How to Use Social Media for Social Good

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug. 31, 2011 - Many nonprofits are confounded by the dramatic and recent changes in online communications and fundraising.  There’s been a veritable explosion in social media and mobile technology tools.  If you’re running, or working for, a nonprofit, how do you use these tools? How do you get organized?  And how can you prevent making costly mistakes that may drive away donors, stymie your fundraising efforts, and dilute your message?  

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SOCIAL GOOD (McGraw-Hill Professional; September, 2011; Hardcover, $35.00) offers nonprofits specifics and how-to’s on social media and how to use it effectively by working through the three main levels of nonprofit communication and fundraising – the static web, the social web, and the mobile web.  

Author Heather Mansfield, owner of DIOSA Communications, has over fifteen years of nonprofit fundraising and online community organizing experience, working for clients like The National Peace Corps Association, The National Wildlife Federation, Operation Homefront, TechSoup.org, and Safe Kids, among many others.   She has advised thousands of nonprofit owners and managers on how best to employ the many tools available for social entrepreneurs.  

Many nonprofits are making mistakes like using PayPal or Facebook Causes for online donations, or focusing solely on Facebook and Twitter and dropping email marketing.  Mansfield advises that nonprofits need some kind of comprehensive marketing plan that makes sense of all the new tools, but also lays a context for understanding that these new tools do not replace the old ones, rather they compliment them. The book offers specific how-tos and drills down into each aspect of communications, using a limited budget.


SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SOCIAL GOOD advises that social media tools are connected (and necessary), and should be integrated into one comprehensive marketing plan.  Many nonprofits are unsure how to tackle this.  A nonprofit needs to have its Web 1.0 in place before even thinking about Web 2.0, having to do with ROI. Plus, even though Web 3.0 is here, nonprofits are so far behind, but by the time of publication, Web 3.0 will be the buzz, and Mansfield will detail how nonprofits can easily incorporate these features into an overall marketing strategy.

The book is broken out into digestible, actionable sections that should get you underway in no time, including:

•   Five Ways to Build Your E-Newsletter List
•   Eleven Facebook Pages Best Practices for Nonprofits
•   Eleven Twitter Apps for Nonprofits
•   Five Must-Have Characteristics of a Nonprofit Blogger
•   Five Ways to Promote Your Text-to-Give Campaigns

Mansfield concludes that this is an exciting time for resourceful, socially aware, tech-savvy nonprofit professionals.  When their expertise is combined with the knowledge and experience of the nonprofit Web, using social media to empower friends, followers and fans to join in causes, this is a triumph for social good.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Heather Mansfield has more than fifteen years of experience in the nonprofit sector handling nonprofit communications and fundraising.  She is the creator and principal blogger at Nonprofit Tech 2.0 (www.nonprofitorgsblog.org), and its many related resources about social media and mobile technology.  She is the person behind @nonprofitorgs on Twitter; “Nonprofit Organizations” on Facebook; and popular channels on LinkedIn and YouTube.  Mansfield is also a social media consultant whose client list includes Goodwill, Change.org, the Special Olympics, and others.

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