As we close in on the start of the new year, many nonprofits in Alaska are anticipating the 2010 Permanent Fund Dividend for good reason. This will be the second year that Alaskans will be able to check off one or several nonprofit organizations to support with a portion of their PFD when they apply online. Even $25 can make an incredible impact on the lives o Alaskans, especially if everyone picks, clicks and gives. Just see what Red Cross of Alaska, CASA, Wish Upon the North Star and Alzheimer's Resource of Alaska have been able to do with your contributions this past year.

This is also the second year that the Pick. Click. Give. awareness campaign is using social media to draw attention to the Permanent Fund Charitable Contributions Program.

In addition to the Pick. Click. Give. blog, there is also a presence for the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and CauseCast which is a cause-related video sharing site.

There are several things that Alaska nonprofits - and any nonprofits - can learn from using social media for awareness campaigns.

There are several takeaways for nonprofits from a social media standpoint:

1. You Can Be Targeted. Social media can be effective as not only a global or national communications tool but can also be calibrated to be hyper-local and even hyper-rural. For smaller nonprofits whose scope doesn't reach beyond a state or a region or a town, social media can still prove useful and can be that finely targeted.

2. You Need to Pick the Right Tools. Not every social media tool is right for every nonprofit or every campaign. And you don't always start out picking the right ones, but as long as you monitor, measure and assess results from each, you can eventually zero in on the right ones. Even Pick. Click. Give. started out using a number of additional social media tools that eventually proved less useful in reaching Alaskans so we pared down this year to focus more energy on fewer, more effective tools. Holding onto MySpace was possible because it takes less resources to maintain than Facebook or Twitter. Holding onto Twitter even though the numbers may be smaller is a strategic move to be ready for the 3rd year of this program when more Alaskans will be used to Twitter communications. Twitter is still an excellent traffic-driver even before true interaction and engagement sets in.

3. You Must Coordinate Efforts. Social media tools can be linked together and coordinated in such a fashion that they can be utilized with a very small staff. Last year, one person ran the bulk of social media efforts in a few hours a week. This year, we are lucky to have one additional person devoted to social media a few hours a week and have better internal coordination with our project partners such as Rasmuson Foundation and the Nerland Agency (the ad agency that developed the programs brand and the PSAs). Social media cannot exist in a vacuum. All stakeholders in a campaign or project must be willing to keep social media top of mind and to keep the social media team in the loop in any marketing or communications discussion. And the social media team needs to know how to make the right noises at the right times to be noticed and not forgotten.

As Jordan Marshall of Rasmuson Foundation so eloquently put it, "The beauty of Pick. Click. Give. may be that it reminds people that they can make a big difference in peoples’ lives, so when they get the ask from the nonprofits they’re more inclined to act."

And that, too, is the beauty of using social media to remind people that the causes we are working to support truly matter to real people. People reaching out to and connecting with people. You can make a difference.

Pick. Click. Give.

How is your nonprofit using social media to reach out and connect?

The Global Language Monitor just declared Twitter - the San Francisco-based micro-blogging site - to be the top English word of 2009. Twitter is clearly all the rage right now, but is it the right communications tool for your organization?

Twitter can be a powerful tool for any organization if used properly.

Here are a few tips on how to get started by using Twitter to communicate about Pick. Click. Give. today and to learn how to use Twitter for your organization as well.

1. Set up your Twitter account. Choose either your organization's name for the account name or a logical abbreviation (Twitter has a character limit for account names). Use a main email account that is not attached to any individual in your organization. We recommend setting up a Gmail account specifically for social media initatives to avoid spam. Remember to check it regularly for messages from your social media sites.
 
2. Follow Pick. Click. Give. Go to http://www.twitter.com/pickclickgive and follow us. We'll reciprocate, and following your organization back.

3. Find people to follow. Do a search on http://search.twitter.com for your target audience and follow a few of them to get started. Following someone is non-intrusive, and they can choose whether or not they want to follow you back.

4. Add a Twitter badge to your site. Get a Twitter badge for your web site, blog or MySpace page by going to http://twitter.com/badges. This is a way to show others that your organization is on Twitter to encourage others to follow you there.

5. Tweet regularly. Use your Twitter account to announce timely information; to link to new information on your web site or new posts on your blog; and to link to articles and blog posts you find online that are relevant to your organization and mission.

6. Retweet Pick. Click. Give. Please retweet relevant messages you see posted by Pick. Click. Give. on Twitter. This means either using the Retweet link or button on your Twitter application of choice or copying and pasting them as a message from your organization. Add “RT @pickclickgive” before the message you've copied and pasted to give proper credit. See the example of a retweet (RT) at the top of the image above. This is an example of a retweet:

RT @pickclickgive Alaskans have the unique opportunity to give to other Alaskans this January when applying for their 2010 PFD #pickclickgive

RT @rasmuson BP & Wells Fargo to match employee gifts made thru Pick. Click. Glive. Thanks 4 helping Alaskans give even more! #pickclickgive

7. Use the #pickclickgive Hashtag. On Twitter, Hashtags are used to help you organize and find related content. A Hastag is a keyword with a hash symbol or pound symbol in front of it. When you can, add #pickclickgive to the end of your tweets related to Pick. Click. Give. to make it easier for others – and for us – to locate these tweets.

Alaskans Can Support Pick. Click. Give. on Twitter, Too

Already on Twitter but not affiliated with an Alaska nonprofit? You can still support our efforts to get the word out about helping other Alaskans thorugh our PFDs.

First, go to http://www.twitter.com/pickclickgive and click to Follow us.

Then please retweet relevant messages you see posted by Pick. Click. Give. on Twitter. See the retweet examples above.
 
And don't forget that you, too, can use the #pickclickgive Hashtag!

Happy Tweeting!

Are you already on Twitter? If you're an Alaskan or Alaska nonprofit, post your Twitter address here so we can follow you!

A version of this post originally appeared on The Foraker Group web blog.

If you haven't been there yet, Pick. Click. Give. now has a Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/pickclickgive. If you are a member of Facebook personally, please become a Fan of our Page. Social media connections are an important part of the Pick. Click. Give. campaign!

What is a Facebook Page?

Does your nonprofit organization have a Facebook Page?

Because Pick. Click. Give. is an awareness campaign and NOT an individual person, we've set up a presence on Facebook - the most popular social network on the Internet - using a Facebook Page. A Page on Facebook is different from a Profile which you as an individual might have as a Facebook member. Pages are for companies, organizations, products, celebrities and other entities or individuals wanting a more professional presence on Facebook.

Some organizations - including many in Alaska - have set up Profiles instead of Pages. They may have done this a year or so ago when Pages weren't as prevalent, and they have probably built a large friends list over time. Unfortunately, if an organization has a Facebook Profile instead of a Facebook Page, they are at risk of losing the content and contacts they've accumulated because they are in violation of Faceboook's Terms of Service i.e. the fine print in your Facebook user agreement. Facebook regularly disables Facebook Profiles that they deem a violation of their rules.

You can immediately tell the difference between a Facebook Page and a Facebook Profile because Pages have Fans while Profiles have Friends.

An important difference between a Facebook Page and a Facebook Profile is that a Page is publicly accessible to people who are not members of Facebook so it becomes a powerful Web presence for your organization that shows up in Google Searches. Facebook Profiles are only accessible by your Facebook Friends which means someone must be a member of Facebook and then send you a Friend request (which you must accept) in order to interact with your organization through your Profie.

Benefits of Using Facebook Pages

How can your organization benefit from a Facebook Page?

Many nonprofits are limited in budgets and resources for outreach to constituents, donors, the media and the public. While a web site can serve as an effective destination for an organization, many people these days consider web sites as places for background and archived information rather than an active and dynamic communications tool.

Also the money and time costs of designing, building and maintaining a web site can be a burden, particularly if an organization's site was not designed with an easy-to-use content management system. Many nonprofit organizations are saddled with outdated web sites where they are at the mercy of Web developers for even the most simple updates.

Other organizations use their web sites as repositories of information, for a list of services, to house a calendar of events, but when it comes to outreach, they are relying on an electronic newsletter - or even a print newsletter - to get the word out about their organization and important events. These days, a web site by nature is too static - and often too overloaded with information - to serve as a consistent outreach tool for shorter, more frequent messages.

While a blog is a useful tool to publish content more frequently, a blog can also be a burden on an organization's resources if they aren't equipped to publish content on a very regular basis.

A Facebook Page doesn't demand the same kind of content publishing and is instead a more conversational resource where shorter bits of information - usually with a link to additional information - is the norm.

Using a Facebook Page Effectively

At the very minimum, here are a few things you should do with your Facebook Page:

1. Connect your blog to Page. If you have one, add your blog's RSS feed URL to the Notes section of your Facebook Page so when you post to your blog, it automatically updates your Page.

2. Add Facebook Events. If you hold events, particularly regularly occuring events, you can use the Facebook Events feature to augment your Page. The Events tool integrates with your Page, and you can use it to spread the word about classes, meetings, etc. using a tool that makes it easy for others to invite their own Facebook friends to your event.

3. Link to Resources. While Status Updates can be intimidating for some people, updating your Facebook Page doesn't have to be hard. Connecting your blog updates your Page status as does adding new events. You can also post links to relevant resources including those on your organization's web site as well as others on the Web.

4. Respond to Comments. As you gather more Fans on your Page, people may start commenting on your Status Updates. A quick response is always appreciated and helps strengthen relationships. Your response doesn't have to be long - just an answer to a question or acknowledgement of what they've said. While it is important to interact with your Page Fans, don't feel obligated to respond to every single comment, but don't ignore them all either.

5. Favorite Like-Minded Organizations' Pages. If you are visiting another Alaska nonprofit or company Page that you think might be relevant to your own Facebook Fans, you can click on the link on the upper left side of their Page and choose Add This Page to My Page's Favorites. Then add their Page to your Page. This will appear in a box on the left side of your Facebook Page Wall with their logo and a link to their Page. It is appropriate to ask them to Favorite your Page back, however, reciprocity is not an obligation here.

Facebook Pages are easy to set up and easier to maintain than a web site or blog. They also give you a direct communications channel to the people who you serve or who you want to reach with important messages about your organization. And when one person interacts with your Facebook Page, that action can be seen by dozens or even hundreds of their Facebook Friends giving your organization an instant and exponential reach beyond your own contacts.

Does your Alaska nonprofit have a Facebook Page and is on the list of qualifying organizations for the 2010 PFD Charitable Contributions Program? If so, please include a link to it in comments so we can Favorite it on the Pick. Click. Give. Page.

Social media is the new way to market. Using blogs, microblogs such as Twitter, social networks like MySpace and Facebook and other social and sharing sites is the new way of reaching out to an audience to build awareness and garner support for your organization or cause.

Alaskans are using social media in a multitude of ways, some of which were described recently by ADN reporter Elizabeth Bluemink in her article "Workers find new ways to connect on the Internet."

That's why Pick. Click. Give. included social media in its awareness campaign to draw attention to the PFD Charitable Contributions Program. You can connect with us on

Facebook

Facebook Causes

MySpace

Twitter

YouTube

and a number of other multimedia sharing sites.

What social media sites are you using? And where have you connected with Pick. Click. Give.?