Where is your nonprofit on the social media continuum?
These days, your organizations is likely in one of three places when it comes to social media:
- You have a presence across several social media channels and most people on staff get it. There is a clear, accepted understanding of how your organization can use social media to build relationships with various audiences. One or several staff manage it. You may even have a policy in place and have held discussions in staff meetings.
- Your staff have personal profiles on various social networks and may even use Twitter or write their own blog. They may occasionally mention your organization, but no one is coordinating how often they post content, thinking about goals for your overall organization, seeking out your supporters, or keeping an eye out being consistent or authentic with whatever is said.
- Your boss, executive director or board thinks social media is a waste of time–or don’t get it at all. They are afraid to open the door to controversy or think it will distract from other, more worthwhile ways to spend your day. They’ve conjured up the ‘worse case scenario’ and can’t see beyond it. What they don’t realize is that ‘scenario’ may already exist. In other words, their fears may be that someone will say that you don’t provide good services or mismanage your funds or some other negative attack. Truth of the matter is that, people can already write negative things about your on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and on other sites.
Do any of these sound like you? Perhaps you are somewhere along the spectrum of how accepted and integrated social media is in your organizational culture. Depending on where you are, the course of action will range from having to convince your colleagues that social media is valuable to pausing to evaluate how well you’ve been using these tools to connect with your audience.
Thinking about creating a social media policy or have one you want to share? Share your thoughts here. I’d love to hear what you think.
