The perfect exercise in social media marketing for non-profits is to create and promote a non-profit event dedicated to exploring social media marketing. Case in point:

On March 30, the group hosted "Make Social Media Work for You and Your Business" our most marketed event yet - promoted on four different social media networks along with our usual email channels and word of mouth, with first ever real-time Tweets, and post-event email group activity. (click on image to view full size)

As I addressed in January, social media is more than a new frontier - it has become ubiquitous, and as essential to getting the word out in the non-profit world as it has become in corporate settings.

Social media presents great opportunities for online marketing - extending the reach of email marketing, enhancing brand reputation or awareness, generating revenue - and great challenges as well. The upside is, marketers and consumers can now share information and participate in conversations directly. On the downside, suddenly our email inboxes have multiplied to include social media channels, bookmarks, blogs and more, threatening to compromise our ability to manage it all effectively. So let's consult the list of best practices for non-profits using the Web to gauge the effectiveness of the social media marketing efforts of GABA Women in Business to promote our events and, thereby, our mission:

1. Reflect the mission in messaging. Each of our social network event postings includes a distinctive description of the group: "GABA Women in Business is a special interest group that creates community for women professionals in the SF Bay Area, hosting international business events and a members-only email list (http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/GABA_WIB/) since 2007. Engage with us on topics like these now, and ongoing. Everyone is welcome!"

2. Make personal connections. Our events program requires speakers and organizers to RSVP to the event listings and to post the event links throughout their networks, i.e. on Twitter: "GABA Women in Biz: Make Social Media Work for You and Your Business: https://www.123signup.com/event?id=mxgrt."

3. Build partnerships. We regard each event posting as an opportunity to reach new networks of people who could become attendees and partners.

4. Make effective use of existing Web tools. The event information was sent to GABA's Facebook Group, GABA's miaplaza group, GABA's LinkedIn Group, posted as an event on LinkedIn and posted to the GABA email group and WIB email group.

5. Learn from others. We positioned our event as the perfect opportunity to learn from one another's social media marketing experiences.

6. Stick with what works. All the new social media marketing activities we used for our social media event are now part of our event production protocol.

What is your social media marketing strategy? We'd love to hear about corporate or non-profit stories, your challenges or successes, or your questions or comments, in the space below!

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About the Author

Linda Cleary manages demand generation marketing programs at Lyris, and authors a series about Non-Profit Online Marketing here on LyrisHQ.Lyris.com.

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