Nonprofit Online Community Great Marketing Tool

Try Free Online Social Networking Services to Build Own Community

Sep 13, 2009

As many nonprofits are considering online marketing strategies to tap into existing social networks like Facebook, Ning offers organizations a chance to build their own.

The basic premise of social networking for nonprofits is that the organization’s network of supporters – donors, volunteers, board members, employees, community advocates, political allies – can and will influence their own networks. It’s technology-driven word-of-mouth marketing. By embracing social networking, nonprofit organizations can inform and engage their stakeholders, and provide supporters with tools to promote the organization to their own networks.

Why Build an Online Community?

“You may have cultivated networks of donors, event attendees, volunteers, coalition partners, and so on. Internet-based relationship management and communication tools provide a cost-effective means for managing your offline communities, as well as new opportunities for connecting and optimizing these existing networks,” write Ted Hart, James M. Greenfield and Michael Johnston in Nonprofit Internet Strategies: Best Practices for Marketing, Communications and Fundraising Success (2005).

“Nonprofits are continuously looking for ways to better engage their supporters, be it with volunteer opportunities, ways to donate, events or online communications,” says Jason Rosenthal, senior vice president of business operations at Ning, an online social networking service.

With his service, says Rosenthal, “Nonprofits and causes can build their own fully-functioning social network and choose a feature set and design that fits their needs best, for free.” Additionally, Ning offers features to support fundraising efforts, post classified ads and host live radio shows.

Nonprofits Should Not Abandon Other Social Networking Efforts

Nonprofits already involved in social networking may have chosen the popular Facebook service. Facebook’s “Causes” application allows Facebook users to promote the charities they support. “When users install Causes,” explains Clara Shih in The Facebook Era (2009), “a widget appears on their profile page featuring the nonprofit organizations of their choosing. Anyone who visits that person’s profile can learn more about the charities, donate to the charities, or add the charities to their own Causes.” By the end of the application’s first year, money raised through Causes exceeded $2 million.

“We view Facebook and LinkedIn [another social networking service] as complementary services,” says Rosenthal. “We’ve seen nonprofits successfully employ a hub and spoke model using their Ning Network as the hub for supporter interaction and other social media services – and even traditional TV advertising – as the spokes.

“For example, The Pickens Plan, a Ning Network with over 200,000 members in support of T. Boone Pickens’ Energy Plan, was able to activate the ‘new energy arm’ of Pickens Plan supporters across the nation using their Ning Network. Pickens’ team accomplished this by directing their presence on other social media sites to their Ning Network, where they could gather member data and provide a deeper level of interaction with their supporters,” adds Rosenthal.

Create a Social Networking Taskforce

Because social networking is by nature interactive between the organization and its supporters, nonprofits should consider creating a social networking taskforce or committee to guide efforts. Feedback from this committee will be invaluable as nonprofits build their online communities. Additionally, committee members will feel more invested, making them more likely to engage their own networks to promote the organization.

The internet offers many opportunities for nonprofit organizations to spread the word about their mission, raise money in new and more cost-effective ways, and engage supporters as never before. With free tools like Facebook, LinkedIn and Ning, nonprofits can build online communities to take advantage of new opportunities.

The copyright of the article Nonprofit Online Community Great Marketing Tool in Non-Profit Marketing is owned by Molly Schar. Permission to republish Nonprofit Online Community Great Marketing Tool in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.