Must reads for nonprofits – April 26 edition

This week the must-reads are focused on the three things I love the most about social media: cute animals, tracking and metrics, and communications strategy.

Name An Orphaned Cub For Earth Day

Last week Causes concluded a contest with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) to help raise $10,000 to support a group of orphaned bear cubs in Russia. The contest’s prize was an opportunity to name one of the bear cubs. Our approach to the contest was unorthodox – instead of giving the top 3 donors the opportunity to name the cubs we decided to even the playing field and tap into the power of social media by giving the prizes to the top 3 fundraisers, those individuals who galvanized their friends to donate. Though we came up a couple of shekels short, the contest was a success and we’re happy to announce that care for the 3 orphaned bear cubs has been secured…now we just want to find out what their names are going to be.

Three Cheap Tools to Measure Blogs and Social Media

In last week’s must reads post I mentioned the importance of nonprofits learning to create metrics and measure their social media impact. To put my money where my mouth this week I’m highlighting a post from frogloop on 3 cheap and effective tools for gauging your organization’s presence on social media, tracking your viewers and how they interacting with your nonprofit’s online content, and allowing others to share the information you post in their blogs and social media.

It’s nuts to do no social media – and crazy to do all of it

The most important part of getting your social media strategy right is finding where your audience is and delivering relevant content to them. Before you decide social media is not for your nonprofit or before you join every new social network that comes along, think about the tradeoffs, both what you’re missing out on and what your ROI is if you decide to join. A lot of nonprofits fail to think through their social media strategy. Don’t get caught looking.