Our AMA-Milwaukee chapter held a different kind of luncheon program yesterday. Instead of bringing in a speaker to share his/her experiences or a case study, we held a reverse panel.  This consisted of four local non-profit organizations who shared their marketing challenges with the attendees who, in turn, provided suggetions to the panel.  Our panel members consisted of:  Hunger Task Force, Milwaukee Ballet, Wisconsin Upside Down Foundation and Select Milwaukee. 

Obviously non-profit organizations don’t have an abundance of resources and with the state of the economy and the high unemployment rate, competition for donations and support is fierce.

While each organization’s marketing challenge was unique, the underlying theme for all of them is the need to better get the word out about their organization and mission.  Using social media seems to be a logical tool for each of them, yet none of them have done much of anything to engage in social networking.  Having worked at a  non-profit organization years ago, I know you wear multiple hats and are the jack of all trades.  The benefits of social media for these organizations, however, seem to outweigh the time argument.  First, you can’t ignore the fact that it’s free to set up accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other sites. Second, yes it will take time to build your following but the longer you wait to get started, the longer it will take to build that base. 

In the case of Select Milwaukee, their rep said they are “fighting the internet”.  Our recommendation to them was to stop fighting and start embracing the internet.  Improve your website, work on your SEO, etc.  If you want to be Milwaukee’s primary resource for your service, then you have to use the internet to your advantage.  The internet is not going away so don’t even bother trying to fight or ignore it.

It will be interesting to see how many of these organizations choose to get involved in social networking and truly embrace what it can offer.  And our AMA chapter is looking forward to repeating this program in the near future with a new slate of non-profits.