Pulse: Overcoming Social-Media Fears

For many fundraising professionals, the world of social media is an intimidating place. They know it's the wave of the future, but many are reluctant to dive in. I spoke recently with Terry Barber and Doug Broward, vice president and creative director, respectively, of integrated direct-response fundraising agency Grizzard, about the evolution of social media regarding fundraising.

The fears
One of the greatest fears nonprofits have is relinquishing control of content. Historically, nonprofits have been able to dictate just about every message that went out for public consumption, shaping the opinions about and reputations of their organizations the way they saw fit. In arenas such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, fundraisers lose that control — and that's exactly the point.

"One of the roles that we play is to get [nonprofits] to get over this notion and desire to want to control content," Barber says. "We continue to find it's one of the greatest fears they have: 'We can't control what these people are going to say about us.' Exactly."

Your donors and prospective donors are in social networks discussing your organization whether you're there or not. It's important to be a part of that conversation.

"From the organizational perspective, it's being able in advance to say who you are, what you do, here's how we talk about it … so you're feeding them a script, if you will, that can run to and through the network," Barber says.

"Otherwise, the constituents will just make it up for you," he adds. "They'll make it up anyway, but at least this way, you've got some basis of truth and something that is a way of singing the same song."

Another common fear is the lack of concrete ROI from social media.

"One of the difficulties, especially in a traditional fundraising mind-set, is if it's not raising money it's not worth your time," Broward says. "For some people it's like, 'How can we possibly invest in that if we can't show that ROI immediately?'"

While it's true that it's hard to figure out the actual ROI social media offers, Grizzard likes to show 
clients what their competitors are doing and then tell them, "whatever it means [in terms of ROI], for sure, one thing it means is you're losing opportunity every single day that you're not out there," Barber says.

A shift in thinking
Instead of looking at social media in terms of the actual dollars it brings in, fundraisers should look at what these conversations with constituents mean in the grand scheme of things.

"It's really not about fundraising as we have always known it to be. Those donors that are 60-plus that everybody is fighting over, the vast majority have been donors for 40-plus years," Barber shares. "It was usually at some point in their 20s or 30s that they first encountered a nonprofit environment that they found relevant that they have stuck to and with for this whole entire lifetime. Once they find and have affinity for an organization or cause, they tend to stick.

"Now, how does that relate? The thing that nonprofits can do and get the most bang out their buck for is invest in someone to manage social media to intercept donors in their 20s and 30s so they become engaged and immersed in your cause for their lifetime[s]," he explains.

With that mind-set, the value of social networks becomes much more clear.

Broward and Barber caution that fundraisers need to have strategies in place if they're going to make the most of the opportunities that social media offers. Broward emphasizes that it's important to "craft a message that works consistently across all brand touchpoints."

When someone visits an organization's Facebook page, for instance, the message and tone should be consistent with the direct-mail piece that person received and the DRTV ad she saw.

"Give them the message, give them tools, and they'll start to echo your sentiments," he adds.

It's vital, however, to avoid corporate-speak. In fact, it's best to have a personality shine through in social-media conversations. Barber suggests using volunteers to update Twitter, Facebook and MySpace accounts.

"It's a great avenue for plugging in volunteers who are enthusiastic about doing something," Barber says. "You're not going to gain an awful lot in terms of having a corporate, organizational presence on Facebook, etc., but you are going to gain a lot if you are equipped and ready to … equip your volunteers to be ambassadors in the social-media space.

"You're giving those folks — your donors and 
your volunteers, your advocates — a real sense of empowerment," he adds.

Broward offers the example of a faith-based, social-services charity Grizzard works with that has harnessed the power of social media. The organization's leader moved into Facebook and Twitter early on, and he currently posts 20 to 30 tweets a day, runs a Facebook page and updates a blog. As a result, he's grown support of 
his organization's mission not only through the faith-based contingent, but also through a social urban 
contingent that has caught on to the cause despite having no religious affiliation.

Essentially, joining the conversation allows nonprofits to make their causes more real to donors.

"On Twitter, you can update and talk to people during the day or identify certain needs — like someone needs X number of blankets or water bottles — and get immediate response," Broward says. "This is critical because of that grassroots aspect to really deconstruct the smooth face of a charity. Suddenly it seems much more real, much more engaged, much more active in the space or area you're concerned about."

Adds Barber: "To me, the greatest benefit, the greatest outcome of all this is if you compare this to how fundraising and constituent growth has taken place in the past, it's been off of one-off type of transactions. This is now the opportunity to create a movement."