I spoke at NTEN & you can benefit

Just last week I had the honor to speak at NTEN with Melissa Jones Social Media Specialist for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and Barb Alvarado who is Architect For Humanity’s Developmental Director. All three of us spoke on PayPal’s panel about how to use social media to fundraise.

The room was packed full of people who wanted to learn how to use social media to benefit their organization. There were representatives from very small grassroots nonprofits and also large ones who have been existence for decades.  One thing they all shared, a desire to join the social media wave.

As most of my readers know I have successfully used social media to start and grow a nonprofit, Spirit Jump. With no start up money, sponsors or experience in marketing I had to figure out how to make my dream work. Social media was just the right fit for me and my organization and I want to help others learn how to use this great new tool to help their non-profit or for-profit.

Here are a few tips shared during the panel:

1- Keep your voice consistent in social media. Try to only have 1 person who tweets & updates to keep your organizations voice consistent.

2- Engage your audience: ask and answer questions, post results and new programs, have polls. Think of creative ways to keep your supporters engaged in your organization.

3- Create and follow policy for negative feedback. If someone leaves a negative comment or tweets something not so favorable about your organization what will you do. Its easier to have a policy set in place before anything happens.  Hopefully you won't have to implement your policy but with millions of people having access and the ability to voice their opinions you're likely to face some criticism.


4- Social media is NOT the Holy Grail. Lots of people talk about how wonderful social media is and how it can do great things for your organization. But remember it's not a quick fix.  The implementation of your social media campaign will take time.  Don't forgo conventional efforts.


These are only a few tips but they should help tremendously.  Let me know if you would like more by leaving a comment.