Social Media and Non-Profits: It’s All About the Interaction

Social media and non-profits are two topics of great interest to me, so I always enjoy reading about how they can be combined efficiently. Robin McIntrye of Social Media Brain Bird recently wrote a post about the use of social media in non-profits that caught my attention.

In Social Media is About Them – Not You, Robin addresses some of the common mistakes made by non-profits as they try to make their way into the world of social media.

Many non-profits have fallen into the trap of thinking that just posting their information is enough. Yes, it is good to inform people about what you are doing, but that doesn’t get them involved. Don’t make the community come to you. Instead, get out there and be SOCIAL… that is the whole purpose of social media.

Robin offers some ways for non-profits to take this action. “Find out where the conversations related to your mission are happening and interact: respond, encourage, help with tips and links. Add community links to your website and do everything you can to keep the conversations going.”

Non-profits need to remember that social media is all about the interaction. Say what you need to say, but also give the community a chance to respond and get involved by allowing the conversation to flow both ways.

Social Media in the Non-Profit World

Two summers ago, I completed an internship in Charlotte with Speedway Children’s Charities. As I was working for this non-profit organization, I had the opportunity to attend several meetings and other special gatherings to discuss matters in the non-profit world….much of what went way over my head at the time. One such excursion I made with my supervisor was to the 2007 Roundtables for Non-Profits Luncheon hosted by PRSA.

Each person in attendance was randomly assigned to a table at the luncheon, and each table had a speaker present on a different topic. It did not have much significance to me at the time, but I had the opportunity of sitting in on a very interesting discussion. The topic I learned about that day was social media….a farfetched phenomenon to me and most of the others at my table at that time. I can still remember one woman blatantly interrupting our speaker’s presentation and asking him why he was telling her about something that didn’t matter to her and that she would never understand. Little did we both know how important these new technologies would become for the non-profit world.

I have recently become interested in pursuing a career path in the non-profit sector, so I have started to expand the types of blogs I am looking at so that I know what I am thinking about getting myself in to. I found two very interesting blogs that stress how important it is for non-profit organizations to use social media tools to their advantage. Beth Kanter’s blog focuses entirely on how non-profits can benefit from using social media, and Marc Pitman joins in the conversation as he recommends using these tools for non-profit fundraising.

Discussion about one social media tool in particular stands out….Twitter. I was one of the biggest Twitter skeptics out there when I was first introduced to this tool, but I have finally realized how useful it can really be….and it is about time that those in the non-profit world come to the same realization. Beth Kanter found Twitter “both interesting and annoying” over a year ago and is now encouraging the non-profit world to delve into this new territory. Marc Pitman lists the numerous benefits for fundraisers to have a presence on Twitter, and he is even helping to lead a Twitter webinar on January 30 to educate the non-profit world.

Clearly, things have changed a lot just in the past few years. Those who once thought they would never have to worry about social media tools like Twitter are now finding that these new technologies are essential to the success of their non-profits.