One in five nonprofits surveyed say they plan to increase funding to hire designers, programmers, or consultants related to social networking in the next 12 months, while fifty percent plan to allocate more staff time.
The growing importance of social media for awareness, community-building, and fund raising was reflected across the board by the 1200 nonprofits, large and small, who answered the 2nd annual Nonprofit Social Networking Benchmark Report.
The survey report was offered by NTEN, an organization of nonprofit professionals using technology; Common Knowledge, a consulting and research firm, and ThePort Network, a social media software vendor.
The report shows that most non-profits:
- Do their social media work in-house.
- Allocate one-fourth to one-half of a full-time staffer’s time
- Have been using Facebook for less than two years.
- Find biggest obstacles are funding and expertise in application
The most used social networks are:
- YouTube
Twitter use grew 38% over last year. MySpace was the big loser, dropping 45% in popularity.
Marketing departments own the social media activities in most nonprofits, but analysts predict that will change
“There’s a real movement to enabling all departments to have a role in social media,” says Suzanne Carawon of The Port Network. She sees marketers assuming more advisory roles for other departments. She predicts more executives and board members will also assume greater responsibility as they realize the impact of social media on the organization’s message and reputation.
You can read the full report at Nonprofit Social Networking Benchmark Report. Suzanne’s excellent summary in the webinar, Association Social Media in 2010: What Associations are REALLY Doing and What’s Getting Results is available at the Avectra Academy website, along with the Benchmarking report at http://bit.ly/cV1bNf
