Is your organization turning people off with social media?
08:16, 7 January 2010
.. Posted in Communication, Outreach and General Mngmt.. Link
Bloggers, media folks and various consultants are breathlessly telling nonprofits that they can raise all sorts of new money and recruit vast numbers of new volunteers through using so-called "social media", like Facebook and Twitter and whatever tomorrow's Internet-flavor-of-the-day is. So nonprofits are flooding their FaceBook "friends" and Twitter "followers" with fund-raising messages. The result? Instead of new money and new volunteers, people are "un-friending" and "un-following" nonprofits, and nonprofits are wondering where their huge returns are.
So-called "social media" (which is actually nothing new) is but one tool in a nonprofit, NGO, government agency or other mission-based organization's communications toolbox, and like every other Internet tool, including web sites and those "old-fashioned" but still oh-so-effective email newsletters, these tools should be used to build trust and belief in your organization, not just to ask for money.
MOST of a nonprofits messages via the Internet, including social networking, should NOT have anything to do with requesting cash donations. I recommend a 75% rule: 75% of your online messages to donors, potential donors, volunteers, email newsletter subscribers, FaceBook friends, Twitter followers, whomever, should not ask for cash donations, or be focused on such as a primary message. Instead, messages should:
- highlight a recent accomplishment, or several accomplishments, by the organization (an accomplishment is the number of people you have helped or projects you have completed, for instance, not the number of meetings you have held)
- link to or highlight recent press coverage or blog coverage for your organization or coverage that relates somehow to whatever issue your organization is concerned with
- highlight the contributions/accomplishments of a particular volunteer or several volunteers
- invite people to an event that's main purpose is NOT fund-raising (an open house, a volunteer orientation, a training session, etc.)
- highlight staff activities that further establish their credentials to engage in activities to meet the organization's mission (e.g., a theater might highlight an honorary degree bestowed on their artistic director; a nonprofit animal shelter could highlight a credential the executive director recently received, etc.)
- link to a new resource on the organization's web site
- provide information that somehow builds awareness of whatever issue the organization is concerned with (e,g, a new study, upcoming legislation)
- invite commentary on something the organization is doing or changing
Also see this document on using your web site to demonstrate your credibility and transparency and this page on Evaluating Online Activities: Online Action Should Create & Support Offline Action.
