We love that Heather Mansfield of DIOSA Communications not only has created a MySpace page called Nonprofit Organizations but also that she’s staying on top of it, keeping it current and offering lots of great advice for nonprofit organizations looking to maintain a presence in the social-networking stratosphere. Guess you could say she’s practicing what she preaches … and that’s a good thing.
Earlier this week, Heather posted a blog asking her MySpace “friends” for advice they’d like to share with other organizations about their MySpace experiences.
Here, you can read Heather’s original blog and comments that had come in by the next day (pretty much as written, but some excerpted and cleaned up a little for clarity).
If you don’t already have one, we suggest that you start a MySpace account for your organization and immediately add Nonprofit Organizations as a friend. Then you can add your own comments, read others’ comments as they come in and, most importantly, be privy to all of the useful stuff the page has to offer.
And, of course, feel free to share your thoughts on this subject directly with FundRaising Success, if you’d like, by e-mailing mbattistelli@napco.com or leaving a comment at the end of the story.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
What is your advice for nonprofit organizations on MySpace?!
Really … this is important. More and more nonprofits are getting on MySpace each day in hopes of reaching out to the 110,000,000 people that regularly use MySpace. They are here for a lot of reasons. The most important reason being that they want to get information out there about their cause and their organization. They are trying to make the world a better place. They are also hoping, of course, that they might find some new online donors or supporters to sign up for their e-newsletter. That’s reasonable. Nonprofiits need supporters to continue their work.
What can they do to reach you? To inspire you? Do you prefer bulletins, comments, interesting blogs, status updates? Will you ever donate through a fundraising [effort] on MySpace, or just their website? Do want to watch a video by a nonprofit? A slideshow?
Seriously … this information is super important. Please share your thoughts … point them in the right direction! THANKS.
Response: First of all, I find this a wonderful initiative, so congratulations for the idea. Myspace … is indeed a large community and I think it will bring [attention to the question].
To reach or inspire people I think you should bring … attention [to] the fact [that] all is real, I mean that this is not just a simple website, you have to make the difference and convince the [people] who see this that [it’s] real … I guess it is about credibility.
The impact [for] me, for example, will be an interesting bulletin, a blog, a video — it is important to find something innovative … something new and able to make [people] pay attention.
Response: There are certain invisible rules here, if you want to get attention. I have a friend, who spends 16 hours a day in MySpace for earth-causes. She has more than 30,000 friends, yet when she writes a blog she gets [fewer] comments than I with [fewer] than 300 friends. This is because I know and apply those rules.
Bulletins are a bad way to reach people’s attention. I get in a single day up to 100, I rarely read them at all and never have time to repost. I am a blog reader and writer, I have to read every day about 50 blogs, mostly written by my friends. There is little time for anything else …
[Editor’s Note: While we won’t repost the entire thing, the blog on blogging that was mentioned in the second response suggests two basic tenets: 1. that blogs, not bulletins, are the way to go when it comes to sharing non-breaking news and thoughts, and that bulletins should be contained to no more than one a day; and 2. that the way to get people to read your blog is to read and comment on a wide range of other people’s blogs.]
Response: I manage a [MySpace] profile for a small nonprofit animal rescue group. I try to keep the page simple, informative, and updated. I have found that MySpace supporters appreciate MySpace recognition (a pic comment for a pic comment, etc.), and (I don’t do this but I was told) multiple bulletins in one day aggravate supporters to the point of deletion.
Response: We have quite a few nonprofit groups in our top friends. We see bulletins, blogs, status updates, etc. … unfortunately, that is the only time we hear from these groups. Most of them do not even reply to personal messages with questions. This is disappointing and certainly does not make us feel like we are making a difference. We realize they have an agenda but a “thank you for adding us” or “thank you for your support” comment would have been nice.
Share Your Thoughts
We love that Heather Mansfield of DIOSA Communications not only has created a MySpace page called Nonprofit Organizations but also that she’s staying on top of it, keeping it current and offering lots of great advice for nonprofit organizations looking to maintain a presence in the social-networking stratosphere. Guess you could say she’s practicing what she preaches … and that’s a good thing.
Earlier this week, Heather posted a blog asking her MySpace “friends” for advice they’d like to share with other organizations about their MySpace experiences.
Here, you can read Heather’s original blog and comments that had come in by the next day (pretty much as written, but some excerpted and cleaned up a little for clarity).
If you don’t already have one, we suggest that you start a MySpace account for your organization and immediately add Nonprofit Organizations as a friend. Then you can add your own comments, read others’ comments as they come in and, most importantly, be privy to all of the useful stuff the page has to offer.
And, of course, feel free to share your thoughts on this subject directly with FundRaising Success, if you’d like, by e-mailing mbattistelli@napco.com or leaving a comment at the end of the story.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
What is your advice for nonprofit organizations on MySpace?!
Really … this is important. More and more nonprofits are getting on MySpace each day in hopes of reaching out to the 110,000,000 people that regularly use MySpace. They are here for a lot of reasons. The most important reason being that they want to get information out there about their cause and their organization. They are trying to make the world a better place. They are also hoping, of course, that they might find some new online donors or supporters to sign up for their e-newsletter. That’s reasonable. Nonprofiits need supporters to continue their work.
What can they do to reach you? To inspire you? Do you prefer bulletins, comments, interesting blogs, status updates? Will you ever donate through a fundraising [effort] on MySpace, or just their website? Do want to watch a video by a nonprofit? A slideshow?
Seriously … this information is super important. Please share your thoughts … point them in the right direction! THANKS.
Response: First of all, I find this a wonderful initiative, so congratulations for the idea. Myspace … is indeed a large community and I think it will bring [attention to the question].
To reach or inspire people I think you should bring … attention [to] the fact [that] all is real, I mean that this is not just a simple website, you have to make the difference and convince the [people] who see this that [it’s] real … I guess it is about credibility.
The impact [for] me, for example, will be an interesting bulletin, a blog, a video — it is important to find something innovative … something new and able to make [people] pay attention.
Response: There are certain invisible rules here, if you want to get attention. I have a friend, who spends 16 hours a day in MySpace for earth-causes. She has more than 30,000 friends, yet when she writes a blog she gets [fewer] comments than I with [fewer] than 300 friends. This is because I know and apply those rules.
Bulletins are a bad way to reach people’s attention. I get in a single day up to 100, I rarely read them at all and never have time to repost. I am a blog reader and writer, I have to read every day about 50 blogs, mostly written by my friends. There is little time for anything else …
[Editor’s Note: While we won’t repost the entire thing, the blog on blogging that was mentioned in the second response suggests two basic tenets: 1. that blogs, not bulletins, are the way to go when it comes to sharing non-breaking news and thoughts, and that bulletins should be contained to no more than one a day; and 2. that the way to get people to read your blog is to read and comment on a wide range of other people’s blogs.]
Response: I manage a [MySpace] profile for a small nonprofit animal rescue group. I try to keep the page simple, informative, and updated. I have found that MySpace supporters appreciate MySpace recognition (a pic comment for a pic comment, etc.), and (I don’t do this but I was told) multiple bulletins in one day aggravate supporters to the point of deletion.
Response: We have quite a few nonprofit groups in our top friends. We see bulletins, blogs, status updates, etc. … unfortunately, that is the only time we hear from these groups. Most of them do not even reply to personal messages with questions. This is disappointing and certainly does not make us feel like we are making a difference. We realize they have an agenda but a “thank you for adding us” or “thank you for your support” comment would have been nice.