Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 022515

Social Media 101

Since I launched my Boosting Your Outreach blog, I have been encouraging the dynamic use of social media. Indeed, Twitter, Facebook and the other outlets are effective, efficient, convenient and popular means to promote your projects, missions, nonprofit organizations, small businesses, products and services.

By providing information about yourselves and joining existing conversations, your NGO or enterprise grows in reputation and acceptance.

I would like to return to the basics and guide you through some important points for consideration before you launch your social media strategy. And if you have already initiated it, don’t worry, treat this as a helpful review.

You’ll be interested to know that even though social media is globally ubiquitous and has been for several years, there are any consultants, universities and other educational institutions and adult continuing education programs that offer classes on the basics of social media (even email). There seems to be a never-ending stream of interested users.

Among the questions that you have to decide for your organizations are:

·         Why do we want to be involved in social media?

·         Which platforms are best for you organization?

·         What do we want to say to our readers, stakeholders, customers, audience and how often?

·         Who will comprise the social media team?

While you are deliberating about the points above, take into consideration what others are thinking about or writing on this subject.

·         Managers choose to delegate these tools to interns or specialists. Delegating is a way to avoid the subject and assigning an intern to do this is not always in the best interest of the company. Don’t underestimate the power of your tweets. In previous blogs I cited the immense reach of individual thematic tweets. And as for interns, they may know how to tweet information about rock stars but do they really know your issues, industry, stakeholders, customers and mentality to follow almost everything about your work?

·         Social media offers unique opportunities. It offers a direct way to talk with clients and communities on a daily basis. “Talk with” is important because it implies that you are sharing, listening and joining an existing conversation. You’re not just hurling information into cyberspace. You are actively contributing to building a community.

·         Customers, clients, stakeholders and audience know best what is important to them. Social media has little to do with you; it’s about your audience, customers or whomever you’re trying to reach. Think like your customer and stakeholders think. You have to stay on top of what is happening so you can join the conversation and even guide it.

·         Not sure where your customers are on the social web? Just ask them. Survey their thoughts and views. Read existing literature. Ask me.

·         Social media isn’t necessarily free. You can set one up without paying a dime. However, even though there’s a very low price tag to enter the game, social media is far from free. It requires time, energy, and effort. It’s an everlasting commitment to create interesting content, list to conversations, and respond. You cannot tweet once and hope most of your targeted receivers read it. You’ll win the lottery before that happens. You must increase your odds that your tweet or idea is read by as many people as possible.

To be continued in my next blog.

In previous blogs I wrote that successful fundraising can be conducted via social media. Having said that, don’t abandon all other traditional and modern forms of soliciting financial support. That would be foolhardy.

However, deciding how much time you should devote to fundraising via social media is a wise business exercise for nonprofits and NGOs.

Heather Mansfield in “Mobile for Good: A How-To Fundraising Guide for Nonprofits” observed: “The amount of time that a nonprofit can invest in mobile and social media depends on capacity. Small nonprofits that are not in a position to hire a part- or full-time new media manager should limit themselves to one or two social networks and place the highest priority on their website, email communications, and online fundraising campaigns. Mobile and social media are powerful, but when implemented on a small scale, the power is overshadowed by other more traditional online campaigns. Often small nonprofits try to be active on more than two social networks by sharing the responsibility among staff. While this is possible, it does require a concerted effort and cooperation among all staff that content be distributed effectively and consistently. There still should be one person who is given the directive to research and then communicate best practices as they evolve to other participating staff.”

After deciding, take note of the time – note that it’s not minutes but hours – other organizations have committed to social media for fundraising.

“Even though 61% of nonprofits spent more time than previously utilizing social media in 2013, less than 2% invested more than 21 hours a week. Thus, if your nonprofit is not willing or able to hire a part- or full-time new media manager, then you have to select carefully the social networks that your nonprofit can realistically and effectively maintain. For years social media has been considered free, so executive staff did not make necessary financial investments and consequently many communications and development staff now find themselves with many of the above job duties added to their list of job responsibilities, but without official recognition. This is an unsustainable approach to mobile and social media that puts a great strain on many communications and development staff,” Mansfield wrote.

In other words, social media is not a toy but rather a serious tool to help NGOs, nonprofits and small businesses boost their outreach, promote their projects and missions, reach stakeholders and customers, and raise funds.

If you’d like to know the recommended hours for each platform, contact me.

* There are 1,409,430 tax-exempt nonprofits, NGOs in USA according to National Center for Charitable Statistics. Is your organization part of that fraternity?

* NGOs, nonprofits and small businesses: In today’s highly competitive and over-saturated humanitarian and mercantile environment,  in order to successfully promote your mission, services, products you have to provide more, better, faster.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach