5on5: Brandy Barnes Founder of Diabetes Sisters

5on5: Brandy Barnes Founder of DiabetesSisters

We are on our second week of five for the Nonprofit using Social Media 5on5 Expert Series. Today’s interview is with Founder of DiabetesSisters, Brandy Barnes.

What is DiabetesSisters and what is its mission?

Brandy Barnes, Founder of Diabetes Sisters

DiabetesSisters is a North Carolina-based 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the health and quality of life of women with and those at risk of developing diabetes, and to advocate on their behalf.

How have you been able to use social media successfully to advance your mission?

Since we started as primarily an online organization in 2008, social media has been a critical factor to our rapid success. Being well-connected in the diabetes community is essential to the success of a nonprofit in the diabetes field. By working with our friends in the diabetes blogger community, we have been able to reach more women with our online programs/services because they, as a group, helped us get the word out among their own audiences online, via Twitter, and via Facebook. In fact, these connections were critical in helping us get the word out about the Weekend for Women Conference very quickly. As soon as registration opened on January 1st, we saw people tweeting and retweeting messages about it. We have had a number of women who registered for the conference or who applied for a conference scholarship to say that they found out about the Weekend for Women Conference through Twitter. We filled the Conference to capacity within 8 weeks and I think this is largely due to social media.

What particular social media tools do you use?

Currently, we use Twitter and Facebook. Twitter is used more for general announcements about the organization and its happenings. Facebook is used for both local and national marketing purposes. I post my weekly blog on Facebook, announce our local monthly meetings and quarterly gatherings, and post updates about the Weekend for Women Conference to get people talking. Facebook allows more conversation.

How do you integrate your current or traditional communication e.g. events, conferences, etc. into social media?

It is more important for us to get people to our website for online networking first, then get them to the conference. So, we use our website, Twitter, and Facebook to bring exposure to the Conference and local events. We also send out press releases in the traditional manner. We have plans to have a volunteer tweeting about the Weekend for Women Conference while it is going on this year.

How do you measure your ROI?

Our LIVE conference and online program goals are integrated.

Objective 1: To reduce the isolation that women with diabetes experience and to provide opportunities for women to engage, learn and be encouraged by one another as they face the gender-specific challenges and issues associated with diabetes.

Outcome measurement: post-conference questionnaire; live event return rates; percent increase in DiabetesSisters membership; increase in DiabetesSisters forum participation; qualitative analysis of forum conversation.

Objective 2: To educate and encourage women with diabetes to make a commitment to improving and/or maintaining their own mental and physical health to reduce the devastating and costly complications of diabetes.

Outcome measurement: post-conference questionnaire; increase in DiabetesSisters forum participation; qualitative and quantitative analysis of forum conversation.

We thank Brandy Barnes for sharing with us their social media practices and where you can find DiabetesSisters out in the social media universe. Next week we interview Alison Gordon of Rethink Breast Cancer. Please subscribe to blogs and whitepapers for more interviews and to receive FREE white papers on social media. The “5on5 Life Coach” white paper is available now for download.

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