Has Social Media Come of Age for Nonprofits?

For nonprofits that have yet to log on to the social media bandwagon, try this Twitter search term: #get cracking.

Spring 2011 will probably go down as the moment when social media – that catch-all phrase that includes the almost-antique email right through the latest tweet – came of age. Surprisingly, its maturing didn’t occur at its birthplace, the United States, but rather thousands of miles away in the Middle East where a highly educated, globally aware, tech-savvy, and often jobless set of young adults in several countries relied on social media to stay connected to each other and vent over their governments’ failings and lack of opportunity.

Impressed by the flourishing of communication and the impact it was having on Middle Eastern nations journalists began calling it the Arab Spring – a rebirth of liberalism and tolerance in countries not known for embracing such tenets. Think of it as the Millenial generation’s Tiananem Square. (Where this current revolution ends up is still anyone’s guess)

It’s this sense of coming of age that should have all nonprofits readily embracing today’s rapidly maturing social media landscape. But recent data suggests that a lot of nonprofits haven’t gotten the message – at least not entirely. On one hand, a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research study reports that 97 percent of nonprofits are currently using some form of social media, be it Facebook, blogs or Twitter posts. But on the other hand, nonprofit marketing consultant Jeremy Smith in his recent blog post for Social Media Optimization, says the opposite, referring to the imperfect union between social media and nonprofits as “the missed opportunity of the century.”

In a very real sense social media was what seeded the Arab Spring. As a powerful communication tool for social activists looking for ways to connect with large numbers of people – without the need to print fliers – sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and individual blogs have proven their worth: millions of disenfranchised Arab youth joined digital hands and largely in peace, overthrew, or profoundly upset the ruling order of several authoritarian regimes.

Why?

Social media is too often used as if it were a traditional media technology with single messages being sent from a specific nonprofit and delivered en masse to a waiting audience. In short, there’s more to Facebook than simply “friending” someone or clicking “like” on what they write.

“We find that many of our nonprofit clients won’t engage fully in social media because; well, frankly they don’t know where to start and social media is all a bit overwhelming to the average nonprofit leader,” he writes.

Smith is not alone. A recent survey we conducted at The ThinkTank yielded similar findings. Lack of knowledge within the organization, followed by lack of resources were the top concerns for nonprofits, and the reasons for not integrating social media into their communications strategies.

The Web has grown up: Remember that the web has matured from being a static digital billboard into a multi-channel conversation – a consumer-customer relationship gigabytes more interactive than even a few years ago. Donors, data suggests, no longer seek a one-size-fits all message delivered from on high, but rather a message tailored specifically to them.There are a slew of commonsense tips out there to help nonprofits modernize their use of social media.

Here’s just a sampling from Jeremiah Owyang and Ekaterina Walter, two social media gurus, interviewed by Mashable earlier this summer.

• Work With What You Got: Sales and marketing employees may not at first know the ins and outs of Facebook or Twitter, but they have plenty of experience interacting with supporters via more traditional methods, email and the telephone. These skills are easily adaptable to social media once they get the hang of it. (Which leads naturally into the next bullet point)
• Seed Your Own Spring: Nonprofits should foster an environment conducive to learning about social media, even requiring social media training sessions or creating an internal social media newsletter. Joining the Social Media Business Council or the Word of Mouth Marketing Association well help your nonprofit join the conversation of other companies using social media, learning about what strategies work and don’t work.
• Trust Your Staff: Avoid social media consultants as they’re often too costly and do a poor job disseminating information throughout the company, delivering only to higher ups. But…..
• Don’t Fear Hiring: Once you’ve looked internally to fill social media talent, sometimes bringing on board someone with a specific social media skill set can help.

And finally, “Feeding the beast:” The expression that connotes the constant need to satisfy the web’s information appetite needs to be fed a good diet. In other words, don’t over post and make certain what you’re posting is relevant.

OK. So you’ve reorganized your social media business strategy. Now what? As the nonprofit executive or the person tasked with implementing a social media initiative, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1. What does my organization want to get out of this initative, followed by what does my organization NEED to get out of this initiative?

2. Can we go it alone, or do we need external resources to at least develop a social media roadmap?

3. What does that roadmap look like 6 months, 12 months and 2 years from now?

4. How do we link our social media strategy to our giving strategy?

5. Will we remain committed to this? Social media is for life, not just for a few "likes."

Not only is social media for life, but its outlets are forever growing. While Facebook and Twitter are today’s social media buzz words, who’s to say something newer and better may not be right around the corner?

For instance, Google+, which had its public launch last week, is an excellent social media service that offers new ways to get people in on the conversation – whatever that may be. The new service uses “circles” to keep people connected. Like the real life “circles of people” you interact with, digital circles can be friends, family, school alumni, work colleagues and many more. Rather than having a one-size-fits-all Facebook homepage describing who you are, each Google+ circle can offer a tailored message to specific groups, that way the conversation stays relevant to that group. In other words, Google+ helps to reduce the background noise and sensory over-stimulation that sites like Facebook are sometimes guilty of creating. The more social media outlets connect and link back to each other, the better chances nonprofits will have creating an online critical mass of supporters, volunteers and ideally, donors.

If it all still seems just a little bit daunting, take a page from the

nonprofit, charity: water. Founded in 2004 with the mission of bringing clean drinking water to people in developing nations, the company literally came of age during the Facebook Generation and today relies heavily on its social media presence. In one example, the company showcases its spinoff donation site where volunteers can create their own fundraising campaigns and collect donations. In 18 months donors can see GPS images and photos of the area they aided. Similar out-of-the-box ideas have helped charity: water’s financials more than stay afloat. In 2009, its number of unique donors jumped to 34,163 from 17,220 the year before, a 98 percent increase and donations reached $5.4 million, up from $4.3 million in the same time

frame.

But just when you thought social media was only for today’s youth, older nonprofits like the 130-year-old Red Cross are offering new online surprises. In addition to sites like Twitter and Facebook, the Red Cross, relying on the adage that a picture really is worth a thousand words, also provides a link to pictures posted on Flickr – the photo sharing website, which averages some 20 million unique visitors per month. Click on The Red Cross’s Flickr page now and you’ll see the latest images from the upstate New York flood from earlier this month. The images are personal: mailboxes with traces of mud on them - a sign of just how high the flood waters rose; a waterlogged pink teddy bear sitting on its side discarded next to a garbage can. Images like these stir emotions, and hopefully, inspire visitors to help make a difference in whatever way they can.

Social media business platforms and examples of using the new technology effectively are just the beginnings. As the nonprofit industry moves deeper into the social media revolution it’s imperative that charitable organizations not only embrace the tools of the new technology, but also use them in ways that are most effective.