Online Social Networking and Non-profits…This is not your son or daughters’ My Space Account.
You might want to think about creating a MySpace or Facebook account for your non-profit organization. Why? MySpace is reported to be the sixth most visited site on the web. Can you think of a better place to find donors, volunteers and activists? It’s fast. You can create a page in under 30 minutes. A lot of non-profits have created pages for their causes. Best of all, it falls under the category of free advertising. Online social networking is here to stay. Who knows, you may even have fun and recruit new members along the way.
With MySpace you invite others to add you to their “friends” list to get more exposure on the site. The more people talking about your site and visiting your site the better it is for your organization. Proper social networking etiquette is to thank someone when they add you to their “friends” list. This way you are giving them a proper “plug” in return.
Facebook launched a Causes section of their website that lets you register your non-profit in five easy steps. Here’s a link to detailed directions: Proneadvertising. This article states that the Save Darfur site has earned $3000 since the start of their Facebook page.
Once you register your non-profit cause you can invite people to join your site. It also gives you the opportunity to have your account open for anyone to view, or restrict it to a group of members that you invite to join your Facebook page. It’s advised that you leave your page open to anyone to attract the most buzz.
It’s advised that you frequently update or post on your MySpace or Facebook account. Updating your page with current data will only take a few minutes of your time, it’s important to keep your online friends current on your progress, post pictures, and let them know what exciting events you have planned for your non-profit. Ask them to help spread the energy and excitement about your cause. Use your RSS feeds from your website to update your Facebook and MySpace pages. Here’s how to set is up on RSS feeds: RSS Feeds on Facebookand RSS Feeds on MySpace. It’s exciting to check your pages to see who’s joined your cause, and to see what ideas they have to contribute to your cause.
The first step I suggest that you take it to visit MySpace and Facebook, and view other non-profit organizations’ accounts to get a sense of the site and to see the variety of styles that they use for their pages. If you’re still unsure about all of this please visit The National Wildlife Federation for a good example of a MySpace and Facebook pages. You can also click on their link “Friend me on Facebook” to see their Facebook page. A good tip is to follow their example, and create pages on each site and link them to each other.
I found a podcast online that’s a great introduction to MySpace. The guest on the show, Nancy Marmolejo, compares an organization’s MySpace page to “an offline networking mixer.” Listen to the thirty minute program here: Nancy Marmolejo on Blogsquad’s Podcast. She tells you how to find the time to keep up a page, and she also gives you ideas on what information to include on your page.
MySpace also has a page set up to promote non-profit organizations. Click on this link: MySpace Non-Profit Organization’s Page to see a good example of how a variety of non-profits are using MySpace.
I guess the saying, “you can never have too many friends,” is true.
