If you’re unsure where to start when it comes to tracking the success of your online messaging or fundraising check out the recently released 2010 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study from M+R Strategic Services and the Nonprofit Technology Network.  The report is available for free download here and includes benchmarks for email messaging, online fundraising, and online advocacy segmented by sector.  It’s a great resource to help your organization start thinking about ways to track and analyze your online activities.

A recent study conducted by comScore revealed that, as of January 2010, over 30 percent of smartphone users are accessing social networking sites via their mobile browers.  The study examined the top three social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace) and found mobile access to Twitter has increased by a whopping 347 percent since one year ago.  Facebook also experienced growth, with an increase of 112 percent, while MySpace saw a decline of seven percent, which coincides with the site’s decreasing popularity overall.

This study is just one small piece of evidence that indicates social media’s lasting power.  Social networking sites are an increasingly popular method of communication, and their presence on mobile devices means that now they can be with us at all times.  If you haven’t jumped on the social media bandwagon yet, the time is now.

Not sure about how social media dovetails with philanthropy?  Tune in to blogtalkradio on March 9^th for The Nonprofit Coach with Ted Hart.  The author of People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities will be discussing social networking and how nonprofits can successfully integrate online and offline fundraising techniques.

According to a study conducted by the Center for the Digital Future, in conjunction with AARP, men and women over the age of 50 are increasingly using the internet as a way to connect with family and friends, and avoid the social isolation that can come with retirement.  Click the link below to read the entire article.  It might have you considering whether or not snail mail is the most effective way to reach the older generation of donors, after all.

http://www.nten.org/blog/2009/08/25/shrinking-generational-digital-divide

Here’s a great example for you.  Communities in Schools of Washington (CISWA) recently launched the Schools Can’t Do It Alone campaign  (http://schoolscantdoitalone.org). Scheduled to run throughout the summer, the campaign focuses on the following goals:  securing gifts from 250 new individual donors; raising awareness of CISWA statewide; and assessing how the organization can best use social media to drive both giving and awareness in the future.  CISWA is using a number of channels to get the word out about the campaign—their website and the websites of CIS local organizations around the state, Twitter, Facebook, and e-newsletters. CISWA board members have been encouraged to share the link in any way they prefer, as have the board members of CIS locals.

This campaign gave the organization a way to test the waters with some social media strategies, and to potentially attract new supporters with a minimal investment of staff time.  At the same time, the campaign has given board members some ready-made talking points when friends, colleagues, and families ask them about the work of Communities in Schools.

What I like about this campaign is that CISWA first identified what the organization needed (new donors and greater awareness), developed specific strategies to meet these needs by using and testing social media tools, and then set specific goals to determine whether the campaign and its strategies were successful. 

I encourage you to check out the link.  Anyone with additional questions may contact Chuck Tiernan, Development Director, Communities in Schools of Washington at chuck@ciswa.org.

Will any of these strategies work for you?  Do you have successful examples to share of using social media to drive awareness and/or fundraising?

1. Ask: What are you doing online currently, if anything? How are you organizing yourself online? Ensure that your quest for new territory online isn’t duplicating what has already been done.

Once you know where you are, decide where it is you want to be – what are you trying to accomplish with a social media presence? The best place to start this question is to look at your strategic, campaign, or communications plan. Within those plans are there goals you can address using social media? Perhaps your organization wants to reach out to the Millenials – focus on the goals other than revenue generation.

2. Identify: Who is in your immediate network? This is where you begin to segment your supporters by constituency. It’s different for everyone. Once you have identified these constituencies, decide what you need most from each one of them. Then flip the question: what are your supporters most interested in doing? The goal is to find that balance of offering interesting ways to be involved through social media in a way that your supporters can and want to do. Will they contact their congressional representative to advocate for health care? Will they become and recommended to their friends to become a fan of your organization on Facebook?

3. Examine: What is your current brand identity? What image is your organization projecting? If you currently have an online presence, ask yourself how that presence reflects your brand. If you are creating a new presence on social media, you will want to be clear as to what kind of image you want to portray. Then examine how that brand matches (or doesn’t) those of the supporters you are trying to reach.

4. Link: The next step is to begin! Begin integrating new social media tools within your existing activities such as event planning, meeting coordination, giving clubs, partner networks, etc. Create volunteer opportunities to increase involvement such as targeted advocacy efforts, forwarding emails and articles, and tagging pictures. Don’t forget to involve the supporters that are most interested in helping you succeed in this effort. Ask for help in expanding your online presence and tools for interaction

5. Track: Knowing whether social media is helping your organization requires you to evaluate and measure your efforts. This is important to ensure you are being efficient with your time and effective with your efforts. It takes time to get results, but begin looking at metrics such as response rates, number of actions taken by a supporter, number of subscribers/friends, and number of comments/posts. Determine what measurements work best to help meet your goal.

And have fun! Social networking is about creating relationships, sharing interests, and mobilizing action. For development professionals, that’s practically second nature! Enjoy the new frontier…

The following are potential benefits to an organization utilizing donor-centered practices. If done well, social media:

1. Broadens the awareness of your mission and program. Utilizing networks and media tools allows you to share your story with a new group of potential supporters. Tools like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs are great ways to not only highlight the issues your organization addresses, but to inspire others, relay a sense of urgency, and share easy and – most importantly – convenient ways to help. Tools for advocacy, calls to action and event calendars are plentiful.

2. Generates new ideas through online dialogue. Social media allows people to take part in the conversation. In the best case, imagine, a braintrust of online supporters engaged and interested in helping you find new solutions and opportunities for your programs.

3. Enables you to gather information on prospective donors. Social media is about individual brand identity; people are displaying what they want you to know about them and how they want to be seen. By paying attention to profiles, you can identify prospective donors, their interests, their connections and their values.

4. Increases collaboration and involvement in your organization. Media tools help to create and promote advocates for your cause. By being strategic and thoughtful in what you offer, you can make it easy for people to get involved and to give – this is key to online participation. Additionally, it offers free and easy ways to help manage meetings and volunteer engagement. Instead of calling 20 people to determine the best time for a meeting – create a poll. Instead of passing one document through four people collecting conflicting edits – utilize group editing, etc.

5. Influences giving. Notice the word “influence”, rather than “increases” or “raises funds”. What social media is not, is a cash cow. It won’t directly raise money for you, but it will give you the tools to support your ongoing fundraising efforts. The beauty of social media is that it disperses the responsibility of asking through the leverage of networks. The tried and true method of people giving to people hasn’t changed, even online. Social media allows your supporters to share their interest in your mission with others and, should they be so inclined, ask their friends to join them in supporting your organization.

What do you think? Are there additional benefits? Do you have a story of how your organization accomplished one of the top five? We would love to hear about it.

Also, be on the lookout next week for The Collins Group e-news article by Jim Hopper discussing the cautions of utilizing social media. If you’d like to be added to our eNews mailing list, feel free to email us at info@collinsgroup.com.