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INN Social Media Boot Camp for Nonprofit Newsrooms

July 21, 2016 @ 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm UTC-5

|Recurring Event (See all)

An event every week that begins at 1:00pm on Thursday, repeating until August 4, 2016

Overview: The question is not do you need to be on social media. Rather, it’s how can you, as a nonprofit news organization, afford not to be? This three-week course is designed to build your social media presence and deepen your engagement with your audience. In these three sessions you will learn about the platforms, the algorithms, your audiences and the apps to help you organize an effective social media strategy. We will teach you to make social media work for you, rather than just being another chore taking your time.


Dates and format: This training will be in a "sprint" format with three sessions in three consecutive weeks. Sessions are at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on Thursdays (July 21, 28 and Aug. 4) and last about 1 1/2 hours each. Events will be held on the Zoom online meeting platform. You will receive an email with the meeting link after you register.


Cost: $30 for INN members, who will have exclusive access until July 1. Any remaining seats after that date will be open to nonmembers for $100.


Available seats: 20


Session 1 (July 21): I don’t have the time


Yes, you tweet. You even have a respectable number of Facebook followers. But are you engaged? Do these platforms work for you? This introduction is designed to help you understand how you can spend less time on your social media and be more effective. Social media is not just a megaphone for your work. The platforms demand interaction. We go over:



  • Basics of what works and what doesn’t on social media

  • Identifying the audience and the platforms worth your time — LIFT (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter)

  • Best practices and innovators

  • Finding the right content


Session 2 (July 28): Making it work


So, you get it. You need social media. But how do you work it into the demands of an already packed schedule? We discuss your set up:



  • The importance of planning and making a calendar

  • Thinking through your strategy and policy

  • Finding apps to make it easy


Session 3 (Aug. 4): Telling your story


How do you know that you are spending your time wisely? How do you know you are reaching the people you want? Once you grow your numbers, you can measure your success — not only how many people you are reaching but who those people are. Measuring the audience you are reaching, how you are engaging them and how engaged they are with you is important for telling your story to funders. It’s one thing to say you have tweeted 500 times, it’s another to say those 500 tweets resulted in 5.4 million impressions. We discuss:



  • How to dig into the measurements from the platforms

  • How to ensure engagement by thinking visually.


Trainer: Susy Schultz is president of Public Narrative, an organization that works with and trains both nonprofits and the media —mainstream as well as the 170-some ethnic and community news outlets in Chicago’s neighborhoods. Schultz’s career has wound her through the worlds of journalism, academia, government, foundations and nonprofits. Read more about her and Public Narrative here.