Everyone is buzzing about social media. There is no doubt that it connects people, but the big question is can it successfully work for a non-profit. According to Carol Meerschaert, Director of Marketing and Communications for Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, it can. She feels “Done right social media can increase awareness, engagement and motivate volunteers“.
The first inclination is to jump into social media with both feet, but this is not a good idea says Sara Clough, Director of Marketing & Communications for Pencil.org, “Social media, like any other campaign, needs to be thoughtful and strategic”. For Pencil.org the goal isn’t just about gaining followers, it is about community building and strengthening partnerships. While Pencil.org has their own platform that they built from the ground up, they use social media as a way to stay in contact with their users. They are always on the look out for unique ways to make the most of their constituents time. Whether it is embedding a youtube video in an email or linking to an actionable item, it needs to be relevant to their mission.
Some see social media as a one size fits all application, but that isn’t true. Social media is like any other tool-what works for one organization may not work for another. Isaac Kight social media consultant and founder of The Asperger Society stresses the importance of having someone in the organization that is knowledgeable about social media. He realizes that “..it is not possible for all non-profits to have social media experts at the top levels, but even so, it is important that these organizations understand the value added to the organization by an active and vibrant online community”
To that end, he encourages non-profits to hire or encourage current staff members proficient in the use of social media. His organization successfully uses Twitter, Facebook fan page, Eventbrite (for ticket sales) and Meetup (for meeting management). For Isaac “Facebook and Twitter allow for an easy means of disseminating news about new posts on our blog, about events and meetings, and about news relevant to our subject matter“.
Before engaging in any social media, the organization needs to have a clearly defined goal such as engagement, calls to action, information or appeals. Once the goal is determined, the organization can decide what type of social media works best for them.
Some examples of successful social media include The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the National Wildlife Federation. The ASCPA has a Facebook application called Orange for ASPCA. It allows users to share and vote on pet stories, and users can virtually adopt an available animal from the ASPCA Adoption Center and give the virtual pet to their friends.
The National Wildlife Federation uses Twitter to stay in contact with its 20,000 followers. Even science-based organizations find social media is an effective tool to enhance their organization. Genome Alberta is a regular user of Facebook. Genome Alberta has a science news application on Facebook called GenOmics along with a gene application that allows users exchange virtual genes. For Genome Alberta Slideshare and Picasa are invaluable tools for sharing presentations and photos of their work.
Time to chose
No matter what social media platform an organization engages in everyone agrees what doesn’t work-starting social media of any kind without a strong plan for growing the social media.
This doesn’t mean you can’t start out with one type of social media and switch to another. This is exactly what Pencil.org did, they started out with a cause page on Facebook but changed it to a fan page after learning that Facebook promotes fan page more then causes. What it does mean is constantly monitoring how effective your social media is and adjusting it accordingly.
Another thing that doesn’t work is spending money for social media. Isaac Kight believes it is important to use free social media “Spending a lot of money on the social media itself is not a good idea“. Other than Meetup and Eventbrite, which charges a transaction fee per ticket based on ticket purchases they don’t pay for any of their social media.
Also in the "doesn’t work" column, is being inactive. You can‘t just build an online profile and let it languish. It is something that needs constant care-just like any other campaign.
No matter what type of social media an organization chooses it can work, it is just a matter of having a plan, goals and maintaining a vibrant online presence. The focus shouldn’t be just building the number of followers the goal should be building an interactive community, posting relevant links, and encouraging discussion.
