This year SXSW is offered something new: workshops on a wide range of topics from some of the top people in their industry. I was honored to be involved with the instructional design and delivery of two workshops specifically for nonprofits. This blog post summarizes the insights and resources that were shared from a workshop on how nonprofit social media managers can be change makers from within their organizations. The title was “Peer to Peer Nonprofit Social Media Managers” and we took a deep dive into organizational change issues that professional social media managers face. One goal that I had was to a peer support community through the twitter hashtag #npsmpeer – where nonprofit social media managers could share advice and support one another.
[slideshare id=17087811&doc=sxsw-peersocialmediaworkshopcombineddeck-130310174457-phpapp01]
I enjoyed designing and facilitating this session because I had five awesome presenters who have a depth of knowledge about the topics we discussed. The presenters included: NWF’s Danielle Bridiga, Rachel Weidinger from Upwell, Laura Fitton from Hubspot, and Brian Reich. We kicked off with a series of ignite style presentations on the topics below.
After each presentation, one of the “responders” other experts in the field including Amy Sample Ward (see her write up), Mark Horvath, and David Neff offered their insights in two minutes about the topic. The presentations ended with a reflective practice question that participants could discuss with someone in the room, think about quietly, or tweet using the hashtag #npsmpeer.
Love how this peer-to-peer workshop on non-profits + community management is being run. Hearing from so many people.#npsmpeer #sxsw
— Jen Mizgata (@JMizgata) March 10, 2013
The topics are below, followed by an insightful tweet: Brian Reich: Innovation Mindset
- What are challenges that nonprofits face when trying to create an innovation mindset in their organization to support social strategy and how to overcome them?
“You have to break the rules.” @brianreich #sxsw #npsmpeer #nptech — Amy Sample Ward (@amyrsward) March 10, 2013
Beth Kanter, Learning from Failure
- What are the challenges that nonprofits and the people who work for them face when confronted with failure and how to change that?
turn the “F” word to “fantastic” – fail fearlessly #sxsw #npsmpeer
— Erin Shy (@ErinShy) March 10, 2013
Laura Fitton, Hubspot: Coaching Your CEO
- What are some ways to get your CEO on board using social as part of your strategy?
Wow. @pistachio is someone who considers part of her job as “twitter whisperer” — nice. #npsmpeer — Brian Fitzgerald (@brianfit) March 10, 2013
Rachel Weidinger, UpWell
- How can you leverage your staff’s personal passions and interests in service of your organization’s mission using social media?
Use abundance as frame. Easy to be “the only person doing social” – no. Your budget is EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET. @rachelannyes#npsmpeer
— Ericka Lozano-Buhl (@elozanobuhl) March 10, 2013
We adopted a set of Guidelines that TNT created (creative commons) to ENCOURAGE their staff to use social: bit.ly/YQe91n #npsmpeer — Brian Fitzgerald (@brianfit) March 10, 2013
Danielle Brigida, NWF – Training Staff
- How can you train and coordinate all staff on social to scale your strategy? (Read Danielle’s blog post)
Teach for both the color-in-the-lines people (ie: guidelines, next steps) and the runs-with-scissors people.#npsmpeer
— Lisa Bunker (@mutabilis) March 10, 2013
Given that this was two and half hour workshop at the end of a long day at SXSW, I put to use all the interactive training techniques that I have been teaching nonprofit trainers around the world. When the energy drops, people’s brains go to sleep. Movement helps wake them up. Even just a simple stretch. 
The second half of the session we broke into smaller groups, facilitated by the presenters to take a deeper dive on the topics. I created a storify of the tweets. We rotated groups and then came back together. I handed everyone a 3×5 card and asked them to write down something they will do next week when they get home. Here’s a curated list of resources from the robust Twitter stream:
I agreed to monitor the #npsmpeer tag on hashtag and find ways for us and other nonprofit social media managers to learn from each other moving forward. Come join us on Twitter using the hashtag #npsmpeer.
Liz Neeley says
I love the advice to use abundance as a frame. It’s so easy to get stuck in a “everyone is overburdened already”/limitations rut, and this is a perfect anecdote. Helps to reconnect with the passion and energy that drew our teams together in the first place.
Beth Kanter says
Liz, I love abundance as a frame – I remember a few years back when Marnie Webb used talk about abundance platforms – it is part of having a networked mindset https://bethkanter.org/network-mindset/
Dan Ruth says
It was a great set of workshops, Beth! Both the #npsmpeer and #netnon days were incredibly helpful. And I loved meeting other non-profit social media managers.
Thanks for your wisdom!
Beth says
Dan, no thank you for coming and sharing what you know! A session full of people with experience and wisdom AND willing to share makes it great!
Anita says
This is super. I’m finding a ton of new folks to follow on the #npsmpeer stream! Thank you Beth!