Social Media, SEO and Your Web Site, What Your Nonprofit Needs to Know; What You Must Do in 2012 to Survive the Raging River that is the Internet!

 By Thomas R. Reich and Chris Romero

Why are Social Media, and the internet Important to you as a Nonprofit Director today in 2012?  First let’s look at Social Media and how it can help your Organization in a number of ways.  As an invaluable tool of today’s Business, Social Media can work in conjunction with your website to help create an amazing internet “mailing list”.  But what do Social Media, your Web Site and the Internet as a whole have in common and how are they important to your business in 2012?

Think of the days before the internet revolution, an organization would design a flyer if the organization had a siginificant product or service to launch they would probably make a nice brochure.   In order to give the work a professional look the organization would use the services of an outside company to finalize the art work and prepare the piece for the printer.  At that point the piece would be sent to the printers to print it and to the fulfillment house to begin addressing the finished brochures to your established mailing list.  If the release was important enough, the organization might even buy one or even several additional targeted mailing lists to reach thousands or tens of thousands of potential customers, many of the brochures  would be thrown away some would be read,  and a few became leads.

The point is, there was cost involved in traditional marketing and the design process, the mastering and printing process, the addressing of the pieces to be mailed, the costs of the mailing lists and finally the postage charge of sending your beautifully prepared work of art out to the “targeted” masses.  Fortunately, the internet cuts many of those costs with its no cost mail delivery.   Heck, it has effectively bankrupted our postal system.  However, there are still costs involved.  Advertising is never entirely free, but the cost of not using cutting edge methods to reach your potential customers is not only foolish but may kill your organization.

In the past, when you used a print house, you didn’t bring in an offset press to your facility, did you?  You probably used a fulfillment center to address and mail the thousands and thousands of pieces as well, right?  We must understand there are still costs involved in a properly executed Social Media and SEO campaign.  Lists of targeted “addresses” still cost money, SEO or Search Engine Optimization is an art, and unless you are a big enough organization to have a specialist in house this should be out sourced and is an ongoing, never ending process.

If an outside advertising firm or art house was used to make brochure designs in the past, perhaps you should use professionals to do this process for your Nonprofit’s on line materials as well.  Just because you can buy a copy of Adobe In Design, having this or other programs does not mean you could or should consider doing all the design work in house.  There are specialized professionals to which design for use on the Internet is second nature.  Your brochure must be top notch, professional and induce a potential customer to call your office.  If you couldn’t create a finished brochure in-house in the 90’s your organization would probably still be best suited to have this done professionally by a proven expert in your market.

What you can do is learn to manipulate Social Media for nonprofitsin such a way as to accumulate large “mailing Lists”.  You can develop a Social Media Profile to point back to your company’s website.  A website  that represents your Nonprofit and its dealings 24 hours a day 7 days a week, but again, it is best to accept guidance from a professional to make this website as outstanding as possible.  Twenty years ago when showrooms were the rage, an organization would hire a decorator to guide them as to what colors to use what drapes the material to use for the carpets and the look of the display tables.

Website SEO Social Media and Nonprofits

They would have custom wall hangings and mock ups of their services, maybe even miniatures of a facility or the new building they hoped to build, made by a professional miniature model maker.

Today, you website is your display room.   It must be perfect, it must represent you, it must be interactive as if a representative, one that you trained and trusted, was there with the potential donor.  Your Organization must have a professional and targeted Web Site, linked to Social Media and maximized for SEO, or you are throwing money out the door.  Just as we discussed with the brochures, the costs are significantly reduced, but you still may need professional help.  Do you really want to trust your main showroom design to the receptionist?  You may be surprised, but in many cases it is the receptionist  who many Boards get to pick a template from a free site, one of those do it yourself domain hosting destinations advertised so much today, later, leaving the important decisions of picking the type fonts and colors to, yes, the receptionist!

Your Web Site is your showroom.  Like it or not, that is the reality of 2012. Your Organization can no longer call it “that web thing”, you can no longer ignore it, because your competition is not ignoring the Internet!  With a well planned strategy, good branding, and exceptional brand maintenance, your Web Site, in conjunction with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and other Social Media resources, can be a better tool than direct mail ever was.  It combines direct mail with lead generation, a show room and even demonstration area or Update from the site of a particular project with the clever use of video and YouTube.  Beyond this, with the use of things like Google analytics, and the clever following of the right competition or peers  on Twitter and facebook,(see other blog postings on BizCentralUSA that cover these subjects) you can know more about your market and your competition than you could have dreamed of in the past.

The Internet is not a fad, Social Media is not a fad, and your Organization’s Web Site is as important as your home office, perhaps even more important, since it can be seen instantly around the world.  These are the facts of 2012.  Isn’t it time to at least ask some questions, hear some advice, talk to some Internet professionals and see what can be done to strengthen your position in the new world of 2012?  The Internet is now a raging river of unrelated data, but  with proper guidance and direction your company can build an internet strategy that can be an island with a beacon of direction and light in the center of that raging river of potential customers!

Before you waste one more cent on Yellow pages, and obsolete printed mass mail material which must then use postage, take a little time and listen to an updated strategy that could bring your Nonprofit, with all its quality and good will, smoothly into the New Year.  Make 2012 the year you truly wade into that raging river that is the Internet and tame it!

At CharityNetUSA, we have been on the cutting edge of internet strategies and Social Media Marketing since 2003.  We can’t start the conversation without a call from you!  We are here to help your Nonprofit.  Give CharityNet a call and let’s discuss an Internet and Social Media Strategy.  With the right SEO and Social Media Operation, combined with a fantastic, targeted Web Site, we can help you make 2012 a record year for your organization, and help increase your Internet exposure to the world!

** If you would like more information on the full range of services offered to the Non-profit community, please contact Chris Romero at CharityNet USA  by calling 1.877.857.9002 ext 509 or emailing him Chris@BizCentralUSA.com  Keep visiting www.CharityNetUSA.com .  Please follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook to receive daily tips and tricks!