, I

just wanted to let y'all know of a few housekeeping tips if

you have not been on this webinar system before.

If you have a microphone and a headset or external

speakers on your computer and you would like to join in on

the conversation with us by speaking, what you will do is

press the "Control" key on your keyboard, and you'll hold

it down and speak. And when you're finished speaking,

you're going to release the "Control" key. So that way we

can answer your questions, respond to your comments, and

allow for other speakers to speak as well.

Over on the right-hand side of your screen, it says

"Public Chat." And you see we had some sound checks

earlier. We were saying hello to some folks.

If you have any questions or comments, you can also

type it into that public-chat area right in that white

window underneath -- right under the emoticon picture. You

can also send us smiley faces and funny pictures, as well,

too. But you can type in your questions and comments

there. And it's a great way to keep up with what we're

presenting throughout the time together.

Carolyn is actually about to say hello to everyone.

And you'll see where it pops up. There you go. Thank you,

Carolyn.

If you look under there, you'll also see the list

of us that are moderators and participants in the room, as

well, too. So that way you can check out who's your fellow

attendees joining us today.

Hopefully y'all can also see the PowerPoint that we

have up right towards the left side of the middle of your

screen. It has the Pass It On Center logo and today's

title. If you have any difficulty at all, just type in and

let us know that you can't see it or if you have any

difficulty hearing us.

If you're using any type of screen readers or need

to adjust any accessibility options, you can do that under

the "Options" menu on the upper left-hand side of your web

browser in this window that's controlling the webinar. And

you should be able to do that by clicking "Options" and

just zooming in, zooming out, doing whatever it is that you

need.

And, hey, Chris, from FODAC. You said, "Looks

good. Sounds good." And it's great to see you on here.

Thanks for joining us today.

So with all of that -- and Chris just gave us a

thumbs-up. Thank you, Chris.

So with that being said, I was actually going to

jump in and do a little intro and talk a little bit about

social media and what we're doing from the Pass It On

Center perspective and kind of our thoughts on everything

and also to introduce some of the speakers coming up.

So I'm jumping to the next slide.

I want to let y'all know that we do offer credits

for our webinars with the Pass It On Center. We do have

CEUs available for this webinar. If you visit the

AAC Institute at aacinstitute.org, click on their CEU link,

and you'll be able to find this information about this

webinar and register through them, and they'll be able to

handle you. It's a very smooth process.

Normally we do have CRCs available for our

webinars. Unfortunately, we do not have those available

for this webinar.

But we need your feedback on topics that you want

covered and how it relates to y'all and how you're using it

within your AT reuse program. So feel free to e-mail me,

go onto the Pass It On Center website, get in touch with

us, and let us know how these webinars are benefitting your

organization within AT reuse. And that will really help us

to get these credits prepared and offered for you.

Our guest presenters that we have today, these

folks are folks that are using social media that have had

some great success with it and that really wanted to share

the things that they're doing with social media and the

lessons learned, as well, too, and just some great tips all

around on how social media has really benefited their

organization.

So again, I'll be speaking just for a few moments

on what it is we're doing with the Pass It On Center and

social media, social networking from the Pass It On Center.

I'll then hand the mic over to Jeni Raines, who is a case

manager with Project MEND in San Antonio, Texas. And Jeni

is on with us now.

So thanks, Jeni, for joining us today.

After that I'm going to pass the microphone on to

Kevin Riggs. He is actually sitting here right next to me,

looking handsome as ever. He is the director of

communications and technology at Friends of Disabled Adults

and Children, FODAC, here in Atlanta, Georgia.

And also Chris Brand is actually here in Atlanta.

He's over at the FODAC offices, and he will be tapping in

and supporting Kevin and answering any questions as well

that y'all may have for FODAC and what they're doing with

social media.

After Kevin wraps up, I'm going to pass it on to

Jennifer Hefti. Jennifer is the director of communications

and community outreach at the Utah Council For Citizen

Diplomacy in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Jennifer and I have tag teamed before a few months

ago to do another webinar on marketing. She was a great

speaker.

And again, Jennifer, I appreciate you being on with

us.

Jennifer actually addressed the Western States

Symposium back in March out in Utah when the Pass It On

Center gathered with the western states. And she really

spoke to them about marketing and the benefits and how to

really boost their organization and marketing and really

get to the things that they need.

Jennifer has worked on some policies and procedures

when it comes to social media. And we just thought that

that would be a great avenue for her to address with y'all,

so things to pay attention to and to be aware of when it

comes to social media.

So those are our guest speakers coming up. And

with that being said, I'm going to jump into some of the

things that we're doing here at Pass It On Center.

These are some of the avenues that we are extending

with Pass It On Center with social media. We have a blog.

We are very active on Facebook. And we also have a YouTube

channel.

And basically we were here at the center. We were

talking about ways to market. And we wanted to do

something that was kind of hot and new in the community,

something other than just the usual e-mail updates and

updating our website.

The thing is is that we wanted to reach into this

avenue and really see what the buzz was about. What is it

like to get on Facebook? Does that really extend our

audience? What is it like to have a channel on YouTube?

How does it really help us?

What we expected was to reach our untapped

audiences. And we were really thinking that we'd get

younger audiences, maybe some folks that are graduating

from high school or college or fresh out of college and

could really help with volunteer opportunities.

We were thinking that we would get ages 16 to

mid-30s, kind of that green generation, if you will, folks

that are really caring for the environment that are really

interested in helping with AT reuse and the whole idea of

reuse. And we just wanted to get the word out about AT

reuse in the community.

And what we found to be true is that many people

using social media are folks that are just like us,

business individuals. A lot of them are over the age of

30.

My mom is actually on there, believe it or not.

And I'm just making sure that she's not like, "Oh, Liz,

what are you up to today?" And she's been liking all my

comments, and she's been hanging out with my friends

online. And it's all cool. I love my mom.

But folks are over the age of 30, all aspects of

life.

I got these facts from about.com. For example,

more than half of the 140 million Facebook users are out of

college. And the thing is is that you need to find where

your target customers are, and you need to participate and

be where they are.

So here we are with the blog. The idea was to

create a venue where the AT reuse community could come

together, receive updates, and ask questions.

On the home page to the Pass It On Center website

on the left-hand side, you'll see that's where we have all

of our social media icons.

So you can click on the link to Facebook, go

directly to our Facebook page; click on the link to the

blog and chat with us on the blog; and also on YouTube, as

well, too.

So we do have a great update. We are now live with

the Pass It On Center emergency management blog. Thank you

to George Heake and Amy Goldman that are working with us.

They are our emergency management consultants with the Pass

It On Center. So feel free to jump on, check us out,

respond to some of the blogs that we've got going, and

really join in the conversation.

And again, this is on the Pass It On Center home

page, but you can access that at

PIOC-emergency.blogspot.com. And y'all just keep up with

us and bear with us. We're working on getting more blogs,

as well, too.

The thing that we've realized is the blog is

valuable, but it does take time and takes effort to make an

entry, to monitor the use and answer questions.

And that's one of the things that we'll be talking

about throughout this webinar that I really wanted folks to

present to y'all is the staff time and the hours dedicated

to keeping up with social networking and social media. It

is so important. It's been a great tool for us here at the

Pass It On Center. But we're exploring ways to really make

sure that we give it attention.

When I check Facebook and I'm checking the inbox at

Facebook and all of our messages, I treat it as if I'm

checking another e-mail box and responding to questions

just as if somebody e-mailed me at my passitoncenter.org

e-mail address.

So again, we're working on splitting up staff time

to rotate, to post on the blog, just to make sure it's

up-to-date and we can get to y'all in a timely manner and

get information up in a timely manner.

Facebook. We wanted to raise awareness by trying

something a little bit different. And again, there's a

link to our Facebook page on the Pass It On Center home

page.

Having a Facebook account allows us to post timely

updates, photo albums. We're traveling all over the

country. We'll be at ATIA Chicago in October.

I know Carolyn's headed all over the country.

She's going up north, south, east, and west. And we'll be

taking pictures, documenting what it is that we're doing

because we want to connect to y'all. We want y'all to be

in touch with what we're doing and see what's going on with

your peers across the country. So we have our pictures

that are up there.

A lot of times we're taking live pictures, and

we're uploading it immediately so you can see what's

happening with other organizations at that moment.

We're linking to other AT reuse partners and other

green organizations across the country as well. It allows

us to receive live realtime comments and AT reuse inquiries

from the community.

We have over 150 fans and, on average, we now have

three to four new fans per week, which is wonderful. So

our information is getting out there.

If you are not a friend of us on Facebook, be a

friend of us, fan us, and pass the word on to everyone else

that you're friends with on Facebook.

The thing that we found with Facebook is that

Facebook inquiries are from people who may not have found

us otherwise. So it could be your senior in high school

who's graduating and wants a summer hobby to do. And they

may be typing in "green initiatives" or "reuse," and they

came across us that way.

A lot of those interested that contact us are not

even really aware of assistive technology reuse but are

just interested in reuse in general. And then they learn

more about Pass It On Center initiatives and about AT reuse

programs across the country.

A lot of people ask us, "What do they do with old

wheelchairs and walkers?" They just don't know what to do

with them and where to pass it on at that time.

The other initiative that we've got going on is

YouTube. This is something I'm really, really excited

about. We created a YouTube channel to post AT reuse

videos made in collaboration with the Pass It On Center and

AT reuse programs.

Some of you on here have actually been visited by

Michael and Jerilyn Leverett from Disability Connections

here in Macon, Georgia, in middle Georgia.

They actually traveled all over the country in

their accessible RV and visited many different AT reuse

programs across the country filming footage on your

processes; getting success stories; visiting as people were

coming in, picking up wheelchairs; getting some amazing,

amazing success stories and amazing footage on video.

So our plan is by ATIA in Chicago we're going to

have a lot of these videos up on the YouTube channel so

y'all can access it and share it with your community and

show people what's going on in your program.

It's a very new endeavor. We actually have five

videos posted right now. And again, we'll have more after

the middle of October. And you can access our channel by

going to YouTube.com/passitoncenter.

Our vision for YouTube is to raise awareness on

YouTube by connecting; linking to other channels such as

assistive technology, assistive technology reuse,

independent living again, or just general reuse or green

channels.

But by connecting and being where your audience is,

you're able to get more interest and generate more comments

and questions for your program and to really heighten your

marketing.

The thing that we've learned with social media is

that it's a low-cost strategy for your marketing and

communication needs. A lot of your valuable time will be

spent connecting and communicating.

Have the staff time to invest. That's really

important, to make sure that you have someone who is

dedicated, who know the ropes of Twitter and Facebook and

YouTube who can really access it and know what they're

doing.

This is an important thing. Don't just make an

account and let it sit there. You'd be surprised at the

connections made with your network when you put yourself

out there in the virtual world.

Sometimes on the Pass It On Center Facebook account

on Friday evenings, I'll say "Pass It On Center wishes

everyone a great weekend." And you'd be amazed at how many

people come in and like it or they say, "Have a great

weekend. Thank you for the work that you're doing."

It's just that connection that's being made. It's

almost like when you're rolling or walking down the street

and you're smiling with somebody. It's that instant

connection, if you will, but translated online to that

virtual world. So if you make an account, keep it up, and

you'd be amazed at the people that really join you on

there.

And be friends and fans of other pages and

channels. That's definitely really important. We're fans

of so many entities out there that are not just related to

AT reuse but maybe in the disability community, as well,

too. And that's a great way to reach out and access more

individuals and market to folks who may not have heard of

your program otherwise.

So we need your feedback. And I'll actually be

posting this link at the end of our last presenter. And

I'll do it in the public-chat area. But we do have an

evaluation of today's webinar, and we do need your help to

fill out our SurveyMonkey.

So if you click on the link, you're able to jump

there, fill out the evaluation. It shouldn't take you more

than five minutes.

But we just want to stay connected to you. We want

to make sure that we're presenting materials that y'all

find interesting and that's been beneficial to you and that

really works for you.

So stay connected to us, and at the end of this

webinar, fill out the evaluation. And we really appreciate

your feedback.

And this is my contact information. I think most

of you on here know how to get in touch with me,

liz@passitoncenter.org. All of our contact information is

on the website. You can get in touch with us that way or

friend us on Facebook, blog with us, or watch our channel

on YouTube.

So I hope that's been helpful from the Pass It On

Center perspective on what we're doing with social media.

So at this point I'm going to pass it on to Jeni

with Project MEND.

And, Jeni, go ahead and start, and it will just

take me one second to pull your PowerPoint up.

JENI RAINES: Hi everyone.

Thank you, Liz. That was a wonderful presentation.

My name is Jennifer Raines. I'm a case manager

with Project MEND. How's everyone doing today?

Also can everybody hear me loud and clear? Is this

better? Is this a little louder? Great. Okay. All

right.

As I said, my name is Jennifer Raines. I'm a case

manager with Project MEND.

Can we go to the next slide, Liz, please.

What our mission is is to provide low-income

persons with disabilities with refurbished donated medical

equipment and specialized fitted devices that will enhance

their independence, self-sufficiency, and mobility.

Next slide, please, Liz.

The social media tools that we're using right now

include, of course, our Project MEND website. We've also

been successful in using Facebook. This year and in the

past we've been able to use Fueling Good. And I'll talk a

little bit more about that when we hit that slide.

Some of the other resources that we use include

presentations to local businesses. We also do

public-service announcements and a lot of outreach to local

fairs, events, and seminars that are going on in the

community.

Next slide, please.

The great thing about having the website is it

provides, of course, easy, direct access to our services

for social workers, case managers, and clients. These are

individuals that we deal with on a day-to-day basis.

We are also able to promote Facebook via our

website. Having a website also, it legitimizes an

organization. Our clients are able to apply online for our

services. We're able to post current events, news in

realtime. We're able to also track the number of page

views on a day-to-day basis.

And the great thing about having a website also is

we're able to provide the eligibility requirements or fees

or other items that individuals need prior to applying for

our services. So it's a way of better preparing them

before they come see us.

Can we go to the next slide, please.

Regarding our Facebook -- and I'm probably going to

be talking about this a lot -- it's free. There's no

really other way of saying it. I can't emphasize that

enough.

This is especially great if you're a nonprofit like

us. You have limited funding, limited resources. And free

is what you want to have access to.

We also have our website linked to our Facebook

account. What's great about this is you can actually

provide different administrative accounts.

So going back to managing time, we're a very small

staff. Right now we're lucky to have three individuals on

our Facebook account. So if one of us is not available, we

have two other individuals who are able to post on a

day-to-day basis. We are able to post our current events,

news in realtime.

As Liz was saying, we're able to also see our

likes, how many people are actually viewing our pages.

We're able to see our client comments, respond to those a

lot of the times in realtime because you do receive

notifications, which is a great feature. We're able to

post our calendar events.

For us what we've been successful in doing is

posting or keeping our clients up-to-date with -- we're

moving right now, and we're able to keep them up-to-date

via our website, via Facebook on what's going on with us.

We've been a little delayed, but, you know, we're getting

there.

Having a Facebook account, Twitter, Blogger, all

these different tools, they're great ways of promoting your

services; they're great ways of free advertising; and it's

very attractive to potential clients and the business

community.

This is where you want to flow. This is what's in

right now, and this is where organizations want to be.

This is another way of showing the community what we can do

for them and, in our case, what Project MEND is about.

Can we go to the next slide, please, Liz.

I'm going to talk a little bit about Fueling Good.

We used this this year and a couple of years ago as well.

This is a program sponsored by CITGO. It's a program that

promotes and encourages a unified vision of community

involvement, social responsibility.

What it is, it's a competition that you can -- I'm

sorry. I noticed a comment. Is the volume better? Can

you hear me better? I have this thing all the way up. Is

it better now? Okay. Great.

What the Fueling Good program is, it's actually a

competition where organizations are able to talk about

their services, maybe post stories, success stories that

they've had. And what you're able to do is promote this.

We did it via our website. We did it using

Facebook. Friends, family members, clients, the business

community were able to log on, view our stories amongst

other stories.

This is something that is promoted nationally. And

they're able to vote for you. They're able to see what

services are out there.

I myself was able to read other success stories and

learn about other businesses and what they were doing and

what their goals were. And I thought it was a great way of

sharing knowledge.

Ultimately that's what it was. It was a great way

of seeing what's out there, what the competition is. And

others were able to learn what I did here with Project

MEND.

We were also able to successfully view the number

of votes that we received participating in this

competition. And in the end, the reward is both -- of

course, like I mentioned, sharing the knowledge. I mean

there's unlimited information out there that I myself was

not aware of, and a lot of people were not aware of what

Project MEND was and what we did.

And if you are selected, if you get the most votes,

what's great about this is you get a $10,000 reward in

fuel, thus Fueling Good, which would benefit us greatly,

especially because that's something that we use to provide

services for our clients, especially when we're doing the

outreach deliveries of our DME and so on and so forth.

So I thought this was a really great program that

we joined. And we're hoping to do it again next year. And

there are always success stories out there.

Can we go to the next slide, please.

Some of the other things that we do include

presenting to local businesses. The way we do this is we

actually go into -- we make appointments with different

community businesses, and they'll get little groups of

providers together. And it's a great way of us providing

the information on what we do, the eligibility process, the

services accurately.

It's a great way of networking. Again, it's a free

promoting of our services. And it's a great way of

building relationships and partnerships.

Something similar to this -- can we go to the next

slide, please, Liz.

Something else that we use and we've used in the

past include the public-service announcements. Building

community awareness, building relationships, partnerships

again.

Our clientele, many of them are low income. They

may not have access to Internet. They may not have access

to Facebook. You know, so radio stations, your local radio

stations, television, it's a great way to promote services

to people who may not have access to the media.

Next slide, please, Liz.

The outreach that we do is also another great way

of networking. We share information with vendors. I

myself, what I will do is get a listing of businesses that,

for example, deal with what we -- I'm sorry. Excuse me.

I'm just a little nervous. If you guys can just excuse me

for one minute.

Okay. I'm back. I apologize for that. I just got

a little nervous, and my voice was going for just a second.

Outreach is a great way of sharing information with

vendors. We're able to provide again direct, accurate

information to potential clients, home visits, community

fairs, that type of thing.

I mean social media is a great way to go, but in

our case, dealing with the clients that we deal with, this

is a great alternate for promoting services without the

fees, without the expenses, because that is something that

we are limited on.

Next slide, please, Liz.

Things that don't work. Lessons learned for us.

As I mentioned, not everyone has access to -- thank you,

Carolyn. Thank you, Liz.

Not everyone has access to social media that

includes Internet, computers. Many of our clients do not.

Managing the website and Facebook, that's actually a great

challenge. There are limitations.

In my case, in reference to the website, I have

programming limitations. I am familiar with some of the

material, but I am not an expert. I do have some training.

And we also don't have all the software that's available.

It's something that can become costly. And for a nonprofit

organization, it may not be the best route.

A full-time IT person may be a great consideration

to manage the accounts for us. There are time

restrictions. You know, the website, Facebook, they are

jobs in themselves. They really are. They are very time

consuming.

And what we're actually trying to work on right now

is what we noticed. We want to create a site that is

accessible to all. We are trying to extend our services

right now to different populations to include the blind,

deaf, and hard of hearing.

So we would like for our website to kind of push a

little toward that so that we can service a greater

population.

Right now we are realizing that we're limited when

we're providing our services. We have a completely

untapped source of individuals that are out there that

aren't aware of our services that could use our services.

And that's the direction that we're heading in right now.

A little tip. We were able to -- and this kind of

takes care of the full IT person. We were able to have

someone work on the website for us who manages websites on

his own. He does this for a nonprofit organization.

So he had agreed to do the website for us and make

the changes and make it a little more accessible for our

clients, for the community, which is great because it's not

costing us anything in the end, and we're able to promote

our services and keep everything up-to-date because

ultimately we don't want to leave anyone out.

Something else that he's doing for us, which I

thought was great, is making it accessible specifically for

medical professionals. We do provide durable medical

equipment. But at times we are not the experts, and we

would love to have a section on there where medical

professionals are able to access and view the specialized

equipment that we have for either pediatrics or adults.

And that's something that he's working on right

now. And I think it's going to be a great addition to our

website. And this is something that we're also going to be

able to promote in Facebook once we have everything up and

running.

So making it accessible I think overall is

something that's really going to help us bring in a greater

number of people to access our services.

Next slide, please, Liz.

Right now, as far as managing our social media

tools, I'm mainly doing the website. We just had this

person come on board to help us manage the website, which

is going to be great as far as me putting in more time with

the case management and a little less time on our website.

I can tell you that there are weeks that I'm trying

to manage the website, Facebook, and do case management.

And I can spend anywhere from 15 to 20 hours just working

on the website and Facebook.

Facebook, as I mentioned earlier, we do have other

administrators for the account, which is a great help,

which include Cathy and Mike Mendoza.

And of course, if I'm not working on the website --

I do have to make changes on a day-to-day basis based on

need. As I mentioned, we are in the process of moving. So

we are trying to keep our community partners, our vendors,

and our clients up-to-date with what's going on with us.

Something that would help reduce this is hiring a

full-time IT person, as I mentioned. The individual we

have assisting us on the website is going to be a great

help. I know that it's going to reduce the hours.

Splitting staff time would be wonderful if we had

enough staff. We actually don't right now. We are very

low staff. I think we're seven in total. So in the

future, maybe, hopefully, if our little business grows,

we'll be able to do something like that. But this project,

social media tools, is very time consuming.

Can we go to the next slide, please.

In reference to our marketing budget, we don't have

a specific budget for social media. We do have a budget,

though, that we're able to put money towards either the

software, the programs to purchase for the media that we're

using, at times hire a technician on a contract basis.

We're able to do some advertising and purchase software and

licenses.

It is a very small budget though, so I mean we are

limited on what we can do. And we're always trying to find

ways of getting the assistance and expanding and

advertising at the littlest cost possible, of course.

Next slide, please, Liz.

Currently, or that I'm aware of, we have not had

any specific social media based on the tools that we're

using. I do know that a couple of years ago we were able

to get a commercial sponsored by Gordon Hartman, the Gordon

Hartman Foundation, which was a wonderful donation.

Based on this commercial, we were able to get

noticed in the local San Antonio newspapers and in the

local news. So eyes are always on us.

If you guys are in the same boat, even networking,

doing the outreach, doing the presentation, any little type

of advertisement that you can do, whether it be social

media tools or using the resources that you have, is a

great way of advertising for your business.

And in our case we've been very successful. A lot

of people have heard about our services, and we are

growing. Very soon we are going to be in a different

location. It's right off the expressway, and it's going to

be a great way of advertising just that way with -- and not

such a hidden location as we are right now.

So I mean, any tips. I appreciate if anybody has

any questions or comments for me, feel free to ask.

And thank you for being patient with me. This was

my first web chat, so I was a little nervous. But if I'm

on next time, I promise you that I will do better. Thank

you everybody. And please call or e-mail me if you have

any questions.

Thank you, Liz.

LIZ PERSAUD: Great job, Jeni. Wonderful

information, and you did a wonderful job. So thank you so

much for all of that information. I think this will be

very beneficial.

One thing that I did fail to mention at the

beginning of the webinar is that we archive all of this

information and post it on the Pass It On Center website.

So Kimberly Griffin, our transcriptionist, is on.

And we'll get these PowerPoints loaded and the

transcription and the audio transcription as well in about

three to four weeks.

There is a question up here from Ray Wood with

Early Steps. "Does your organization have multiple

locations?"

And then Jeni did respond, and she said, "We have

one location in San Antonio."

And then Ray Wood also said, "If so, do you link

them all together?"

And, Jeni, I can release the mic if you want to

answer via mic as well.

JENI RAINES: We do have one location in

San Antonio. We're a very small organization. As far

as -- can you be more specific as far as linking them all

together?

You're welcome.

LIZ PERSAUD: Thank you, Ray.

And thank you, Jeni. We appreciate your

presentation. Again, wonderful job.

So at this time I'm going to pass it on to -- Pass

It On. I'm going to pass it on to Kevin Riggs with FODAC,

Friends of Disabled Adults and Children, here in Atlanta,

Georgia. And he's going to be speaking about some of their

initiatives with social media.

So here we go, Kevin.

KEVIN RIGGS: Hello. My name is Kevin, and I'm

director of communications and technology for Friends of

Disabled Adults and Children Too.

I'm honored to talk with you today about social

networking and how it can benefit your organization. My

disability makes it difficult to communicate with you. For

this reason, the genius is at assistive work technology.

Quida Hale and Gene Spalding are helping me out with an

artificial voice.

Most of us are somewhat familiar with social media

of some kind. It is a vehicle to broadcast information to

the public in a very user-friendly format and very

interactive.

The first big social media website was MySpace, but

it has taken a backseat over the last several years to

Facebook and Twitter, which are now the two best-known

sites.

The main idea behind these sites is to give people

who are nontechnical a place to exchange ideas and

information. This allows you to communicate

instantaneously with them, rather than relying on them to

go to your website.

Facebook claims 500 million users. Wikipedia

reports another 190 million monthly visitors at Twitter.

Those are numbers that are hard to ignore.

For those of you who don't know, Mark started

Facebook as a way to meet women while he was in college.

Now we all know Facebook is a success, and his company is

worth $9 million. Did I say 9 million? How about 9

billion. Needless to say, finding women for Mark is not

the problem it used to be.

There are different types of social networking. I

will focus on sites like Twitter and Facebook to benefit my

organization.

Your organization has a story to tell. What impact

have you made in the community? How have lives been

impacted because of your organization? Social networking

is wonderful to let others know of the difference your

organization is making in the lives of others.

We have a satisfaction survey which recipients of

our medical equipment fill out. They tell us how the

equipment will change their lives.

We post many of their stories on Facebook and

Twitter to show the impact our organization is making in

the community to gain supporters of our mission in the

community. We hope that people will become inspired to

write a check, volunteer, or get involved as an advocate or

with special events.

We have 227 friends after just getting more

involved with social networking for the last four months.

When people go to your page and either click "Like" in

Facebook or choose to follow you on Twitter, all your posts

show up on their home page.

So if you make regular posts, you are keeping your

name in front of people. So if you post something every

day, it is a daily reminder of who you are and the good you

are doing. We have found that neither Facebook nor Twitter

require much responding to questions. This keeps our time

mainly on planning the posts, pictures, and content.

We have 227 friends after just getting more

involved in social networking for the last four months.

When people go to your page and either click "Like" in

Facebook or choose to follow you on Twitter, all your posts

show up on their home page.

Facebook allows more options to communicate than

Twitter. I will focus on the Facebook basics.

The information page gives you a place to tell

about your organization. You can give a basic overview of

your organization, your mission statement, and what

products or services you offer. You can set up your own

"cause" page in Facebook with information about your

organization, which can even accept donations through

PayPal.

You want people to click your "Like" button or the

"Follow" button on Twitter. This will allow your comments

to appear on your home page. This allows your comments to

be seen by friends of your friends, which is part of the

multiplier effect of getting your messaging out.

People can also click the "Like" button on a

comment you post, or they can start a dialogue by making a

comment about your comment. This lets people really engage

in the work you are doing and lets you see which comments

touch a nerve with your audience.

The photo page is neat. Pictures will add a lot to

the story you are telling about your organization. I'm

trying to add a photo album for each special event we have,

like our annual run, walk, and roll. I also have an album

of FODAC clients, and our clients can upload their photos.

This is an event page on Facebook, and this

particular page promoted our run, walk, and roll. Event

pages are actually created from an individual's page and

not an organization's page.

So what you want to do is get as many friends as

you can to make event pages for your event, and invite

their friends. This will allow you to reach more people,

hopefully draw more people to your page.

Use your page to tell people about news of interest

and promote advocacy. The people who read your posts have

chosen to friend you, so they already have a heightened

interest in what you do. You should use this to your

advantage by posting news and advocacy items which may

interest your audience.

Now let's take a look at a web-based tool you will

want to use, particularly if you are posting to more than

one social network. It's called HootSuite, and you can

find it at HootSuite.com.

HootSuite will send one post to multiple sites so

you can send a message to both Facebook and Twitter with a

single post.

Once you log into HootSuite, you will see what

HootSuite calls the dashboard. The top part of the

dashboard is where you post messages, and below that is an

area for what HootSuite calls streams.

First let's look at the area where you post a

message. You'll notice a text box to type in your message.

Keep it short, particularly if you are posting to Twitter

because Twitter has a limit of about 140 characters.

This was the most difficult thing for me to get

used to, and Twitter will cut off your message if you

exceed the limit. If you add a link to your message, put

it in the box below the text box and click the "Shrink"

button because web addresses can be long, and you do not

want to exceed that character limit.

Next to the "Shrink" button is a paper clip button

where you can attach files to your message. The next

button is my personal favorite. It will bring up a

calendar where you can schedule your message to go out at a

future date and time. I often do a week's worth of posts

at one time with this button.

The button with the disc on it lets you save your

post. To the right of the text box are my Twitter and

Facebook icons. I can post to either site by clicking each

icon, or I can post to both by choosing "Select All."

Finally let's take a look at streams. You can

choose what kind of streams you want to view. You can view

streams of posts you have made, posts you have scheduled,

or posts of each site you publish to. You can see the

other social media sites HootSuite supports including

MySpace and Linkedin.

This is my beginner's look at some of the ways your

organization can utilize social media. I try to spend a

couple of hours a week on social media, and I think tools

like HootSuite helped me to use that time in the most

effective way possible.

With this technology still in its infancy, its uses

will surely multiply in the years to come. I hope your

organization will find ways to prosper from this new

technical frontier.

Thank you.

LIZ PERSAUD: Thank you, Kevin. That was wonderful

information. I really like HootSuite.com.

Somebody asked us -- Ray Wood asked if we would

post that. Everyone is saying, "Great." That was awesome.

I'm definitely going to check out HootSuite for Pass It On

Center.

Chris Brand, the director of FODAC, is actually on

with us.

And we wanted to ask you, Chris, if there's any

other information that you wanted to add in addition to

what Kevin presented.

CHRIS BRAND: I think Kevin really touched on

everything. We talked both about this webinar today, and

of course we're hoping to learn from you guys, as well,

through this webinar.

But, yeah, we're just really pleased with some tips

we've learned about this HootSuite making our time more

efficient as we try to keep our information out to the

public.

The one other thing that we were told is trying to

really keep your community of people who are following you

aware of other things that will be of benefit to them. Not

only just things about your organization constantly but

by -- you know, especially on Twitter -- giving them some

information that -- as an advocate for people that you're

trying to serve, that would be of use to them.

So that was just one of the tips that we'd talked

about that maybe we didn't break out in the webinar. So

that's about it.

LIZ PERSAUD: Thank you, Chris. I really

appreciate it.

One thing that I do love that Kevin is doing on

FODAC's Facebook is constantly putting in success stories

into the status update. That really makes me feel

connected to what's happening on FODAC, and it brings it up

to the top of the news feed page. So if you're a friend of

FODAC, you're always seeing what's going on.

So great, Kevin. Thank you so much for being here

and for your information.

And thank you, Chris, for chiming in, as well, too.

And AWT. We've got Gene Spalding and Quida Hale

here who really worked with us all this morning to get this

assistive technology up and running so we can successfully

deliver Kevin's methods to all of you.

So we hope that was beneficial. We really

appreciate AWT. Yay! We're having a party here.

So with all that being said, again, thank you guys.

I'm going to pass the mic on to Jennifer Hefti.

Again, she's the director of communication and community

outreach with the Utah Council For Citizen Diplomacy.

So Jennifer, I'll pass the mic on to you, and if

you'll take it away. And let me know when to advance the

slides for you. Thank you again.

JENNIFER HEFTI: Can everyone hear me? Hello. Oh,

fantastic. Is that a unanimous yes? All right.

Hi. My name is Jennifer, and I'm the director of

communications with the Utah Council For Citizen Diplomacy.

And I am relieved that everyone can hear me.

Thank you so much, Liz and the Pass It On Center,

for having me today for this very interesting webinar on

social media and using social media to extend your message.

I thought that it might be helpful to discuss

social media policies and procedures. Like most of you, I

believe, I'm a social media user. I use it personally.

However, my organization is still launching. It's

launching into the world of social media. And so, like

many organizations, I think, we are creating a social media

policies and procedures. I think a lot of organizations

today do that retroactively. We're doing it proactively.

And so we decided to put this policy and procedure

manual together before we even ventured into the world of

social media. And I hope this information is helpful for

you.

Liz, next slide, please.

Why create social media policies and procedures?

Well, there are several reasons why. First of all, it's --

sorry.

I should have gone through the learning objectives.

We're going to go over: Why create social media policies

and procedures? Who's in charge? Who writes content? How

often, and for what purpose? And then the 10 must-haves

for your social media policy. I will also share a few

social media tips and resources at the end.

Next slide, please.

So why create policies and procedures? There are

different reasons, multiple reasons to do this.

First of all, to create clarity. Who is going to

be in charge? Who writes? Who is going to be

administering the social media outlets?

And also to provide direction. What goals and

objectives are your social media outlets, whether you use

Twitter or Facebook or a blog? What direction do you want

these social media outlets to take your organization?

Of course social media is a fantastic tool to

promote ethical, respectful, and mutually beneficial

dialogue. And you want to have that as kind of a best

practice, a standard practice.

And unfortunately we also create policies and

procedures to report and I should say address violations.

And that unfortunately does happen, and we should be aware

of these and have a plan in place to address them.

Next slide, please.

So the question of who's in charge is very

important. Social media is somewhat of a flattened

hierarchy, but in the end some few people do have

administrative rights.

And for a nonprofit organization like mine, the

Utah Council For Citizen Diplomacy, we're governed by a

board of trustees and directors. We have an executive

director and myself, director of communications. So the

person or the people in charge would probably be the people

at the top of that hierarchy.

Next slide, please.

However who writes content is up to your

constituents. I think it's really important to involve

everyone, whether it is at the top of the hierarchy, your

executive director, myself; but your colleagues in your

workplace, interns, volunteers, board members; any of your

constituents, whether they're members or clients. And this

should allow for open communication and dialogue.

This is a way to capture stories, as my predecessor

just mentioned, and a way to tell your organization's

story. And so please encourage anyone involved in your

organization to tell that story and share it using social

media.

Of course this information should be relevant and

appropriate and, whenever possible, reviewed by the

executive director or the communications director in your

organization.

Next slide, please.

Now, how often to post the frequency of posts is a

question that we've tackled with and addressed within our

organization.

Social media needs constant attention, as you might

have noticed. But the last thing you want to do is flood

your Facebook with frantic posts. I think a good rule of

thumb is to contribute a minimum of one post or update per

day or per week and a maximum of three posts or updates per

day.

Of course, it is very time consuming. And for me

personally, I'm at capacity with all of my other

responsibilities, and my interns as well, and I can't

demand my constituents to post very often either. So I

think one post or update a day or a week for organizations

that may have less to communicate about is just fine. But

I think three is the great maximum.

Next slide, please.

Using social media of course has several

objectives. There are several for our organization, and

these include to learn what's going on in your field. I

think social media, before being a tool for communication

and particularly one-way communication, it's particularly a

listening tool.

And I think a lot of people forget that you should

be on social media, on Twitter, on Facebook to listen

what's going on in your field before you actually

contribute in a positive way.

Of course social media can generate awareness and

increase visibility of your organization and your programs,

helps you connect with people who care and matter. And the

beauty of social media of course is to provide a platform

for dialogue.

Next slide, please.

I'm going to go through the 10 must-haves of social

media policy. Just to give you a little bit of background

about my organization, we are a private sector partner with

the U.S. Department of States International Visitor

Leadership Program.

We deal with international visitors traveling to

the United States under the auspices of the State

Department. These visitors are highly ranked

professionals. They come to the United States for three

weeks. And they sometimes come from countries where the

values that we embrace here in America don't exist, for

example, freedom of expression, freedom of the press.

And so we have to be particularly careful of what

we say about our guests and the information that we share

with the public.

And I'm sure that you identify with that being, for

example, the Pass It On Center providing assistive

technology to people with disabilities. I'm sure you have

to deal with a lot of confidential information as well.

Well, the first rule is don't tell secrets. Keep

private information confidential. And make sure that you

abide by any rule or privacy law that is in force within

your own organizations. So make sure that whatever you say

online is what you would say to the person next to you.

Whatever happens offline translates online.

Next slide, please.

Of course, along with secrets and confidential

information, privacy settings on social media platforms

should be set to allow anyone to see profile information

similar to what would be on your website. So whatever is

on your website is whatever people can see on social media

outlets.

And other privacy settings that might allow others

to post information or see information that is personal

should be set to limited access. So be mindful of posting

information that you would not want the public to see.

And as I mentioned before, do not violate any

nondisclosure agreements that may be in place with your

organization or your constituents.

Next slide, please.

One of the key elements of social media is to be

transparent and honest and authentic. So when posting on

social media, I would recommend using either your real name

or the name of your organization and so that people can

identify with you or your organization and what your

organization stands for.

I think nothing gains you notice in social media

more than honesty or dishonesty. So I encourage everyone

to be honest, truthful, and authentic, because what you

publish will be around for a long time, so consider the

content carefully, and also be cautious about disclosing

personal details.

Next slide, please.

Along the same lines, I recommend never quoting

more than short excerpts of someone else's work. I know

Facebook is a great means to publish articles where maybe

your organization was featured or a quote of one of your

constituents.

But remember to always attribute such work to the

original author or to the original source. And whenever

possible, link to the original source rather than

attempting to reproduce or paraphrase it. So respect

copyright laws is rule number four.

Next slide, please.

The public in general and your organization, your

employees, your affiliates reflect a diverse set of

backgrounds, values, and opinions. And so respect them.

Respect their backgrounds.

We deal with people who come from around the world

who don't share the same values that we do perhaps, and so

we need to be mindful of them.

Don't say anything contradictory or in conflict

with your organization or your organization's mission and

guiding principle and really with what is said and stated

on your website.

As a nonprofit independent and nonpartisan

organization, the Utah Council For Citizen Diplomacy has to

be really careful when sharing information and has to make

sure that it respects and abides by its independence and

nonpartisanship. And I'm sure a lot of you can identify

with those guiding principles as well.

Next slide, please.

When you deal with controversial issues, when you

see misrepresentations made about your organization in the

media or on social media outlets, I highly encourage you to

point them out. Always of course do so with respect and

with the facts.

I really encourage you to stay factual and that

your comments do not become defamatory. I would avoid

arguments and heated debates online. I think heated

debates might get big TV ratings, but they only serve to

hide the facts.

So make sure that what you're saying is backed up

with verified facts. Everything online stays online, and

so just the facts, ma'am.

Next slide, please.

Can everyone hear me? I notice that some of you

have a few sound issues. Is the sound coming up now?

Okay. Great. Sorry about that.

We're all human, and we all make mistakes. Of

course if you make a mistake on social media, it's going to

be viral. So I would be upfront about it and correct it

quickly.

If someone accuses you of posting something

inappropriate, for example we just mentioned their

copyrighted material or a defamatory comment, I would deal

with it quickly. Better to remove it immediately to lessen

the possibility of unintended consequences.

Next slide, please.

In talking about unintended consequences, I think

it's really a good thing to think about those unintended

consequences. Quick, snappy comments posted on outlets

such as Twitter and Facebook are interesting and can

benefit your organization, but you always have to consider

how your comments will be received before you post them.

I highly recommend that you think about your

message and how it will be received by multiple vantage

points. So think before you press "Publish."

And thinking about unintended consequences goes a

long way, but I think the best thing to do is actually to

think about a worst-case scenario.

And next slide, please.

In the world of social media, it's entirely

possible that something amounting to a worst-case scenario

could hence happen to you. And it's always good to think

about it and have a communication or crisis communication

plan in place.

For example, an offensive comment drives a donor to

withdraw his or her financial support. The quick and dirty

solution is to delete the offending comment and offer a

public explanation or apology.

And I want to stress the "public" in here. You

really want -- because this is a public platform, you do

want to use the same outlets to explain and apologize, if

need be, for the mistake or the defamatory comment.

What UCCD, my organization, has decided to do,

because we're going to allow comments, we have decided that

we're going to include a disclaimer on all of the social

media outlets.

Next slide, please.

While social media provides a platform of

user-generated content, permitting offensive posts or

comments on your website or your social media outlets

damages your organization's image and anyone related to

your organization.

And so what we've decided to do is to put a

disclaimer. And I think a lot of organizations -- I've

looked around quite a bit, and I've noticed that a lot of

organizations have actually decided to do that now.

This is just an example. We're not set in stone

with this disclaimer yet. But "The Utah Council For

Citizen Diplomacy is an independent nonpartisan, nonprofit

organization. We do not allow defamatory or offensive

statements, slurs, insults, or any other content deemed

inappropriate. If any of the above content is posted or

enclosed in a comment on this site, it will be promptly

deleted."

And then you're protected. If you did delete a

comment, you can always go back to that disclaimer.

Of course social media, because it requires

constant attention and is such an immediate -- or is

conducive to immediacy, a lot of us have trouble devoting

as much time as we want to to social media.

So rule number nine -- and, Liz, would you mind

changing slides -- is to not forget your day job.

I think that all of us, particularly in the

nonprofit sector, are at capacity with our

responsibilities. And adding one more item is really

almost unthinkable.

But the rule of thumb, at least for now, is, as the

director of communications, I will spend five minutes in

the morning, five minutes at lunchtime, and five minutes

before I end the day and make sure that I monitor social

media frequently but in very short amounts of time.

So I do want to make sure that social media does

not interfere with my job or my commitments to the

organization.

Next slide, please.

Of course social media does allow people to comment

and users to make mistakes. And violations can and

probably will happen. And a policy violation should be in

place and should be subject to disciplinary action.

But I would say that social media is such a viral

tool that mistakes are often made and often unintentionally

made. So I would give whoever violated any law or any

policy or procedures -- give them the opportunity to have

full -- to explain their case and situation. But I do

think it is important to report and address violations

whenever they do occur.

Next slide, please.

A few social media tips that I think might be

helpful for everyone -- they're helpful for me personally,

and I think they'll be helpful for me professionally -- is

that I strongly believe that you should write about what

you know.

I think there's nothing more dishonest than to try

to put up something, update, plug a post just because you

want to and not have very interesting or relevant or even

factual content. So write about what you know and keep

away from what you don't.

In the world of social media, quality seems to be

at risk. I think quality matters offline and online. So

use spell check; consider your word choice and content; and

if in doubt, reconsider your word and content choice, and

ask for a second or third opinion.

And again, this is my guiding principle and rule:

What guides offline communication translates online. So

what you would do offline, do online; and what you wouldn't

do offline, don't do online.

I'll finish this presentation with a few resources

that I find helpful.

The 10 must-haves, I've adapted those from an

original source, and I want to make sure that you have

those, "10 Must-Haves For Your Social Media Policy" by

Sharlyn Lauby, was published in June of 2009.

And another resource is actually a PDF, "Social

Media, Risk, and Policies For Associations," by SocialFish

and Croydon Consulting, and that was published just

recently in January of 2010.

So great resources. And I recommend -- they're

quick reads, and I really recommend that you read these.

With that, I have I think my contact information on

the last slide. If you have any questions or concerns,

please don't hesitate to contact me,

jhefti@utahdiplomacy.org, and on our website,

utahdiplomacy.org.

Thank you so much for your time, and have a great

day.

LIZ PERSAUD: Great information, Jennifer. Thank

you so much. I think all of those things that you

discussed, policies and procedures, are all that we can all

benefit from with AT reuse programs.

I think it's something that we don't necessarily

think about because we're thinking about Facebook and

Twitter and getting our information up there and

connecting. And these are some great tips and rules to

live by to make sure we get the best information out there.

We have a couple of comments that I wanted to read

and respond to.

Brian from FREE Foundation said, "The guidelines in

this presentation would seem to be an excellent addition to

the indicators of quality for AT reuse, either in the

marketing or as a standalone addition to the current

items."

That's a great idea, great feedback, and great

point, Brian.

What we're going to do is actually get this

information, this presentation, to Lindsey Bean Kampwerth,

who is our consultant part of the team on Pass It On

Center, and get her this information and see how we can

work all this into the IQATR for reuse programs.

And then also Arlene asked, "Where do you post the

disclaimer on Facebook, for example?"

So Jennifer, do you want to respond to that? Where

do you post the disclaimer on Facebook?

JENNIFER HEFTI: Sorry. Is everyone here? Sorry

about that.

On Facebook when you create a fan page, you have

the opportunity to include information about your

organization. I would keep the information about your

organization short and concise and add the disclaimer

below. I hope that answers your question.

LIZ PERSAUD: Thank you, Jennifer. I appreciate

it.

I just put up the link to our evaluation of today's

webinar on SurveyMonkey. So when y'all log off, please

click on that link and fill out the evaluation. Again, we

need your feedback so we can offer credits and so we can

really get the information out there that you need.

I'm going to pass the mic on to Carolyn Phillips to

wrap us up. But I just wanted to say again thank you to

everyone who presented today.

Jeni in San Antonio with Project MEND. Great job

and great information.

To Kevin Riggs and Chris Brand from FODAC. Thank

you, Chris, for chiming in. And Kevin did a great job.

They had some great resources for what they're using with

social networking and social media at FODAC.

And then again, thanks Jennifer over at the Utah

Council For Citizens Diplomacy. Great information on

policies and procedures.

Again everyone, we'll have this webinar archived

and PowerPoints, audio, and transcription up in about three

to four weeks on the Pass It On Center website.

So with that being said, I'm going to pass it on to

our director, Carolyn Phillips.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Thank you so much, Liz.

Excellent job pulling this together, as always. I'm very

impressed.

And it was really fun actually getting to use more

assistive technology with this. I thought Kevin and his

team did a great job too.

I wanted to thank you all again for your time. We

know time is precious, so we appreciate you spending it

with us.

We wanted to remind you that we will be at ATIA in

October in Chicago. We've got a whole strand of sessions.

Liz has done a great job being our strand

advisor -- is that what you're called? Yeah, strand

advisor -- and pulling that all together. You've done a

great job with that.

So you can check out what the sessions are that are

in our strand. We've got some new ones in there, including

assistive technology reuse in the school system. We're

seeing more and more folks doing that, and we're getting

more and more questions about that. And a bunch of other

really good sessions.

We also are going to be having in November,

November 16th -- I just wanted to remind y'all -- that our

next webinar will be about using the IQ, indicators of

quality, ATR for assistive technology reuse online program

assessment tool to improve your program. So Lindsey Bean

Kampwerth will be with us. Trish Redmon and Liz and I will

be with you too.

And then December 14th we're going to have

developing continuity of operations plans. And so we'll

have George from Temple University and one of our Pass It

On Center consultants in emergency management with us for

that.

If there are other webinars that you would like to

see us do, let us know. You can send those requests to me

or Liz. Liz is probably the best person to send it to, but

you can send them to me too.

It's as simple as e-mailing Liz at

liz@passitoncenter.org or carolyn@passitoncenter.org. And

we would be happy to listen to your requests. We have

quite a few lined up, but we just want to make sure that

we're being inclusive of all of your requests.

So please fill out the evaluations. We continue to

get great evaluations, and we appreciate that, but we want

to continue to evolve. Let us know how we can improve.

And thank you once again for your time.

Liz, anything else?

LIZ PERSAUD: Yes. There's a question here.

"Where do we go for a certificate for CEU?"

If you go to AAC Institute, there's a link on the

home page and also on the webinar page on the Pass It On

Center website. So visit the AAC Institute website, and

click on their CEU link, and they'll set you right up, and

you can handle all of that online.

So thanks again everyone for joining us.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: All right. Y'all take care.

Thank you so much.