A Minute With Ephraim Gopin, International Fundraising and Social-Media Consultant

Ephraim Gopin has worked in the nonprofit sector for the last decade, in every position and department from CEO, PR, marketing, event organization, fundraising, grant writing and everything in between. He currently works with nonprofits and businesses to help them craft social-media strategies and get out there engaging the masses. He also recently was a session presenter during our third annual FundRaising Success Virtual Conference & Expo. Following are some insights and musings from his session, "A Fresh Look at Social Media."

"So you want to start using social media? Awesome! But before you do anything, you need to build a strategy. I liken it to diving into the deep end of the pool — you'll probably want to take some lessons, start in the shallow end, get the hang of it before diving in. Or a fundraising campaign — you'll create a strategy of who you want to solicit, how you'll present the campaign, set a donation target and much more. Social media is exactly the same."

"If you manage a soup kitchen, you probably know of other soup kitchens in your city operated by other organizations. Go look at their websites — for both design and content. Take a look at which social-media outlets they're utilizing, and see what they're up to. Then use my friend Rabbi Google and find other organizations across your state or province who also operate soup kitchens, and learn from them as well. In the past, a lot of this came under the heading of industrial espionage. Today, it's all online, and all the info you need can be found by legal means."

"How will you help your online community? You have to bring some kind of value, something special which your followers need or want to be a part of. If all you're doing is broadcasting the wonderful work you are doing, they won't follow you. That's not a condemnation of your efforts, but you have to do for them first!"