Thoughts on New Media for Non-Profits

// April 22nd, 2009 // News

We at Geek Girl are very proud of volunteering our time last Friday for a worthwhile event. Suffolk University, the renown Boston school, also has a Cape Cod extension where they put on some pretty cool programs for the locals. This particular event was about New Media for Non-Profits and it was infiltrated by about 150 non-profits, not-for-profits and charities all around Cape Cod and the South Shore.

Us Geek Girls were the “Help Desk/Resource” for the event and we filled an incredibly important role in that we sat down face to face with many attendees who had questions on new media, hoping to tie it all together and use it to promote their cause. Non-profits are getting hit badly in this economy and when people’s savings dry up, sometimes their ability to give to charitable organizations or renew their memberships dries up as well. Such is the case right now with very many non-profits.

If you are a non-profit, here is some quick advice so that you will have some tools at your disposal, but y’all must make a promise that you will take the initiative and USE them consistently and with frequency. And not just once. You can’t just sign up for LinkedIn and then never add anything else. You can’t just open a Twitter account and not tweet. And you certainly cannot start a blog and then never post another one story after your first one.

Going to a session on new media (don’t mind me if I switch up “new media” and “Social Media”, they are one in the same!) and signing up for user accounts are both awesome and highly recommended, but if you are not committed to keeping your content fresh, you will never be successful using new media.

Sometimes people will see the lack of content on websites and blogs as a sign of staleness. A sign of not keeping up with the times. And people – and even worse, Google – will stop coming to see you.

So here are some pretty good things to keep in mind when thinking about your non-profit can be successful using new media/social media:

1.) First of all, MAKE a plan. Do some research online and find out what social networks are going to be best for you. You do not need to do them all. Start small and when you can handle the small stuff, move on to something else, but all the while maintaining your plan. I always say, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time…

2.) CHOOSE the Social Networks that work best with your organizational structure and your personal schedule, including time, budget, content, goals, and measurability. MySpace may not be the most suitable place for an organization that caters to kids under 18…

3.) Make the TIME. To run a successful campaign, you need to do some work. Most people who claim websites, Internet marketing and social media do not work are the ones who are lazy and do not maintain a plan. They call it “work” for a reason!

4.) What is your MESSAGE?  Be consistent on your message. Keep the consistency on all kinds of social media. Think about what you want to be tweeting about or writing about. If everything is about capital campaigns, donate now, and pledges, you will lose a lot of people. Explain what you are doing. Provide touching, real stories of need and relate that through blog posts and marketing. More people want a soft sell when approached but they also want something they can believe in.

5.) Try to follow the “3/7″ Rule: Remember, social media is all about “community”. It’s all about working together. And those who are the true resources and heroes are those who will serve others far more than serving their own best interests all the time. For about every 3 tweets on Twitter about yourself, tweet 7 times about someone else or something else such as a resource that can help them, retweet other’s tweets, and ask questions! Social Media is NOT about a never-ending PR blitz for you; it is community and everyone in the community benefits by promoting the community and each other in the community.

6.) Etiquette: There is online etiquette and to be effective online, stick to things like the 3/7 rule and keeping the message consistent. Also, NO swearing, politics, religion, sports teams and anything else that may cause an unintended consequence with a potential donor, benefactor, supporter, sponsor or member. Keep to the message of the organization. NO spamming.

7.) BRAND Yourself: Brand the organizations when you sign up for accounts. Use that name on everything. You want to portray and “unforgettable” presence online as well as offline, so make sure the name is visible. Also, remember that  unless you invented a magical name like the pharmaceutical companies, chances are you might have a company with the same name if it is pretty generic.  You need to check availability of social media sites to see if you can keep some consistent branding. Try Know’em – this is a great site that checks the availability of your brand name, user name or vanity URL on 120 popular Social Media websites before you get started.

8.) MEASURABILTY: Have a plan on how to measure your traffic. Sign up for free statistics with Google Analytics and use Google Alerts to see when something about you has been indexed by Google. On your plan, check how many followers you have, how much traffic your website is getting, and if there are more signups on your contact page, your newsletter, or even if your donations are increasing. You need to have action plans in place to measure traffic. This is SO important to measure how successful you have been. Especially if you have a Board to report these thing to.

9. ) MASH UP your social media: Use Twitter to post links to your Facebook Pages and blog posts. Use LinkedIn to put your blog posts and Twitter updates. Use Facebook to display your events and link to your website. Mash it up!

10.) Have FUN! Meet people with some commonalities and interests such as you, people you probably would never have met otherwise! Social media has made marketing more democratic with lesser barriers of entry. You may even find yourself collaborating with other organizations, get some volunteers and possibly some donations. Just don’t forget the reciprocation factor.

Check out Geek Girl resources, follow @GeekGirlCamp on Twitter and attend some events. Some are free. Or convince your organization to have a professional organization like Geek Girl come and do some training so everyone inside your organization is involved and can see the growth and positive influences of social media!

And special thanks to Geek Girls Julianne McLaughlin, Reiko Beach, Julie Roads, Paula Hersey and June Bertucci for helping out on Friday!

Have any other great ways non-profits can use social media? Post them below!