But How Do I Get Good at Social Marketing?
Social marketing is best done by employing copious amounts of extroversion and diligence! That said, here are a few tips for those starting out (and a few reminders for those who are already in the mix).

• Dedicate Resources: Even though there are enough anecdotal statistics these days showing that an online presence is worth spending time and money to create, many nonprofits and foundations are unwilling to dedicate resources to continued online efforts.
  
  
  Guess what. You have to. It’s not a question of whether you need to get online, it’s a question of how soon you’ll be left behind. Some of the greatest available wealth is sitting in the pockets of a very young generation — and this generation is looking online to figure out where to distribute that wealth. Any resources you give to creating an online presence for your organization or product will be paid back in spades — financially and/or via public relations — in the next 10 years.
  
  
  Find someone on staff who’s energetic, outgoing, able to maintain and monitor relationships, and knows his or her way around a computer. Carve out 50% of this person’s time and dedicate it to building and maintaining an online presence.




• Figure Out An Online Message: Spend a week figuring out what your main online message will be. Your mission statement is fine, but you can’t fit it into 140 characters on twitter. Break it down into a short, emotionally-charged concept — that’s your online message. Everything you post in a social media context should relate back to that.




• Start Small and Steady: Don’t worry; you don’t have to join every social media service or hire someone to create a documentary for YouTube just yet. As we said, building up your online presence takes time. It’s cumulative. The more twitter followers you have, the more free PR you’re going to get from them tweeting about you. So start small and dedicate consistent time to building up and maintaining relationships online.
  
  
  First steps here:
  • Start a blog. It’s really not that hard to do. Go to Wordpress, follow the instructions, and you’re on your way. Start with one post per week; keep it short and specific. Give your opinion on a recent Op Ed. Upload pictures and info from a recent event. Highlight an important donor or grant recipient. Tout an upcoming program.
    
    
    If you already have a website for your organization, considering incorporating your blog into your current website domain. If you don’t have a website, you can use your blog as your online presence for now. Once you’re comfortable, considering purchasing a domain name and hosting services for your blog.

  
  

  • Create a twitter account (you can find me at @ModernGiving) and start following like-minded organizations. ALWAYS tweet about your latest blog post. And be sure to have conversations via twitter, re-tweet others’ interesting information, and build relationships. This is one of the best ways to get to know other players in your field. Here’s a primer I wrote about using twitter as a resource.

  
  

  • Start a facebook account, a fan page, and a cause page. Search for likeminded organizations and people, and “friend” them. Give facebook status updates linking to your most recent blog posts, and be sure to upload photos of what’s happening as a result of your good work!

  
  

• Look for Synergies: With a blog, a twitter account, and a facebook account, you can cross-promote online the work you’re doing in the “real world.” You don’t have to join up with every single online application; simply look for a few that you can use in tandem to reach a wider audience.
  
  
  Here’s a great example using the applications described above: Let’s say you have an upcoming event next Saturday. You write a blog highlighting the event, including details, dress code, and where to buy tickets. Next, you tweet about the blog post, which prompts 5 of your twitter followers to re-tweet your message to their 500 followers. Then, you ask your facebook fans to spread the word about the event and to “share” the blog post link with their facebook friends. 10 of them do so. As a result of that 30 minutes of work, you’ve just created a massive buzz of FREE advertising and promotion! Add to that a year or so of building relationships online, and you can easily reach hundreds of thousands of people with the click of a mouse.

Resources
Social Edge, a program of the Skoll Foundation, is a dedicated online community for social entrepreneurs and other nonprofiteers connect.

A few months ago, I came across their Social Media Cheat Sheet, which I think is one of the most comprehensive lists of resources for breaking into social media, networking, and online marketing — especially for nonprofits, foundations, and social entrepreneurs.

While you’re building your online messaging, check out these services and get to know how they work. Understanding the ins and outs of what’s available will go a long way toward deciding what’s right for your organization, and, more importantly, how these services can work in synergy to best promote your organization.

Kiva is an organization that not only allows the opportunity to combine your cash with other people’s to make a greater impact, but also completely redefines giving. In fact, what you’re doing with Kiva isn’t “giving” at all. It’s lending.

Kiva.org “connects people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty,” and it does so in a strikingly innovative way. Called peer-to-peer lending, Kiva’s model allows many small loans from individuals like you and me to be pooled into bigger loans, then administered to entrepreneurs around the world via third-party micro-lending partners.

How Do I Do It?
It’s a bit like online dating. You log onto Kiva’s website, search through the online profiles of qualified entrepreneurs, and determine who will receive your loan. Your money (amount is determined by you, and can be as low as you’d like) is then pooled with that of other lenders who have chosen the same entrepreneur, and the funds are disbursed to a Kiva partner micro-lender who has made a loan to this entrepreneur.

When the entrepreneur pays the micro-lender back, the micro-lender pays Kiva, and Kiva pays you. You can then go on to re-invest (and by “invest,” I mean social investment — you aren’t making any cold hard cash on this deal) the repaid funds in another entrepreneur, or have them placed back into your paypal account.

What’s My Risk?
According to the Kiva.org website, out of $53,000,535 in ended loans, 97.87% have been paid back in full. So while Kiva does not absorb the risk of lost funds (if your chosen entrepreneur does not pay the loan back, you’ve essentially lost that money), your chance of being paid back in full is very high. If you’re just starting out, consider making a $25 loan, or another amount that you’re comfortable losing in the worst case scenario.

The Latest News
While Kiva has made its name as a facilitator of lending internationally, recently the organization has blurred the lines between third-world countries and the USA, introducing its collaborative micro-lending to the United States market of low-income entrepreneurs. This controversial decision to bring the process stateside has fueled much discussion in the micro- and peer-to-peer lending communities, and may make your decision easier or more difficult depending on your desired outcome and political leanings.

If you’ve got some time (and an ability to deal with a scant amount of cheesiness), check out this video about how Kiva works. Those of you who are visual learners will benefit:

A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.

Be sure to check out the first post in this series, Meetup Philanthropy.

Been to a “meetup” lately? Even if you haven’t, you’ve likely at least heard about Meetup.com — a social networking website that helps bring together people who have similar interests and happen to live near one another. The site is useful if you want to find a hiking group, a book club, or a wine-tasting event; but we’re also seeing more and more groups coming together not just for social networking, but for social good.

The Whole Can Be Greater...

Head to Meetup.com and search for Philanthropy: there are 76 already-formed meetup groups in 60 cities and 3 countries. These run the gamut from groups who get together to volunteer for charity, groups who pool their cash to give larger amounts to charity (these are commonly called “giving circles,” and we’ll talk about them at a later date), groups that like to talk about social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy, groups of non-profit workers who get together to discuss fund raising, etc.

So, if you’re new to philanthropy — or are trying to figure out how your $10 per month or 3 hours per week can make a difference in your community, city, state, or country — consider finding a meetup in your area with like-minded folks. You might be surprised what happens when the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Photo Credit: aigarius

This is a great resource for any philanthropist or non-profit entity — whether solo or part of a larger organization — as reading tweets gives rare insight into real-time discussions and foci in those organizations. It also offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn from and collaborate with one another — something that happens too little in the philanthropy arena but is beginning to be recognized as a benefit to both foundation and grantee.

Here’s why tweeting is a mode of community communication you’re going to have to get on board with, at least for a while:

1. Tweeting is informal. One of the greatest breakdowns between a non-profit entity and a philanthropic body is cultural inequality. With twitter, everyone (more or less) is on the same class-level.

2. Tweeting is broadcasting. You never know who could be reading, so tweets need to be comprehensible to anyone and everyone. This means there’s very little room for specific audience manipulation.

3. Tweeting is non-committal. Twitter is a forum for discussion. People tend to finalize deals over more traditional communication streams like email, snail mail, phone, and face-to-face meetings. Whereas twitter is considered a place where you can show interest without committing yourself to a deal. This is the place to learn more, ask questions, and then take it to the next level (usually email) if necessary.

4. (At least for now) Tweeting circumvents bureaucratic barriers like calendar scheduling and gatekeepers. If you have a good idea, tweet it @ the person you think would find it interesting; no need to get time on their calendar. I strongly believe that, as the service becomes more widely used, VIPs will continue to institute stronger barricades. But, while it’s new and fun, you can often reach them directly.

Twitter remains a means to an end, but it can be a mode of conversation providing exposure to new ideas and connections without the weight of commitment.

“I’m going to donate a bunch of money, but I want random people on the Internet to decide where it goes.”

This is crowdsourced philanthropy. You remember crowdsourcing from Who Wants to be a Millionaire. That lifeline — “ask the audience” — was the perfect example: asking a large group of people to offer their ideas on a solution to a problem. Wikipedia is another great example.

But why would we try this with philanthropy?

Well, it’s a simple case of market majority. While a lone philanthropist doesn’t necessarily have the breadth of knowledge to determine the best grant recipient, the market majority — the crowd — will most likely be able to shake out the highest priority need.

And one of crowdsourcing’s biggest benefits in the philanthropic field may be transparency. Making decisions based significantly on the suggestion of public majority means less chance of ethics or bias being called into question. And making your values and conditions clear to your “crowd” simply demands greater public transparency in order to ensure an informed decision.

There are still many unanswered questions about crowdsourced philanthropy: Will it be successful? Will it become a trend or a viable model for giving? Who exactly is the audience? Perhaps Paul Buchheit’s experiment will help us begin to understand the answers to those questions, but many more experiments will be needed to label this a success.

And one thing is certain — philanthropy will need to master technology in order to get the most benefit out of this, and most other, field trends.

Good Examples of How Philanthropy Can Use Crowdsourcing