The Association of Fundraising Professionals Western New York Chapter yesterday held a presentation on social media presented by Matt Hames, social media strategist with Eric Mower and Associates.

The excellent presentation, “Social Media for Non-Profits: Essentials of Integrating Social Media into Your Development Plan,” covered so much ground that I couldn’t do it justice if I tried to present a complete overview here. Instead, I’ll touch on a couple of main points that Matt made, and highlight a few things that might be new to you.

Think of social media as a room full of people.

You want to get people into your room and get them talking. This is different from traditional media where your organization would send out messages to be received by your audience.

“It’s not your nonprofit organization shouting at people; you want it to be more of a conversation,” Matt explained.

Set goals.

“Don’t start a Facebook page just because everyone else has one,” Matt said.

You wouldn’t buy space on a billboard just because another nonprofit organization used billboards, he pointed out. In the same way, use a social media tool only if it helps advance your goals. If you can’t see a way how a certain social media tool will take you toward your goals, don’t use that tool.

Social media takes time, and if you don’t have goals, social media will waste your time, he said.

Older people are sharing more with social media.

Don’t dismiss social media because your donor base is older and you don’t think they use it. Older people are using social media more. In fact, Matt’s 80-year-old aunt friended him on Facebook and sent a picture from Florida.

ammado.

You may not be familiar with ammado, launched a little more than a year ago. You can list your nonprofit there and receive donations, share information about what you’re doing and engage with partners and other nonprofits around the world. ammado says it “connects nonprofits, socially responsible companies and engaged individuals in a unique environment of shared interests, and supplies the tools necessary to support online campaigning, fundraising, engagement and communication.”

Google Earth.

“If your story can be told with a map, Google wants to help you tell it,” Matt said.

For example, if your organization works to prevent violence, you might use a map to show where violence has occurred in a neighborhood in the past year.

For a fuller explanation of how nonprofit organizations might use maps to tell a story, Matt suggested this explanation at Tech Soup.

Ditch your fax number for your Twitter name.

How often do you get faxes? Probably not often, yet your fax number is still on your business card. Delete your fax number and use that space to tell people how they can connect with you on social media.

By the way, you can view the slides from Matt’s presentation on social media for nonprofits at the Sonoma Grill at http://www.slideshare.net/mrhames . You can also follow Matt on Twitter @mhames.

How is your nonprofit using social media? What is working for you? Please comment!

If you need help preparing a social media plan for your nonprofit organization,  contact us at fundraisingassets.com/contact, at 1 (888) 244‑4013 or tharter@fundraisingassets.com.

Fundraising Assets helps busy fundraising professionals raise more money, save valuable time and reduce costs. We offer consulting, writing, design and production services for direct mail and e-mail fundraising, social networking and more.