Social Village

Today I had a great talk with a friend about nonprofits using Social Media. We both came to the conclusion “if they are not using” they are about to be left behind, because the bus is about to leave the station. Later in the day I had the thought that I was way off base. The real deal is that each nonprofit has their own bus to drive…they all have to decide which bus they want to use and where they want to take it! There seems to be a lot of talking going on these days about whether nonprofits should be using Social Media- Let me be clear with you, in my opinion all nonprofits, if they are not already using Social Media, should be! The question should not be: “ Should we be using Social Media?” but “how can we start using Social Media today?”

Another question that seems to be asked is, “what are the benefits to using Social Media?”.  First, and foremost Social Media allows nonprofits the opportunity to tell people who they are, and what they are about – to tell their story, to tell people why they are doing what they are doing.  We all know that people want to be part of change, to be part of something good, we are all looking for something to be a part of, so is there a better tool than Social Media to connect with people and let them know how passionate your organization is? And how they can become apart of the story apart of the passion?

There seems to be two overriding questions nonprofits keep bringing up when I ask if they are utilizing Social Media. They both have to do with why they think they can’t get started. I hope to dispel for any nonprofit the excuse that they don’t have the money or they don’t have time.

1.    Expense

One of first expense related things, people think about when they consider using Social Media is: “we don’t have a person budgeted to maintain the tools of Social Media”. Honestly you don’t need a full-time person utilizing Social Media (Ill talk about that more in the “Time Section). In the beginning you should bring in a consultant to help you understand Social Media and how you can best you use it, this will cost you a little but the benefit will outweigh the cost within a few weeks.

Once you have talked to a consultant and you know what tools you want to use and what direction your now wanting take your Social Media Bus, its time to get started, but you’re still thinking “we don’t have anyone who has time!”. Well I would venture that there is someone in your office that is already involved with Social Media who would love to help out your organization drive your bus into the Social Media world. If not, there are a ton of 20 something’s who love your organization and would be thrilled to “drive” your Media bus. If you choose to use someone outside of your organization, giving them direction will be key in making sure that your venture is successful. Did you know that Chick-Fil-A’s fan page on Facebook is maintained by a mom who is not employed by them? Its true! That being said, it can be a huge benefit to have someone help make Social Media, work for you, until you have someone in your office doing it as part of their daily job.

If your nonprofit does not have much money set aside at this point for Social Media, don’t worry! Most of the tools to Social Media are free. If you want to post online videos (which is a great way for people to really see who you are) there is Youtube. Youtube.com is what everyone uses, but I would look at vimeo.com (its clean and less cluttered) and best of all its also free. Some of the best free microblogs are – Twitter.com, Yammer.com and ping.fm, the most well known at this point is twitter. If you feel a good tool for you is full on blog, I think the two best platforms for bloging are wordpress.com and blogger.com, because they are so easy to use, again both are free!

2. Time

Lots of people say that Social Media takes no time, well that’s not true. You’re reading this right now and its taking you time right? It is however, very easy to manage the time that will go into your organizations use of Social Media. If you do your research or hire someone to help you understand the correct tool or tools for your organization, you can instantly join in the “talk” that is already going on… and there is a good chance the “talk” is already there about your organization all with a very minimal time commitment.

There are lots of tools out there that makes it easy to interface the Social Media tools your organization chooses to use. These tools allow you to log into one place and correctly interact with your followers. The two that I know of are Friend Feed and Posterous. If you learn how to optimally use these tools you will have the best time management.

So really why is your nonprofit not using social media?

If you need our help we would love to help you get pointed in the right direction!