I get this question periodically, in a number of forms. What is social media? What does Facebook have to do with the nonprofit world? How can I use Twitter to raise awareness for our mission? Why should I care about the blogosphere? Can I put that on Youtube? Should I?
In true 2.0 form, I throw it back to you. How are you using Social Media, Online Social Networking, and all things 2.0 to further the mission? How are you measuring it?
Have you learned from any mistakes over the last year? Could this be more useful if you had a forum for sharing your experiences?
Are you successfully adapting 2.0 tools to your mission, or still convincing co-workers that this stuff is necessary, not just play?
Do you see this as somehow a generational issue? Would you say you’re the default 2.0 person at work based on your age and thumb texting speed?
If we start tweeting NeXtGen, who will follow?
Okay, go. 
Lettie said
Sweet serendipity! PND just arrived in my email inbox!
Check out this interview with Network for Good’s Katya Andresen about Nonprofits and Social Media and marketing: http://tinyurl.com/cu4kcg
Andy Welfle said
Funny you should blog this, NextGen already has a Twitter. I reserved the username, just in case it ever came to this. We have six followers, just by existing! Think of what we could get if we had posts.
I’ll come over soon and help you set it up. (-:
Andrew Hoffman said
In a world where I am attempting to link volunteers to known needs in our community through a website, social media and online communication is essential. I use non-verbal communication tools to communicate not only my mission and agenda but other’s agendas as well that support my own.
Twitter allows me to communicate to a following. Not just anyone, but a group of people that have “chosen” to follow me and receive info from me. They are buying into me as a person, not me as merely and entity. Or they simple follow me to fulfill their goal of getting as many followers as they can. Regardless, Twitter provides a forum where relationships (no matter how deep they may seem to be) can be developed with a network that I would never connect to in day to day interactions. You must actively mine Twitter though. You must attempt to communicate with your followers or you’ll fail at capitalizing on it’s potential. If you use it to just throw info out there because you think everyone should know about it, then you’re being selfish that will lead to ignoring you or dropping you as a follower.
Facebook is ok. What it does is allow you to pool a group of people that have decided to associate with you more than your cause in most cases. What it allows you to do is create events and message people. It also takes a lot of work in mining people. I have been able to get a number of people out to service events throughout the community by them just knowing that it was available to them.
Regardless of which tools you use, having the right set of expectations is key. If you expect to get any tangible measurables, you must put in the time. Great goals, develop a strategy, and execute.
For NeighborLink, it’s about developing relationships and communicating the good volunteers are doing around our community on our behalf and on the behalf of other organizations. It also plays a personal role as well. We all have a personal “brand” that must be maintained. It allows me to network and develop additional skills that will support me professionally in the future.