Five Ways to Integrate Social Media Into Your Nonprofit’s Website

Integrating your nonprofit’s Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 campaigns is essential for success in online communications and fundraising. Rather that keeping them separate, once they are merged to compliment one another, your nonprofit’s ROI begins to grow exponentially. To begin, here are five ways to integrate social media into your nonprofit’s website:

1) Add social networking icons to your homepage.

Increasingly supporters expect to find social networking icons on your nonprofit’s homepage. Many people even go to your website with the sole intention of finding quick links to your nonprofit’s communities on social networking sites and not finding them can be quite frustrating. Conventional wisdom is that the upper right is best.

National Peace Corps Association ::www.peacecorpsconnect.org

2) Embed Twitter and Facebook widgets into your homepage.

Both Twitter and Facebook offer widgets that simply require you to copy and paste a small piece of code into to your website. However, if you are going to use widgets, make sure that they are configured to be the same a size and complement your overall homepage design rather than clutter it. Widgets are tempting to use, but unless they are embedded correctly they can look messy and easily distract your website visitors.

The Sierra Club :: www.sierracluub.org

3) Add Flickr SlideShows or YouTube videos to content pages.

Whether you embed slideshows or videos into your website or opt for pop-ups, videos and slideshows are great ways to tell your nonprofits story and engage and inspire your supporters.

Women for Women International :: www.womenforwomen.org

4) Integrate “Connect With Us” pitches into your “Thank You” Landing Pages.

After a supporter donates or signs a petition on your website, be sure to add a “Connect with us!” pitch to your “Thanks for your donation” and “Thanks for taking action” landing pages. These individuals are likely your most loyal supporters and want to Like your nonprofit on Facebook or Follow you on Twitter – sometimes all you need to do is ask!

Forest Ethics :: www.forestethics.org

5) Embed “Recent Posts” from your blog into your homepage.

The original social media, blogging is the tool that glues your social media campaigns together. In fact, blogging is often the missing piece of most nonprofit social media campaigns. In addition to promoting your blog posts on social networking sites and in your e-newsletter, you should also consider embedding recent blogs posts into your nonprofit’s homepage.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) :: www.glaad.org

Nonprofit Tech for Good

A Digital Marketing and Fundraising Resource for Nonprofits