12 Tips for Social Media Marketing

Social networking is an investment for the future. Sites such as Twitter and FaceBook could be a nonprofit's dream market - millions of users engaging in activities and all interconnected.. But just setting up shop and collecting "friends" will not necessarily result in donors and supporters.

1. Pick the social network that is right for you. Don't just pick sites based on the fact that everyone is on them. Pick a site if it makes sense for your organizations. And if you have time to manage the interactions. It may pay to start small, with one or two social networks, rather than trying to take the entire virtual world on at once.

2. Find an 'expert' to help you. Look around your organization, the web or your community for someone who has experience with social networking. Apogee Marketing Partners offers an excellent and affordable Social-Media start-up plan. For a reasonable price, we can get you started and train your staff on how to keep the ball rolling.

3. Extend your reach. Select a social network and then use a 'scattershot' approach. Go beyond a standard profile and create a group as well to generate multiple channels to market your business. On Facebook, for instance, you can be a group and/or an event. Just make sure you understand the site's Terms Of Use. For a fee, some social sites will allow you to become an official sponsor of a group or community. Many large companies, such as Victoria's Secret and Apple, sponsor groups.

4. Prepare for negative feedback. There is no way you can control every word of every person who wants to be your friend or join your social networking group. If you or your lawyers are not comfortable with that fact, social networking probably is not for you. You can set up an approval process for 'comments' that people post but if you go this route, make sure the process is reasonable and efficient.

5. Search for similar groups. There may be Twitter or Facebook groups for your organization that you did not set-up such as unofficial profiles created by enthusiastic supporters. If you locate such a profile, reach out to that person. He or she may be a committed supporter who might be willing to promote your content.

6. First impressions are everything. Try to make a good impression right out of the gate with your social network. Make your profile visually exciting. Control what your organization will look like on other people's friend lists--pick a great picture and title that will get you the attention you want that is appropriate for your organization's personality.

7. Be edgy! And post your most viral content. Social networks are at their best when people are retweeting or linking content to their network. However, they will only pass around topics that are fun, interesting, topical or exciting. Come up with fun profile names, use video or Flash animation. If it does not make you think 'Cool!' then it is probably not viral and you need to go back to the drawing board. You might do better with a campaign or a specific gimmick rather than just a generic page plugging your business. Try to plug something that is timely or is action requiring. By action I mean, ask them to respond to a request for a survey, perhaps a re-tweet. It gets your friends involved and committed.

8. Find out which of your clients are already on social networks. Survey your clients and find out who has your network accounts. Send them an e-mail inviting them to become your friend or to join your group.

9. Communicate on a regular basis. Update your pages with new content as often as possible. If you send email updates, or news feed updates, do so in a regular basis and keep it to a weekly or bi-weekly event. You don’t want to have people “tune you out”. On Twitter, this doesn’t apply, more tweets the better. As long as the info is useful, people will be interested and follow. Use common sense.

10. Get staff involved in making your social networking effort a success. Assign a staff person to accept friend requests, post comments on other people's pages, and invite others to become friends. That is what social networking is all about.

11. Engage your social network supporters. Eventually, you will want to start turning your 'friends' into customers, activists, donors, or volunteers. Make sure your social networking pages always feature lots of opportunities to get involved. If you are a nonprofit, include donation opportunities on your social networking pages. Even if you do not raise much in the short run, it helps to set expectations for the future.

Be specific when you do ask your friends to do something for your organization. And always let people know what happened at an event or with a campaign even if they did not participate. They might get involved the next time.

12. Social networking is an investment in the future. Many of your friends on these networks will take time to develop into financial donors and supporters of tomorrow. Get into the game now and learn how to use social media or you might be left behind for good.

For more information on Social Networking , please contact Apogee Marketing Partners www.apogeemarketingpartners.com for more help. info@apogeemarketingpartners.com