Usually the news about social media is upbeat and urgent — all about the benefits of mastering these tools and networks.

Today we have good news and bad regarding social media.

The bad news comes in this article: Customer Experience Is Getting Worse. The article looks specifically at whether social media channels, as operated by consumer brands, are helping or undermining customer experiences. Here’s the verdict:

“The fact that customers are giving up on social media as a way to interact with brands is, of course, no surprise. Most brands and organizations have never had any genuine desire to use social media to help customers. A 2015 Spout Social survey found that retailers were ignoring 80% of consumer questions and requests on social media. According to a 2015 Locowise survey, brands on Facebook ignored 87% of customers’ feedback. A 2014 Freshdesk survey found that 78% of top brands did not respond to tweets.”

If you’re not committed to engaging with your customers (donors), why get in the social media game in the first place?

Now for the good news. Here’s the way to really put social media to effective use in the nonprofit setting. Roger and I admit to a prejudice here … Mogul, the team behind the tool we’re about to describe, handle The Agitator website. They do a great job; otherwise we wouldn’t be talking up their social media tool, Strea.ma. Hey, we have some sharp blades down here in the Southern Hemisphere!

Take as a given that social media has become an integral part of fundraising events and campaigns. And it works — 55% of those who engage with nonprofits via social media have been inspired to take further action. (Source: Waggener Edstrom)

To harness the power of social media for nonprofits, Mogul have created a social media display wall called Strea.ma that incentivizes your audience to engage with your nonprofit on social media. It also makes your events more interactive and fun, and shows the rest of the world what your audience is saying about your brand.

Strea.ma shows real-time updates from the world’s favourite social media sites. It’s particularly good for live events like conferences, concerts, and sports events. When attendees see the photos and messages on the Strea.ma wall, they are much more motivated to join the social conversation, share a thought, or upload a photo.

In addition to making events more interactive and entertaining, Strea.ma provides a powerful social monitoring tool for fundraisers who wish to track whether their marketing campaigns are reaching their target audience and generating the intended discussions.

Matt Miller at Mogul tells us that hundreds of nonprofits, marketing agencies, and event organizers in the US and around the world have used Strea.ma with great success at a number of major national and international events. Check out these testimonials he’s passed along …

Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia

“Strea.ma provided a combination of factors that was perfect for our event. Its live social stream was an invaluable way for us to establish a dialogue with our guests, giving them a chance to join the discussion around our organizational mission. We took advantage of the surge in conversation to drive supporters to our website and social channels, with the result that we saw our second highest ever volume of visits to our website. When we’re looking for a live feed again we’ll definitely go with Strea.ma!” Henry Randolph, Development Manager of Communications

United Way of Central Ohio

“My goal with Strea.ma was to use it with our Social Media volunteers in our Social Media War Room. Once I set it up, which only took a few minutes, I noticed that it would be a great thing to share with our entire staff. It was a great way for staff to understand all of the messaging coming in and going out through social media.

Interestingly, the staff liked it so much, we’ve decided to use it moving forward as a wall for all of our social media, so that the staff can stay abreast of our feeds. I announced that we were keeping it today and received happy emails from people who really like the tool.” Chris Groves, Director of Digital Marketing

Cultural Vistas

“#1250Hub Open House was an open house event to celebrate our new office space in Washington, D.C.

Strea.ma has been a hit at all of our events. We have seen the benefits of increased social media engagement by attendees. It is an easy-to-use and affordable solution for showcasing social media engagement in a fun and compelling manner.” Anthony Naglieri, Director of Communications & Marketing

So if you want to supercharge the social media around your event or campaign, visit Strea.ma — watch this demo — and tell ’em Roger and I sent you!

Tom

P.S. There’s a free 7-day trial. And if you like what you see, they’re offering a 50% discount just for Agitator readers. That’s even better than their usual nonprofit pricing. Just enter the code AGITATOR when you get to the payment page.