Using 4 Online Tools to Inspire Volunteers and Donors, Part 2

By Joe Boland

[Editor's note: This is part 2 of a three-part series on the session, "Get Heard: Using Online Tools to Inspire Volunteers and Donors," by Erik Mintz, director of event marketing at Constant Contact, held at the Nonprofit Technology Conference. Click here for part 1.]

Social media
"Social-media marketing is a business tool if you do it right," Mintz said. "It's about people marketing on your behalf."

Marketing on social media lets you purposefully tap in to the conversations happening online to promote your organization, engage with your constituents and drive word-of-mouth. But don't forget, Mintz said, that social media is just technology; social-media marketing is the process of using that technology to connect with friends and build meaningful relationships.

The ultimate goal is to get the people that matter to your organization — donors, influencers, activists — to connect, engage and share your message with their networks of friends. It's word-of-mouth marketing on steroids, given the enormous reach of social media. Social-media marketing is a business development activity, and if done thoughtfully, your fans take on the responsibility of marketing on your behalf.

"From a marketing perspective, it's about listening first, and then marketing," Mintz said.

Before you begin using social media organizationally, however, you need to know what you are trying to accomplish. Here are some goals Mintz shared that social-media marketing can help you achieve:

Increase brand awareness by informing donors and prospects about who you are and what you can do for them.
Provide great customer service by listening and responding to what your donors/supporters are saying to you and about you.
Drive donations by providing compelling offers that inspire people to participate and share with their friends to generate new supporters.
Improve customer retention by developing relationships so people will know, like and trust you.

Mintz then discussed the three major social networks that every organization should utilize in one form or another: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.