Social Media and Volunteer Organizations

Are you active in a volunteer organization? If so, does that organization have a social media presence, such as a Facebook page, LinkedIn group, or Twitter account?

As the Boomers’ Social Media Tutor, I primarily work with people in the Baby Boomer age group.

Many people in this generation are leaders in their service clubs, Toastmasters groups, churches and other organizations.

One of their motivations to become more proficient with their use of social media is so they can help promote activities of the group(s) where they are a leader.

Tonight I assisted the chair of a volunteer organization’s nominating committee in using social media to post about leadership opportunities in that organization.

It took a couple emails back and forth, and some time on the phone. And as a result, he was successful in getting that posting up on LinkedIn.

Here is the link to that posting just to show you an example of what I am talking about:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Nominations-are-Open-District-26-109071.S.210143962?qid=f04edf93-760e-4e57-bb12-e18ac7d732b3&trk=group_most_recent_rich-0-b-ttl&goback=%2Egmr_109071

This same information also can be found on this group’s Facebook page and its Twitter account, as well as in the monthly electronic newsletter that members will receive tomorrow.

I highly recommend that all volunteer organizations find someone to manage the group’s social media sites. This person could be the person who serves as the webmaster for the group’s website.

Yet, I believe it is better to “spread the wealth” and involve other members in the organization in these efforts. In fact, you could even have separate people handling each of the social media sites where the volunteer organization has a presence.

It is important for the message to be consistent so as not to confuse the organization’s members who are users of the group’s social media sites. To help with consistency, the group could have a position called something like social media coordinator.

 

I would love to know what volunteer organizations my readers participate in and whether any of you are assisting with the social media activities of that organization. Please share your experiences in this arena.

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