As social media continues to evolve, the opportunities for non profit organizations continues to grow. Non profit organizations should be building recognition for their organization, promoting their events, and using social media to add revenue through donations for their cause.  Below is a check list of social media tools which non profit organizations should be capitalizing on.  But don’t put the cart before the horse and setup your accounts without a social media strategy and guidelines you will use to engage your audience and clients.

1. LinkedIn- Have an up to date company profile for your organization.  With the new year, it is a good time to be sure your company information is current and up to date.  Be sure your board of director members, employees, and other associates linkedin profiles are current and up to date.

2.Facebook - Create a facebook profile for yourself as an individual and create a facebook fan page or facebook group for your organization. We prefer a fan page because it is more engaging and interactive. Once you have 25 fans, be sure to secure your facebook user name to protect your non profits identity. You can have more than 1 facebook page for your organization. For example, if you have chapters in different areas for your organization be sure each chapter establishes their local fan page and ads the main fan page as a favorite.

3. Facebook Causes- This is a great tool to utilize within the facebook community. Create a cause for your organization or better yet for a specific event. Use facebook to promote your cause so others will add a Featured Cause to their wall to raise awareness and recognition.

3. Youtube Channel - Video is one of the best mediums to promote your psa and increase donations. A great example is The Humane Society of The United States because the videos create awareness, inspire viewers, and it is branded with their other social media tools. 

Of course there are more tools out there for a non profit organization to utilize, but you should consider how much resources in money and manpower you can allocate to your social media presence. It is best to do a few things very well then to do many things not so well. If you have any additional questions or comments you can post below or contact us.

Best of luck in 2010.