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Social media has had a seismic impact on how people share and prioritise information. Capable of creating instant public sympathy, in many ways it's a campaigner's dream. But with so many voices vying for attention online, it's easy for your cause to get lost in the chatter. Whether you're looking to raise funds or awareness for your charity, this intensive seminar covers everything you need to know to focus public attention via social media – from dealing with sensitive issues in under 140 characters to integrating social media into a more traditional media campaign.
The course features talks from Carol Naylor, social media manager for Macmillan Cancer Support, Rosie Childs, digital campaign manager for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Becca Peters, digital manager for Time to Change, and Rob Mansfield, head of digital content at Age UK. Throughout the day, you'll learn how to come up with ideas for stories, target the right audience and build a winning content strategy for your organisation. Importantly, you'll also learn how to measure the impact of social media on donations, and what all those 'likes' and 'shares' could really mean for your charity.
This course is for you if...
- You work in the charity sector, in PR or marketing, and want to understand best social media practice
- You're an individual campaigner or activist who wants to learn how successful charities use social media to their advantage
- You work for or manage a small charity who can't afford to hire dedicated marketing, PR or social media staff
PLEASE NOTE: This is not an absolute beginner's guide to using social media. Attendees should have a basic understanding of one or more social media platforms.
Course description
This large-scale course teaches participants how to use social media to create and manage standalone and long-term campaigns for the charitable sector, as well as how to use Twitter and Facebook to raise funds and increase awareness of their organisation. Topics covered include:
- Ideas for how to start building a following
- How to come up with a winning social content strategy
- Using social media to tell stories that wouldn't make it into the traditional press
- How to gauge the effect social media has on donations
- Dealing with sensitive subjects on social media
- Explaining EdgeRank and why it's so important for you
- How to make sure you target the right audience
- Creating short but high-profile social media campaigns with bespoke pages
- Reputation management: how to handle issues of reputation on social media
- The impact of 'likes', 'shares', hashtags and online engagement for your charity
- Championing voice through digital storytelling
- Q&A with each speaker
Tutor profiles
Carol Naylor is the social media manager for Macmillan Cancer Support. She and her team are responsible for maintaining Macmillan's social media activity, promoting campaigns such as the World's Biggest Coffee Morning and last year's #IceBucketChallenge. Macmillan has over 550,000 followers on Facebook and over 200,000 on Twitter. Carol's team also supports the staff behind Macmillan's 30 regional and fundraising Facebook pages as well as over 50 Twitter accounts. Carol has been using social media in the third sector for the last eight years and has been managing online communities for over 20 years.
Rosie Childs is the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office's digital campaigns manager for the Middle East & North Africa, leading on digital diplomacy and campaigning in these areas. Last year she also led the FCO's digital campaign around the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, the biggest social media campaign the FCO has ever delivered. Previously Rosie worked at Save the Children as both their Syria media manager and their digital media manager where she lead on social media, digital journalism and media partnerships and working with online communities to deliver advocacy campaigns. As a former BBC radio producer, Rosie combines a passion for storytelling with a strong belief in the power of online communities to bring about social change.
Rob Mansfield is head of digital content at Age UK. For over 20 years, he has worked as a content specialist offline and online for organisations such as the BBC, AOL, Emap, Mirror Group and IPC Media. Notable moments of his career include interviewing David Cameron and Bob Hoskins (although not together), travelling to Mozambique for World Vision and winning an award for Songs Of Praise magazine (yes, it used to exist). He lives in Brighton with a mad dachshund and enjoys taking part in pub quizzes and reading bad crime novels.
Becca Peters is the digital manager for Time to Change, a national campaign to end mental health stigma. She has previously worked at Mind, the mental health charity and is particularly interested in social media as a powerful and accessible vehicle for social change. Find Becca on Twitter @digitalbecca.
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Details
Date: Sunday 29 March 2015
Times: 10am-4pm
Location: The Guardian, 90 York Way, King's Cross, London, N1 9GU
Price: £129
Event capacity: 100
To contact us, click here. Terms and conditions can be found here.
Returns policy
Tickets may be refunded if you contact us at least 14 days before the course start date. Please see our terms and conditions for more information on our refund policy.
