June 03, 2009
Resources to Help Your Nonprofit Group Navigate Online Social Media
Many nonprofit leaders recognize the potential of online social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to help build more meaningful relationships with donors, volunteers, and supporters.
But in many cases, they are not sure how to take advantage of these networks — or even how to establish a presence.
The Chronicle on Tuesday gathered several marketing and social-media experts for a live online discussion to help nonprofit leaders get a better handle on those tools.
The discussion featured Danielle Brigida, the National Wildlife Federation’s social-media outreach coordinator; Nancy E. Schwartz, a marketing consultant; and Felicia Carr, director of online communications at the National Parks Conservation Association.
The speakers mentioned more than a dozen resources that can help nonprofit groups. Here they are:
- The Pew Internet and American Life Project offers up-to-date research on how Internet users are navigating the Web — and what they’re doing online.
- A recent Harris Poll of Facebook and MySpace users offers demographic information about some top social-media sites.
- The Net Wits Think Tank offers four useful tip on how nonprofit groups can make the most of Facebook.
- A global fund-raising event called Twestival got Twitter users involved in raising money for the group Charity:Water.
- HootSuite allows you to schedule your posts on Twitter — or manage multiple accounts on the site.
- CoTweet is a site that makes it easier to use Twitter if your group has multiple people who contribute to your Twitter feed.
- Ms. Schwartz’s recent blog post offers thoughts on whether nonprofit groups should have policies on their use of social media. Another blog post, by the social-media expert Beth Kanter, also weighs in on the idea of social-media policies.
- We Are Media, a project of the Nonprofit Technology Network, offers a social-media starter kit for nonprofit groups.
- Ms. Schwartz offers a podcast interview with Dave Evans, author of Social Media Marketing in an Hour a Day.
- A New Orleans pizza company discusses how it used Twitter to set a single-day sales record.
- Causes is a Facebook tool that many organizations use to raise money on the site.
- A new study from M+R Research Services and the Nonprofit Technology Network offers an in-depth look at online giving patterns.
Do you have other useful links to share? Post a comment below to offer your favorite social-media resources for nonprofit groups.
Comments
Commenting is closed for this article.
Previous: What Can Charity Leaders Learn From Their 20-Something Employees?
Next: Have Social-Media Tools Been 'Hijacked by the Professional World?'
I signed up today for a new resource and wanted to share:
www.vreebit.com is a new website coming at the end of July – Vreebit is now accepting pre-signups now – reserve your username and your free website Vreebit combines a lot of the features of Facebook, Yahoo Groups, LinkedIn, Google Docs – great for organizing, sharing, advocating – I just signed up. Looks very cool.
— JackieInChicago Jun 3, 03:14 PM #
Pete, thanks for pulling the list together. I was recently pointed to this link of 26 excellent social media presentation for nonprofits: http://blog.mrtweet.net/26-excellent-social-media-presentations-for-non-profits.
— Adin Miller Jun 3, 03:39 PM #
the HootSuite link does not work.
— Erin Schneider Jun 3, 04:08 PM #
Thank you, Erin.
We have fixed the link.
— Peter Panepento, Chronicle Web editor Jun 3, 04:16 PM #
I just have to ask…is there a reason in this new media these posts don’t have a share or add this option or email to a friend????
Maybe a resource that needs to be added to the list.
Another to add is ping.fm which allows status updates across Twitter/FB/Twitter and works with hootsuite to schedule updates.
— Barbara Jun 3, 04:25 PM #
Hi Barbara:
We’re in the process of rebuilding this Web site and will be offering all of those features — and many more — on all of our blogs and news items.
We want to make it as easy as possible for you to share our best content and we’re working to make it happen soon.
We’ll also be including a more robust search function, new features, better navigation, and lots of related content.
I am confident it will be worth the wait — and I hope you agree once we roll out our new site.
Stay tuned.
Thanks.
— Peter Panepento, Chronicle Web editor Jun 3, 04:34 PM #
Co-Tweet and HootSuite – have slightly different feature sets. I’m ending up using them both. I really like the fact that Hootsuite lets you measure click throughs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/3592554586/
The new version of hootsuite also now includes groups.
— Beth Kanter Jun 4, 06:57 PM #
If you’re in Canada, here’s a great website: http://mycharityconnects.org/.
The conference, organized by CanadaHelps, is tomorrow and Tuesday. I’ll be presenting on nonprofit blogging. Here’s the conference link: http://mycharityconnects.org/conference.
Archana
http://southasianphilanthropy.org
— Archana Jun 7, 10:22 PM #
Thanks for mentioning the NetWits Think Tank!
We recently did a Facebook specific post that I think is relevant to this article:
http://bit.ly/bbTq5
Social media and all the free tools continue to gain momentum in the nonprofit space. It’s pretty cool to see how people are leveraging the tools to make an impact.
http://twitter.com/franswaa
— frank Jun 9, 11:25 AM #