Our previous posts this week have been pretty positive about social media, their penetration, and their potential marketing (and for us, that means fundraising) contribution.

Here are some additional views. Take a look at them and then give us your opinion in a quick three-question Agitator survey.

Kate Kaye, a bit of a skeptic, writing in ClickZ asserts: "While attaching causes to brands could help translate tweets and Facebook friends into donations or other tangible ROI, most nonprofits and advocacy groups are far from figuring out how to quantify their social media presence or connect it to real-life activism."

On the other hand, Joe Marchese, writing in Online Spin, takes this view: "Many people become fans because they are already sold on one aspect or another of the brand, and they are very likely already customers (hence the usage of CRM). The power of social media marketing is to reach out to people who are not already fans, outside the setting of direct communication between brands and people — instead generating conversation between people about brands. The difference is between Nike talking to me on Facebook, versus a friend and I talking to each other about Nike on Facebook. Authenticity is found in peer-to-peer communication, not just within a core group of loyal fans, but reaching out to the community at large."

But this study by WorkPlace Media claims: "The overall impact of a brand’s presence on social networking sites was shown to be minimal in terms of impact and perception. 96% of respondents said their opinion of a product brand did not change if that brand had no presence on a social networking site, and only 11% of social networking users reported following any major brand through a social networking site, and just 12% of respondents said their opinion of a brand changes if that brand maintains a social networking presence."

So where do you come out  on social media as a marketing or fundraising channel? Give us your opinion in this quick Social Media Verdict survey.

BTW, I’ll remind you that back in May,when we asked a somewhat tongue-in-cheek question about Twitter, we got this response:

• 34% – Twitter is a killer app and will become hugely important to nonprofit communications and fundraising going forward.   
• 40% – Twitter will be only marginally useful for for most nonprofits, because only a very small segment of their donors and activists will adopt it.   
• 26% – Twitter has all the long term importance and hard benefits to nonprofit communicators and fundraisers as skywriting.

This time our three questions are a bit more serious. We look forward to getting your opinion. Take our Social Media Verdict poll here.

Tom

P.S. You might have noticed we at The Agitator haven’t yet given you our opinion of where social media fit in the fundraising mix. This is a subject Roger and I "discuss" passionately! Stay tuned for our verdict.