03.26.2010
Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other online connection tools have so consumed American communication, even my 79-year-old mother has a Facebook page.
God help us.
But aside from feeling good about our personal connections ... does social media really bring meaningful value to any non-profit campaign?
The 2009 Obama presidential campaign helped trigger a gold rush to social media from all sectors, fueling a tsunami of social media consultants promising to put their "OMG!" interns to work for you.
Most eager to replicate and embrace the time vampire of social media communication has been the non-profit sector and Web resources are readily available. The online social media guide Mashable offers a mix of social media news and science for all sectors.
In a 2009 post, Mashable wrote how social media will trigger a "transformation of the non-profit sector." Among its many tools for non-profits, Mashable has also offered insights from a small-sample social media survey about the potential to cultivate the next generation of major donors through the social Web.
We also like Mashable's Facebook Guide Book and Twitter Guide Book for those non-profit organizations and causes that cannot afford dedicated social media staff or their own "OMG!" consultants.
We urge reasonable expectations, however. For every story of successful social media fundraising or cause-related event rallying, there are hundreds more efforts that fall flat.
- One non-profit arts organization we follow regularly posts witty and relevant Twitter posts to 15,000 followers ... but struggles to get that many visitors through its doors in a year.
- A small music organization on our list boasts nearly 2,000 Facebook friends who want to be "in the know" ... and yet averages 150 in concert attendance.
- Yet another charity with which we're familiar budgeted a big jump in social media-fueled online contributions. After reallocating staff resources to focus on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and email efforts, initial first quarter results have the organization scrambling to re-balance the mix.
Last month, the Portland, Maine-based non-profit software company Idealware, published an intriguing report named "Using Social Media to Meet Nonprofit Goals."
The survey was culminated with input from 459 staffers (mostly executives, communicators or development staff) who are already using social media for their charitable organizations. Survey respondents spanned the non-profit spectrum and included organizations with budgets ranging from "none" to "more than $25 million".
The report's findings reinforce our intuitive caution for non-profits:
- They felt social media was effective for enhancing relations and reaching out ... but considerably less so for raising money.
- Far more respondents used Facebook than any other social media channel ... but less than half found it effective for fundraising.
- Though time-consuming, blogs ranked among the top three social media channels in accomplishing three tasks: enhancing relationships with an existing audience, reaching out to new supporters, and fundraising.
- A third of all surveyed said they used social media "because others were."
Hmmm.
We also like that Idealware's report breaks down some data into both anecdotal and verifiable outcomes. And here's the best part, the report is downloadable online for free.
Our bottom line recommendations to non-profits when it comes to using social media are simple:
- balance expectations with data
- measure outcomes against energy expended
- factor social media in as component of public relations, fundraising, audience-development, and volunteer recruitment plans ... but have staffers maintain a formulaic balance of time if they are unable to intuitively judge their own effectiveness.
Social media can be fun, creative, time-consuming and socially fulfilling to those who who manage it.
You just want to be sure it also adds to your bottom line.
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