Karma411 attended Social Media Week in NYC last week. What is Social Media Week you ask? It is one of the world’s most unique global platforms, offering a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world, during the same week, on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries. With hundreds of events all over NYC there was much ground to cover and much insight to be gained from industry experts. We focused on those relating to social media trends and the nonprofit landscape. The conferences provided inspiration for those looking to do good with social media, a positive spin on the increasing omnipresence and monetization of social media and of course some helpful hints for how to use social media.

Here is a breakdown of the highlights:

Be Passionate!

It is clear that businesses and nonprofits need to have a presence on social media sites today, but this is vital for nonprofits that have a social mission. Again and again the message was drilled in that those who have that authentic passionate voice behind their company, are the ones who will make the connection with people via social networks; social media is a relationship builder. Remember users are savvy and they can smell fakes and phonies miles away. In this way nonprofits can flourish because of the passion that comes with founding a cause. But your passion must be contagious, thus telling your story comes into play. Make sure your story comes across in an impactful way that will inspire others to share it with their own networks. Karma411 has long believed that the friend to friend ask is the most powerful, and that causes can succeed by giving supporters the tools that not only let them share but inspire them to do so. Utilize facebook and twitter as places to inspire and interact. Think about building a viral community. We heard about the power of building online communities with key influencers from Jermaine Dupri. He believes that he can create his own version of facebook based on his followers wanting to live his lifestyle with Global14. He was very committed and passionate. We'll see about his goal of surpassing facebook, but that kind of energy and passion will get results. Imagine what a powerful global organization could do right now with key influencers sparking an online community. (Okay we know Oprah does it!) It is happening with organizations like DonorsChoose and influencers Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon.

Be Engaging!

So you are passionate and telling your story via social sites but have you engaged your audience? Let your supporters get to know you. Don’t just shout and think they are listening, let them behind the curtain. Think about engaging your supporters by inspiring them to action rather than forcing it on them. Nobody likes anything shoved down their throats, they want it to be their idea and fun! Find your supporters where they naturally are by shared interests. Blend your content on social sites to include different ways for supporters to get involved and give them some freedom to get creative. There are several ways to do this with unique events, letting your donors throw events for your cause, or creating interactive campaigns. Trends right now for engagement are apps and gamification. Autism Speaks is doing just this with the Light It Up Blue app Karma411 built for them. For those who are starting new organizations, start by focusing one site like facebook and engage your personal and professional networks. If you try to tackle them all at once without a real presence on any one forum, your voice becomes muddled and loses impact. One you have leveraged your network,  ask them to leverage their networks to build a support base- this looks a lot like crowdfunding. A good next step is bringing them together for an event, if you are able, in order to further establish and strengthen the connections.

Be Relevant!

Once you have found your authentic voice, be consistent and remain relevant. This is very significant as there is energy behind every post and tweet. Make sure you stay in tune with your supporters by offering news and highlights that interest them in real time. Plan ahead and schedule your facebook and twitter content with tools like hootsuite and ping.fm. If you are wondering where to spend your time, reports show that tweeters are more social and curious than facebook users. That does not mean that you should ignore facebook, but rather have more frequent updates on twitter. It's great to follow like minded people and groups on twitter, but you should still have more followers following you and be giving them great content. Facebook has great tools to measure your page and monitor how supporters are engaging. Use these to gauge your content and mix it up to see what works. Try getting feedback, using poll questions or posting meaningful videos and photos. Don't forget to include important information on Info and About sections and to like other pages that are in line with your mission, but remember you only get 500 likes. Don't worry you can always unlike something if you are at your limit already. Hey- we can defriend too, the ugly side of facebook!

Be Everywhere!

You are likely on facebook, twitter and LinkedIn- or you should be! Check out some great tips to be mobile on LinkedIn.  But what about Google +, YouTube, and Pinterest? Anything with google attached should not be counted out just yet so get ahead of the game and start circling! Not convinced, take a look at this social media infographic decision tree to make up your mind! With the future trend of video content, YouTube will be more meaningful to organizations and the visual trend continues with Pinterest- if you haven't heard of it don't worry you will! Integrate the experience whenever possible. Your tools like newsletters and blogs should all be connected to your social sites and have a common thread woven throughout that promotes your mission. And lastly in case you have not noticed, people are doing a lot of mobile web browsing. Iphone anyone? Make sure your website is mobile viewing optimized and download social site apps to easily update, manage, and create great content!