If you are a busy community leader of a non-profit or spiritual
organization, probably the last thing you have time for is reading a
slew of status updates on social networks, responding to event and game
invitations. Nevertheless, if you work with people, you have probably
become aware of how important social networking has become, especially
for the younger generation. Maybe you have even become concerned about
losing the connection with the social networking communities but have
been equally concerned about also losing your mind with the hectic, and
seemingly pointless social network environment that don't seem to be a
match with the mission of your organization. You don't have to go crazy
and you can use social networking without having it take over your
life. That is, if you keep it simple from the start.
Here is how I
used online Social Networking to support my non-profit spiritual
organization without become overwhelmed by it. With a few easy,
self-imposed rules, I have been able to benefit from the fast moving,
world-wide connectivity of free online services, such as Facebook.
My first personal rule is to accept no application invitations (games, birthday dates, favorite person, etc.)
Although
Facebook is used for communication with family and friends, it is a
growing resource for organizations to promote awareness about their
activities, services and events. If you plan to use Facebook for the
latter, it is advisable to avoid using the 'fun' features that are more
appropriate for use with friends and family connections (although, even
among loved ones you can quickly become unpopular for too much of these
features.) Fun features can also be a blow to your credibility if you
get entangled in one of those send-to-twenty-friends applications. My
advice: step away from the apps. Block them.
My second personal rule is to only accept friend request and not seek out friends.
Although
it may take longer for you to build a network of friends, if you accept
my advice, you will over time develop a network of people who genuinely
want to hear from you and who have opted-in to know about your
organizations work through their connection with you. This way, when
you create an event and send invitation to your friends, you have an
excellent chance of being received with interest. This is a different
strategy from developing business connections where it may make sense to
have as many friends as you can. My advice: rather than solicit
friends, join groups with similar interest and post interesting comments
that will attract those who have an affinity with your organization's
mission.
My third personal rule is to limit upkeep and update time
You
don't have to continually update your status. Too many updates may
even work against your goal of staying in contact with people who are
interested in your organization. I enjoy reading articles on new
technology and gadgets and have been following a few popular online
magazines via Twitter. I recently un-followed a few because of the
volume of update and messages that began to annoy me rather than inform
me. I also follow a popular teacher in the human potential movement and
her messages come about once a week. I make sure I don't miss them.
My fourth personal rule is to use free automation to keep my content fresh and to free up my time to do more important things
There
are a number of free and paid services that you can use to write short,
relevant updates that will be posted automatically to your Facebook
status. You can write these in advance and queue them up for later
delivery so you can go about your business. I use one in connection
with my blog so that new blog entries are announced on my Facebook
status page. They are scheduled and ready to go and I'm free. (Search
for "schedule Facebook updates" to find dozens of articles and
recommendations.)
I hope this information will help you get
started in using Facebook or similar online social networking. It is my
belief that with a little time and effort it can be used to serve your
mission.