Hey NPO Social Media Guru, I've Got Good News...

I am so looking forward to next Monday. I'll be speaking before a rather large group of volunteers from NYC Service's Civic Corps about how they can best use social media to impact organizational missions.The Civic Corps unites a diverse group of AmeriCorps volunteers for 10 months of full-time service, assisting non profit and City agencies in increasing their organizational capacity to engage volunteers and building sustainable volunteer initiatives.Yes, I will talk about the ins and outs of using the newest social media channels and discuss best practices. However, I am most excited to share that it looks like this year will be a banner one for budgets against social media marketing for non-profits.A recent survey conducted by VerticalResponse included 123 non-profit organizations and asked them various questions concerning to the amount of time and money they spend on social networking activities which included; finding content to share with their social media communities, and whether their budgets have increased or decreased year-over-year.The survey found that, more than 60% of nonprofit organizations reported spending more time on social networking sites than they did a year ago. Only 4% of respondents said they spent less time. And about 40% nonprofits reported devoting 6 or more hours per week to social channels. Respondents found that, content to share were the most time staking aspect of social engagement. Further, overall, nonprofit marketing budgets are likely to increase investments on social networking sites. Roughly about 20% of the organizations reported increasing their marketing budget overall and 10% reported increasing their social media budget this year compared to a year ago, suggesting that social networking sites is gaining prime focus by nonprofits. Also, 22% of those surveyed said that they currently are spending on social media/analytics tools, among those, more than one in three spent about $26 per month on tools.The results conclude that non-profits not only find value in social channels, but also it plays an imperative role in their marketing efforts this year.Marketers, rejoice! Now on to proving to ROI...