Facebook
Outside of your Website, Facebook is the most  important resource for a non-profit; and worth your energy and time. It can be used as a tool to organize your supporters to further your cause, communicate your events and news, conduct research, launch fundraising campaigns and more.  Think of Facebook as an extension of your Website. The advantage of Facebook page is the ability to interact directly with supporters.

If you don’t have a Facebook page for your non-profit, setting one up is free and easy.  Facebook will walk you through the process in the step by step set up guide.

Once you have your page set up, follow these tips to give your page a boost:

1.Tell the entire world that you have a page.  Place a link to your Facebook page on your Website.  Give your page a custom url by going to facebook.com/username so you can easily direct supporters to your page by including the url on all printed materials, business cards, email signatures, signage, etc.

2. Design a large profile picture that shows who you are (logo, website)- it makes a great first impression. Profile pictures can be 200pix wide x 600pix high

3.  Include a sentence or two that clearly says who you are and what your non profit organization does in the “About” section. Keep it simple and to the point.

4. Make  your page relevant and current by making 2-3 updates a week:
-If you have a blog, all posts should be a part of your FB updates.
-Post photos and video
-Good to ask questions, encourages people to respond
-Communicate event information and fundraising initiatives

5. Interact with other organizations by tagging them in your posts. To do this, you must “Like” their business page, then place an @ symbol in front of their name in an update and it will create a live link to their Facebook page.  This is a great way to develop relationships with other businesses.  You can’t do this with personal profiles however.

6. Designate 2-3 people responsible to managing your Facebook content.

7. Use Facebook Insights! There is a lot of valuable information here, it helps you gage your audience, and the effectiveness of your posts!  Watch this video tutorial to learn how to use this free tool.

Twitter
Twitter can also be a useful way to gain support and spread awareness for your cause. Socialbrite has a great article with some valuable tips: 24 best practices for nonprofits using Twitter.

Here are some of the tips from the article that I found to be very helpful
-Don’t over think your Twitter entries. Use your own voice, not a detached, institutional one.
-Use the “60-30-10 rule” 60% retweets and pointers to promote items from other users or sites, 30% conversation and responses, 10% announcements and events.
-Use Twitter to conduct research, to solicit ideas, to identify experts, to thank donors
-Link to newsworthy events that people are already talking about and how they relate to your cause
-Be current/in the moment- “Live Tweet” from events
-Reach out to other influencersIf you have a blog, always tweet about an updated post

Want more info?  Here are some additional resources
How Non-Profits Use Social Media
How Non-Profits Can Use Social Media
Non-Profit Social Media Success

Video: Use social media to connect with donors

December 8, 2011

New Video Course Helps Business Professionals Learn Online Marketing Fundamentals

Online marketing course taught on video by web marketing expert Lorrie Thomas Ross is on lynda.com – a subscription-based online video tutorial website.

SANTA BARBARA, December 2011 — In the ever-changing world of online marketing, the options are endless, which is exciting, but sometimes can often leave professionals overwhelmed on where to begin, regardless of their level of marketing experience. New journeys often go better with a map and directions, so online marketing expert and author Lorrie Thomas Ross created a course to help professionals map their online marketing with the launch of the new Online Marketing Fundamentals video course on lynda.com.

Online Marketing Fundamentals, released December 7, 2011, introduces web marketers, web designers, business owners and executives to the world of online marketing, and reviews how the different aspects of a business’ web site can support its marketing goals. Online Marketing Fundamentals helps even the smallest businesses to get started with web marketing and allows more experienced professionals optimize the marketing collateral they have already built. Thomas Ross teaches viewers how to set themselves up for success by covering all the critical pieces of the online marketing puzzle. She shows how to create an effective website and incorporates the use of social media sites as some the ways business owners can interact with customers. Lorrie gives instruction on the world of blogging and search engine marketing, breaking each concept down into easy-to-digest lessons.

Lorrie Thomas Ross is known as The Marketing Therapist® as her “healthy marketing advice” expertise is frequently quoted by the media, giving advice on topics ranging from search engine marketing to developing web marketing strategy. Lorrie is CEO of the full-service online marketing agency, Web Marketing Therapy®. She is a nationally recognized public speaker and teaches customized web marketing workshops for businesses big and small. Thomas Ross is the author of the “36-Hour Course: Online Marketing” (published by McGraw-Hill), a top-rated guide teaching everything online marketing has to offer.

“Having a website does not mean that you are engaged in online marketing”, says Lorrie Thomas Ross, The Marketing Therapist®. “You have to know the fundamentals of online marketing. Whether you are a VP of Search Marketing, a webmaster or a professional looking to make the web work for you, this course can help get you ideas for optimization and new channels. Smart online marketing comes from having a plan, doing continual optimization, tracking success and being creative. This is an ongoing process, so it requires a commitment and work, but once you get the hang of it, it pays off! Offering the Online Marketing Fundamentals course on lynda.com is fantastic, it’s affordable and embodies the way we learn today – on the web! The final outcome is something that everyone can take away knowledge from no matter what level they are at experientially.”

The twelve chapter course is featured exclusively on lynda.com and outlines the fundamentals of online marketing in easy to understand and informational video tutorials. There are many pieces to a success-backed marketing puzzle and the Online Marketing Fundamentals course highlights the necessary topics including up-to-date information on social media marketing (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), search engine marketing, online advertising, blogging and content marketing. Thomas Ross teaches a range of marketing lessons on business branding, creating a better user experience, how to create an email marketing campaign and finally how to properly promote your brand through online public relations. Lorrie Thomas Ross believes you can’t have a successful marketing plan without strategy and measurement so before viewers implement all of the teachings from this course into their business, Thomas Ross covers web marketing strategy.

The Online Marketing Fundamentals course by lynda.com officially launched Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 and is available at www.lynda.com

About Lorrie Thomas Ross:

Lorrie Thomas Ross, M.A., The Marketing Therapist® & Wild Web Woman®, is a marketing strategist, educator, writer, web marketing expert, and speaker. Thomas Ross is the CEO of Web Marketing Therapy, a marketing agency and online marketing education company. She is the author of top ranking “36-Hour Course to Online Marketing” available on Amazon.com. As a she-geek with super relationship savvy, Lorrie’s craft brings the heart of marketing into organizations that are “in it to win it”. Thomas Ross was recently recognized as an entrepreneurial leader in the Pacific Business Coast Times “40 Under 40” Awards. She has been featured in Forbes, Success, Inc., Entrepreneur and Fox Business. Thomas Ross lives in Santa Barbara with her husband, daughter and cat named Grumpy. For more information, please visit: www.lorriethomas.com and www.webmarketingtherapy.com

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• The average American Internet user watches 30 minutes of video online per day [40 percent increase over 2009] (comScore) Compared to 5 hours of television per day
• Flickr hosts over 5 billion images
• YouTube has 490 million unique users who visit every month (as of February 2011)
• More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared on Facebook each month.
• People upload 3,000 images to Flickr (the photo sharing social media site) every minute
• YouTube generates 92 billion page views per month (These YouTube stats don’t include videos viewed on phones and embedded in websites)

Twitter has jumped on the image sharing bandwagon with the recent launch of User Galleries which will make the process of searching (and finding) images shared on Twitter a lot easier. You will notice now the  four most recent images are displayed on a user profile.

Businesses can really boost their social marketing efforts by incorporating more photos and video into blog posts, Facebook page updates, even Tweets. Why?

Photos and video go beyond words.   Ever heard the term “A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words”?  People connect to images, and thanks to dozens of mobile apps and countless platforms, they are very easy to share in real time- making them more relevant to your target audience.

Using photos and video in your status updates are an effective way to engage your target audience, improve your search engine results and showcase your organization. Your followers relate to photos and video, and statistics indicate updates containing photos or video have higher click rates:

Photos and videos show up in the Facebook news feed as thumbnail images. Due to their size, they almost require interaction as users click on them to make them large enough to see. Be sure to add a comment that encourages users to open the photo and add comments of their own. – 6 Tips to Increase Your Facebook EdgeRank and Exposure

• Remember that these are not your personal photos or video…it is a representation of your brand and if there is any doubt whether a photo is appropriate enough to be used, it isn’t.
• Learn how to post status updates to your business page using Facebook mobile apps. If you can post updates to your page from your mobile phone, you should easily be able to share photos as well. Don’t have a smart phone? You can still upload photos into your business page the same way you would your personal profile.
• Twitter now allows users to post photos directly in their status updates! If you know how to make Twitter update on your mobile phone, you can also upload photos using the camera icon. You can also upload photos directly on the site.

Learn More by reading 6 Tips to Enhance Your Facebook Page With Photos

Most marketers have probably heard of EdgeRank and understands it has something to do with Facebook- but do we really understand what it is and how it impacts our marketing?

Think of it like Google PageRank.  By definition: Every piece of content is an object and every interaction with said content is an “edge;” hence the idiom “Edgerank.” EdgeRank calculates the “value” of an interaction with a post. Posts with a higher number of interactions are more likely to be seen in a user’s news feed.

The takeaway? Quality Over Quantity. You could have tens of thousands of Facebook page fans, but if they are not engaging or interacting with your posts, you are missing the mark. You have heard it before, but to be relevant to your target audience, you must bring value to them.

I cannot sum it up better than  Adam T. Sutton his post Social Media Marketing: Facebook news feed optimization on MarketingSherpa

By focusing on the types of content and interactions your audience enjoys, your “objects” will attract more “edges” and will be prioritized in users’ news feeds. Scores and metrics are important to consider — but they should not be the sole driver of your strategy. Your audience, your brand, and your content should be priorities.

Want to know more? Check these resources

EdgeRank: The Secret Sauce That Makes Facebook’s News Feed Tick

Social Media Marketing: Facebook news feed optimization

How to increase your Facebook EdgeRank

How to Increase Your EdgeRank in Facebook

6 Tips to Increase Your Facebook EdgeRank and Exposure

1. Keep it short. You will find more people will read your updates when you use short (like 1-2 sentence) Updates.

2. Use multimedia. Posting images and video are a great way to make your post interesting and capture your audience’s attention.

3. Respond to everyone. Every time. This goes without saying! Fan engagement and interaction is key. Do not ignore them.

4. Use tools to make your life easier. LOVE THIS TIP! There are so many tools out there, do some research and find the right ones to help you manage your updates!

5. Force engagement. Be creative- write posts where audience members feel encouraged to chime in. For example, post a sentence and have your audience fill in the blank!

6. Offer deals to convert fans to customers and reward followers. People who like you in Facebook are one step closer to becoming your customer. Why not give them a push by offering exclusive deals and offers?

7. Stop Shouting. Remember, people do not sign up for Social Media accounts to be advertised or pitched to. They want to connect with family and friends. Avoid shouting marketing messages and treat your Facebook followers like friends.

8. Be consistent. Consistency is the key when it comes to Facebook. Define your message and deliver it consistently.

9. Don’t sweat the small stuff. There is really nothing to fear but fear itself when it comes to facebook marketing. If someone leaves a negative comment, turn it into an opportunity! If you make a mistake on one of your updates, don’t worry about it! It happens to the best of us!

10. The most important out of the 10: Be genuine. Be human. Be social. This relates to my point in #7- people want to connect- not be pitched to. Its about building relationships and trurst with your customers potential customers. Don’t abuse it!