HotHouse - Noise

April 22, 2008

Social media works wonders for nonprofits

Simon van Wyk thinks social media is mana from heaven for nonprofits.

The major headline coming out of research conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research late last year was that charities in the US are outpacing the business world in their use of social media/web 2.0.

The study of the Forbes Magazine list of the 200 largest US charities, called Blogging for the Hearts of Donors found that more than a third of the organisations are blogging, forty-six percent report social media is very important to their fundraising strategy and the majority monitor their online reputation.

Indeed, something like three quarters of those nonprofits studied were using some form of social media – including, podcasts, social networking, video blogging and wikis.

Whilst the authors of the study expected to find that charities were adopting social media, they didn't expect to find that the technology adoption levels were considerably stronger than corporate America.

Charities and nonprofits are very familiar with social media
In an interview podcasted on the NetSquared blog, Eric Mattson, the study's co-author said "We're somewhat blown away because charities are the largest adopters of some of these technologies."

Indeed, maybe it's time to forget about technology-conservatism in this sector. Surely social media is mana from heaven for nonprofits. The value of social media fits with their needs in that it's affordable and accessible. It's engaging, invites participation and helps build community. Certainly it's a quantum leap from the non-profit website of old, characterised by static content and zero opportunities for interaction, let alone engagement.

Eric Mattson added: "We found that in general, charities and nonprofits are very familiar with social media. Charities are very likely to use online video, blogging, podcasting and social networking sites. They are highly engaged with their audience in a variety of ways using Web 2.0 technologies.

"It is also interesting to note that charities are blogging at a higher rate than any group of businesses studied to date and at approximately the same rate as college admission departments."

Also of note from the study was that nonprofits are highly aware of what's going on in the social media space, monitoring their brands and their causes. Almost two-thirds of them were actually listening to these outside conversations.

Blogs of course are rich story-telling spaces. And while the charities in the study reported that their blogs were most often written and managed by their in-house public relations teams, some other charities, like Medecins Sans Frontiers for example, have truly embraced blogging directly from the field, the result of which is real, heart warming and heart wrenching stuff. Typos and poor grammar only add to its sense of authenticity. Its realness. Its cut-through. Its power.

Blogging is obviously one way for not-for-profits to get consumers or donors to engage with them on a day to day basis, keeping interest levels high and sustained.

Video is so powerful
No doubt blogs and blogging are providing highly addictive for charities and donors alike. But of course video is an even much more powerful medium.

Indeed there's a story about water buffalo that has become the thing of folk lore in terms of the power of video compared to other less emotive marketing tactics.

The story goes something like this. An American living near the Chinese-Tibetan border read a blog post talking about someone in the US who got a water buffalo for Christmas. Of course they didn't actually receive the water buffalo – it was to be given to a poor family in Asia.

But, when they read the small print, they found out that the family wasn't actually going to get the water buffalo either. It turned out that there was no buffalo and no family. The money simply went into the charity's fund which doled out the money to needy families. Which of course is how many charities work, it's just that the marketing led you to believe otherwise and the truth in comparison left you feeling pretty flat.

Compelled by the post, the American decided to go out and personally buy a water buffalo and give it away to a farmer who needed help. And in doing just this, made an eight-minute, highly touching film of the purchase and presentation.

It was and is compelling viewing. The family's gratitude on receiving the gift is deeply moving for both parties, as it has been for the tens of thousands of people who have watched the film online. And now, more than a year later, the film it is still being blogged about, awareness is still high. I think nearly everyone who sees the video wants to donate to the cause. It certainly has lasting resonance.

Indeed it's far more uplifting to see the good that your donation will bring, rather than the faceless donation pool.

There are of course many ways in which nonprofits can use video to promote their causes.

YouTube Nonprofit Program
Indeed in September last year YouTube launched the YouTube Nonprofit Program as a way to make it even easier for people to find, watch and engage with nonprofit video content on the site.

The program enables US-based nonprofit organisations to receive a free nonprofit specific YouTube channel where they can upload footage of their work, public service announcements, calls to action and more. The channel also provides the option of embedding a Google Checkout gadget on the channel to drive online fundraising efforts, transaction fee free.

Alas, no signs of this program being rolled out for Australian nonprofits but it's not stopping charities over here using YouTube and the power of video to further their causes.

Indeed, investing heavily - in terms of time and strategy - in online communities will surely pay huge dividends to nonprofits and their causes.

Posted By Victoria Kerr @ 2:08 PM Permalink / Comments (0) / Trackbacks (0)

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