In my presentation at the Oct 22 event I talked gave a very general overview about why use social media for your non-profit. If you are just getting started you should alway have a plan, and policies in place before getting started with Social media. Whether you have to get a board to “buy in” and/or have an active staff & volunteers, you need to have things set-up correctly for success.
Here are some people that have recently written about policies & planning for your non-profits web presence:
Lisa Barone (@LisaBarone) with OutSpoken Media has a great post on: Having “The Talk” with Staff, Social Media Style. “It doesn’t matter if you love social media or whether you choose to ban it from the office entirely. You still need to train your employees and staff on how to use it responsibly.” Put together a policy.
John Haydon (@JohnHaydon) talks about “Controling” here. He mentions that control is a “non-issue” With or without social media he wisely notes:
Potential donors still have complete control over two things:
1. Whether they choose to donate money to your non-profit or not.
2. What they say to their friends about your non-profit.
And likewise, non-profits still have control over many things:
1. The price of their products (donations and how they are spent).
2. Who buys their products (channels of fundraising).
3. How they treat their or donors.
4. How they treat their employees.
5. How much value they create in their community.
One of the best people to follow in the non-profit world is Beth Kanter (@Kanter) and her blog and in the next few weeks she will be discussing different reasons and strategies for using social media.
* Social Programs: The most common application of social media is for fundraising and marketing. But what about using social media as part of your volunteer or board recruitment strategy, outreach or educational program delivery, crowdsourcing ideas for program development, professional development or integrated in other areas of your nonprofit’s work? What are the best emerging examples and early lessons learned? (November 1-15th)
* Deep Engagement and Social Content Strategies: Ongoing deep engagement and building relationships is the heart and soul of social media success. This is different from a campaign mentality where you flip an on or off switch. What are the different strategies for engagement? But having a conversation with your supporters is only half the job. You also need social content. This is partly what your organization creates as part its web presence, but it is also content created by your supporters that they share or that you repurpose and remix. What is a social content strategy? What are some tips and techniques? #WAMdeep (November 15th – 30th)
Become a Fan of The Non-Profit Toolbox on Facebook
* Getting to Scale: What does it take for everyone in the organization to embrace social media? How do you scale? What are the challenges? How do you overcome them? What exactly does a staff person, whether full or part-time do on behalf of their organization? How do they balance “social productivity” with other tasks? What are the qualities or experience you need to look for? (November 30th- December 7th)
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