Social Media for Nonprofits: Getting Your Hands Dirty

agardina — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:11:13 +0000

In one of my earlier posts, I discussed social media strategy. Nonprofits, corporations, professionals, students - no matter who you are, you need to have a goal for your interactions on social media and a path to reach them. As a nonprofit, your goal could be to increase awareness, grow local event attendance or create issue advocates. Take that and create a strategy (maybe with a solid trunk and branches?), and you're ready to start getting your hands dirty.

It's time to get down to the nitty-gritty of social media tactics. In my next couple of posts, we'll talk best practices, ideas for campaigns and some case studies. There are a lot of great resources to help with specific tools and technology questions. Following are posts that serve as a great jumping-off point for nonprofits new to social media, or anyone who has a few questions:

From this blog:

Technology Terms Translated (Need to explain "Twitter" to your boss? This is a good place to start!)
Trunk and Branches: Social Media Strategy (It's important to start with a solid foundation and a strategy that coincides with your brand and mission.)

From the web:

4 Ways Social Media is Changing the Non-Profit World (Beth Kanter, writing for Mashable)
Social Media for Nonprofits: 26 Great Slideshare Presentations (These presentations, collected by Rebecca Leaman, cover a wide variety of topics, tips and case studies)
Messages, Stories, and Conversations: Creating a Strategy for your organization and your supporters (Great post from Amy Sample Ward that can apply to overarching strategy or individual messages)
Market or Promote Your Cause on Social Media? Yes, You Can! (Kivi Leroux Miller)
Are You Ready to Take the Social Media Leap? (LevelTen, registration required for download)

Next post, we'll talk online video - in a video! If you have any additional resources you'd like to share for nonprofits who are new to social media, let me know in the comments!

alyssagardina.com - foundation

Social Media for Nonprofits: Getting Your Hands Dirty