Build Your Social Media Audience

Social media plays an important role in today's world, especially in business. It's almost unfathomable to find a business that doesn't have a Facebook or Twitter account. It's easy enough to set up your online presence, but it's a little bit harder to get people to listen.

Thankfully, "a little bit harder" doesn't mean "impossible." The nature of social networks means that every follower you get can potentially lead to many more. This is because each person "liking" your page will conceivably tell his/her friends to also follow you. Sounds great, but this is all moot if you can't get many people to care about your page in the first place.

A lot of people using social networking sites tend to over-think it. They try to get too fancy and end up with few followers. In truth, the key to building an audience is to post things that are relevant and useful. What's interesting to your followers? Why not ask them? Before making the first post on your new blog, engage your supporters on what kind of stories they want to read. When you get a good enough sample of answers, start writing about those topics.

Even with brilliant content, it’s difficult to attract supporters to a site that no one else is following. Reach out to your staff and other core supporters of your organization and ask them to follow your tweets, or “like” your Facebook page --and to invite their personal friends.

Having an active community is another good way to get people to show interest. Let's face it -- nobody wants to be a part of a page that has no interaction. Try asking questions to your supporters in addition to sharing links. The whole point of social media is interaction with the audience, and there's no better way to do this than starting a discussion.

The most important thing to remember is to be honest when participating in any of these discussions. There will be things you just can't say, of course, but don't be robotic. People like to know that the individual they are talking to is an actual human being.

Is Your Nonprofit Pinterest-ing?

Have you ever heard of Pinterest?  If you haven't, it's time to get out from under that comfortable rock you've been living under, because it's the next big social media craze.  So what is it?  It's a pinboard style social photo sharing website.  Users are able to create boards and then decorate them with pictures that best represent their interests.  These photos can either be taken from the web or uploaded from your computer.  Once the picture is up, the user can link it to a website of their choosing.

Although it was launched back in March 2010, Pinterest has only recently gained steam.  As of January 2012, the site had 11.7 million unique visitors, the fastest any site has reached that mark.  It's clear the social networking site has reached the level of "phenomenon" so now the question is how can your nonprofit make use of it?

Mashable, a social media and tech website, recently published an article on the top 10 strategies for nonprofits when using Pinterest.  Here are five of the tips we like the best:

• Know Your Audience: This is the standard rule for other social networking platforms and it still applies to Pinterest.  For example, did you know that of the site's 10 million plus users, 87 percent are women, and the average age spans between 25 and 54.  Keep this information in mind when deciding which pictures you want to pin.
• Get Personal: It's true: People respond better when they think a real human being is behind the scenes of your social network.  Give your pins some life by personalizing your descriptions, and don't be afraid to show some humor from time to time.
• Make It A Team Effort: Social media campaigns are most successful when you get multiple staff members involved.  Mashable gives the example of charity: water.  Sarah Cohen, the communications and development manager at the nonprofit, told the site that one of their recently added boards, "Products We Love," is comprised of the various nonprofit brands that the group's staff admires.
• Fundraise: Pinterest has a feature that makes it extremely easy to raise money.  All you have to do is pin a picture of something (maybe a money jar, a fundraising sign, etc.) and enter the "$" sign and price in the description box.  This will create a banner in your image that will allow users to donate that amount of money into your Pinterest's Gifts tab.
• Highlight Other Nonprofits: Pinterest is a great place to promote your nonprofit but you also don't want to go overboard self-promotion.  Other users get notifications when their pins have been "re-pinned," and this will help you get more followers and, who knows, maybe the nonprofit will re-pin one of your items.

You can read the full article on Mashable.com.  Make sure to visit NPT's Pinterest page, too!

How Will Facebook's IPO Affect Charities?

The social networking behemoth Facebook filed papers yesterday to raise $5 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) of stock.  This is good news for Facebook employees and their investors, but what does it mean for charities?  It depends on who you ask.

MSNBC ran a piece on this subject yesterday, and it suggested that this new influx of wealth to Facebook employees could mean big bucks for nonprofits.  Why?  Facebook has provided their employees with stock incentives over the years, and they will be able to use these to cash in on the IPO.  Experts like Rob Mitchell of Atlas of Giving told MSNBC that when individuals' personal wealth increases, it makes them more likely to want to start a philanthropic legacy.

Patrick Rooney, executive director of The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, agreed with Mitchell, citing studies that show entrepreneurs are about twice as generous than people who inherit their wealth.

All of this doesn't guarantee that these new millionaires will start donating to charity.  In fact, there are some who don't think Facebook employees are all that likely to start being philanthropic, at least not immediately.  Robert Frank, a writer for The Wall Street Journal, told MSNBC that he thinks they are much too young to think about starting their philanthropic efforts.  He argues that they are still in the "accumulation phase" of their lives, and want to focus on changing the world through their company, not their philanthropy.

Charities will ultimately see a lot of money come in as as result of Facebook's IPO.  It's just a question of how soon.  You can read the full story on MSNBC.

Social Networks: Winners and Losers

Check out this this Social Media infographic I found on Mashable.  Essentially, it is about the winners and losers in social networking in the past year, and has a bunch of interesting stats.  Check it out below and let us know what you think (once again, thanks to Mashable for bringing this to our attention...click the image for a bigger version on their site):