How is the best way to set up and use social media oulets for a non-profit organization?

[huntertristan]

I am working for a non-profit and think setting up a facebook and twitter account is vital for an online presence besides a website. What is the best way to do this? I know there are tonnes of pages with less than 30 members and twitter accounts with 5 followers... I don't want that to happen to me. How do I avoid this and get people to follow, like, and subscribe? thanks.

[huntertristan]

Make your custom Twitter page like: you can customize your Twitter background with: http://www.blogger.com and don't forget to include your Facebook and Twitter links. Join existing pages on Facebook, and follow the targeted audience on Twitter and wait for one week if they don't follow you back just un-follow them and follow more peoples. Don't forget to updated your Twitter and Facebook Page once in a day. If you need more tips and ideas don't hesitate to ask.

[Maria Elena]

With Twitter - you can use the search box found on the top most portion of the page to locate people who might be interested in your niche. For example, if the non-profit organization you represent is let's say a children's book club. You'd want to add people who are working with children. Author of children's books, mommy bloggers, owners of parenting sites, people into kids' craft, toy-making, candy-making, anything that has to do with children. Add only followers who are active on Twitter. Check how many followers they have and how many people they are following. If they are active on twitter, their followers and number of following should be well-balanced. Follow interesting people every other day. Unfollow those who does not follow you after about three days. Send tweets every 3-4 hours if possible. Don't tweet about the same thing over and over. Don't send out tweets that contain only links.

With Facebook - upload your organization's logo. Create an FBML page and then add history, goals and objectives. Add your friends, request them to suggest your page to their friends, it's viral. If your organization is for a good cause, there's no reason for people to not like it.

Facebook and Twitter both have rules. So long as you stay within the rules, you can fully utilize them to increase the web presence of the non-profit organization that you represent.

[responder5]

If you are new to the social media marketing, the best option for you is to hire a social media marketing professional.

They will not just setup the accounts but promote it in the right direction. They will also help you on how to use, what to publish and what not to publish..

Once you gain enough fans to your FB fan page and use the social media based as your marketing professional guides you, you will learn how to manage, how to retain the existing users, how to grow the user/fan base.

I know there are articles available online on how to social media market, but it is also important enough to remember that you should not test on organisation accounts.