I like this buzz word, it could mean so many things, but there is no dispute on the impact technology has on advocacy, messaging and influence.  According to the  2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, co-authored by NTEN and M&R Strategic Services, the impact is gaining momentum (not surprising).

• Email is working well for advocacy campaigns. Fundraising and advocacy campaign  rates hold steady, but response rates rose for advocacy campaigns.
• Social networks are exploding: the average number of Facebook fans of survey respondents grew by 30% compared to the previous study, and Twitter followers grew by 80%
• Know your donor types and plan your messaging around that: lapsed donors get very active at year end, but Monthly giving has a 3% increase in its role in total online giving.
• .org Facebook communities are increasingly active, with 2.5 daily like & comments for every 1,000 users (vs. 1.7 in 2011).
• Nonprofits spend an average of $3.50 to acquire a Facebook fan, and $2.05 per new Twitter follower
• Respondents use Facebook advertising for primarily non-fundraising purposes (only 24% report using Facebook advertising for fundraising)

2013 study just out!  Update here very soon….

Catching up on social media these days.  “The Zen of Social Media Marketing” by Shama Hyder Kabani is a very comprehensive overview of online marketing tools and challenges the reader to think through their online strategy, target audience and need before embarking in all the twitters, facebooks etc. of the world.

The 3 words she uses are attract, convert and transform and how social media fits into this framework. From here she goes into how to drive traffic to your website (SEO) and then into full-blown social media, using Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter and the importance of web video.  The biggest take-away for me is that this medium is geared toward making a personal connection.

If you want to learn more about Social Media, or looking to use social media to market your business, I would read this book.

Now my challenge is to use this information in here…..