A good portion of things we have looked out through the class is how social media can be used for companies and businesses. Many of my blog posts have emphasized the possibility and importance of doing so. What has been talked very little about is how nonprofits can use social media. Even less has been focused on the measuring of such things. Luckily, Chapter 13 of Paine’s book deals exclusively with the topic.
Paine’s thoughts on not measuring with a nonprofit? It’s not an option. She explains in our current world, it is nearly impossible to run a nonprofit without measurement and accountability. The number one reason she blames for this is social media. While incredibly useful, it has caused a disruption of how to best deliver information from ways before. In order to determine just how many people your organization has reached, you must be able to measure, and understand how to measure, the impact of your outreach.
Paine outlines the necessary steps for measuring with nonprofits as:
- · Use the mission to define the objectives
- · Identify and prioritize the audiences
- · Establish a benchmark
- · Pick metrics
- · Pick a measurement tool
- · Analyze results and make changes
Nonprofits provide an endless amount of good in our world and are responsible for creating real, lasting change. It is vital for them to be able to adapt to our technological, social media-centered world. Without doing so, they will become even more overlooked and eventually forgotten. While not as known, smaller nonprofits have just as much of a chance to thrive as larger organizations on social media. They provide a necessary voice and perspective to relatively unknown topics but do not have to stay that way. If the organizations follow these steps, they are sure to succeed in measuring relationships with the users they are interacting with and have the possibility of becoming more well-known and interacted with.
