I came across a great white paper about the use of social media by marketers. You can download the whole report for free. Kudos to Michael A. Stelzner, the author, for putting this together and making it available.

It should be reassuring for many nonprofit professionals to learn that EVERYONE is relatively new to this stuff. One of the most common things I hear from nonprofit staff is something along the lines of, "I'm just learning about social media. Do you think I can keep up with this NTEN webinar or that conference session on this topic?"

My answer: a resounding YES! 

We're all just learning about this, actually -- which is why the nonprofit community should be excited about getting in on the ground floor with these marketing tools and strategies. Too often, we in this sector think we're automatically at a disadvantage. Social media is an area the nonprofit sector has been, in many ways, leading the way! 

Let's explore:

First, some context: The survey was conducted in January of this year, and marketers on social networks -- it was kicked off with a Twitter invitation to the survey -- participated.  A total of 880 marketers took the survey. Here's some demographic breakdown: 49% sole proprieter/independent consultant; 29% work for a business; 21% owner of small business.

The report starts out by summarizing the top 10 questions marketers have about using social media. It looks like these marketers have the same questions you have. 

The top 3 questions Social Media Marketers have: 

1. What are the best tactics and best practices?
2. How do I measure the effectiveness (ROI) of social media?
3. Where do I start?

These are probably the most common questions for us in the nonprofit sector, as well. And I think most for-profit and nonprofit social media marketers will give you the same answer to each of these: it depends. (Or, maybe even: I have no idea.)

Luckily, the remainder of the report offers some help in answering those questions, by indentifying what other marketers are doing with social media.

The key findings: 

• 72% of those surveyed said they were just starting out or have only a few months experience. (That means you and your staff may be just as "experienced" as these folks!)
• 64% of the marketers spend at least 5 hours per week using social media.
• 39% spend at least 10 hours/week.
• Time put in per week increases as overall experience in social media increases:
  • median 2 hours/week for folks just starting out
  • median 10 hours/week for folks doing this for a few months
  • median 20+ hours/week for those who have been doing this for years
• Those who put in more time report more positive results.
• Even inexperienced respondents, investing as little as 1-5 hours/week, report positive results in search engine rankings and increased web traffic.
• Over time, social media marketers indicate it reduces their overall marketing costs (and we know that's important for the nonprofit sector):
  • A little over 30% of those just getting started indicate reduced overall marketing expenses.
  • A little over 60% of those doing this for years indicate reduced expenses.
  • Sole proprieters (I assume this refers to small businesses) were the most likely to see reductions in marketing costs.

As with all good relationship advice, the moral of the story seems to be: the more you put in, the more you'll get out. 

The good news here is that even as little as 1 to 5 hours per week in social media marketing, even if you're "new to all this stuff," will generate more exposure at least 65% of the time. That's some compelling data for folks on the fence about getting started with social media as an outreach strategy.

Another part of the survey asked about specific social media tools/sites folks were using:

• Twitter seemed to top all charts, when it comes to most used, most time invested, and most questions regarding how to use it. (I thought that was amusing.)

• Social bookmarking sites are still the most mysterious for social media marketers, but those who have been doing this longer and put in more hours/week tend to invest a lot of that time into social bookmarking.

To me, the report reinforces the sense that when it comes to best practices and the advantages of social media for marketing, all of this is wide open. This is both exciting and scary -- probably more exciting for those of you already getting your feet wet in social media, and more scary for those of you who are standing back and looking at the landscape from a distance.

Here are some additional resources geared specifically to the nonprofit application of social media:

• NTEN eNews article: Developing a Social Media Plan: Lessons from 2008 Elections
• Free Webinar Recording: Storytelling & Social Media: Creating Buzz
• NTEN Blog article: The Three Dimensions of Social Media ROI
• NTEN Webinar recording and slides: "Managing" Your Brand in Social Media