If you’re a busy community leader for a nonprofit or spiritual organization, reading a bunch of social media status updates, responding to invitations to events, and gaming is probably the last thing you have time for. However, if you work with people, you have probably realized how important social media has become, especially for the younger generation. Perhaps you’ve even worried about losing connection to social media communities, but you’ve also worried about losing your mind to the hectic and seemingly pointless social media environment that doesn’t seem to match your organization’s mission. . You don’t have to go crazy and you can use social media without it taking over your life. That is, if you keep it simple from the start.
This is how I used online social media to support my non-profit spiritual organization without being overwhelmed by it. With a few simple, self-imposed rules, I’ve been able to benefit from the fast-moving global connectivity of free online services like Facebook.
My first personal rule is to not accept invitations from apps (games, birthdays, favorite person, etc.)
Although Facebook is used for communication with family and friends, it is a growing resource for organizations to promote awareness of their activities, services and events. If you plan to use Facebook for the latter, it’s a good idea to avoid using the “fun” features that are more appropriate for use with friends and family (although, even with loved ones, you can quickly become unpopular for too many of these features). .) The fun features can also be a blow to your credibility if you get bogged down in one of those send-to-twenty-friends apps. My advice: stay away from apps. Block them.
My second personal rule is to only accept friend requests and not to seek friends.
Although it may take you longer to build a network of friends, if you take my advice, over time you will develop a network of people who really want to hear from you and who have chosen to learn about your organization’s work through their connection with you. That way, when you create an event and send an invite to your friends, you have a great chance of being received with interest. This is a different strategy than developing business connections where it may make sense to have as many friends as possible. My advice: Instead of soliciting friends, join groups with similar interests and post interesting comments that attract those who have an affinity with your organization’s mission.
My third personal rule is to limit maintenance and update time
You don’t have to continually update your status. Too many updates can even defeat your goal of staying in touch with people interested in your organization. I enjoy reading articles about new technology and gadgets, and have been following some popular online magazines through Twitter. I recently unfollowed some due to the volume of updates and messages that started to annoy me instead of informing me. I also follow a popular teacher in the human potential movement and her messages come in 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 free up my time to do more important things.
There are a number of free and paid services you can use to write short, relevant updates that will be automatically posted to your Facebook status. You can write them out ahead of time 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 posts are announced on my Facebook status page. They are programmed and ready to go and I am free. (Search “schedule Facebook updates” to find dozens of articles and tips.)
I hope this information helps you get started with Facebook or a similar online social network. I believe that with a little time and effort it can be used to fulfill its mission.
Eduardo Viljoen