Do you have to fill out EVERY online profile? No. Here are the essentials.
13:55, 14 July 2009
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There are hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of places asking for you to fill out an online profile. These online professional networking and social networking sites want your name, your job title, your professional history, your interests, your connections, etc. Without your information, the networks aren't as valuable.It would be impossible for one person to utilize every platform available, but nonprofit staff have to be even more choosy: their time is already stretched thin, as are all of their organization's resources, and their time is not best spent filling out and maintaining endless numbers of online profiles. Nonprofit staff must be strategic regarding the use of online networking sites -- just as they must be about their time offline.
Which online profiles should nonprofit staff members invest their time in to fill out and maintain, at minimum? As of July 2009, here are my recommendations, but remember that online profile sites wax and wane in terms of popularity -- what's true now will not be true in two years:
Regarding a staff member's professional life, I recommend each staff member being asked to fill out LinkedIn, at minimum, and perhaps Plaxo as well. Both sites are very reputable professional networking sites with millions of members, and probably the most used professional online networks in the USA. Staff should ensure that their profiles on these sites have up-to-date information about all of professional activities/past employment (or those jobs that they want to share with everyone; they are not obligated to do so) and staff might want to include volunteer positions as well, if they want to share such with professional colleagues and potential employers (again, they are not obligated to do so). Many people use LinkedIn and/or Plaxo as their electronic address book for professional contacts (I do!), since contact information is maintained by members themselves, and this helps to always have up-to-date contact info for professional contacts. It's also a great way to show off the credentials of your staff and volunteers. Remember, however, that these profiles belong to the individuals who create them, not the nonprofit they are working for.
FaceBook and MySpace are social networking sites; they were set up originally to allow people to connect socially, from joining clubs to finding people to date. Some nonprofit organizations use social networking sites to connect with current and potential clients, volunteers and other supporters. However, some nonprofit staff members, including volunteers, are uncomfortable with mixing in work with their online social activities. Therefore, it's inappropriate for you to require staff to use their personal profiles on these and other social networking sites for their professional or volunteer work; rather, ask them voluntarily, or, encourage them to create a separate profile specifically for their work or volunteering with your nonprofit organization, if you think staff investing their time in using social networking sites is important for your nonprofit's efforts.
My recommendations for nonprofit organizations regarding which social networking sites are worth investing their staff time, at minimum:
- If your nonprofit reaches out to young people, have a profile for your organization on MySpace, maintained by whomever at your organization is in charge of communications. Invite your clients, volunteers and supporters to link to this profile, but know that you cannot control the content of those who link to your MySpace profile; if that makes you uncomfortable, then either write and enforce a linking policy for forget MySpace altogether.
- FaceBook doesn't permit organizations to be an individual user, so have a member of your communications team create a profile for him or herself (separate from the one he or she uses outside of work), and then create a group for your organization on FaceBook and invite your clients, volunteers and supporters to join such, become a fan of such, etc. Again, remember that you cannot control the content of those who link to your FaceBook group; if that makes you uncomfortable, then either write and enforce a membership policy for forget FaceBook altogether.
Do NOT require staff, volunteers or others to link to your organization, or to each other, on any online social networking site. Outside of the online systems your organization sets up, such as its own web site, its own online forum, etc., an online profile is not yours -- online profiles belong to the individual staff member, volunteer or client do with as he or she wills.
There are even more online networking sites popping up every day. Ask your staff, volunteers and other supporters which online social networking sites they use frequently, why they use them, and if they think your organization should also use such sites. When you ask this question, make sure staff, volunteers and others know that this information is not required and they are under no obligation to provide this information to you. Use this information to plan strategically regarding which other online networking sites your organization should use (if any). Have a goal for the use of each online networking site and evaluate these activities regularly.
More advice on how nonprofits can utilize online networking sites here.
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