Social Media

My friend Denise is a loud, lovely, bawdy powerhouse of a woman. Every time I see her I think, "Everybody should have a little Denise in her heart." She has more love, passion and zest for life than one human body can contain, so of course it's always spilling out onto those around her.

Social media is a fantastic tool to make your presence known online. But are you using it correctly? Many nonprofits are using it to promote themselves, but often in the wrong ways, said Peter Panepento, assistant managing editor at The Chronicle of Philanthropy, at the Washington, D.C., edition of the Social Media for Nonprofits conference. Here are three rules we learned from Peter on how to humanize your social media and tell a great story: 1. Think like a reporter. 2. Share your #fail. 3. Give your supporters the megaphone.

The potential of Facebook for fundraising and nonprofit communications may actually be understated now. Still, it’s unlikely that Facebook will be highly effective as a stand-alone tool. Its real power comes as part of integrated campaigns and constituent-level strategies across channels. Facebook touches can acquire new supporters, help convert more supporters to donors and raise more money from your donor file.

Engagement marketing, when done well, can become the single best source of new members, volunteers or donors for any nonprofit organization. By delivering great experiences and content to your key constituents, you can use that engagement to drive social visibility. Great content and experiences make people feel connected to an organization, and when these connections happen on places like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, one-to-one conversations turn into socially visible endorsements for an association or nonprofit. So how can a nonprofit use social media to inspire donations and grow its volunteer base?

Fellow cause marketers, wouldn’t you like a dollar for every time someone told you to "make it go viral"? The beauty and frustration of virality is that you never know what will catch on. Context, creativity and conversation all have to align to get tens, hundreds or thousands of people to talk about your idea at the same time.

Imagine this: What you say and when you say it are completely out of your control for a full 24 hours. That’s what Surrender Your Say participants experienced via this imaginative campaign from Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada (TSFC). TSFC launched this out-of-the-box Twitter takeover to boost gut-level understanding of what having the disorder is like. Here are the four steps to Surrender Your Say’s success: show, not tell; make participation as active and energizing as possible; spur emotion and surprise; choose a platform that makes it easy to spread the word.

The landscape of social media changes so rapidly, it’s hard to keep up. Social media giant Facebook has unveiled a slew of changes in recent weeks. In order to maximize engagement on your Facebook page and use it to the best of your ability, it is important to stay on top of the changes. Here are five new features of which you may not have been aware but could change the way you interact with your fans. Enjoy!

It seems that most brands and nonprofits are still trying to get their head around what works on Facebook. What content works best, what time to publish updates and how to use sponsored stories are just a few of the topics discussed among nonprofit marketers. But these issues are just symptoms of bigger challenges that we all need to better understand.

Here are five reasons why Facebook marketing is presenting new and/or unusual challenges to you and your colleagues.

There absolutely is a math to social and mobile media. If your nonprofit has a good content strategy in place and understands the power of integrating all your nonprofit’s communications channels (website, e-mail, Facebook, texting, etc.), then as your numbers grow on social networks so will your e-newsletter and mobile lists, which in turn significantly increases your fundraising success. Below is selection of metrics to track and a brief explanation as to why.

Can lightning strike twice? The Human Rights Campaign's Go Red for Marriage Equality campaign impacted millions of Facebook profile pictures in what seemed like the blink of an eye. And now the organization is gearing up to do it again.