I was able to listen in to the Case Foundation’s (@casefoundation) Gear Up for Giving webinar today, which offered some amazing insight from Allison Fine (@afine). She offered a lot of really good basic information on how to get started with social media for nonprofit organizations without getting too hung up on the details.

Something that Allison said really struck me as very basic, but important: the first step is to LISTEN to what others are saying about your organization before doing anything else. She recommended doing this by checking in to technorati, signing up for Google alerts with your particular key works, or just a simple google search. This crucial first step needs to be done before spending a lot of time (or money) on planning or strategy sessions.

Also, another takeaway is that we are all still learning. There isn’t a “right way” to “do” social media, but there are best, or at least better, practices, to follow. The key is to get the conversation going and to interact with your constituents both “online” and “on-land.”

Here is a link to the video as well as the schedule of other webinars, which I highly recommend that you put in your calendar:

Thanks for reading!

Lisa