Is the Future of Social Media Much Different for Non-profits?

Posted by to Internet, Marketing and Communication, Social Media on January 14th, 2011

The Future of social media

Jeremiah Owyang, an industry analyst with digital strategy consulting firm Altimeter Group, interviewed 140 enterprise-class social strategists for a report on the “Career Path of the Corporate Social Strategist”. It came out last November, but both Mashable and eMarketer published articles talking about different pieces of the report today so I thought I’d call your attention to what’s being discussed. I suspect you’ll find the information very interesting.

Interesting, but not unexpected.

The survey was focused on the for-profit world (don’t leave yet) and I know you as a reader of this blog are interested in the non-profit space, but I believe there’s a lot of insight we can learn from and apply to our sector. I’m just going to offer a few questions for you to consider. Then you can go read the full report.

Do you plan on increasing your budget for social media efforts in 2011?


Change in Budget Allocation to Social Media Business Programs in 2011 According to Social Strategists Worldwide (% of respondents)

What are the major focuses of your social media strategy in 2011?


Internal Social Strategy Objectives that Their Company Plans to Focus on in 2011 According to Social Strategists Worldwide (% of respondents)

What’s your organizations social media maturity level?

What's your organizations social media maturity level?

How long has your social media program existed?

How long has your social media program existed?

Do you currently have or plan on hiring a full time social media strategist? If so, what will their job responsibilities include?


The Social Media Strategist Job Responsibilities

How do you organize your social media efforts?


Social media organizational model

What department is your social media program in?

What department does your social media program report to?

What’s your 2011 social media budget?

What's your organizations budget for social media?

Looking for more info on social media in the non-profit sector? Make sure to check out The second annual Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report by Common Knowledge, thePort, and NTEN.

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  • http://www.ventureneer.com Geri Stengel

    Training and measurement seem to be at the top of the for-profit list of “social media things to do in 2011.” That’s good and I hope nonprofits do follow suit. The priorities seem to indicate that businesses are finally getting the real cost of social media — staff — and the real benefit — instant measurement and quick revisions of social media marketing plans. Ventureneer’s survey of the use of social media by nonprofits found that the longer organizations used social media, the more hours per week of staff time were devoted to managing social media and the more effective social media were for the organization. The survey also showed that measurement of impact needs improvement.

    • http://www.netwitsthinktank.com frank barry

      Glad you found us Geri. I’ve definitely seen your study. Great stuff in there … I appreciate you linking to it so other readers here have the opportunity to check it out.

  • http://johnhaydon.com John Haydon

    I wonder if more than half of even the largest nonprofits will spend more than $100,000 on social media.

    • http://www.netwitsthinktank.com frank barry

      Doubtful, but we’ve got to take into account that nonprofit operating budgets are not generally as big as the big for profit worlds. It would probably make sense to factor down based on some average and then look at the numbers.

      The NTEN study has specific nonprofit numbers and there will be an update to that at NTC this year so we’ll get much better insight then :)

      PS – Whussup man? Long time no chat!

      • http://johnhaydon.com John Haydon

        Agreed. Maybe staff size?

        Doing well! Just very, very busy… You?

        • http://www.netwitsthinktank.com frank barry

          I hear ya. You going to be at SX or NTC?

          • http://johnhaydon.com John Haydon

            I don’t think so. :-( – Just NTC, BlogWorld and a couple of WordCamps.

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