More on IDing the Right Social Networking Tools for Your Nonprofit

There's so much hype about social networking, and I've been trying to guide you through this maze. After all, we nonprofit communicators, even more than colleagues in other fields, have to work with real resource limitations.

So I was relieved to see these very concrete guidelines for selecting the right social networking tools, from Think Personality's Kevin Hendricks:

• Your use of social networking has to be a cultural fit with your organization.
• Be yourself. Audiences know immediately when you're not being real.
• If your nonprofit quivers at the mention of open dialogue, forget about social networking altogether. It's not the right fit.
• But
• If your story comes across powerfully via video (think disaster relief, international development, personal stories or memoirs any focus that's out there in the field) and you're willing to give up some control, consider You Tube or DoGooder.tv:
• The Philadelphia Songwriter's Project
• Illinois Holocaust Memorial Museum and Education Center
• If your story comes across more strongly via photo stills (think health-related or social service organizations), and you typically use volunteer photographers or have contest results or a series of other strong graphics (ideal generated from more than one producer), jump start a group on Flickr.
• The Opportunity Agenda's Photo Stream -- capturing media studies student photos and graphics conveying one of the Agenda's opportunity values.
• If convening audiences is relevant and comfortable, bring folks together online, via a wiki or a natural outgrowth of what your organization does, consider getting people together online.

Be yourself and social networking will be that much easier. Find your organization's personality and run with it.

For more insight on selecting the right social networking tools for your organization, read:

How to Pinpoint the Right Social Networking Tools for Your Nonprofit, and Get the Support and Budget to Put Them to Work -- Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants Weighs In

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