Greif with the United Way鈥檚 Communications and Public Affairs head Brigid Boyd.
The most recent installment of 51茶馆 Social Work鈥檚 Winston Leadership Series, run by the 51茶馆 Center for Social Innovation in partnership with the聽, featured a new paradigm for the series by which attendees were able to learn from a leading nonprofit practitioner, apply what they learned in practice, report back, and revisit those learnings with the leader in a follow-up forum.
In this case, that leader was聽, Vice President of Marketing, Communications, and Community Relations at聽. In an initial meeting in March, Greif hosted an engaging workshop on how employees at all levels can help with an organization鈥檚 external communications and social media presence. In April, participants returned to report back on successes that they were able to integrate on the job.
Takeaways were varied. Following the completion of a social media audit suggested by Greif, one student and her supervisor noticed that their audience was limited to other nonprofits and foundations. With encouragement from Greif, they sought to find ways to 鈥渂reak out and reach new audiences.鈥�
Employees of the Steppingstone Foundation participating in the Winston Leadership Series event.
Another team underscored the risk of handing over social media responsibility to a student or intern, a common practice for understaffed agencies. Brand awareness matters even in the nonprofit world, and this team realized that there can be consequences attached to having someone who is not skilled in messaging take over social channels.
Greif provided targeted, actionable advice to those gathered. Among his suggestions:
- Tap into people鈥檚 emotions on social, or do something surprising, such as post an astonishing statistic.
- Developing a Content Marketing Strategy that is holistic, across channels of communication.
- Think about how you want to position your organization 鈥� are you a helpful friend, a trusted authority, an influential thinker, a reliable performer, an innovative changemaker 鈥� and then think about how to make your messages match with this self-characterization.
- Develop an action plan as to what you can do individually to make a difference on social media, and then sell this idea to your managers.
Oak Square YMCA staffers enjoying a moment during Greif鈥檚 workshop.
Event sponsor 51茶馆SSW鈥檚聽Center for Social Innovation聽has taken Greif鈥檚 words to heart, already integrating his strategies into the job description for its next graduate assistant.
鈥淩ich鈥檚 session underscored the importance of articulating聽what you want to get from your external communications,鈥� said Olivia Mathews, Assistant Director at the Center. 鈥淲e typically have a new graduate assistant each year who takes the lead on managing our social media accounts. Going forward, we will incorporate Rich鈥檚 recommendations and provide the new assistant with guidelines and goals to increase the effectiveness of our posts.鈥�