The Networked Nonprofit

“Networked nonprofits don’t work harder or longer…they work differently” (3). Through this statement in Chapter 1, the authors of The Networked Nonprofit begin by dispelling the misconception that many nonprofits may have about utilizing social media—that it will be an increased burden on their already encumbered workload. 

One of the key elements to the networked nonprofit seems to be an organization’s relationship with “free agents,” which we have talked about in class some. They are important for expanded the nonprofits’ cause outside of just the nonprofit’s organizational social media resources. These bloggers, tweeters, and others with an online presence can do a lot of work for the organization by just being passionate about their cause and promoting it to others. Also, they mention that sometimes these free agents are young and inexperienced, but that does not mean they should necessarily be avoided. They may be able to reach audiences that an older, experienced blogger wouldn’t have connected with. Most of us as college students are relatively new to the blog scene, yet it is great that Safe Harbor is willing to use us as a tool. Some people may know about Safe Harbor just because a student in our class has tagged the organization in their blog and maybe someone has come across that blog when searching on Google. Also, when we Retweet Safe Harbor tweets on Twitter, one of our followers may be intrigued and look into the organization.

I also liked that the chapter did not deny that face-to-face interaction is still vital for a networked non-profit; just because so much is focused online these days, doesn’t mean face to face should be disregarded. I think about this in relation to our class’s effort for the Chick-Fil-A fundraiser. I sent a personal message on Facebook to about 25 people when I invited them to our event; however, I know many of those people probably did not attend the event, whereas my friends and neighbors that I told to go in-person all attended.

I found the reading interesting because as much as I thought I knew about social media, as an experienced user since my teen years, I had never used it for more than personal purposes before this class and never knew the correct social media lexicon in terms of networking. This dips a little into chapter three, but just from reading ahead I saw that every social network is made up of nodes and ties in “network speak,” and I had never heard those terms before, so I’m interested to read more about that for next week.