The Use of Social Media

Mashable Social Media
Blog: How Non-Profits Are Using Social Media 
October 14, 2011
By Zoe Fox
http://mashable.com/2011/10/14/how-non-profits-use-social-media/


I recently came across an interesting blog on Mashable Social Media that studied the  correlation between social media use and an organization's net worth, in this case nonprofits. Craigslist founder, Craig Newmark, explained the use of social media perfectly, “The deal is, it’s not about money, it’s about getting people to talk with each other to make people’s lives better." That is exactly right. Social media technology is now the new word or mouth and best friend to any public relations and marketing manner. Social media is also the main part of people's everyday lives. They rely on these sites to be educated and entertained. 


Newmark created a study which focused on nonprofits use of social media primary through the use of Facebook, Flickr,Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and RSS feeds. The results were very interesting.  The study's results explain that the largest nonprofit may not have the largest voice in the social media world. For example, this study showed that on Twitter such nonprofits as Public Broadcasting Service and the Smithsonian have an extremely high number of followers however were not found to be the "Most Talkative." It seems that these organizations may have a different perspective and plan of the use of social media sites.  Smaller nonprofits such as Save the Children Federation had a larger social media voice online but had less Twitter follows. 


I think that many nonprofits understand the importance of social media and how this tool can be used to educate an extremely large number of people. It is vital that social media be used to its full potential which in many cases invloved linking social media links to your organzation's software and tecnology resources. After learning about the integration of Facebook and Twitter feeds into software I know understand how many people can be reached by one post on any social media site.  I truely believe that being inovative by the use of technology is the key to bring sucess to any nonprofit.