Developing Social Media Know-how

There is certainly a lot of “buzz” about social media within the nonprofit sector, and according to a recent report from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, nonprofits are adopting these tools more widely than their corporate counterparts.  Despite this, I would say that a good chunk of nonprofit organizations still have a long way to go in using these tools to their full potential.  So where’s a nonprofit professional to begin?

I would suggest you get involved for yourself, before you start representing your organization.  This gives you a little more room for mistakes.  Don’t sign up for everything at once; you’ll never be able to keep up with it all.  Just start with one, and add another as you feel comfortable.  Here’s how I’ve gone about it.

I started with facebook, not because I wanted to increase my social media savvy, but because I wast starting my Master’s program and it became a great way to This is a great way to stay connected with people as an individual, but with an account you can check out nonprofit groups, fan pages and causes , which will give you a lot of insight into what tools are available and how they can best be used.

LinkedIn is another site I became involved in because of business school.  This is a great way to connect with people you know professionally, as it gives you an opportunity to peek into their other work experiences (so long as they have completed their profile).  This becomes particularly helpful as you conduct a job search and/or look to make a new connection with an organization or business.  Through this system, you are able to search not only the profiles of your friends, but also their friends (depending on privacy settings).  Clearly there is a lot of opportunity to grow your network this way.  Of course, you have to be proactive about it.  Additionally, individuals can find a lot of value in LinkedIn by subscribing to groups, where they can connect and share news/ideas with like-minded people.

Although some nonprofits have attempted to develop LinkedIn groups, I would say that really there’s only two types that have been able to maintain activity in the long-term: (1) nonprofits that act as associations, bringing nonprofit professionals together, and (2) nonprofits that produce alumni from their programs.  The LinkedIn group provides a way for these people to connect with each other, which can add significant value not only to the users but also to the nonprofit, who can keep a pulse on what it’s members are involved in.

Last but not least, I opened my Twitter account.  Twitter is a tremendous resource for those people looking to get more informed about social media in the nonprofit sector.  I’ve already blogged about some of the amazing people I follow;  they will share all sorts of information, from examples of best practices to recent statistics and much, much more.  Plus, through Twitter’s search tool it is very easy to see what is being said about your organization or issue area.  If you find that Twitter is a useful tool for you, then I’d suggest you check out TweetDeck or a similar desktop application to manage your tweets.

This clearly highlights only three of the social media platforms out there, but I think these are great places to start.  The key learnings from my experience so far have been:

• You have to set your own boundaries.  I personally keep my Twitter profile public, but restrict my facebook to my friends.  I also maintain my tweets seperately from my facebook updates.  My Twitter and LinkedIn definitely have more of a professional feel than my facebook, but I make sure that there is nothing posted on my facebook that would stand out in a negative light should a prospective employer run across it.
• Twitter is all about the conversation.  If you aren’t listening to and/or engaging with people at some level, you are certainly missing the mark.  Along the same lines, don’t get sucked into the numbers game.  More followers does not equal a better Twitter experience.
• Maintain your social networks.  Visit them daily – if only for a few minutes at a time.  The longer you neglect them, the more overwhelming it will seem when you have to “catch up.”

That’s my experience.  For those of you who are newer to social media, let me know how it goes.  For those of you who have been at it for a while, please add your insights to the comments.  Thanks!