Using Social Media for your Business

This class will help demystify the world of social media through discussion of policy, planning, and best practices as well as provide tips on how to use popular social media platforms.

Intro

• Pass out Current Practice Sheet and ask students to fill in how they currently use social media in their organization.

Policy

What is your policy for social media mistakes?

Every organization should have a social media policy. This doesn't have to be extensieve but does need to answer basic questions like: "What types of content do we post?", "What do we do with negative reviews?", "What do we do when we make mistakes?", and even "How do we respond to positive attention?" Your social media policy shouldn’t live in a vacuum but should be guided by your organization's mission and values.

An excellent free tool to help you develop your social media policy, regardless of whether your organization is for-profit or nonprofit, is Idealware's Nonprofit Social Media Policy Workbook.

Mistakes

Great example of Red Cross's #gettngslizzerd faux pas of 2011 http://redcrosschat.org/2011/02/16/twitter-faux-pas/. The Red Cross immediately responded to the mistake with honesty and humor. Their constituents actually seemed to appreciate their humanity and donations and support of the organization went up.[1]

Platforms

Talk about the following platforms based on student interests.