They're back! We have fun NEW images for your school or group to use on twitter when posting volunteer sign-ups! Check out our helpful tweeting tips here and save any image below you want to use when you're tweeting for volunteers!
Also see:
More Twitter Volunteer Recruitment Images
10 Savvy Twitter Tips for Schools & Volunteers
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Thanks to BlueCotton for this great guest post!
It’s a great time to be an event organizer. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter have made things easier than ever - we’ll explain how.
Event management isn’t a career that you get into if you aren’t a people person. It’s social by nature - you’re equal parts gracious host and energetic emcee; you’re responsible for managing people as much as you are for managing logistics. It stands to reason, then, that social media would have a marked, noticeable impact on the events industry.
“Social media is the perfect medium for people who like to attend events and conferences because it has the main components that make these conferences successful - networking opportunities and interesting content,” writes Cvent’s Eric Eden in a 2011 blog post. “Most attendees are using social media sites today, and they’ll probably be talking about the event in advance, during the event, and after the event on these sites, whether you know it or not...It looks strange if the organizer is not enabling, participating in, and encouraging that engagement.”
Let’s talk a bit about how you as an event organizer can accomplish that, and why if you’re not on social, you’re not doing your job effectively.
There’s a good chance you’ve already heard hordes of people trumpeting the power of social media as a marketing tool. Word-of-mouth marketing, it’s said, is the most valuable way to generate leads and foster a positive brand reputation. If you get people talking about your business and your brand, they’ll pretty much handle your marketing for you.
Events are a great way to get people talking - but social’s also a great way to get people talking about events. By promoting your event across the social networks used by your desired audience, you’ve the potential to significantly improve attendance. Marketing’s only the tip of the iceberg, though - far more valuable is how you can help attendees engage with your event.
Back in 2013, Nissan attended the Geneva Motor Show. It was an impressive, 10-day-long display, and the automotive manufacturer masterfully used a wide spectrum of social networks to make the experience more interesting and interactive for its attendees. It yet remains one of the best examples of how you can, if you’re innovative enough, use social media to connect with your guests on a previously-unforeseen level.
Nissan offered hubs where guests could share their social experiences. It included sharing stations at its vehicle displays that allowed guests to quickly and easily upload photos. And throughout the event, it shared relevant content across all social channels.
And Nissan was only an attendee. Imagine what you might do with more control. Especially with the current prominence of mobile, it seems foolish not to at least try, no?
The topic of social media’s role in event management is a rich one, and far deeper than we’ve time to discuss here. This piece is simply a primer - a resource to get you started. We’ll leave you with this infographic detailing a few of the ways you might tap into social for your own event, and with some simple advice: get creative.
Think about how your guests use social media in their day-to-day lives, and incorporate that into your events. It’ll be a bit of work, sure...but it’s well worth the effort.
About the Author:
Brad Wayland is the VP of Business Development at BlueCotton, an on-demand t-shirt printing company that frequently works with charities and schools. Visit BlueCotton today!
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Our friends at GoEnnounce are serving up tons of great social media safety tips for students and their parents. Check out an excerpt of their popular article below and read the entire thing here.
Social Media continues to become a bigger part of our daily lives. It’s important to understand how to control the information you are putting out there to use social media safely. One area that many students overlook is privacy. We like to think checking a few boxes will keep all our information safe, available only to those we’ve marked as friends, but the reality is more complex. Follow these best practice methods to protect yourself and use social media effectively.
Colleges and Businesses Are Watching
As part of the applicant screening process, many colleges and potential employers are looking towards social media to judge your potential. A 2014 Kaplan survey found that 35% of college admissions officers admitted to visiting an applicant’s social media page to learn more about them.
What Does Your Social Media Say About You?
Think about your social media accounts. Do your profile, posts and comments represent the true you? Do you showcase your achievements both inside and outside of school? Do you look like a hard worker, or do you look like someone who’s always hanging with friends and ready for a good time? Are there suggestions of inappropriate behavior on your page? What about your “followers” or who you are “following”? The people you are connected to, who tag you in photos, or leave comments on your social media can . . .
Catch the rest of this great post, click here.
Related: Overwhelmed by Apps? 3 Strategies for Parents
GoEnnounce.com connects students with their networks to help them achieve more. It's a safe place for students to e-nnounce and track achievements, projects, and goals to get the encouragement and financial help they need to succeed. Start a Student Page and apply for our monthly scholarship here.
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Recruiting volunteers? Trying to engage new supports for your organization? Simply need more hands helping at school? Bookmark this list of 8 simple but innovative and time-saving communication tactics for reaching volunteers:
1. Tweet: A simple tweet can say a lot! If your community organization is looking for volunteers, strategic tweeting might do the trick. Utilize searchable hashtags like city names, events, etc. Check out, 8 Best Practices When Tweeting for Help.
2. Email: Whether in a letter-style email from your nonprofit leader or an eNewsletter full of content and volunteer opportunities, email is going to be one of your number one ways to reach current and potential volunteers at just the right time. Companies like Emma, MailChimp, Constant Contact, and iContact are great vendors to check out for more enhanced eMarketing capabilities.
3. Blog/Webpage: If your nonprofit has a website, make sure your volunteer webpage is doing everything it can for you! Post volunteer opportunities and sign-up links frequently, share volunteer testimonials, and encourage visitors to follow your group on social media. You never know, your next great volunteer leader might just be a google search away!
Related: 10 Ways to Pump Up Your Volunteer Webpage
4. Online Sign-Ups: The easiest way to coordinate and communicate with volunteers is to schedule and remind them online! Planning a service project, an appreciation potluck, a carnival, festival or fundraiser? VolunteerSpot's free online sign-ups and scheduling tools are the answer for saving time and boosting participation! Try it out now
5. Facebook: Reach volunteers where they're at - on social media! Posting volunteer opportunities, nonprofit news, even feel good quotes and volunteer pictures is a great place to start in developing a communication highway on facebook. Check out Facebook for Volunteer Recruitment & Engagement.
6. Post online: Online resources like HandsonNetwork.org, VolunteerMatch.org and CreateTheGood.org let organizations and nonprofits post volunteer opportunities in an online database that anyone can access who is interest. Read more
7. Word of mouth: Few recommendations carry as much weight as someone telling a friend what an amazing time they had volunteering for your organization. If you're group is struggling to recruit new members, consider a "Bring a friend program" where current volunteers are encouraged to bring a friend or group with them to the next volunteer event. Organic, word-of-mouth buzz helps build a loyal base of supporters for years to come.
8. Like organizations: Network with similar organizations in your area to boost one another's visibility in the community. Partnering with another local cause or group can give you access to a whole new sect of volunteers and donors who have a record for giving back and supporting the community. Consider swapping emails to one another's lists, sharing booth expenses at the community festival or promoting one another on social media.
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Looking to pump up your volunteer base this year? It's easy with these ideas for volunteer managers and coordinators:
1. Recruit more volunteers. The key to finding more volunteers this year is meeting them where they're at - online! Try some of these recruitment trends changing the face of volunteerism:
Related: 10 Ideas for Volunteer Recruitment
2. Don't lose the personal touch. Saving time communicating and coordinating online does not mean that the personal touch of joining together to help others goes out the window. Still find ways to commune and bond with volunteers offline:
Related: 5 Fun Ways to Capture Memories Online and Off
3. Engage more volunteers. Keeping the volunteers you find can be a real roadblock for many volunteer managers. Find creative and new ways to involve and engage volunteers so they bond with your group's mission and remain active and loyal for years to come:
Related: Tracking and Measuring Volunteer Engagement
4. Practice better volunteer appreciation. This year might be the year to put a bit more effort into thanking your volunteers for the time, talents and commitment they offer to their schools and communities. It's easy:
5. Be more social: As mentioned above, active social communities are key for staying visible in the feeds and lives of potential and current volunteers. Facebook, twitter and instagram are great for:
Related: Using Facebook for Volunteer Engagement
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Don't miss a beat when it comes to Teacher Appreciation Week - follow these 5 simple steps!
1 >> Start now! Teacher Appreciation Week is just around the corner (May 5 - 9, 2014); plan ahead and start interviewing students for a special thank you video, collecting donations for a group teacher gift, and scheduling events for the week.
2 >> Get more parents involved. Organize teacher appreciation events - brunches, flower days, pie days, etc - with free online sign ups & reminders from VolunteerSpot! Make it easier for parents to sign up to help by taking advantage of this free tool with mobile access and calendar syncing. Take a free demo now
3 >> Go social! Use apps like facebook, twitter, RewardVolunteers, Tout, and YouTube to share your special teacher recognition events and shout outs so they show up on your school parent's social feeds.
4 >> Don't forget. There are so many other teachers in a kid's life including school staff, librarians, band and chorus leaders, you name it. Consider having classrooms or grade levels "adopt" a special member of the school who might otherwise go unrecognized during this week. More ideas here
5 >> Check out our fun Prezi with great tips & tidbits. From fun video ideas, to event planning resources and more, don't miss the slideshow from our recent teacher appreciation webinar:
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Nonprofits, schools and community groups on social media are totally in tune to the 21st century tactics of getting the word out and recruiting help online. Few things are more cringe-worthy, however, then a group tweeting asking for volunteers and getting it all wrong! Rembember these 8 tips when tweeting for help:
1. Start with the perks: If there is free food, swag, drink tickets and the like available to volunteers, bring it up! "All volunteers get a free t-shirt" or "Volunteer on Saturday for free admission to the show" will grab attention quickly and encourage folks to volunteer.
2. Include your signup link: Send volunteers from twitter to your signup sheets, volunteer calendar or pertinent webpage so they can commit on the spot. Don't ask for help and not give them a way to sign up and be reminded.
3. Mention date/time: If you're coordinating a one day event, put the shortened date time, i.e. 2/14 at 2p - not only will volunteers know right away whether they can or can't help then, but it's good publicity for folks who might want to attend your event as patrons or participants.
4. Attach a picture: Whether it's an image of your event flyer or a picture of volunteers helping at last year's activity, a quick pic your followers can open gives them a visual cue to sign up to help your organization and not just a mental one.
5. Drop how many spots are left: Let volunteers know spots are limited or there isn't much time left to sign up. A sense of urgency helps potential volunteers commit faster and sign up right away.
6. Tell volunteers what you need: What positions are open for volunteer work or what skillsets does your group need for your activity? Tweet it out so potential candidates know exactly what your group is looking for and whether they can help.
7. Be funny: Twitter is largely a venue for people's comedic thoughts. Apply some humor to your tweets asking for help!
8. Remember to stick to 140 characters: Don't make a classic mistake and go over Twitter's standard 140 characters - you'll lose interestested parties when your message is truncated or your signup link is left off. Plus, it's just awkward.
Also see:
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What's on your school parent group's resolutions list for 2014? Getting organized always tops the list and what better way to coordinate your 2014 then streamlining PTA and PTO communication and event planning digitally. Check out our 5 favorite apps & tools for getting organized:
1. Dropbox: Share important documents, pictures, videos and files in the cloud with Dropbox! Free up to a certain amount of memory, Dropbox lets parent leaders upload and share files with the click of their mouse or tap on their screen phone; field trip permissions, spring carnival check list, volunteer orientation documents - you name it, you can share it!
2. VolunteerSpot: Coordinate school parents and classroom helpers in a snap with free online sign up sheets from VolunteerSpot. Quick online scheduling, easy access from a computer or smartphone and automated reminders make coordinating parent volunteers and helpers so easy (and less time consuming). Click here to try it out now
3. Hootsuite: Is your school resolving to be more 'social' this year? It's easy with social update scheduling tools from Hootsuite! Share online sign up links, fundraiser news, classroom updates and more on twitter with Hootsuite as well as catch a feed of twitterers you follow in addition to trending topics and hashtags you're interest in, i.e. #ptchat.
4. DirectorySpot: Manage your school directory on the go with DirectorySpot! Say goodbye to hunting for the school directory in the glove compartment or the kitchen -- your parents will love instant access and quick connections to other school parents wherever they are. All apps have school spirit and are customized with your school colors and logo or mascot. More info here
5. Trello: Project management is a breeze with the comprehensive but simple-to-use Trello tool. Set up To Do lists, tasks, reminders, alerts and even share important documents with fellow school leaders and parent volunteers; great for planning big fundraisers, ongoing school campaigns and more.
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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What a year! BIG announcements, awesome spotlights, new trends for schools and nonprofits plus plenty of volunteer management ideas made 2013 a year to remember. Don't miss some of our most-read, highest-rated blog posts from the year below:
New VolunteerSpot Tools & Features!
Group pages link volunteers to ALL activities
Customizable email options & alerts
'Autofill' makes scheduling a snap!
New Pro apps for iPhone & Android
Adding resource/document links to sign ups
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Volunteer Management Resources!
5 ways to increase volunteer commitment rate
Twitter tips for recruiting volunteers
Online volunteer calendars & sign up sheets
Highly effective habits of volunteer managers
10 healthy habits of a volunteer community
Top apps for communicating & collaborating
Volunteer appreciation ideas & tips
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Fundraising Ideas!
Boost fundraiser profits (and turnout) with social media
6 non-game carnival booth ideas
Charity and benefit auction tips & resources
6 ways to add product fundraisers to school events
7 trends for school carnivals and festivals
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School Parent Reads!
Parent checklist: 6 great ways to support your student
How to quickly coordiante a school volunteer calendar
Eazy peazy planning for Halloween & fall class parties
Science fair hints & tips for parents
Parent teacher conference do's and don'ts
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Twitter provides a great way for schools to keep in touch with their parent community - for sharing volunteer opportunities, fundraising news and volunteer appreciation stories! But how can you get your school parents to join your twitter community and engage with your school online? Try these 5 easy ideas:
1. Promote your social handles everywhere. Share your twitter handle with a simple "Follow us today!" call to action on correspondence with parents - in eNewsletters, on fundraising materials, on your school's webpage, and even on flyers home.
2. Link your twitter feed up to facebook. Social widgets are super hot right now and really easy to link up to from your popular facebook page. Applications like Woobox help you do it for free in seconds, more info here
3. Host a giveaway. A great way to gain followers in social media is to host a small giveaway (think small gift cards, movie tickets); make a point of entry for your parent community to follow your school on twitter. Platforms like Rafflecopter are great for this, more info here
4. Connect with your ambassadors. Does your school have social media mavens or bloggers with big followings in your community? Network with them to strategically promote your school's twitter account, retweet your school, and encourage parents to follow you.
5. Share relevant information. Your twitter feed is a great way to relay important news and updates to school parents and teachers, but it's also a fun way to engage your community with interesting resources and ideas. Share great potluck recipes, intriguing parenting articles, and hot new education apps, to name a few, to keep your feed vibrant and engaging.
You may also like:
Twitter Basics for Recruiting & Engaging Volunteers
Activate Your Parent Community with Social Media
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With the right tech tools and go-to tips & ideas, getting more parents involved and participating in the classroom and at school-wide events is a breeze this year. And by 'more parents' we mean new, fresh faces that help relieve the load the same ten parent volunteers oftentimes end up carrying. Don't miss these top 6 best practices:
Go digital - Emails, eNewsletters, school websites, class.blogs and social media are your friends when it comes to building a loyal and active parent volunteer community. Strategize this school year with your IT director and socially savvy parents, and focus on reaching parents where you know they are at - online. Check out how to use Facebook for Volunteer Engagement & Twitter for Volunteer Engagement
Get creative - Ask parent volunteers where they would most like to help out and provide jobs and volunteer opportunities that call on everyone to share their special skills and talents. Keep in mind some parents may not feel that they can be of any real help with a particular event or position that you need covered; for instance, a father might feel like he sounds like Ben Stein when reading a story to the Kindergartners, but he loves sharing his fix-it skills and can lead the bird feeder building craft time. Or a mother might actually hate baking but is dying to help with the community garden. Read Back to School Volunteering
Get 'talking' – Find out how your parent community is communicating and make sure that you are involved in the same methods. Some people don’t do anything beyond reading their email while others depend heavily on Facebook. If you offer all the options you can to make communication easier, you are more likely to be seen, heard, and helped. *Note: If some parents never respond to your tried and tru methods, reach out to them on an individual basis.
Give parents a voice – Ensure methods for feedback that help parents know they are heard. Have a specific school email set up for parent feedback or an online google form they can fill out post-volunteer activity. Everyone needs to know what works and what doesn’t to prep and strategize to make the next go-around even more successful.
KISS (Keep it simple silly!) – Make signing up for events as simple as possible with VolunteerSpot's free online signup sheets! The freedom and convenience of signing up from their computer or on-the-go from their phone means more parents have the opportunity to get involved; and automated reminders help everyone keep their commitments! No more lost paper sign up sheets that always get lost or endless email threads that tend to veer way off topic.
Mind Your P’s & Q’s – A little gratitude goes a long way to keeping people involved and loyal to the GOOD work your school is doing. Personal thank you cards, emails, videos and special social media shouts are easy but meaningful ways to recognize your school parent's hardwork. However you do it, be sure to show appreciation and do it regularly!
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Put Facebook in your basket of volunteer recruitment tricks and get more volunteers involved, participating, and loyal to your cause. Facebook pages, posts and events provide unique avenues to
reach potential volunteers where you know they are already hanging out - facebook! The average facebook user (which is most of us) spends over 700 minutes on facebook every month, with 50% logging on daily. This type of online access is unprecendented for many nonprofits, schools and community groups and begs for them to create social communities to help grow their real life communities.
Leaving your organization's social footprint on facebook is a sure-fire way to become a part of potential volunteers' daily lives - a constant reminder of what you are doing, where and when you need help, and an attractive call to join the conversation about your group.
Facebook Page: Create a facebook page for your nonprofit, school or community group that - captures what you are all about, the GOOD work you are doing (with a visual impact in the community), and keeps the conversation going about the topics and causes you are all about.
Large 'cover photos' that lay on the top portion of your group's facebook page like a banner provide a wonderfully visual representation of your organization or school. The About section allows your group to share a little bit about themselves and place a direct link to your own website.
Social widgets, like buttons, located right below the cover photo give your group a chance to get creative with your voice - you can link to photos/videos, share event details and promotions, write notes for public and private viewing, link to your twitter and pinterest accounts and more!
Create a facebook page for your group today - start here.
Facebook Posting: Once you have your facebook page in action, it's important to be strategic and creative with the posts on and things you share on your wall (status updates which appear in your follower's news feeds).
Rich media - photos and videos - are a great way to engage volunteers and get them liking and commenting on your post.
Taking a cue from Twitter, Facebook now lets users tag posts with hashtags. When posting on facebook, utilize the hashtag symbol to tag locations, ideas & events names, i.e. #Austin, #volunteering, #SummerFest2013
Linking to your own website from twitter, for example, to blog posts, volunteer appreciation pages, event listings and more is great way to drive traffic and spread the word.
Posting shareable links to your online signup sheets and volunteer calendars provides a convenience to volunteers to signup and get involved. More people see about your open volunteer needs and are incited to click and sign up right away.
Facebook Publicity: With a page set up and unique, exciting posts to start engaging your volunteer community, it's important to let potential volunteers know you are even on Facebook in the first place. Make sure to link to your
facebook page from your group's own website, even consider integrating a facebook stream of your posts onto your site. Share your facebook address on all publicity materials (eNewsletters, direct mailings, programs, brochures, flyers and even on printed banners and posters you may have up at events).
With this knowledge and these Facebook tips and tools, your social community will boom and directly drive the growth of your volunteer community too. Happy Facebooking!
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With half the year come and gone, it's time to reflect on what has people talking in 2013. Volunteer management, motivation, signups and fundraising have all topped our list.
Check out some of our most popular blog articles so far this year!
VolunteerSpot Updates & Features
New Mobile Site Means Signup on the Go!
Lock Your Signup Feature Released
Volunteer Management Reporting
Recruit more volunteers with shareable signup links
Volunteer Management & Engagement
4 Questions to Ask When Recruiting Volunteers
5 Tips for Boosting Your Volunteer Program (Arts Organizations)
Twitter Basics for Recruiting & Engaging Volunteers
10 Healthy Habits of a Volunteer Community
Volunteer Spotlights, Leaders in Action
Best new APPS for collaboration & communication (nonprofits & schools)
Signup Sheets & Scheduling
School Carnival & Festival Signups
Earth Day (Green Team) Signups
Volunteer Motivation & Coordination
5 Ways to Increase Your Volunteer Commitment Rate
Health Benefits to Volunteering
Fave APPS for volunteer appreciations
Turn helping others into a career with an MSW
Fundraising Ideas
Yummy Product Fundraisers with See's Candies
Shopping for 'Good' & Cause Shopping
Boost Fundraiser Turnout & Profits with Social Media
6 Non-Game Popular Carnival/Festival Booth Ideas
6 Ways to Add Product Sales to School Events
Benefit & Charity Auction Ideas
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"Tweet Tweet!" That's the sound of volunteers joining the conversation about your organization and what you're doing in the community. Twitter rocks the volunteer sector by helping organizations connect, share and collaborate with one another to get more people involved and fighting for their cause. Here are 4 great ways to use twitter for social good:
1. Recruit Volunteers: Gone are the days of illegible clipboard sign up sheets and reply all emails! Free online sign up sheets and volunteer calendars are easy to link to online from twitter. Best Practice: Tweet the date of your event, time and link to your online sign up. Use hashtags where people can search you - think location, your event name, etc.
2. Network: A response on twitter is oftentimes faster than via email or by phone. Connect with like organizations, local news outlets and community leaders on twitter to help spread the word about what your group is doing. Don't be afraid to ask for retweets and follows. Twitter is all about having a conversation online and sharing what you are doing. Reach out and tweet!
3. Spread the Word/Publicize: From recruiting volunteers to tweeting the day of your event, a strategic social media plan involving twitter is a great way to leave a digital footprint for your cause. Encourage volunteers to tweet their experience before, during and after your event and include your twitter handle on all publications - eNewsletters, brochures, flyers, webpages, etc. As your organization continues to show up in the social feeds of your volunteers and their friends, more people will learn about what you do and want to get involved.
4. Show Appreciation: Volunteer recognition is the most vital component of engaging and retaining volunteers within your program. Using social media tools like twitter to shout out volunteers, post pictures and videos from volunteer events, and publicly show volunteer appreciation is a must in this day in age!
Join VolunteerSpot on Twitter TODAY!
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More people means more profits when it comes to running successful fundraisers! A key way to garner more support and participation in your fundraiser is with social media - your go-to tool for not only informing more potential donors (and participants), but for engaging them too.
Click HERE for a webinar recording - please share with your friends!
Also See:
Supercharging Fundraisers with Social Media
5 Steps to Getting Volunteers Active in Your Online Communities
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