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Web 2.0 tools and social technologies — blogs, social networks, widgets, videosharing and photosharing sites — all are cost-effective ways to build participation, sharing and collaboration into the core of what organizations do.

But they’re different than traditional nonprofit efforts online. They require organizations to go to areas that they can’t control, where potential supporters are gathered. And though they offer the ability for increased engagement, it doesn’t just happen on its own. Here’s a look at how a few nonprofits are using online social technologies in their outreach efforts.

They’re not discussion-based, so it can be hard to engage constituents on social networks like MySpace and Facebook, but it’s this superficial nature that makes these sites great venues for introducing an organization to potential supporters without the pressure of discussion.

“A lot of times message board-based communities or discussion-based communities have a hard time getting going because, I think, discussion can be an intimidating thing for people, both online and off. And there’s that kind of pressure of being the person that stands up and asks a question, and then nobody responds,” says Lee LeFever, community consultant for Common Craft, a company that makes short videos and helps organizations work with their supporters in an online community setting. “So social networking is at least a way to give people an easy entry into making their identity known on the site and relating what they’re interested in.”

Nonprofit consultant and blogger Michele Martin says the difference between communities and social networks is the difference between throwing a party and hoping the right people come, and attending a party you know includes the right people.

Life Rolls On Foundation
The Life Rolls On Foundation, a Los Angeles-based charity that serves people with spinal cord injuries, was one of the first organizations to attend the party, setting up a MySpace profile a few years ago to try a different method of communication with constituents.

Josh Billauer, chairman of the board for LROF, says initially he was skeptical when he saw that one of his staff members was spending 30 minutes a day on MySpace upkeep.

“I personally, as the board chair, was thinking, ‘You know, there’s got to be a better way to use your time.’ It’s really hard to see the fruit of your labor very early; you have to really commit to it and, you know, within a short period of time, all of a sudden we started getting inquiries via our MySpace page and it just kind of escalated, and now it’s almost unmanageable just the amount of information that flows through that to us,” he says.

LROF’s MySpace profile now has more than 11,000 “friends” and is a fully branded page set on a backdrop of tiled LROF logos. The organization has found the key to success in this setting is constant communication with constituents and adding valuable content to its profile. LROF’s MySpace page includes its mission statement; numerous links to its Web site; a sign-up for its monthly e-newsletter; videos; event listings; and volunteer opportunities. It also streams a music playlist.

LROF’s MySpace friends receive bulletin updates that alert them to new blog posts and upcoming events, ask them to join the Life Rolls On Foundation group page, link them to its online store, and even just thank them “for all of your love and support.” For all its warm-fuzzy effort, LROF was ranked No. 1 nonprofit by MySpace users in February.

The popularity of the organization’s videos on MySpace and video-sharing site YouTube also was a key selling point that helped it lock in an umbrella sponsor for its fundraising events, as it gave the organization the ability to offer the sponsor a five-second commercial spot before each video.

The Humane Society of the United States
In September 2006, The Humane Society of the United States realized that Web 2.0 was more than a fad and is, in fact, a shift in the way people communicate online. So the organization created a new position: Internet marketing manager.

Carrie Lewis, who has the job, says she strives to give social-networking constituents the tools and information to become advocates, but knows that the rest is left to their initiative. HSUS’ profile on photo-sharing site Flickr, for instance, showcases the organization’s photos and allows people to upload and share their own photos from organization events they’ve attended. Other organizations have used YouTube and Flickr to hold video and photo contests.

Do Something
Do Something, an organization that works to empower young people to take action in their communities, has tried to increase engagement of its MySpace and Facebook constituencies by developing widgets — involvement and/or fundraising tools with portable HTML code that can be copied and pasted by users — for more than 35 causes such as endangered species, energy conservation and gay rights. Visitors can copy the widget code from the organization’s profile and put it on their own social-networking profiles.

Aria Finger, director of business development at Do Something, says it’s one more way to involve constituents, get Do Something’s name and cause out there, and link back to its Web site. That’s the point, LROF’s Billauer notes.

“That’s the power of social networking right there; it’s not just our homepage sitting there by itself hoping for people to find us,” he explains. “We have music, videos and then we have code that people can actually take, put on their own site and then spread the word. And it’s the whole pyramid effect where we tell one person, they tell their friends, and then it just spreads.”

Change.org
Social technologies have their individual strengths and weaknesses, and can be used differently depending on the organization and its need. Put all of your eggs in one basket, though, and you might be leaving valuable resources — some in the form of cold, hard cash — on the table.

Just ask Ben Rattray, founder and CEO of Change.org, a customized community that has a social network for every nonprofit listed under Guidestar and allows the public to visit organizations’ social-network profiles, and write reviews, post news stories, videos, photos and volunteer events, and even fundraise for them.

From a marketing standpoint, Rattray says, MySpace is useful, but it’s less effective at converting interest into action and lacks a real sense of community.

“MySpace is a good way to sort of generally get people interested in an organization, but there’s no way to really convert that into practical energy. And it’s also for a very specific audience,” Rattray says. “What we’re doing is basically harnessing some of the same technologies and the power of personal connections that you see on those networks, but channeling them specifically toward social good.”

The proof is in the pudding when it comes to known fundraising efforts on, say, MySpace vs. Change.org. Rattray says that on MySpace an organization that has 20,000 supporters might raise $200 from its entire community, while The Advocacy Project — a small organization with a minimal budget and just a couple hundred supporters on the site — raised more than $13,000 in just more than a month on Change.org.

“It’s powerful not just to have a one-to-many relationship where, say, I, as Amnesty [International], have a relationship to all these individual nodes that are isolated,” Rattray says. “It’s important for all those individual nodes to connect to each other and allow them to support me.”

Billauer says LROF tries to translate the relationships it develops on MySpace into real relationships outside of the MySpace realm, which helps to create more fundraising, volunteers, event participation, etc.

“[We] put out specific asks via blogs and bulletins to have people join our e-newsletter distribution list on the official LROF Web site. We also have a screenshot of the sign-up sheet that, when clicked, opens up the real [form],” he says. “Essentially we use MySpace to convert friends in the MySpace sense of the word, which is often superficial, to constituents in the more formal sense, where we feel their level of commitment and desire to support the organization is more defined.”

Some organizations have leveraged the popularity of social networking and created their own, branded social networks. Nine months ago, Do Something launched Projects — a higher-touch social network of sorts — on its Web site, where more engaged, active young people can highlight the community-action projects they’re doing. Other youths can read about them, comment on them and become inspired by them.

American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society developed relayforlife.org, a social network that has all the functions of MySpace, but is specifically for Relay for Life volunteers and supporters. Randal Moss, manager of innovation strategies for ACS, says the results have been terrific. The relayforlife.org site adds new members daily and features specialty discussions, blog posts and best-practice sharing.

“Volunteers, survivors, caregivers and supporters are all adding content each day, making the space a richer resource for the next person who joins,” Moss says.

Kiva
Kiva, an organization that partners with microfinance institutions in the developing world to help them to raise debt capital, has a Web site that is, for all intents and purposes, a social network. Individuals can come to Kiva’s site and see profiles of entrepreneurs; read descriptions about them, what they need the loan for and how long they expect to take to pay it back; and then choose somebody to finance via a loan made through PayPal, which is providing Kiva with free payment processing. It’s what Fiona Ramsey, public relations director for Kiva, calls an eBay for microfinance.

Kiva uses MySpace and Facebook — and its own Web site — to get the word out and provide tools to empower supporters to do the same, including printable and downloadable brochures and banners. One motivated supporter even created a site called kivafriends.org, where Kiva enthusiasts go to chat with other supporters about various issues they encounter on Kiva.

Ramsey says social networks have been a great way to get the word out at no cost to the organization.

“I think the great thing about the Internet, especially if your product is on a Web site, is you can do so much marketing at such a very, very low cost, especially when you empower people that belong to your community to become ambassadors, to a degree, of your product and your community,” she says. “So we really encourage Kiva users to represent Kiva, and we find that that’s something that our users really love to do because it’s very empowering for them.”

Still others point out that while social technologies like MySpace and Facebook don’t always result in a strong bond with an organization or a donation, it doesn’t mean these constituents aren’t interested in giving. Many of them might not offer money until they’re engaged through a social network.

The Humane Society attracted more than 2,000 friends to its profile and saw 14,000 profile views in three weeks in response to a campaign to stop seal hunting it ran on MySpace that pointed people to a YouTube video on the subject. The campaign also generated 500 new sign-ups to the organization’s e-mail list.

Jason Mogus, CEO of Communicopia, a company that helps organizations use online media to communicate their message, says social technologies are tools that allow organizations to mine this new, nontraditional kind of constituent.

“Sure they’ve got money, but they’ve also got ideas. They’ve got groups that they’re connected to. They’ve got energy to talk about your cause or your issue,” he says.

“The traditional way is all the ideas come [from] within my four walls, and all the work that gets my campaign messages out comes from within my four walls,” he adds. “Whereas with these new tools, other people can actually connect and share and talk about you and offer you ideas and support your messages out in the world.”

The great beyond
Social bookmarks like Technorati and del.icio.us allow organizations to search and find out what bloggers and other people are saying about things related to an issue. Mogus suggests participating in the conversations you find happening around your cause and using those conversations as an opportunity to tell participants more about the work you’re doing, or even starting your own blog featuring authentic voices from the people who actually are on the front lines dealing with your cause.

“It requires a new way of thinking, and it requires work, and it generally requires a dedicated staff person, part time or full time, depending on your scale, to be thinking about social media and to be watching the space and to be helping you kind of evolve your tools and to be participating in other places where conversations about your issue are happening,” he says.

Get started
The most universal piece of advice offered by many folks when talking about using social networks for fundraising and friendraising is to start small.

* These tools require a commitment of time and resources, so it’s important first to figure out what you want to achieve and then look for the tools that will help you achieve those ends.

* Find out what people are saying about you online and subscribe to blogs related to your mission.

* Encourage key staff members to create profiles, interact in and explore the key networks out there to get an idea of the culture and conventions for participation to see how your organization might be able to participate in them. Each social network has a personality, and you want to make sure you fit into that culture before you set up a space for your nonprofit.

* If your organization decides to create a presence in a social network, or create its own, try not to control your space. “Empower, not overpower,” ACS’ Moss says.

* Let your constituents be your guide for your level of involvement with these tools.

“If your users aren’t interested in social networks, don’t force it,” Do Something’s Finger says. “It doesn’t have to happen. It only happens if that’s what they’re really interested in, and I think our users have really pushed us toward that, and so we said, ‘Great. OK. Let’s do it.’”