Social Media & Non-Profits: How to Use Social Media Platforms to Build Better Communities, Part Two.

Welcome back to the breakdown of our Clubhouse chat with Brit Eames, Social Media Manager for the New Georgia Project! In Part Two of our Clubhouse Chat; we cover the art of falling on your face, why algorithms aren’t super important, and how to be authentic in your messaging, even if it means offending someone.

Brit, you and your community at New Georgia Project have amassed a large and loyal following, what is the key to your success?

“It helps to be on a team whose ethos and energy are very forgiving and playful” states Eames; because of that, you have a lot more ability to explore what works and what causes you to fall on your face. Our audience knows you and knows that you are a face faller and they love you for that. It is that ability to explore; that allows you to be authentic. No one is perfect and your account can not come across as authentic if you are not afraid to make mistakes.”

What do you think makes someone really successful in a Social Media role?

“Anyone who’s doing anything that’s really successful at this moment on social media is profoundly empathetic to the people who are seeing what they’re posting. Approaching this work with empathy makes it a lot easier to avoid the pitfalls of harming people”, states Eames. Empathy means “I’m going to read everything I write and every piece of art that I make. And I’m going to read it from the perspective of every person who I think might read it or see it, or scroll past it, or double-tap it. You’re not actually going to offend anyone, people might say nasty things, but if you run the empathy check 99 times out of 100 you are going to be good.”

Even with running the “Empathy Check”, how do you deal with rude comments?

“When someone makes a rude comment, you have to think of a thoughtful response. You have to address them. You have to be kind, respectful, but there are plenty of comments that pass by where it’s very clear that someone isn’t interested in thoughtful discourse. With those, always humor first. Gentle humor is the easiest way to get out of anything uncomfortable in real life or in digital life. You just have to make sure it is in a respectful way.”

“If someone says something that is intuitively correct or sensible or logical, those are the comments you really do want to engage with, that means there’s a person who’s really listening on the other side”, believes Eames. So, take that leap and go! You can’t please everyone, some people are gonna hate it and some people are going to embrace it. Social media can be a crazy, scary world but when you use it in the right way, it can be beautiful.

What do you believe are the two most important things to remember about social media for nonprofit organizations?

One, nonprofits should “be an organization that understands the biggest part of being in (or hiring someone for) this role, requires loving and living in social media, you must be able to roll with punches and show up when no one else does. That is a yucky and weird process, however, it yields the best results.”

Two, social media has proven to be this wildly powerful tool in the box, but at the end of the day, it is just a tool. Anybody who gets to a place where they think that it’s more than that, isn’t going to build a sustainable strategy for organizing (or fundraising). Eventually, all of these platforms will transition to the next and so will your audience, it’s not going to be this way forever.”

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