One increasingly important marketing tool for nonprofit organizations to utilize is social media.

The first step to social media websites for nonprofit organizations is to pick the right social networks. Don’t dismiss smaller sites simply based on their sizes. Smaller sites may have members that are more focused.

If you have never created a social media page you may want to consider hiring a nonprofit marketing professional to design your page. You may be able to have a volunteer create the page free of charge. Having a professional looking page will give a good first impression of your nonprofit organization. Make sure that your organization’s profile looks good.  You can also control what your organization will look like on other people’s friend lists. Be sure to pick a great picture and title that will get noticed.

With millions of individuals already on social media and networking sites, chances are many of your members are already actively participating. Survey your members and find out who has MySpace profiles, Facebook accounts, Twitter Accounts, or if they belong to other social networks. Send them an e-mail inviting them to become your friend or to join your group.

To keep your page fresh and exciting, update your pages with new content regularly. Use MySpace ‘bulletins’, Nonprofit Twitter ‘Tweets’ and Facebook ‘notes’ on other users’ profiles to get the word out on important issues and drive people to your page.

Assign a staff person or volunteer to accept friend requests, post comments on other people’s pages, and invite others to become friends. The more people that follow your profile, the more people will become aware of your nonprofit organization.

The ultimate goal of social media and networking online for nonprofit organizations is to start turning your ‘friends’ into activists, donors, and volunteers. Make sure your social networking pages always feature lots of opportunities to get involved. Also include donation opportunities on your social networking pages. Even if you do not raise much in the short run, it helps to set expectations for the future. Be specific when you do ask your friends to do something for your nonprofit organization. Also always let people know what happened at an event or with a campaign even if they did not participate. They might get involved the next time.

Hopefully this article has given a simple social media breakdown for nonprofits. As the number of people that use these online social media and networking sites continues to grow, the importance of having an online presence on these sites will become increasingly critical for nonprofit organizations. Just remember that the more people that you have as friends online, the more people are aware of your organization and the more potential volunteers and donors you will have.