A Primer
 on Social Media 
for 
Nonprofits

• Use the flexible automated alerts through Google to receive periodic e-mails listing mentions of your organization across a variety of different types of Web content: www.google.com/alerts.
• Search for your organization's name (or topic words) being used in the micro-blogging world with the search portal on Twitter: search.twitter.com.
• Track the number of times a blog mentions your organization or related topics at www.technorati.com.
• Track the number of mentions for your organization name, your staff and events you are currently running in each of these mechanisms. This helps measure your organization's current social-media footprint and prepares you to measure the reach of your future initiatives.

4. Establish a baseline social-media presence.
After establishing your organization's ability to "listen" in the social-media channel, the second step is to establish a baseline presence that you can use as a foundation for your subsequent social-media campaigns.