13 Best Practices Of Social Media Implemented By the Top 200 US Charities
This new research shows that charitable organizations are still outpacing the business world and academia in their use of social media. In the latest study (2008) a remarkable eighty-nine percent of charitable organizations are using some form of social media including blogs, podcasts, message boards, social networking, video blogging and wikis.
- Blogging is the leading social media channel:
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A majority (57%) of the organizations are blogging versus 41% by Universities and Colleges, 39% by the Top 500 fastest growing companies and 16% by the Fortune 500 .
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52% of the respondents to the 2008 survey still without a blog said they planned to add one in the future, making blogs the most popular tool now and for the foreseeable future.
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When asked if they felt their blogs were successful, approximately 90% of charities with blogs said yes. This finding is also consistent with studies in business and academia that have consistently shown those using social media are satisfied and feel it provides positive results
- Vital for fundraising: Forty-five percent of those studied report social media is very important to their fundraising strategy. While these organizations are best known for their non-profit status and their fundraising campaigns, they demonstrate an acute, and still growing, awareness of the importance of Web 2.0 strategies in meeting their objectives.
- Video is now one of the core features of social media: The use of video in their blogs jumped from 40% in the 2007 study to 65% the following year.
- Social networking site use is now considered mainstream not optional: Social networking up 47%
- WordPress as a platform for the blog is dominant: Twenty-six percent of those with blogs are using WordPress software as a platform
- Twitter is used extensively
- YouTube video uploads are prominent.
- Allowing the accepting of comments is almost universal: also known as allowing conversation (85% of those charities with blogs accepted comments and 88% in 2008)
- RSS feed use is considered a vital feature of a blog: (57% in 2007 compared to 67% in 2008) Note: This simplifies the blogosphere for readers who may want to keep up with a certain conversation or be informed of new information without having to check the blog of interest every day to see if there is something new.
- Email subscriptions is Crucial on your blog: now in the majority (23% in 2007 compared to 56% in 2008)
- Promoting the blog is an essential activity: The promotion was email, press release and newsletters in 2007 , with 2008 seeing the use of social networking to promote their blog
- Success is mainly measured by the number of hits or comments they receive on their website or blog: Also in 2008 many reported donations coming in as a result of social media communications as an additional form of measurement.
- Monitoring of Social Media is considered important by the majority of Non Profits: They are listening to what’s being said about them online. Sixty-six percent of respondents in 2007 and 75% in 2008 report they monitor the Internet for buzz, posts, conversations and news about their institution. Most of these organizations realize the importance of knowing what conversation might occur around their cause, their name, their location or constituents. How do they monitor buzz about themselves or their causes.
- In 2007, 42% did searches manually using basic search engines like Google and appropriate key words.
- In 2008, that dropped to 36% while the number of charities automating their searches climbed from 34% to 42%. Google alerts were the most popular automated searches.
in Groningen gaat Twitter inzetten voor de criminaliteitsbestrijding en communicatie met burgers. Op 27 november as. begint de Twitter-proef officieel, schrijft Jasper Boer, projectleider digitale media bij de politie Groningen, op de community Politie 2.0. De agenten, die allemaal een HTC Hero smartphone hebben, zijn al te volgen via http://twitter.com/politie_grn/haren, http://twitter.com/politie_grn/buurtenjeugdagenten, http://twitter.com/politie_grn/indischebuurt en http://twitter.com/politie_grn/dehoogte.
