1. What’s your single greatest challenge with blogging?
2. How will the Social Media Success Summit help you overcome this challenge?
3. How do you envision your success online?

1.  My greatest challenge with blogging is speed and time – both personally as well as for the people I’m trying to help.  My blog is new, but it serves a consituency that is floundering in trying to capture and utilize the power of social media – nonprofit organizations.  I’ve worked in the nonprofit sector for many years and all I hear from this constituency is that they know it’s a great resource, they know they should be doing it, they don’t have the time or expertise, and since the results are not monetarily quantifiable at this point, management and the board is reluctant to invest time – let alone money – in it.  So, they are already way behind the pack. For myself, I spent almost a third of my life helping a now ex-husband get his career off the ground and I’m running to catch up too, and running out of time for some personal goals.  So, I don’t have the time to figure this out the hard way (for myself or the nonprofits I want to help) and I don’t have the financial resources to invest in something as great as SMSS.

2. SMSS will give me the tools I need to not have to spend months on the learning curve.  It will help me avoid doing things the wrong way and help make sure that I do things the right way first.  I do know a lot, and I know that I know a ton more than many around me about social media, but I need to leap to the next level in a single bound and not struggle climbing up a rope.  SMSS will help me be more effective and efficient in building the resources necessary to help educate nonprofit organizations as well as help me build this blog into a business to support my future family (which has been on hold for a few years already).

3. I envision success as my blog being a key resource for nonprofit organizations in their marketing, fundraising and social media operations while I make a decent living.  It will allow me to do what I love – share with others the information they need to be successful – while building stronger communities with more effective nonprofit organizations, and at the same time having a happy, fulfilling home life.

Well, that’s my plea in a nutshell.  I would love to have the opportunity to participate in SMSS and can assure you that the knowledge I gain will be distributed to many other sources that are desparately in need of social media help and that are trying to make our world a better place.  So please, pick me!  Even if only to improve your karma:-)!

Now, getting a volunteer to run your organization’s social media isn’t a bad idea if it’s approached correctly.  You have to recruit this volunteer with kid gloves – much the same as if you were recruiting a volunteer to handle the organization’s finances.  The wrong volunteer in either situation could completely destroy the organization.  If this volunteer has login and editing access to all of your social media and they become disgruntled – they have the power to cause major damage to the organization’s image and brand and have instant reach to all of your donors and supporters.

Using a volunteer in this capacity should really only be taken on by organizations with an established volunteer program; this is not the volunteer to get your volunteer program started.  You have to treat this volunteer more like an unpaid staff person – they must have a supervisor, they must sign a contract that details expectations of what they can and cannot do, you must do reference and background checks, and they should be included in any staff meetings that address social media, marketing and fundraising needs.  This is not a position that can operate in a silo; they must have their hand on the pulse of the organization in order to have the knowledge to properly leverage social media.

So, how do you find this volunteer?

1. Mine your donor and volunteer database for people who work in marketing, PR and IT.  Contact them directly to see if they have the expertise and would be interested in helping the organization in this way.  If they don’t, ask them if they can refer someone who may be able to help.  Referring means that they not only give you the name and contact information of the person, but that they actually contact the referral themselves, summarize the opportunity and get permission for you to contact them.
2. Send out a call for volunteers using viral email to your entire donor and volunteer database (those who have given you permission to contact them in this manner).  Many people have the skills and knowledge of social media as a result of personal interest and hobbies that would not be apparent from their occupation.  This call should be very detailed in regards to scope of activities, skills/experience needed, and time commitment.  By viral, that means that you request they send the email on to anyone they think would be interested or able to help you locate the volunteer.  Do not send the email message using cc or bcc.  The email message should be sent using mail merge or other email system that sends the message out to one person at a time.
3. Use third party volunteer recruiters like VolunterMatch.org or Business Volunteers Unlimited.

Another thought that many organizations may be having is to get a business or consultant to donate their services.  One thing to keep in mind is that there is no tax benefit for donation of services – only tangible property.  Therefore, when negotiating the donation, you should recommend that the organization pay for the services and ask for a donation/pledge that will offset the cost.  The donor could generally restrict the gift for use (such as technology or public relations) if they so choose, but there cannot be a true quid pro quo or it negates the tax deductibility of the gift.

When it comes to using social media, it is very important to remember that you are dealing with very valuable assets -  your organization’s image and brand.  Make sure that the organization has control when using outside souces (volunteer or paid).  The organization must have administrative powers and login information for all of their social media activities.

Key Findings include: 

• Nonprofit websites scored an average 73 out of 100 for online customer satisfaction (the threshold for excellence is 80).
• A highly satisfied visitor to a nonprofit website is 49% more likely to make a donation.
• The top 2 reasons people visit a nonprofit website: 40% News & Events; 40% Stay informed on the cause the organization addresses.
• 18% visit a nonprofit website specifically to make a donation.
• Those who found the nonprofit’s website through the news or a media source were more likely to donate.

Have you reviewed and updated your website lately?  Look at it through an outsider’s eyes.  If you’re not happy with it, your potential donors aren’t either and you’re missing an enormous opportunity.  Improved public relations activities that highlight your website could also lead to increased donations.  Your website is the digital door to your organization – are you embarrassed when you get company?

http://www.foreseeresults.com/Form_Nonprofit_Apr09.html

Sponsored by NTEN, Common Knowledge and The Port.  Almost 1,000 nonprofits participated in the survey.

Key Findings:

1. 74.1% have a presence on Facebook
2. 80.8% allocate at least one quarter of a fulltime staff person to social networking
3. More than half intend to increase social network project staffing over the next 12 months
4. Of those not using social networking, 44.3% sited the lack of expertise and 20.5% sited the lack of budget as the reason.

Very interesting and important survey for the nonprofit community – check it out.

1. The first thing you have to do is learn what options are out there and pick one or two to get started.  If you don’t have strong IT staff, look for a volunteer or Board member who has knowledge in this area or who can connect you with someone who can.  Ideally, you want to choose solutions that can tie your donors and volunteers to your mission and those you serve.  For example, if your mission is to empower women and your programs are targeted towards women working on their GED and to established professionals learning advanced leadership techniques, create a blog that deals with issues pertinent to the entire constituency.  Then set up a community or group that allows them to communicate and discuss those topics.  The more your (potential) donors  have first hand knowledge and participation in the mission, the easier it will be to persuade them to make donations.
2. You have to provide compelling content.  Often, nonprofits only use enewsletters, blogs, and social media postings to advertise events and ask for money.  If this is what your nonprofit is doing, you are likely causing people to tune out and are possibly causing negative reactions.  It is very easy to create donor fatigue if all of your communications are around “asking” for some type of support.  Remember, Web 2.0 is a two-way street and you have to give your supporters a reason to come back.
3. Managing social media and virtual marketing can be very time consuming and cannot fall on only one staff member’s shoulders.  Set up a rotation for staff members to make status updates on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.  Asking a staff member to come up with two 140 character status updates a few times a month isn’t much and it’s an easy way to keep your content changing and your organization in front of your followers.  If you have a blog, you can also rotate the responsibility of writing the blog.  If your staff is still stretched too thin, consider hiring a Virtual Buzz Assistant.  This is a relatively inexpensive way to get the job done without adding staff.
4. Lastly, your blog and website could be generating revenue by using affiliate programs such as Amazon or eBay.  When people click through your website and purchase items from the affiliate’s site, your organization earns a commission.  By recommending products that tie into your mission and the subject matter of your blog posts, your followers won’t feel as if they are being “advertised” to.  Also, if your followers are aware that the organization receives funds when they click through your website, they may visit your site and click through for other purchases they would have made anyway.  Not only do you get the revenue, but you keep them coming back!  If you’re uncomfortable using affiliate programs directly on your website or blog, consider setting up a Squidoo lens on a topic that is mission related and you can generate affiliate revenue in a less noticeable manner.  With Squidoo, you can even encourage your supporters to create their own lenses on any topic and have the revenue donated to your organization.

I’ll be going into more detail on these topics in future posts.  If you have a strong need for me to cover one of these topics sooner rather than later, please leave a comment in that regard and I’ll focus next on the greatest need/interest.  If you’re interested in working with a Virtual Buzz Assistant, please contact me directly and I can give you more information.

‘Til next time!