Written by: Harry Chichester
As we are interested in how charities are using social media, a couple of weeks ago Spring Giving put out a call for blog pieces on the subject. We put the call out on Twitter (appropriately for content on social media!) and Justin Darley, Senior Consultant at Sigma, responded with alacrity to suggest a Q & A between himself and Suran Dickson of Diversity Role Models, who have had great success in their use of social media.
This is the result, which we hope you find interesting and informative:
1. Hi Suran, tell us a bit about yourself and the charity you founded.
After teaching for 12 years and noting the amount of homophobia directed not only towards openly lesbian and gay students, but towards any student who was slightly different, I felt it was time to dedicate myself to reducing this insidious form of bullying. Alongside a fantastic team of supportive business people, I set Diversity Role Models up as a charity which goes into schools with positive role models to encourage empathy in young people and therefore reduce bullying. Our role models can be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, straight - anything - the one thing they have in common is the message for young people that it's ok to be different and there is no reason to fear nor bully LGBT people.
2. At Sigma, we have always been impressed by your use of Social Media. You really seem to engage with influential tweeters. How did you get started?
I knew nothing about twitter when this started out - like most aspects of my new career, it has been a steep learning curve! I followed people of interest firstly and re-tweeted or responded where the topic of the tweet fit with the aims of DRM. We gathered a following as we started to blog and asked people with a big following to re-tweet us. It can often feel a little intrusive asking people to re-tweet your own writing but it certainly increased our following at quite a fast pace.
3. We follow you avidly on Facebook and on Twitter. Did you specifically decide to target those platforms or was it more "organic" than that?
Facebook is what I use in my personal life so seemed an obvious choice and was relatively easy to set up. Twitter was the next social phenomenon that had people talking so I just fell into that too. There was no strategy; setting up a charity is endless work so it was simply survival in those early days!
4. What would you say has been your biggest success so far?
On a social media level, having Stephen Fry re-tweet our request to him to try to crash our servers - it made our lovely sponsors Sigma have heart palpitations! In terms of our success with education, we have so many stories. Students who tell us that they used to think lesbians were disgusting or transgender people were ?freaks' and now see them as ?normal people, just like anyone else'. Or the 11 year old boy who found us after class and said that his Dad had taught him to cross the street when he sees people like us - he then explained that he'd realised this was wrong and he wouldn't do it anymore. The response from young people has been incredible and provides us with daily inspiration to carry on.
5. We know that you've been blogging for some time now. How did you get interested in that? Does that influence what you do on other platforms?
The blogging started as soon as I decided to leave teaching and actually try to make DRM happen. The huge push factor for this was the suicide of a boy due to homophobic bullying so of course this creates strong emotion. For me, strong emotion is best expressed in writing and a blog also served to help people understand why DRM was being set up and how having honest conversations with young people will save lives. Unfortunately I rarely have time to write these days, however we do post guest blogs from role models and patrons as often as possible.
6. We've noticed that you have been very successful in raising your profile by your use of Social Media. Have you also found it useful in increasing donations?
Without a doubt our online presence helps with fund raising. People see something interesting re-tweeted, get directed to our website and then end up on Facebook where we post photos of students' evaluations, post it notes of their questions, role model training etc. If people are wondering as to the worth of what we do, these images quickly persuade them and they are more likely to donate to us or do a charity event for us. Our corporate sponsors also make connections with us via twitter and facebook. It's a great way of promoting partnerships.
7. You're getting bigger and busier now, what issues do you see in maintaining a clear social media strategy as you grow?
We really need a full-time social media specialist as we are aware of just how much impact a great campaign can have. It's served us incredibly well thus far, but we need to ensure we have direction and targets to help us connect with the audience who have the greatest interest in what we do. We would also like to connect with young people better. We will be looking for experts at some point so watch this space!
8. As you know, this is a guest blog for Spring who specialise in researching the potential of technology to change philanthropic behaviour. Alongside Twitter and Facebook, have you experimented with other technologies?
Not yet as we are still so new that all our work is around set up, developing our education programme or fund raising. However, there is a wealth of technological opportunity out there, we have plenty of ideas and really want to engage as best we can. Again, watch this space!
9. Finally, what tips would you have for any other charities venturing into Social Media and other online platforms and technologies?
Put yourself out there. Believe in what you do as an organisation and target those who you know will support and promote you. Produce tangible outcomes that your audience can connect with and respond to i.e. photos or experiences of your service users. Be brave in your approach - it may seem embarrassing at times but if you don't ask, you don't get!
Bios:
Suran Dickson, CEO of Diversity Role Models
"I founded Diversity Role Models in 2011 after teaching in New Zealand and the United Kingdom for 12 years. In both countries there have been legislative changes to protect LGBT people against discrimination and encourage greater acceptance within society. However, homophobic bullying in schools is still a widespread problem. Not just for LGBT young people, but for any student who is slightly different. After witnessing it myself within schools and hearing of numerous suicides due to homophobic bullying, I have been prompted to set up this charity to change the way we educate young people about diversity.
I firmly believe that by providing role models for LGBT young people, we can have a positive effect on the negative statistics. We can give them hope that a happy or successful life with loving friends and family is not out of their reach. Enabling whole classes of young people to hear from adults who have no problem with diversity sets an example and encourages all students to be empathetic and accepting.
It's a huge challenge but we have 100% faith that this will make a difference by opening minds and changing attitudes - please support us where you can!"
Justin Darley, Senior Consultant - Sigma
Justin heads up Sigma's Content and Training Services practice, assisting clients with their social media and online content strategies. With a background in online communication and digital technologies, Justin works as a usability consultant, information architect and trainer for clients with a particular focus on the third sector.www.wearesigma.com
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