Connection Café: Social Media 4 Nonprofits

	Social Media 4 Nonprofits
	Posted by Cheryl Black at Jan 30, 2012 06:34 AM CST Categories: Nonprofit Trends, NPtech, Social Media

This morning I have the good fortune to be presenting to a sold-out crowd at the Social Media for Nonprofits Conference in NYC. I’m excited – I think it will be the largest audience I’ve presented to and the company I’m in is nothing shy of spectacular.

While I know we’d all love to be hanging out in NYC together, unfortunately it’s just not feasible. As what I hope is the next best thing, I’m sharing the content from a few of my slides for today and a some notes on them.

Social Media for Nonprofits Excerpt on Prezi

There’s a frequent misconception about social marketing that if you say something, anything, you are being proactive. Not so my friends! Celebrities, athletes, mere mortals like you and I say stuff on social networks all the time but that doesn’t mean it’s truly proactive. Did we think about it for more than 10 seconds before writing it? Probably not. We’re probably just posting about how delicious that QuickFire on Top Chef looks.

To be really and truly proactive with you social marketing, you need goals, a plan and the tools to do it.

Goals: Are you trying to increase awareness? Or are you trying to engage new donors? Knowing your end goal, one that supports your overall business plan, is the first step to strategic proactive marketing. Bonus tip: Have a SMART goal.
Plan: This goes hand-in-hand with your goal. Consider your timeframe and other channels that include complementary content. Create a comprehensive, integrated plan that includes all your channels, milestones and desired results. Remember to plan far enough in advance that web pages, graphics, print materials, etc can actually be produced to support your initiative.
Tools: Just like direct mail requires paper and postage, good social marketing has its own requirements. Google Analytics, custom Facebook landing pages, updated Twitter and YouTube backgrounds and a social media management tool can all contribute to your success and ability to measure that success.

For more social media goodness, follow #sm4np on Twitter today, check out Convio's social media resource page or explore our social media related Connection Cafe posts.