The era of winging it is over

by Jini Stolk

Before you wrap up your 2012-13 marketing strategies, take a look at this post from Nonprofit Tech 2.0 on how much time and resources you should be devoting to social media.

This one acknowledges the financial constraints of most nonprofits, but argues for investment in at least a part-time social media manager: “People now expect professional online communications and fundraising campaigns and if you don’t project that image, the online and mobile donors and supporters of the future will not take your nonprofit seriously.”

And here’s a great piece on the importance of a personal rather than an institutional voice in social media from the National Arts Marketing Project, a program of Americans for the Arts. Thanks to Sue Edworthy for the link.

“People don’t have relationships with organizations on social media, they have relationships with people. So I tell my social media clients to sign their posts by whoever is posting. To use first-person narrative. To make the connection that you should talk on social media like you talk to someone in an elevator. Author Ron Evans creates this scenario: ‘You’re in the elevator as I step in. We look at each other and smile and then look at the buttons or the floor level or the little sticker that says how many people can legally get in the elevator. Then I turn to you in one quick motion and yell “BUY TICKETS NOW!”

Whoops. You wouldn’t want to do that, would you?