VC Brighton & Hove Social Networking pilot

Create me a Social Media policy…

volunteeringbh — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:03:27 +0000

Following on from the social networking post from Beth’s blog I noticed that her previous post had been about something else we have touched on at Brighton and Hove Volunteer Centre over the past year, namely the creation of a social media policy.

http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2010/03/got-social-media-policy-.html

I will not reproduce the whole post here, but it did include a link to a social media policy generator called the Social Media Policy Tool. It asks you 12 questions mostly having to do with control and then spits out the boilerplate for your policy.

Dr. Strangelove… Or How Non-profit Organizations Can Use Social Media to Power Social Networks for Change

volunteeringbh — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:46:37 +0000

Sorry about the long title, but that’s how it came (without the Dr. Strangelove)…. This article is interesting for any organisations like ours which are attempting to integrate the use of social networking with your existing connections to REAL networks or groups. It relates in many ways to what we are trying to do at the Volunteer Centre, that is continue the integration of social networking into our day to day work and with the groups of people and networks we altready work with.

Image from http://beth.typepad.com/

We have recently set up a Volunteer Co-ordinators’ forum in Brighton and Hove and to the ends mentioned above are endeavouring to use i-volunteer (the UK’s new social network for volunteering) to help its members stay connected between meetings (without ruining their appetites). It is a challenge, particularly in that supporting the forum with social networking may ultimately be the mechanism which enables the forum to continue ‘under its own steam’ should funding to support it no longer be available.

Our Social Networking Toolkit is published!

volunteeringbh — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:57:59 +0000

The Social Networking Toolkit produced by this project can be downloaded at :

http://www.redfoundation.org/assets/doc/SNS – Toolkit.pdf

Spreading the word

volunteeringbh — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:31:14 +0000

Have started to make contact with volunteering-involving organisations in Brighton and Hove with a view to talking to then in the month of March about how social networking could positively impact on the way they work with and around volunteers. Early responses have been good, particularly from organisations with which the Volunteer Centre has worked on Volunteering Good Practice issues.

This is the initial information we are providing prior to initial contact:

Could Social Networking help your work with volunteers?

The Volunteer Centre Brighton and Hove is using social network services such as Facebook and Twitter to spread the message of volunteering. We are providing volunteer managers and co-ordinators in the city with information about how social networking may benefit you and your organisation e.g.

Free advertising for your volunteering opportunities
Connecting and sharing information with other volunteer managers and co-ordinators in Brighton & Hove
Access to the latest good practice advice and information
Making more people aware of your organisation’s work
Giving potential volunteers new ways to connect with you
Keeping up-to-date with new developments that may affect your role and your organisation
Instant access to new audiences who are interested in the work of your organisation
Communicating with harder to reach individuals and organisations who may not otherwise be aware of your organisation

The pilot will provide a toolkit containing information for voluntary organisations on how to use social network services to support volunteering effectively. To see how the Volunteer Centre Brighton & Hove is using social networking, click any of the following links:

Our volunteers page on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/volunteeringBH

Our Twitter page
http://twitter.com/volunteeringBH

i-volunteer, a new social network for volunteering
http://www.i-volunteer.org.uk/vcbrightonandhove/

If you would like any more information, or to arrange a one-to-one visit or chat about social networking, please get in touch with me,

David Adams
01273 229008

dave.adams@volunteercentre.bh-impetus.org

The Manager Tweets!

volunteeringbh — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:00:35 +0000

A big day today as somebody other than me (the Volunteer Centre manager, Alison) unleashed their first tweet in the name of the VC:

This may seem fairly inconsequential, but I think it is a great step forward, because it’s a real message about real VC business. Whilst I am myself a member of the Volunteer Centre staff, my role is temporary, and our use of social networking will ultimately have to be taken on by full-time VC staff members and hopefully one or more volunteers. Interestingly, Alison’s tweet got one of the best responses we have had on Twitter so far. It was retweeted by a number of other organisations and the link has susequently been clicked on more than any of our other tweets.

I would say the VC’s take-up of social networking has been slow and steady, which is not nesessarily a bad thing. For me, the responses to the above tweet prove how important it is that what we communicate via social networks is a true reflection of what we do as Volunteer Centre on a day-to-basis.

Within the Volunteer Centre there has been some scepticism about how much the public and other organisations really want to know about the ‘small stuff’ that we do. My answer to that is that we shouldn’t be too concerened about what others might think but simply strive to publish the information that our role as a Volunteer Centre requires – if people want to follow it, they will. That is one of the positives Twitter, Facebook and i-volunteer – people can chooose what they want to follow based on their interests and not have unwanted information thrust upon them.

Up until now, the vast majority of tweets, Facebook posts and i-volunteer messages have emanated from me as I have built up the social networking pilot. Over the coming weeks, I would like to see the percentage of posts made by myself reduce as other staff members publish information themselves. That is the aim, and it is a challenge!

We are now on i-volunteer

volunteeringbh — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:41:06 +0000

i-volunteer.org.uk is a new social networking site designed for people in the UK who have an interest in volunteering. It is open to everyone and presents an exciting opportunity for the volunteering community. The site was launched on International Volunteer’s day (5th December) and Brighton and Hove Volunteer Centre is there, initially in the form of me (I have tried being there not in the form of me, but as with all things social networking, even if you can get away with not providing a picture or your real name, people don’t seem to love you for it).

We have set up a group on i-volunteer called Volunteering Brighton and Hove which we hope will become a place of interest for anyone in the city who has some involvement in volunteering or just being a volunteer.

As a Volunteer Centre we will use the group to advertise local volunteering opportunities and pass on other stuff to those interested in volunteering and people who manage or co-ordinate volunteers.

i-volunteer is already generating a lot of discussions between people across the country with a variety of different interests in volunteering. It’s easy to use and we at Brighton and Hove Volunteer Centre will be posting to it regularly.

I Heard It Through The Grapevine 2.0

volunteeringbh — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:38:29 +0000

Just to illustrate the immediacy of Twitter, I posted these two tweets at about 3.30pm this afternoon to publicise two new projects (well, one new and one half-new) being run by the Volunteer Centre:

Within a matter of minutes, they had both been retweeted by another organisation and individual with whom the Volunteer Centre had previously had no direct contact

Magic!

Q: Do you need a Communications Policy?

volunteeringbh — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:19:27 +0000

I will grant you that any post with ‘Policy’ in the title is unlikely to be a humdinger. However, I strongly believe the answer to this question is Yes, especially if you are a Volunteer Centre that is venturing into the use of social networking to publicise your services and/or volunteering opportunities.

In the last decade, life was straightforward. A volunteering opportunity was received, added to VBase and uploaded to the national do-it database where it could be searched online. A paper copy would be printed locally and added to the Volunteer Centre’s public folders.

Today, that same information (or anything similar) could be:

Circulated via email to prospective volunteers or interested organisations
Sent to a discussion board or email discussion list
Advertised on the Volunteer Centre’s website
Publicised on i -volunteer
Posted on our Facebook group for volunteer managers
Highlighted on Twitter
Added to our Facebook fan page for volunteers
Converted into a PDF file and distributed in other ways

Additionally, each of these methods require the information to be presented in slightly different, ways according to the audience or inherent technical restrictions of the medium (e.g. Twitter = max 140 chars, Facebook page = max 420 chars, email discussion list = no pictures). Etcetera and etcetera.

Having recently had the joy of posting information on all of tha above platforms I have personally felt the need for a clear policy on what is published how, where, when and in what format. You can survive without such a policy but it generates more work and creates a pervading sense of background chaos.

I will be raising the issue of a communications policy, both for the Volunteer Centre and the wider charity of which we are a part, at the next staff meeting.

Install ‘Twitter for Pages’

volunteeringbh — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:50:53 +0000

Today I added the application ‘Twitter for Pages’ to our Facebook page for Volunteers. The free version will display the last 5 tweets from your Twitter account on a separate tab on your Facebook page. No expertise required!

It’s a really easy way to link your Facebook presence to your Twitter account. The only drawbacks are that the free version is limited to showing only the 5 most recent tweets and that it seems to take about 3 hours to catch up with your Twitter activity depending on the weather, but those are both very minor annoyances. Oh, and it DOESN’T WORK ON FACEBOOK GROUPS.

You can get Twitter for Pages here: http://apps.facebook.com/involver_mohfpfdp/facebook_pages/landing

A change in Volunteer Centre culture?

volunteeringbh — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:01:51 +0000

As a Volunteer Centre employee, posting on Twitter, Facebook and i-volunteer as an individual is fine in isolation, but that isn’t really what social networking is about. One of the difficulties of introducing the use of Social Networking to a ‘traditional’ Volunteer Centre is that there is a chance it can be seen as an external thing, and not a central part of how the VC operates.

I think this process is probably quite normal and it is one that I suspect takes a fair amount of time to work through.

There is a hurdle here which can be a hard one to get over. Last year I was something of a social media sceptic, but started on this project with an open mind and full of enthusiasm.I am pleased to say I still have both. It is only now, however, 4 months down the line, that I feel comfortable with Twitter, Facebook and i-volunteer and how they can be of use to Volunteer Centre like ours – and I am some way ahead of others around me in terms of using these tools.

For me, there are two ironies which remain. Firstly, that the content and material generated on social networking sites by a Volunteer Centre should refflect the day-to-day workings of the organisation, but in our case that is currently only happening in an indirect way. And secondly, that until the people that run a VC on a day-to-day basis FEEL that social networking is a real part of what they do, that it probably won’t BE real part of what they do.