How Fundraisers Can Measure and Use Social Media

During the presentation “The Skinny on Independent & Integrated Social Media: How to Measure, Track and Weigh-in!” at the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation’s 2010 New York Nonprofit Conference held Aug. 24-25, the presenters gave tips on how to use and measure social media.

Here are a few of the tips Brenna Holmes, interactive account executive at Adams Hussey & Associates; Jay Scott, executive director of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, Sandra Sims, founder of Step by Step Fundraising and author of CauseBlogger.com; and moderator Jann Schultz, director of donor relations at Operation Smile, shared during their presentation.

Ways to measure social media

• Number of Facebook friends/members/"likes"/actions
• Number of Twitter followers/retweets
• Number of YouTube subscribers/views
• Number of blog subscribers/views
• Website traffic created from social-media platforms
• Funds raised through social media.

5 tips on social media

1. Make communication on social media a two-way conversation.
2. Chances are if you like it, your followers will like it.
3. Keep things current and relevant.
4. Be a giver, not just a getter.
5. Measure things, but measuring is not everything.