Ask our Giving Guru: Katya Andresen on the 6 most miserable mistakes of social marketing

Photo by Caro's Lines

Giving Guru Katya Andresen serves as Chief Operating Officer of Network for Good and is a well-known speaker, author and blogger about nonprofit marketing, online outreach, fundraising and social media. She has trained thousands of causes in effective marketing and media relations, and her marketing materials for nonprofits have won national and international awards. Katya will be available to answer your questions about social media for nonprofits on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 1 EST. Submit your question in the comments of this post, or check out the many ways to ask our Giving Gurus.

Many nonprofits are dabbling in social media, and that’s a good thing.  It’s wise for nonprofits to engage with potential supporters and donors where they congregate online, rather than waiting for them to come to us.  According to NTEN, Common Knowledge and ThePort Network, 74 percent of nonprofits have a Facebook presence and four-fifths of nonprofits are committing at least one-quarter of a full-time staff person to their social networking efforts. More than half of nonprofits intend to increase social networking project staffing over the next 12 months. All good news.

Now the bad news. We don’t always do it right. Here are the six most common – and egregious – errors we make:

1. We fear losing control. Don’t! We lost control of our message and our brand a long, long time ago. If you don’t believe me, search online for all the things people are saying about you. You can ignore those conversations (not recommended) or engage with them.
2. We think social networking is a way to get our message out.  Nope. It’s not a message delivery vehicle. It’s a way to engage in authentic, sincere and open conversation with supporters.
3. We see dollar signs. While social networking can be a way to raise money, that should not be the reason for doing it. For example, Facebook is primarily tool for interacting and engaging with a community—not necessarily a fundraising silver bullet.
4. We fail to set small, achievable goals. If you’re going to start an initiative, make it a small one with clear goals so you know how to measure success.
5. We forget to set some ground rules. Don’t go Wild West!  Set a social media policy for your organization, so it’s clear how to respond to what you’re hearing - and what types of initiatives have internal support. Better to have shared rules than to freak out when your colleague puts a snarky remark on someone’s blog.
6. We give up when we make mistakes. Don’t worry, that’s part of learning. Share and learn from your missteps. There is no shame in mistakes if they make you smarter.

For more nonprofit social media advice, visit Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog: Getting to the Point and read her post on how to convince your skeptical boss that social media has merit.

Update 10/5/2009: Check out the video of Katya's Q&A session, or read the transcript.