Blog 9.1 – Non-Profit Social Media policy

Student Blog Activity: Your SM principles

Review the tenets of Coca Cola’s social media policy.

Consider your industry or company. Develop five to ten SM principles that will be foundational in your SM policy initiatives.

After reading, Coca Cola’s social media policy it is clear that most companies will probably be adhering to the same set of rules when it comes to its dealings with online communications.  Means of advertising and marketing via social media comes with both its pluses and its pitfalls and in order to avoid these in the company that I am researching for my final project, I am suggesting the following be added to the list of items already mentioned in Coca-Cola’s policy.

1.  Clearness of information that is posted. In representing a non-profit, we are responsible to make our organizations financials public.  In keeping with this mandate, we will post the information in a manner where it is both understandable and readable by the outside community.   We will not post complex data or complicated graphs to represent our data or make it unclear where the donation money that we receive is going, whether it be to pay operating costs, fund an animal’s operation, etc.

2.  Information posted in a timely manner.  We will update our social media outlets with the most updated information available.  We will make sure that we establish a routine and procedure of posting on a scheduled time basis and will mark the information as dated. We do this so that the community and supporters are never in doubt about the “freshness” of the information on our social media outlets.

3.   Honesty. We make sure that in a shortage of funds or supplies for the shelter that we are completely honest with our status. We do not send out pleas or calls for help over anticipated shortcomings.  We will only ask for help when needed.  There are so many non-profits that make it a habit of “crying wolf” in order to establish a type of cushion or security in their organization.  We will not do this, we will instead devise leaner business practices and build a trusting network of volunteer vendors and workers that know that they can trust us to ask for what we need, when we need it.

4.  No filtering of negative comments on blogs or Facebook.  We should receive negative comments as an opportunity to reflect and build on perceived problems to build solutions for all those involved.  We work with and for the community and we have to embrace that everyone is not going to receive the message we send out in the same manner.

5.  Be mindful of the reason we are utilizing social media (blogs, websites, Facebook, etc). We are using these social media venues as a way to get the word out about our organization and build relationship with community vendors.  We will put any and all funds made by advertising through SM back into the shelter operating funds.  These funds will not be used as way to raise someone’s salaries or as kick back to community administrators.

8.1 Blog – Social Media monitoring tool

Search for a tool that monitors consumer’s SM activity. For example, Nike would want to know who is talking about their newest shoe. What are the costs associated?

The SM tool that I wanted to cover in reference to answering this question is Hootsuite. It is software that allows you to monitor “multiple social media platforms” as well as update statuses on Facebook and Twitter via only one tool.  This tool is ideal for individuals starting up new companies that don’t have a lot of capital or monies to hire a professional to create and maintain a social media campaign.

The reason why this is ideal for startups and nonprofits is that this software is free.  “The free version lets you work with up to five social networks and two RSS feeds but is limited to one user for your organization’s account; it stores stat history for 30 days and is ad supported.” (www.socialbrite.org, #1)

There is also a paid version of Hootsuite that will integrate monitoring dashboards from a computer or mobile devise.  This paid version also will give you advise as well as guidance as to how to compile your data, how to extend your social media reach and also advice on how to tweak you marketing and advertising strategies for your company or nonprofit.

For the paid version of Hootsuite:

“Cost: For $5.99/month, your organization can enjoy unlimited capabilities for a single user, with each additional user costing $15/month.”

Who could use such a tool in the business world?

I believe that this particular software has made it very easy for any type of company or nonprofit (regardless of their annual income or spending needs) the opportunity to use a product that will easily integrate all their social media accounts with a way to conclusively compile data.  The nonprofits could easily use the free version and then as they grow can implement the paid version to gain the ability to utilize the dashboard while continuing to enjoy the uses of a software that they are already familiar with.  Hootsuite already boast such clients as:  The White House, Oxfam, Martha Stewart Media, SXSW, Zappos, TED, LA Times, Fox, BET,  (www.socialbrite.org, #3) and best of this you know that this company has the ability and the knowledge to help their customers navigate the SM industry.

 

 

1. http://www.socialbrite.org/2011/01/11/guide-to-free-social-media-monitoring-tools/

2. http://webbiquity.com/social-media-marketing/55-of-the-best-social-media-tips-tactics-and-tools-of-2010/

2. http://www.socialbrite.org/2011/01/12/paid-social-media-monitoring-services/

 

SMMS tool “Wildfire” – Possible HR Hiring Use?

Examine various Social Media Management Systems (SMMS) such as those in this article. The tool you select does not need to come from this list. Discuss the application you selected, a brief summary of why you would choose this tool, and how you might integrate this tool within your SM strategy. What features, benefits, resource needs, and costs might be involved?

I chose the SMMS tool, Wildfire.  Ordinarily this tool seems to be geared primarily for helping companies and organization promote and run a successful sweepstakes but I can also see ways that this type of software and its “inner workings” can be used to for a hiring campaign.  My blog is geared toward “how individuals can locate gainful employment” but I can see how a company can find it difficult to locate a potential employee who is the “best” fit for the open position and their company.  Below are the steps that Wildfire uses in planning, designing and implementing a successful sweepstakes campaign.  In each step, I made corresponding edits that I think could be used by a company to promote a successful hiring campaign.

Step 1: “Input campaign name & prize details.”

Revised #1: Input job description and brief summary of desired/required employee traits, etc.

Step 2 “Define the start & end dates and how winners will be chosen.”

Revised#2:  Define the start and dates of the employment search as well as define when to stop the incoming resumes from potential candidates.  As well decide if some candidates should be held, if not chosen on first pass for open position, for other open position within the company.   (In running a successful hiring campaign, not every employee may be the right fit for the position that they are applying for, but if the hiring manager is wise he/she will keep their eye open for a best fit elsewhere in the company.)

Step 3 “Create your custom entry form or survey using our easy drop & drag functionality.”

Revised#3:  Create application for hiring process.  Designate what materials will be REQUIRED to be submitted in addition to the completed application.

Step 4 “Upload your custom artwork/CSS or choose from our template banners.”

Revised#4:  Upload related company logo/brand art work.

Step 5 “Input your campaign rules and privacy policy.”

Revised#5:  Establish hiring guidelines, and make sure that the application and all online materials reflect these.

Step 6 “Publish your campaign on your website and across multiple social networks.”

Revised#6:  Publish campaign, via website and across multiple industry specific social media networks as well as all other industry specific literature and online job networks.

The features of this SMMS package seems to contain most of what a company’s hiring campaign may need, so once securing their services, other costs should only be minimal and include just external advertising costs.  (-some newspapers/industry literature charge a fee to use their websites or published materials.)

The benefits of using a tool such as Wildfire can be indentify by their simple process.  All the steps of the process are outlined in such a manner so that all required data is in place and posted so that there are no “oops” along the way.  The future of online hiring has a very bright future and its potential has only recently been realized.  With the help of SM sites such as: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter that are all free sites, just makes the possibilities for companies that have people in place in their HR departments to navigate these tools, almost endless.

http://www.wildfireapp.com/tour

http://ariherzog.com/how-employers-are-hiring-online/

http://www.articlesbase.com/recruitment-articles/using-job-portals-and-social-media-for-online-recruitment-3990865.html

 

Blog Intro – #1

I am going to attempt to gear my blog toward helping someone find a meaningful term of employment, utilizing social media tools. So my first blog in this assignment is to identify the project and explain how and why I will succeed in covering this topic.

Most recently my brother lost his job, as I am sure that at least one or people in our class can relate personally or know of someone that is in this same dilemma.  So in trying to relate this blog to something that I could write with a passion about, I could think of no other plight more deserving than his.  He is not very technology savy, and I think the terms of his Social Media experience is confined to having a Facebook account.  So with the research that I am hoping to do for this blog, I hope to help him see and feel comfortable with using a new way of looking for a job.  This should be interesting as the only venues that have been used by him to looking for employment is both the paper and the companies personal website.  He isn’t exactly comfortable with putting his personal information on the “world wide web” and through this journey I hope to lay to rest myths and uncover opportunities, that job seekers such as him, might be missing out on using the old age method of looking for a job.

I want to draw on my own knowledge of SM tools, find new and useful tools for job searching and also find out how companies local and globally post job opportunities and then use this information to aid individuals who are out of work to help them to find a job.

Knowing that that the some of the most “coveted” jobs are rarely advertised, and it has been told to me that the only way to gain access to information about these job openings is through networking.  So what better ways of networking than through the use of SM tools.

I have a rough idea of the roadmap that I would like to follow, but like any good roadtrips, being able to change directions and add something new to the itinerary, is something that I would like to try in this blog.