With each passing year, social media is proving to be a powerful communications and marketing tool. With its ability to directly connect with community, donors and the general public, social media has a lot of potential for people working in the not-for-profit sector. With traditional marketing budgets in the millions of dollars and increasing challenges of getting PR coverage, social media can be an effective tool for savvy users.

Many social media tools can be integrated into existing marketing and communications plans. As part of Mozilla Service Week, you can help not-for-profits use the tools of social media to share content with their audience and, at the same time, engage in dialogue with them like never before.

A couple of basic social media principles and tools can be enough to help these organizations get their feet wet.

Listen to the conversation already in action. What can they add?

Before any organization takes the plunge into a social media presence, doing some searches on the popular social networks and search engines can help them get a idea of what's already being talked about. After some thoughtful evaluation, help them put together a strategy for joining the conversation and setting some goals in terms of what they're hoping to get out of it.

Be the real deal

In social media, more than any other communications medium, authenticity is key. In the social media space, users have come to expect organizations to be genuine and transparent. This can translate into a communications style that casual and conversational.

Conversation is not a buzzword

Responsiveness is an important tactic to keep in mind. You wouldn't keep having a face-to-face conversation with someone who didn't respond, and the same is true online. Having a response doesn't always mean having the answer, but acknowledging the question promptly is key.

Start small

Help the organization select a few social media channels to start with. The ones you help them choose, should correlate with the social networks that have the most popularity with their issue, based on the early search performed.

Learn to monitor

Just like not responding is a conversation killer, so is ignoring the conversation. Monitoring the conversation and gathering metrics on who is joining their community and what they're looking for is key to having a sustainable social media plan

Convergence!

Connecting social media activity to traditional marketing and PR campaigns will help set these organizations up for success. Whether it's use to report on things that have happened, things coming up or opportunities for engagement, social networks have become an increasingly important channel.