On Thursday, April 14 at 11 a.m. Pacific Time (2 p.m. East Coast Time), TechSoup is hosting a free webinar to discuss ways to use social media to find, communicate with and build community among volunteers. Happening during  National Volunteer Appreciation Week in the USA, its for nonprofits, schools, libraries, and any mission-based organizations are interested in exploring how social media and other technologies might be used to strengthen their current volunteer program.

The presentation will be by Erin Barnhart and me, Jayne Cravens.

We'll focus on examples of different ways different organizations have used Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms to support current volunteers and recruit new volunteers. We'll talk about ways to introduce or expand an organization's use of such tools. And we'll also review some cautions about using these tools with volunteers.

We want this to be a highly practical workshop, and we want the learning to continue long after the webinar is over. So reply to this message with your questions, concerns and examples regarding using social media tools to find, communication with and build community among volunteers!

And please publicize this workshop and this discussion thread to your own networks!

Let's try to get some questions going that might not be answered in our presentation tomorrow:

-- what kind of resistance did you get when you introduced social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, etc.) with your work with volunteers, and how did you address this resistance?

-- did you do any workshops at your organization to bring together volunteers who love social media tools with those who are skeptical or intimidated by such to help each other? How did that go?

-- did you involve volunteers in writing your social media policy or creating your social media strategy? do you have tips for others who want to do this?

-- does a volunteer or volunteers help manage your social media activities? if so, how did you recruit that person/those people? do you have a job description for these roles you would be willing to share?

-- how do you measure success with your social media with regard to your work with current and potential volunteers specifically?

Let's discuss!

I have never use a social media to campaign, what do i need to do to get started and what are the benefits for a non profit school like Salvation Academy? We are located in Alexandria Virginia.

sincerely

Brima Deen

Salvation Academy

Brima, I recommend you listen to the presentation, which is recorded and freely available here. It will take you through the realities of setting up social media accounts to interact with current and potential volunteers, specifically - and you can build on that for marketing campaigns.

cc.readytalk.com/.../Playback.do

That's your starting point.

Here's what social media campaigns should not look like, IMO:

coyoteblog.posterous.com/slackervism-on-facebook-again

One of the questions Erin and I didn't get to answer during the volunteers-and-social-media webinar was this one: "How does one find a "great trusted social media volunteer?" We had talked about how volunteers are a great resource for managing online activities like posting to Facebook, writing blogs and reviewing blog submissions by other volunteers before posting, Tweeting on behalf of the organization, posting and identifying/tagging photos by volunteers on Flickr, etc., that these are volunteer roles that are highly desired by many people. So how do you find these volunteers?

Anyone can feel free to weigh in. Here are my thoughts:

First, as with any volunteer role, clearly define what the role is, as much as you can - in writing. What is it you want the volunteer to do? Who will be the volunteer or employee that will review this volunteer's work, support him or her as needed, etc.? How many hours a week does the volunteer need to provide, and do these hours need to absolutely be during regular business hours or can they be outside of business hours - in the evenings and on weekends, for instance? How long do you want the volunteer to commit to this role (three months? four months? six months?), at minimum (volunteers would always have the option for signing up for another 3 - 6 months, as needed)? What equipment does the volunteer need to have?

Qualities you will want the volunteer to have, and that should also be in the written role description: excellent spelling and grammar, excellent attention to detail, demonstrated ability to respond to emails and phone calls from the organization promptly (in minutes and hours, not days), demonstrated ability to communicate clearly, etc. You might want to look at job postings for social media managers for ideas about other qualities you want the volunteer to have.

Then you are ready to recruit! Post the role description on your web site and let your current volunteers know about the opportunity, ask your board to circulate the opportunity at their work places (as appropriate), post on VolunteerMatch, Idealist, CraigsList, AllforGood, etc., and post a listing with your local volunteer center.

It's fine to ask candidates for writing samples, their Twitter i.d., samples of their Facebook postings, etc., so you can see how well they use social media. You can ask them for references as well.

Ensure that whomever you pick documents everything he or she does while in this role, for handover to someone else when this volunteer is no longer available.

And, finally, make sure the volunteer knows what to do when faced with a variety of situations: a negative post about the organization by another volunteer, an inappropriate post by anyone about the organization he or she may see, communications from the press, questions from donors, etc.

What are your thoughts about the best way to involve a volunteer to manage an organization's social media activities, particularly those regarding other volunteers?