No question: Both business and nonprofits use social media to market themselves. Both nonprofits and business have Facebook pages and LinkIn accounts. They tweet and blog but, often, to different ends.
1. Nonprofits advocate for causes. Advocacy works best when an emotional connection is made with the audience, which may be why YouTube, with its visual, visceral jolt is more popular among nonprofits than for-profits*. And, whether advocacy is mentioned in their vision-statements, all nonprofits are advocates: They wouldn't be in business if they didn't care and didn't want others to care about a cause.
2. Businesses, including nonprofits, use LinkedIn to vet staff members or find new ones. Nonprofits go a step beyond that; they use it to find board members and potential big-money donors. These are make-or-break people for a nonprofit: governance and revenue are on the line. Nonprofits research connections to their cause and connections to other donors, something far different from checking a job candidate's profile.
3. Nonprofits raise money; businesses sell products/services. While both generate revenue, the distinction is critical. A website that showcases products may suffice for a business but nonprofits often reach out -- using Facebook and Twitter especially -- to their communities in order to generate votes in fundraising contests or request donations. They are asking their communities to give (money, time, signatures) rather than to get something (product or service).
4. Nonprofits have small to nonexistent marketing budgets. Businesses have traditionally reached their consumers through broadcast or print media. A budget was required and provided. Now businesses look to social media as a way to lower marketing costs. Nonprofits look at social media as a low-cost way to intensify their marketing by expanding their communities and awareness of their causes in ways unimaginable before social media.
- Different media work best for different nonprofit purposes. Facebook is more effective for cause-marketing, Twitter for increasing search engine rankings.
- Time spent and consistency matter.
- Starting slowly and building is the most successful way to approach social media.
The best practices information in the survey may be as useful to businesses using social media as it is nonprofits. Even so, the key to social media marketing success is keeping your eye on the prize. To rephrase Marshall McLuhan: the message dictates the medium.