And the Nonprofit Social Network Survey Says...

This photo is by hfabulous.

• Interested in learning more about how other nonprofits are using social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Ning?
• Want to know how much money and time charitable orgs are spending in cyberspace?
• Interested in learning how nonprofits are organized internally to manage social media?
  

Check out this new report by NTEN, Common Knowledge and ThePort.

You have to register to get the FREE download but here are the highlights.

• 74% of nonprofits have a presence on Facebook with an average of 5,391 members.
• 26% of nonprofits have a presence on MySpace with an average of 1,905 members.
• 81% of nonprofits have at least 1/4 FTE staff member dedicated to maintaining their social networking site(s).
• Social networking is NOT about raising money (at least yet). Instead, according to the survey, # of members and amount of user-generated content are better metrics for success.
  

The key takeaway for me is that you've got to be clear about what you want to do with social networking BEFORE you dive in. And you've got to be realistic about the limitations and strengths of the medium for organizational advancement.

Cheers!
Jocelyn