Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook gurus offer top tips to social entrepreneurs

Social media is everywhere – but civil society organisations must up their game to leverage the impact that is possible.

So says About that First Tweet, a guide from Unity Trust Bank and Social Misfits Media which shows that many smaller charities and social enterprises are not using these free tools.

The guide surveyed almost 200 of these organisations and that whilst these organisations know that they need to be part of the social media world, they are either not finding the time to do so or their leaders are unconvinced of its usefulness.

The guide highlights good practice from a range of organisations in this space – one small charity raised £10,000 in just 38 hours, for example.

Quoting examples from Save the Children and The Girl Effect, the guide also includes hints and tips from the gurus at Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn on how to rally support with funders, volunteers and supporters.

Claire Diaz-Ortiz, head of social innovation at Twitter, says in the guide: ‘Motivational speakers tell you to try one new thing every day. Do it on Twitter, too. More importantly, find new people. Twitter is about relationships, and it’s time to start building them.’

Adrian Oldman, head of marketing at Unity Trust Bank, said: ‘Social media may not be your thing – but by understanding and embracing the opportunities, it can deliver results quickly, relatively cheaply and give your organisation an edge.

‘Unity Trust Bank commissioned About that First Tweet and made it free to download because we recognise the importance of social media in delivering social change. A new set of indispensable, free online tools have now been created by companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to specifically help charities and social enterprises to use them to broaden their audiences, spread their messages and fundraise. We have pulled this together and created a guide that we believe will help small and medium-sized social impact organisations better harness the power of social media to achieve lasting and sustainable change.’

Carlos Miranda, Founder of Social Misfits Media and CEO of I.G. Advisors, said: ‘Social media can be an incredible tool for charities and social enterprises to use for fundraising, business development, networking, and building their brand – but many are not using the platforms available to their full potential. We hear from clients all the time that they find it difficult to figure out how to fit social media into their fundraising and marketing strategies, but it’s not as hard as it looks.

'In About that First Tweet, we’ve provided both insights from experts and inspiration from other organisations who have run successful campaigns so small and medium-sized organisations can learn to use these online tools to reach their offline goals.’

About that First Tweet can be downloaded here.