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Three local non-profit organizations were featured in a Sacramento Social Media Club panel on Tuesday evening hosted by the Sacramento State College of Continuing Education. The panel included Celia Cortez, Projects and Event Manager for the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Jordan Blair, Board Member for River City Food Bank; and Jon Benorden, Program Coordinator for the Center for AIDS Research, Education and Service (CARES). Lesley Miller, Media Director for 3Fold Communication, also sat on the panel. Moderator Josh Morgan, principal at Morgan/Dorado and program director for the Sacramento Social Media Club, focused the discussion on how non-profits are using social media to educate, engage, and build lasting relationships with their communities.

Facebook was the unanimous point of entry into social media for all three organizations. Cortez said the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber selected Facebook because it was the most popular platform among their member organizations; Blair choose Facebook for River City Food Bank because it is the platform upon which he spends the most time. “Facebook provides an easy way for people to connect with causes and non-profits thanks to its one-click ‘become a fan’ feature, “commented Morgan. River City Food Bank, where many of their long-term contributors are past retirement age, is finding that Facebook helps them to engage with the next generation of donors. However some of their loyal supporters are stepping out into social media as well; an 85 year old volunteer joined Facebook just so he could “friend” the River city Food Bank. Benorden said that their “old school” supporters are beginning to mesh with the new people they’ve engaged through their group & page on Facebook but that CARES still has a long way to go.

Both the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and CARES are also using Twitter to promote their organizations and causes. Miller said 3Fold encourages their clients to cross post on multiple social media platforms to increase the traffic among all the sites. For example, use Twitter to remind people the organization is on Facebook or create an event on Yelp and ask people to write a review. I frequently use Twitter to drive traffic to SARTA.org’s website or LinkedIn group where more detailed membership and event information is available.

CARES created both a group page and a fan page for its campaign “Are You the Difference” which strives to eliminate new cases of HIV in the Sacramento region by 2015. Benorden plans to expand the campaign to include other platforms like Flickr and YouTube. On YouTube, CARES wants to personalize and promote their campaign by featuring user generated videos about how individuals can be or are the difference in eliminating new cases of HIV.

The biggest challenge for all of the organizations is finding the time to manage and maintain their social media accounts. Cortez shared that she uses cross posting tools to lessen the amount of time she spends managing each platform the Hispanic Chamber employs. Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Seesmic were mentioned as free services for managing multiple accounts and platforms and Radian6 was recommended as a new professional service for this purpose. Benorden prefers to uniquely post to Facebook and Twitter to keep variety in the CARES messages, but he sticks to a common theme. Blair, who in addition to his responsibilities as a board member of the River City Food Bank works a full time job, schedules time on his weekly calendar to tend to his social media chores. When asked if a volunteer could handle the job, the general consensus among the panelists was that most volunteers and interns do not have enough depth or experience with the organization or its causes to determine social media platform content or to respond to questions and remarks received by followers and friends on the sites. For CARES, sensitivity to and experience with HIV/AIDS is a must for anyone representing the organization on its social media platforms.

The panel wrapped up with a discussion on event promotion using Facebook ads and other tools. All of the organizations are considering using Facebook ads and River City Food Bank has budgeted money for this purpose next year. Benorden pointed out that even if no one clicks through an “Are You the Difference” ad, if enough information is included about the campaign, there is value in people seeing the ad multiple times. Miller said 3Fold advises their clients to put nearly as much energy into post event promotion as they do pre event. Blair followed this advice after a recent River City Food Bank fundraiser, uploading event photos long into the night. The post event promotion is a valuable investment in the success of future events and helps those who attend feel more part of the organization—especially if they are featured in a photo!

After the panel ended, participants informally exchanged ideas on how they are using social media and also had a chance to meet the panelists and ask more questions. The event was live tweeted by volunteer Ira Cohen on behalf of @SMCSac using the hashtag #smcsac. The venue provided by Sacramento State College of Continuing Education is well equipped for meetings and seminars and the Senior Program Coordinator, Toni Ramirez shared that the college is considering offering courses on social media in the future. 

Social Media Club, an international non-profit organization, brings together journalists, publishers, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaborators. The Sacramento chapter was founded in March of 2009 by local users of social media. Free events are normally held on the third Tuesday of each month, but in December, the group is planning a Holiday Party or “holitweetup” in partnership with SacTweetUp on December 10 at Hot Italian in midtown. In January, the normal schedule of monthly panels will resume. For information about the Sacramento Social Media Club and its events, join their groups on Facebook and LinkedIn and follow them on Twitter.

Photgraphs by Marie Young Photography. For more photos of this event visit her Facebook Page

Sacramento Social Media Club Leadership Team:

Julie Berge, Angela D'Arcy, Laura Good, Suzanne Hopkins, Ronnie Ledesma, Jeff Marmins, Josh Morgan