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Why I Unfollowed 770 People On Twitter At Once

October 18, 2010 By

I just dumped 770 people over 2 days from my Twitter account.

While I am usually prone to fits of Twitter house cleaning from time to time, I usually reserve my purging for people who I’m following but aren’t following me back. I figure there’s no reason to run up my following count for people who don’t return the favor (after all, if you’re one of those people who believe “social media is about conversations” but don’t follow anyone back, you’re a hypocrite). But this time, I decided to go after the people who aren’t very active on Twitter.Archery target with a single arrow in it

Last week, I read about ManageFlitter on Christopher Penn‘s newsletter, and thought I would test it out. I’ve used other similar unfollowing tools, like Friend or Follow and Twitter Karma. ManageFlitter works a lot like other cleanup tools, so I didn’t have any problems figuring out the interface, but the one thing I noticed is that it would let me choose only people whose accounts were inactive, something I can’t do on the other two.

I decided to unfollow only the people who haven’t tweeted in two months or longer. Anyone who hasn’t tweeted in a month was still safe. (At least for another month, until I run this again.) I unfollowed 468 people on Sunday, and 302 people on Friday.

Normally, I’m a big proponent of keeping my follower/following ratio as close to 1.0, and I just dropped it to .79. So why even bother? There are a few reasons to eliminate the inactive Twitter users:

  • In case the name gets released by Twitter and picked up by someone else.
  • I can follow a couple hundred people from a conference without going over my follower/following ratio.
  • If you have a low Twitter Grader score, you can boost your rating by cutting the deadwood.
  • By insuring that only valuable users are in my network, I can make it as efficient and impactful as it can be — more power per square tweet.
  • It streamlines my network so it works much more efficiently, uses less fuel, and is more environmentally friendly.

Okay, that last one is probably not true, but it still feels good to eliminate the deadwood and only have the people on my network who are actually contributing value to it.

After I completed my cleanout, I found UnTweeps, which I may have to try in another month or so. From what I can see, I can even specify the number of days for a cutoff limit, and whitelist people I want to protect.

Photo credit: Matthew McVickar (Flickr)

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My book, Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself (affiliate link), is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. I wrote it with my good friend, Kyle Lacy, who I also helped write Twitter Marketing For Dummies (another affiliate link).

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    Author :  •  Content Location : Indianapolis, IN  •  Headline : Why I Unfollowed 770 People On Twitter At Once  •  Keywords : network, social media, social networking, tweets, twitter  • 
    Filed Under: Communication, Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: , , , ,

    5 Signs You Suck at Twitter

    August 10, 2010 By
    Fail Whale

    I’ve been playing around with Friend Or Follow over the last few days, and I’ve come to the conclusion that a lot of people suck at Twitter.

    Friend Or Follow is a Twitter tool that shows people you’re following, but aren’t following you; people who follow you, but you’re not following; and people you have a mutual followship with.

    I dumped over 500 people from my Twitter account this week with FOF. I checked out each account I unfollowed, and frankly, some of you people are just doing it wrong. That’s why I unfollowed you. Not sure if this includes you? Then check out the…

    Five signs you suck at Twitter.

      • You claim to be a social media consultant/pro/expert/guru (CPEG), but your following to follower ratio is 10:1. That is, you’re followed by 5,000 or more people, but only following 500. Social media consultants looove to say “have conversations with people.” But shouldn’t people who truly value conversation be willing to, I don’t know, have them?. Or at least fake like you are? If you’re a CPEG, you should have a ratio fairly close to 1:1. This is not to say that everyone should have a 1:1 ratio. Just the CPEGs. (Pro tip: you’ll also have more than 200 followers. I’m just sayin’.)
      • Nearly every one of your tweets is some motivational or inspirational message. Why do I need to get ten motivational messages peppered throughout the day? If it didn’t help me at 8:30 — 29 minutes after your HootSuite-scheduled “Good morning, my tweeps! Make this an excellent day!” — then it’s not going to help me at 9:30, 10:30, and so on. Don’t regurgitate someone else’s cleverness, show me yours. If you really want to motivate me, tell me about the cool stuff you’re doing.
      • You’re trying to amass as many followers as you can. If you’re a celebrity, a public figure, or someone who’s really, really interesting, that’s great. If you grew your network through hard work and earned those followers, more power to you. But if you resort to computer scripts, trickery, and joining follower-building networks to boost your rankings, then stick with being a LinkedIn LION. Twitter is not a competitive sport. Despite what you’re already doing to LinkedIn and Facebook, Twitter isn’t just one more race to the bottom of mediocrity and uselessness.
      • Your Twitter bio has the words “money,” “fast,” and “make” in it. I spam-block every single person whose bio says they have some money making system they want to share with me. Stick to peddling penis drugs and fake watches by email.
      • Your time between tweets can be measured with a calendar. You don’t have to tweet many times a day, but at least once a day wouldn’t kill you. Even every other day would be fine. But when you’re only tweeting every 3 – 4 weeks on a regular basis, then Twitter isn’t a communication tool, it’s an afterthought, like calling your mom the day after Mother’s Day.

    What is your Twitter pet peeve? What sort of annoying behavior have you seen?

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      Author :  •  Content Location : Indianapolis, IN  •  Headline : 5 Signs You Suck at Twitter  •  Keywords : facebook, linkedin, social networking, social networks, twitter  • 
      Filed Under: Networking, Social Media, Social Networks, Twitter Tagged With: , , , ,

      5 Photo & Video Sharing Sites Travel Destinations Should Use

      July 20, 2010 By

      Yesterday, I talked about the 5 Reasons Why Travel & Tourism Destinations Need Social Media, and how social media is being used by more and more people than you may have realized.

      Social media helps people share news about their lives with their friends and family. Not only are they telling people they went on vacation, they’re able to show them where they went, what they did, and all the good times they had. They’re especially doing it on the photo and video sharing sites. Here are fives sites you should use to promote your own travel and tourism destination.

      YouTube (VIDEO)

      What it is: This is the website everyone knows when it comes to video sharing. According to one source, there are 1,500 years worth of videos on YouTube right now. But that’s because they make it so easy.
      Get started:Go to YouTube.com and set up your account. If you already have a Google account of some sort (Gmail, iGoogle, Google Docs), you already have an account, because Google owns YouTube. Start finding other friends and guests by importing your email address book. Then follow the instructions to upload your videos.
      Strategy: Encourage guests to upload their own videos and tag your destination in it. (This helps you get found for any searches on YouTube.) Upload your own videos (regular or HD) and embed them in your blog or link to your Facebook account.

      Vimeo (VIDEO)

      What it is: Vimeo is another video sharing site that’s not nearly as big as YouTube. The benefit to you is that you get to be a bigger fish in a bigger pond. According to their website, it was originally “. . . created by filmmakers and video creators who wanted to share their creative work, along with intimate personal moments of their everyday life,” so there tends to be more of an artsy feel to it, but you’re not limited to only being a filmmaker or artist.
      Get started: Go to Vimeo.com and set up an account. Import your email address book (Google or Yahoo), and make connections with your guests.
      Strategy: Same as Facebook. If your guests use Vimeo, encourage them to upload videos and tag your destination in it. Upload your regular and HD videos, and then use the embed code to place them in your blog or link to your Facebook account.

      Flickr

      What it is: Flickr is one of the two most popular photo sharing sites. In fact, by strict definition, it’s a social network centered around photo sharing (actually, all the video and photo sharing tools are considered social networks). You upload your photos and share them with your friends, embed them in blog posts, and link to them in Twitter messages.(Note: Flickr has begun accepting 90 second videos for uploading. While they won’t give YouTube a run for their money, they are making it easier for Flickr fans to keep their video in one place too.)
      Get started: If you already have a Yahoo account, you have a Flickr account. Otherwise, sign up, import your email address book, and then start uploading photos. If you have an iPhone or Android, you can also upload photos directly to Flickr from your phone. There is also a digital camera storage card called the Eye-Fi that will not only store your photos, but upload them whenever you’re in a wifi hotspot.
      Strategy: Hold a best photo contest and encourage guests to upload the photos to Flickr and Picasa (next section), and then embed the photos in the comments section of your website or your Facebook page.. Post the entries to your website, and allow voting for the best photo (use SurveyMonkey.com). Use the best photo(s) on your promotional materials. Also, consider using a Creative Commons license with your photos (this lets other people use your photos as long as they give you credit), and let them use photos that link back to your Flickr page.

      Picasa

      What it is: Another photo sharing site, but this one is owned by Google. I like Picasa a little more because it’s easier to integrate with a Blogger blog, plus they have different paid subscription levels. You can get 20GB for $5, or 200GB for $50.
      Get started: If you have a Gmail account or a YouTube account, you’re all set. Otherwise, go to picasaweb.google.com Next, go to Picasa.com and download the Photo Uploader. This will let you upload photos in batches, rather than a few at a time.
      Strategy: First, don’t worry about whether you can upload videos to Picasa, because you can also use YouTube. (Remember, they’re both owned by Google.) Next, just like with Flickr, hold a photo contest, and use the best photos in your promotional material. And consider using a Creative Commons license with your Picasa photos.

      Facebook

      What it is: The biggest social network in the world. We talked about it previously.
      Get started: Hopefully you already started a Facebook account, but if not, go to Facebook.com and start an account. Get comfortable with it and then start a business page (what they used to call a “Fan Page”) for your own business. Invite friends to “Like” your business page, and do it more than once (people need reminding).
      Strategy: While this won’t be the hub of your social media campaign, it needs to be a major part of it. Facebook will have more of your guests and customers on it than any other social network. This is where you need to push a lot of your marketing message, which will drive people back to your main website or blog.

      Where should you start?

      While there is a chicken and egg question about whether you should join social networks first or start with photo and video sites, it ultimately doesn’t matter. It will take a few days to get everything ramped up. Focus on one video site and one photo site. Pick the one you like the best, and the one that is easiest to use, and just start using it.

      At the same time, pick the social network you want to start on (I recommend Facebook, since that’s where everyone is), and work on that one as well. You’ll ultimately spend more time on Facebook than you will on your photo and video sites, so consider these sites as supporting sites for your social network.

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        Author :  •  Content Location : Indianapolis, IN  •  Headline : 5 Photo & Video Sharing Sites Travel Destinations Should Use  •  Keywords : facebook, Flickr, Picasa, social networking, social networks, tourism, travel, travel and tourism, Vimeo, youtube  • 
        Filed Under: Facebook, Lead Generation, Networking, Photo, Public Relations, Reputation Management, Social Media, Social Networks, Video Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

        The Era of Calling Things “Dead” Is Dead. Or Should Be.

        March 22, 2010 By

        Oh God, I am sick to death of this “sky is falling” mentality that I keep seeing more and more. Everyone thinks they’re either cool or a 21st century Nostradamus by saying something is dead. “Twitter killed blogging.” “Google Buzz killed Twitter.” Blah blah blah.

        Here are just a tiny few articles I found declaring something to be dead (something that is still widely in use):

        Sorry, my crystal ball must be broken, because all I see are more and more customers using Twitter, email, Facebook, blogging. I don’t like Buzz and have never tried the Wave, but I see plenty of people telling me they’re still using it, so they’re not dead.

        Basically, until someone like Google, Twitter, or Facebook declares they’re shutting down, everyone else should just shut up about things being “dead.”

        After Newsweek pundit Clifford Stoll famously declared that the Internet would not replace newspapers, that Nicholas Negroponte was an idiot for saying we would buy books and newspapers straight from the Internet, and that you couldn’t “tote that laptop to the beach,” I would think that most people would hesitate before putting themselves out like that without any evidence to back it up. (In fact, Stoll’s piece has been generating such big laughs these past few weeks, that Newsweek’s own blog said, “Decca Records didn’t get this much heat for passing on the Beatles.”)

        There are very few people whose predictions I absolutely trust. If one of them says, “this technology is dead,” I’ll check it out for myself to make sure. Anyone else who says it just looks like a poseur (that’s the real spelling of “poser.” It rhymes with “hoser.”) Everyone else seems to be killing technology because they don’t use it anymore (if they ever did), or they read a story somewhere that said overall use was down, or it had peaked, or some shiny new thing came along.

        If you’re declaring something to be dead as a way to generate buzz and bring in some readers, start writing things with substance. Scott Scheper just did it with his blog post, Twitter, As We Knew It, is Dead. And while his qualifying phrase, “as we knew it,” keeps him from flying too close to my whole nose-wrinkling disdain of “is dead,” I do have to say his article is filled with enough actual useful information that he gets a free pass this time.

        Basically, if all you can do is declare something to be dead because you can’t think of a catchy headline, then just don’t say anything until you can. Talk about how the thing has changed, talk about how you think it can be saved, or talk about its replacement. Just stop killing things for everyone else just because you quit using them.

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          Filed Under: Blogging, Facebook, Networking, Opinion, Twitter, Writing Tagged With: , , ,

          Are You a Pioneer or a Settler?

          January 29, 2010 By

          Are you a pioneer or a settler? Do you blaze trails, follow them while they’re still rough, or wait until there’s a nicely paved road?

          Being a settler is easy. You just tread down the same old path everyone else has, making sure it’s safe. But being a pioneer is tough. You’re the first to pass this way, you’re not sure if you’re heading in the right direction, and some days you’d swear you’re going the wrong way. But the rewards are well worth it.

          So how do you pioneer your new niche? How do you become a leader in your field, especially when there is no niche, or the people in it are not connected? In this case, it’s actually easier to be the pioneer, rather than to be one of many. By the time the settlers are finally getting involved, there’s a traffic jam on the road the pioneers have paved. But by this time, you’ll be way ahead of the pack.

          Becoming a Pioneer

          Here are a few tools and techniques you can use to establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field. Before you start, make sure you have identified your niche, know who the players are, and actually have some content on your blog or website.

          • Find your flock. Use NearbyTweets.com, Twitterment.com, and Twitter Search to locate them and start following them. Avoid those “get 2,000 followers per day” spam programs, and earn your followers the honest way.
          • Talk to strangers. Read and comment on the blogs of other people in your industry. If there aren’t any, find logical allies to your industry. If you manufacture marbles, and you’re the only marble manufacturing blog out there, find marble collectors and marble players. Leave comments on their blogs and respond when they leave comments on yours. Not only do you build up some link juice, you create relationships with potential customers.
          • Share knowledge. If you find articles that would be of interest to your audience, share it with them on Twitter and your blog. Write commentary about the articles on the blog, and share those as well. If you can become a source of knowledge, people will look to you for answers.
          • Consider video. Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary.tv and the author of Crush It, has built a social media footprint like an elephant’s by using video to sell and promote wine. Do video posts of you sitting at your desk, pontificating about industry goings-on. Publish excerpts of you speaking at conferences and events (this is also useful if you’re trying to build a speaking career).
          • Build your contact list. As you meet new people, keep your contacts organized in Gmail. If you use Outlook, sync it up with Gmail and keep that list fresh. Gmail is the go-to contact list by every social networking tool out there. Want to find friends on Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube? They’ll import your Gmail contact list with no problem.

          These are just a very few steps to get yourself started finding your niche. I haven’t even touched on LinkedIn or creating an industry-related social network yourself. But these are enough steps to get you started.

          What other tools and steps do you recommend? Leave a comment, and we’ll try to feature it in a future blog post.

          Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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            Filed Under: All Posts, Networking, Social Media, Social Networks, Tools, Twitter Tagged With: , , , ,

            Why Are There So Few Trend Setters in Social Media?

            January 19, 2010 By

            I noticed an interesting trend, and I’m ashamed to say I’m part of it.

            There are very few trend setters in social media. Very few pioneers. We’re mostly settlers.

            We all try to be as cutting edge as we can, but we’re sometimes at the mercy of what everyone else is talking about. We pay close attention to luminaries like Chris Brogan, Jason Falls, Jeremiah Owyang, and Gary Vaynerchuk. We wait to see what they’re talking about, and we talk about that. And we all hold up their discarded sandals, like that great scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

            I do it too. I see an interesting article on Jason’s blog, and decide I’ll comment on that. Or I’ll see something Doug Karr wrote in the Marketing Technology blog, and piggyback off that. But it’s rare that I write about issues that those guys didn’t write about first.

            I’ve done it a few times — crisis communication, entre-commuting, or getting spanked by the Canadian Council of PR Firms — but I’ve also jumped solidly on the bandwagon, pushing women and children out of the way so I could get a comfy seat.

            Unfortunately, this is a rather centralized industry. We only have a few tools we use with any regularity — Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google — and so we all talk about how we use them, and the great things we’ve learned, or the trends coming our way.

            I want to stop doing that. I want to be that one guy in the crowd who says, “Hold up the sandal!”

            I can’t say I won’t keep doing following the pioneers, but I’m going to make a conscious effort to do it less. That’s one reason I didn’t post anything on the blog for a couple of weeks. (Yeah, yeah, that’s the reason.)

            So it may mean I post fewer times per week on the blog. It may mean shorter posts, and fewer how-to posts. But we’re going to try to make our own path as much as possible, even if it runs adjacent to someone else’s. We’re just going to quit following the well-worn path that some people have meandered down.

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              Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Opinion, Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: , , , ,

              Be an Entre-Commuter With Just a Latte and a Laptop

              January 5, 2010 By

              I’m the mayor of my office and my church.

              At least that’s what Foursquare tells me. I’ve checked in enough times at both places that I’ve been declared the mayor.

              Foursquare is a location-based social networking site that lets you tell people where you are via Twitter and Facebook.

              Think: 50% friend-finder, 30% social city guide, 20% nightlife game. We wanted to build something that not only helps you keep up with your friends, but exposes you to new things in and challenges you to explore cities in different ways.

              You check in at different places around a city, give tips and recommendations, and in general get to know your city better.

              I’ve been using FourSquare a lot lately, especially after I got my new Droid phone a few weeks ago.

              I’m starting to earn the reputation for being out and about all the time. I check in everywhere I go: the office, the coffee shop, the library, the grocery store. I’m not out any more than usual. I’m just telling people about it.

              But it’s become a whole lot easier now for me to be out and about too, thanks to my laptop and the proliferation of free wifi around the city. I’ve become a real entre-commuter.

              (Entre-commuter: entrepreneurial commuter who works out of a coffee shop, cafe, restaurant, library, or any other place with free wifi. Term coined by Erik Deckers and Paul Lorinczi to justify why they don’t sit in the office all day, every day.)

              We came up with the term entre-commuter for those people who own their own business and have the ability to do it anywhere. They can do it from home, the local library, or their local coffee shop. We happen to favor Hubbard & Cravens in Broad Ripple, although I’ll travel just about anywhere around Central Indiana for good coffee.

              The great thing about being an entre-commuter is that you get to network with other people, and collaborate with them on occasion. I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve met with, helped, provided connections for, and done business with, just because we both happened to be out at the same time in the same place. And meeting some of the same people in the same place several times has blossomed my network beyond the typical Chamber and other networking events.

              Where do entre-commuters gather?

              I prefer to patronize local coffee shops and restaurants, although I’ll hit the occasional chain once in a while. We need to support our local establishments more than the chains — the chains don’t support our local economies. The locals do.

              Is there entre-commuters etiquette?

              There are a few rules for entre-commuters. They’re fairly common sense, but I still see people violate them from time to time.

              • Don’t camp out. They have to turn tables during peak times. If you’re sitting with a computer and a bottled water over lunch, they’re losing money on you.
              • Only occupy tables during low times. Don’t take up a 4-top all by yourself if you can help it, and don’t be afraid to share a table with a stranger either.
              • Buy something. Spend money, and more than just a little. Don’t buy a $2 coffee and then sit for 8 hours.
              • Be respectful. This is someone else’s business, not your office. Don’t treat it like it’s your place. You’re a guest.
              • Keep your voices down. Other people are there too, so don’t have loud conversations. You’re not at the club, you’re at a quiet little shop.

              Entre-commuters just need to be somewhere we can find free wifi and good coffee. Somewhere we can connect online and offline. Find your local shops and spend some time there. See if you can create some business, as well as giving the local shops some business as well.

              Photo: Nina Turns 40 blog

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                Filed Under: Communication, Networking, Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: , , ,

                A Year in Review

                January 1, 2010 By

                Professional Blog Service started a year ago out of Indy Associates to assist companies in generating content they need for most of their Internet marketing activity.

                While at Indy Associates, we always recommended blogging as a good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. With the popularity of social media sites like Linkedin, Facebook and micro-blogging service Twitter, the strategy has become even more important. The challenge for most of our customers was the blog content generation. Most companies do not have trained content writers that are able to develop conversational blog content, while writing for the search engines. Most important, many of clients have great ideas with no time to share them.

                So, what have we learned in 2009?

                Most companies still do not have the resources, or the time to write their own content.

                2009 saw the unemployment rate hit 10% in November. It was reported that many companies laid off many in their workforce leaving those left behind with more work to do and little time to get it done. The last thing on anyone’s mind is getting blog content written, even though everyone agrees that marketing is still important in a down economy.

                Blogging and Social Media continue to evolve from AOL of the 90s to Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter heading into a new decade.

                “Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit social networking or blogging sites, accounting for almost 10% of all Internet time, according to a Nielsen report published in March of this year, “Global Faces and Networked Places.” These numbers keep rising as the year progresses. By 2012, IBM predicts that globally, a quarter of the global population will be using social media in some form.

                Results still matter to most companies.

                Learning how to play in social media is one thing. Getting people to interact with you is another. Your clients may or may not interact with you through social media. The challenge for all companies is finding out which ones they should engage. You may be able to sell like Dell, or respond to customer complaints like Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue Airlines have done. (Note to my former colleagues at American Airlines – take note!). Either way, Social Media and Blogging is measurable in some way depending on the strategic approach you take with it.

                There are great tools like Yahoo Analytics (shameless plug as we are a Yahoo Analytics consultant). Radian6 and Scoutlabs can track who’s talking about you, and help you decide whether to act on the positive or negative media being generated.

                We predict that 2010 will be the year of results with blogging and social media. In a nutshell, you are doing it to build your marketing list, or to generate interest in your products or services. To succeed, you will need:

                1. An understanding of how your market uses blogging and social media, if at all
                2. A plan to participate
                3. Execution and commitment to the plan
                4. Measurement of the results over the course of the year, not a month

                If you can learn how to do it before your competition, you win. It will take them 12 months just to figure out what you have done.

                Happy New Year from Professional Blog Service

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                  Filed Under: Blog ROI, Blogging, Business Blogging Content, Research Desk, Social Media, Social Media Analytics Tagged With: , , , , ,

                  Do Small Businesses Need a Social Media Person in Marketing?

                  December 22, 2009 By

                  A reporter posted a question to an email list I belong to, about whether small businesses need a specific social media expert on their marketing team. I replied that I thought a small business did not need an expert. Rather, they just need to appoint someone on their marketing team whose job it is to participate in social media, but that person can learn the ropes about the different tools they would use. (They will need other knowledge. More on that in a minute.)

                  Although people have become more and more specialized over the years, at least in the marketing world, social media and the Internet are turning us back into generalists.

                  You don’t need a special videographer, script writer, and editor to create a corporate video, you only need a Flip camera, a YouTube account, and some creativity to get your videos out to your customers. You don’t need a PR specialist to send out press releases to the local media, you need someone who is already connected to them on Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with them personally. (Yes, I’m oversimplifying a bit, but you get my point.)

                  And you don’t need someone who has logged thousands of hours on Twitter or Facebook, has written a book, or is a top-notch computer programmer (although they’re all very nice).

                  You do need:

                  1. someone who has the time to do it on a regular, consistent basis. This is not something to do just once in a while, but needs to be done a couple hours per day.
                  2. someone the company trusts enough to speak for its brand publicly. This is typically not an intern.
                  3. someone who understands message creation and social psychology. It’s not the knowledge of the tools that is important, but the knowledge of how to create a solid message and how that message will affect a chosen group. Again, this is typically not an intern.
                  4. management buy-in and their understanding that this is not just jacking around on “Facespace or whatever you young people call it.” They need to be committed to this venture, just like they have every other marketing campaign you’ve done.

                  We’ve reached the point that social media is no longer a fad. It has incredible usage rates that show that it’s here to stay. The tools may change over the years, but this connectedness among us is not going anywhere for a long while. And because these things are so easy, anyone can do it. The challenge is finding someone who actually knows how to harness the power, and has the time to do it.

                  Business will serve themselves well by either hiring someone who does social media marketing as part of their responsibilities, or contracting out to someone on a part-time basis to do the work. But either way, they need to jump on this bandwagon before they’re left at the side of the road with the people still running their IBM PS/2s wondering when all this talk about the Internet is going to die down.

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                    Filed Under: Communication, Networking, Social Media, Social Networks, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , ,

                    Five Reasons Why Nonprofits Need Social Media in 2010

                    December 2, 2009 By

                    As widespread as social media is, there are still a lot of organizations who are avoiding it, including nonprofits.

                    Those organizations are missing an important tool in their fundraising toolbox. Most nonprofits have their reasons for not using it, like “our members don’t use it,” “we don’t have the time,” or “it’s too hard.”

                    Except, they do, you will, and it’s not.

                    How important is it? Watch the video at the bottom of the screen to see what’s happening with social media these days. And it’s only going to get bigger. Here are five reasons you need to start using social media as part of your fundraising efforts in 2010.

                      1. Your current members are using social media. According to Facebook, their fastest growing demographic is 35 and over. Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics, says it’s actually females, age 55 – 65. would wager a large majority of your members, donors, and volunteers fit in either group.

                     

                      1. Your future members are using social media. How are you going to attract new members by sending a mailing to your existing mailing list? You’re not. You need to go where the people are, and they’re on places like Facebook and other social networking sites. If you want to notify potential new members about what you’re doing, this is one of the best ways to reach them. Watch the video below for an idea of how big this has gotten.

                     

                      1. It’s cheaper than direct mail. I used to sell direct mail, and I can tell you that while it’s a great, effective way to target your ideal donors, it still costs money. There’s printing, assembly, and postage, and the fancier everything is, the higher the cost. On the other hand, social media has a much bigger, easier, and less expensive reach for a fraction of the cost. You can reach more people more often than you can with direct mail.

                     

                      1. You can communicate frequently. In fact, it’s encouraged. There are a lot of things going on in your office that your members want to know about, whether it’s the latest legislation that affects your constituency, the grant you were just awarded, and the envelope stuffing party you’re holding. If you’re communicating only through a newsletter, you’re missing a lot of opportunities to talk to your fans.

                     

                    1. Errors are easily fixed. How many times have you printed the annual fundraising letter and found a mistake? It doesn’t matter with a blog post. If you make a typo or mistake, you can always fix it. Even after it’s published, you can easily go back and fix an error. If it’s an important error, just send out notices to your blog readers through your usual social media channels.

                    Next time, we’ll talk about how nonprofits can start using social media.

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                      Author :  •  Content Location : Indianapolis, IN  •  Headline : Five Reasons Why Nonprofits Need Social Media in 2010  •  Keywords : nonprofits, Social Media, social media marketing, social networking  • 
                      Filed Under: Communication, Lead Generation, Networking, Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: , , ,
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