Social media

Has anyone else noticed how far off the rails Twitter's #FollowFriday convention has gone, of late?

It's out of control.

I have something a bit controversial to say. If you’re a 'marketing guru', you may be offended. You may think, “How DARE Nyman Ink do this?” But I’m going to do it anyway. I’m going to tell the truth.

Here it is:

You can’t measure the ROI of social media. It’s impossible.

There. I said it.

We’ve all seen the power of social media to spread news quickly, to keep us informed of upcoming events, to garner awareness of a cause and to record events for posterity. Nowhere have these ideas become so integrated as in the recent London riots.

Regardless of your political feelings about the riots, protests and looting, I think we can all agree that social media have played a pivotal role.

So here’s a bit about the good, bad and ugly, depending on your perspective:

Okay, maybe it is silly. Maybe it’s a fad. Maybe social media is no more than a brief stop on the road to somewhere else.

Maybe.

Then again, maybe not.

As I become more and more enmeshed in the world of social media, I find myself more and more surprised at how many of you — especially you cautious not-for-profit groups — remain hesitant about getting on board

This is a mistake.

While social media might not be here to stay, it certainly is here for now, and failing to take part in a serious way means both failing to reach new donors, contacts and community members, and failing to stay relevant in the contemporary marketplace. It just doesn’t make sense.

We’ve already posted a lot about getting a handle on the world of social media.

Here at Nyman Ink, since launching our new website, we’re getting used to blogging more regularly and getting the word out about our new posts via social media.

But as one of the Nyman Ink bloggers, I often find myself wondering how much traffic (that is to say, how many visits) actually result from our social media efforts. Social media is, after all, a lot of work. And I want it to be fruitful, but I’ve often find myself wondering … Is it working?

Seems like everyone’s jumping on board the video bandwagon these days. Video is hot right now. Even we’ve tried our hand at a little moving-picture magic. But that doesn’t mean video is the best idea for your not-for-profit organization. In fact, it’s easy to invest a lot of time, energy and money in video production — only to find that it just doesn’t work for you. As such, we’ve compiled this beginner’s guide to video communication to help you get the most out of the medium.

If you’re a savvy not-for-profit, you’re probably already using social media services such as Twitter and Facebook. And if so, you’ve probably noticed that keeping all your social media accounts up to date isn’t always easy. Between blogging, tweeting, posting updates on Facebook and doing your job (because let’s face it, I doubt many of you have the budget for a full-time social media guru), you’re probably feeling kind of swamped.

Automation can help. Automation is the act of setting up your social media accounts to update automatically, with little or no human time investment.

The blogging game can seem daunting at first.

Not all of us are well-suited to creating tons of content on relevant, timely topics, on a regular basis. In general, most of us are busy with other things (doing our jobs, fundraising, living, etc.) As a result, the business of blogging is often rushed, and not-for-profit organizations, in particular, tend to toss off blogs with little thought.

After all, you might think it’s better to have a blog (even a rushed blog) than no blog at all.

This is where you’re wrong. Not only does it make no sense to blog without taking the time to make the most of the medium, but a poorly-executed blog can damage your brand and your organization’s reputation. Despite this fact, a quick surf of the internet illustrates that a lot of you are rushing. (I won’t name names, but you know who you are.)

With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of some of the most common blogging mistakes not-for-profit organizations are making.

Awhile back, I read a blog post entitled “What is social media literacy and why should it matter to the UN?” In the post, author John Bell says, “talking about social media in relation to some of the catastrophic problems they [the UN] are trying to solve like gender equality and HIV/AIDS seems like, well, it seems trivial. But I actually think social media can help.”

Initially, I disagreed.

If you’re new to the world of social media, the options can seem overwhelming. What networks should you join? Which would yield the best results with the least investment of your time? What are the strengths and weaknesses of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.?