Online Social Networks Are Not Mailing Lists (Or Are They?)

There's been an interesting debate taking place around the nonprofit blogosphere lately about the role social networking Web sites should play in nonprofit marketing. Michael Gilbert warns nonprofits not to become leeches who treat social networking sites as merely another revenue stream.

In a recent Journal of Philanthropy town hall discussion, Beth of NTEN agreed, telling one nonprofit, "You need to approach your Facebook Fan Page as online community building and word of mouth marketing versus using a traditional communications strategy of 'promote.'" Later in the discussion, when someone asked about using Twitter to promote his nonprofit, Beth replied, "Twitter is not a promotion device!!"

Kivi at Nonprofit Marketing Guide disagrees, saying that for small and even medium-sized nonprofits, devoting staff time to communications and community building online with no emphasis on fundraising is a pipe dream. "It feels to me like [some nonprofit bloggers] are giving special golden status to what is really just one more set of tools (albeit some very cool ones) that help people communicate with one another and connect in different ways," Kivi says. Be sure to read the comments on her post for some fantastic perspectives on all sides.

I tend to agree with Kivi. I think that respectful, unobtrusive fundraising is just as possible on MySpace or Twitter as it is by mail or by phone, but these are complicated issues. These sites are very new and the lexicon is still developing. Even a change as simple as a redesign of Facebook can have a huge impact on what types of communication are considered obtrusive.

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