Are you active in a nonprofit organization? Are you connected via social media with that entity and with members in that entity?

Having just spent a couple of years spearheading an initiative to get more social media involvement among members of a Toastmasters district that has over 170 clubs and 3,000 Toastmasters in three states, I have some thoughts on this topic.

Have Social Media Links on Your Website

Even though I blog about social media, ultimately everything in cyberspace needs to circle back to an entity’s website. Whether that entity is a small business, a corporation or a nonprofit organization, the website must be up to date, inviting, and accurate.

Then the website needs to have the appropriate links to the various social media platforms where that entity has a presence. It needs to be easy for customers or members to click through to those platforms and “like” a Facebook business page, for example.

Select Appropriate Social Media Platforms

With so many social media sites available these days, it can become very overwhelming for a nonprofit organization to select the site(s) that best meet their needs and the needs of its members.

One place to start is to survey members to find out which social media sites they tend to frequent. If more of them are active on Facebook than anywhere else, creating a Facebook business page is a great place to start.

Service clubs are typically are made up primarily of business people. Often these folks are active on LinkedIn, a more professionally oriented site than Facebook. The service club could set up a group on LinkedIn for its members and potential members. Or it might prefer to use Google+ for its social media activity.

Appoint a Social Media Coordinator

Someone needs to be directing the “social media traffic” within a nonprofit organization. For larger organizations with a paid staff, the social media duties typically fall under the marketing or public information department.

For a small entity that has no staff, assign the social media coordinating role to the person in charge of public relations. Or consider creating a separate position that just focuses on the group’s social media activities.

 Encourage Member Involvement

Many groups have a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any number of other sites, yet their members don’t pay attention to those sites. What to do?

Create awareness of the Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn group or other social media presence. Use existing tools, such as the group’s online newsletter or email distribution to leaders to build this awareness.

Through these tools, announce incentives for the members to “like” the group’s Facebook business page or join its LinkedIn group, for example.

Back to You

What kind of social media presence do your nonprofits organizations have? What is working well for them in this arena? What could be improved?

It is always great to find out about the experiences of the readers of this blog.

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel, Founder of Boomers’ Social Media Tutor, helps people relatively new to social media to become more effective and comfortable in their use of this medium. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com