5 Social Media Benefits for Nonprofits

  

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Usually I focus on ways to reduce risk or transfer risk to help protect your organization. But there are also opportunities that come when you take risks. I believe that getting into social media has some risks, but I also think there are clear benefits.

In the past week I have met with 6 non profits organizations. All of them are familiar with social media: Blogging, Linked In, Twitter, etc. Some of them are doing it to some extent, but all of them want to do it more. Our firm just started Blogging and using Social Media 4 months ago and the results have been great.

It takes discipline, hard work and an open mind. It also takes persistence and the ability to change quickly and adapt to new ideas.

As a stakeholder in several non profit organizations I would love to see more outbound pictures, videos and short communications to help keep me engaged. There are so many great organizations with great causes and missions they they can get lost. So if you have a current base of stakeholders I believe you need to keep them engaged.

So here are what I believe are 5 benefits to using social media to promote your organization.

1. You will let all your stakeholders know on a regular basis what you are doing.
2. You will keep them engaged.
3. You will spread the word to potentially thousands of new stakeholders through the viral spread in the social media platform.
4. You will potentially raise more money.
5. People internally and externally will feel good about what you are doing and spread the word.

Listed below are two of my favorite blogs that I follow to keep me inspired and up to date in this whole area.

Nonprofit Tech 2.0: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits
www.nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com
Created by Heather Mansfield of DIOSA Communications. This is a great blog. Very informative and great content. She also runs a group on Linked In. Web 2.0 for Nonprofit Organizations. Sign up for that as well.

Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofit Organizations Can Use Social Media to Power Social Networks for Change.
www.beth.typepad.com
Created by Beth Kanter who I believe is up in Boston. Awesome content that keeps on coming. She is a real player in this area.