Beth Kanter has tagged me with the topic, "Four Lessons Learned: Social Media and Nonprofits Meme," and I'm not sure what to make of it. She's a Technobabe, a brilliant social media trainer, and a fellow Bennington alum - so I want to do my best.
In search of lessons learned about social media, I keep harking back to my previous life as a student of sociology of religion. I was particularly interested in new religious movements (which are sometimes labelled, pejoratively and inaccurately, as "cults") and keen to understand what drew converts to them. An important moment came when I read Steven Tipton's "Getting Saved from the Sixties," which offered a nuanced analysis of the various ways that new religious movements offered resolutions of moral dilemmas in a complex and often self-contradictory culture. It was another watershed when I read David Bromley and Anson Shupe's "Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare," and understood that, at a certain level of analysis, new religious movements were more different than alike, and that seekers came to them for a wide range of reasons. There wasn't a single, simple formula for understanding them.
Likewise with the optimum way for nonprofits to use social media, which enable them to support their missions with mash-ups and user-generated content. Every time I try to make generalization about this topic, I'm back to lessons learned from "Strange Gods."
The current state of the nonprofit sector is such that many of the laws and customs that regulate it are contradictory and unworkable. Perhaps they were designed for a nonprofit sector that no longer exists, or one that never existed. In being required adhere to these rules, nonprofits can be seen as all alike - yet on so many other levels, it is very difficult to demonstrate that all nonprofit organizations have a great deal in common with each other. They have different missions, different cultures, different needs. There isn't a straightforward calculus that tells us what they should be trying to achieve with social media, what means they should use, and the likelihood of success with a given strategy.
When I arrive at an insight about social media for nonprofits that is widely (if not universally) applicable, I do my best to articulate it here in my blog. These insights are usually derived from the axiom that it's really about your mission; it's not about your technology. If I start there, I find that I can offer substantial help to nonprofits that want to use social media, but that help has to be tailored to mission, style, available resources, organizational culture, and what the stakeholders demand of each nonprofit.
So if I had to trim it down to four lessons about nonprofits and social media, it would probably come to this:
- Nonprofits are all different from each other.
- Nonprofits are all alike (because...)
- In every case, it's really about your mission; it's not about your social media.
- If you retain me as a consultant, I'll do a good job in helping you with your specific needs.
ADDENDUM:
The other bloggers that Beth tagged for this topic are:
Marnie Webb
Holly Ross
Katya Andresen
Ian Wilker
Nancy Schwartz
Alan Benamer
Tactical Philanthropy Blog
Sue Waters
Laura Whitehead
Nick Booth
Lux Mean
Britt Bravo
Rich Reader
