Meyer Memorial Trust

Social Networking survey results

May 7, 2008 09:00 AM

Two important questions related to the integration of social media tools into nonprofit work are:

"How can we effectively translate our outreach efforts into the technology-supported social/virtual world?"

and

"How do we develop solid, generative measures of success?"

This is from the Web 2.0 & Social Networking Nonprofit Survey from Citizen Schools, Inc and Public Learning Media Laboratory that came out in March 2008.

The survey has some interesting findings about what works and what doesn't:

• Overwhelmingly, blogging was viewed as a sure, effective way to reach net citizenry and support the nonprofit.
• Respondents were optimistic about the value of social networking technologies to 'organize an event' and spread news' about the organization.
• Respondents were less optimistic about the prospects of social networking technologies to help raise significant monetary or goods donations for their organization.
• Respondents indicated that 'web traffic' was the most prominent value they have gained through use of various technologies. Other specific gains were harder to quantify.

Some numbers that stood out to me, involved the numbers of nonprofits using blogs, Facebook, and YouTube. It was much higher than I thought it would be!

Jot down some of your thoughts and questions about your organization's use of social media tools and then check out the report to explore the survey's findings!

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