I have decided to do a short series about social media in the non-profit world. Right now, I have outlines for four articles and hope to get all these done by the end of next week. In each article, I’m going to provide background for each service and then offer some tips and tricks to effectively utilize the service to reach new donors and volunteers.
Specifically, I’m going to talk about Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, YouTube, and blogging in general. These five services have the largest footprint and should provide the highest return on your time investment.
My most important suggestion is to be genuine. Simply, don’t overextend yourself by jumping into social media. If you are the only employee or a member of a very small staff, it’s not realistic to have a presence on all of these services. In order to make an impact with social media, you have to be a part of the conversation, not just an observer. You have to create value for the people that follow you or interact with you. You create value by updating regularly. You create value by participating in other conversations. You create value by being more than a consumer of information.
I’ll talk more about this as it applies to each service, but it’s a good place to start. If you don’t create value for your followers or friends or readers, they won’t create value for you. Your followers aren’t going to convert to donors or volunteers or mavens if you don’t support them and give them a reason to strenghten their relationship with you and your organization.
