Joint Venture Lightning

Social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Uniq and others are great tools for fundraisers looking for new ways to raise money for their cause.

The key is to use these tools properly.

Think of a social networking site like this… imagine a global night club or dinner party where celebrities, authors, poets, artists, models, rock stars, and political leaders and industry experts are all standing around chatting about everything imaginable. Now imagine that this seemingly exclusive gathering is open to the public and has no cover charge to get in.

Everyday folks like us can simply sign in, look around, find somebody interesting to listen to and then join in the conversation. That’s also a fair description of microblogging sites like Twitter.

Now imagine how you would feel if some stranger just barged in on your conversation and tried to sell you something. That’s how most people try to use these types of sites… by barging in and selling without offering value and interest first.

Here’s an example of how to do it properly: I was interested in communicating with a particular donor prospect but I didn’t know quite how to introduce myself in-person. It felt like I would be “barging in” uninvited. So I found this person on Facebook and saw that they were a member of a local civic group that I used to belong to. This gave me the opportunity to comment in a relevant and interesting way with this prospect.

The result was that he “friended” my Facebook profile and we have since been  able to communicate with each other in a friendly and mutually beneficial way. The point is to establish rapport and warm up a cold prospect before you go for the appointment and the funding request.

Here’s another example: I love using LinkedIn because they have an Answers forum where you can post answers to members questions. This allows me to establish myself as a credible expert in a variety of subjects. I’m offering value first. People who benefit from my answers can give me a “Best Answer” designation and a recommendation that all builds my credibility.

People who read my answers can then contact me for other related questions and to further build rapport. Maintain these online relationships with care and you can convert them into donors over time.