Delicious & Tumblr Can Assist in Nonprofit Supporter and Donor Engagement

I am continuing with our Social Media Series to benefit nonprofit fundraising with another look at a couple smaller platforms that sometimes get overlooked. I have covered the big guys like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest and looked at Google+ and StumbleUpon in my previous post and today I am spotlighting Delicious and Tumblr.

Delicious

Founded in 2003 Delicious is a social bookmarking platform which is similar to StumbleUpon, whereby users can tag links (or websites), videos, pictures, blog posts and articles that are of interest to them. Through its tagging feature these sites can also be linked together with other sites that contain similar content and within the same categories. Searching on the Delicious platform helps connect users with content that they are interested in and can be explored by tagged categories, making it easier for users to find content that they are interested in.

Although Delicious was redesigned in mid 2011 to compete with other emerging platforms that were providing similar services, they added several new features that eventually were pulled to provide end users the simplicity the original platform provided. Up until July of this year users were able to create groupings of content they were passionate about called ‘stacks’, however this has now been converted and renamed to ‘tags’ providing the same overall grouping functionality.

Bookmarking on the Delicious platform is very easy and can be done once the Delicious ‘bookmarklet’ button is added to your web browser. Then you can add your favorite links by clicking on the bookmaklet, adding the link and descriptive tag keywords. Another key functionality that helps add bookmarks to your feed is by connecting your Delicious account to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. When you share links on these platforms these will automatically be bookmarked on your Delicious account.

Aside from highlighting and sharing cause related content, another great way for nonprofits to use Delicious is by compiling a library or hub of information and resources that is directly related to their cause and that can be shared with your supporters and donors. Tags can be used to organize the content which will help users find resources recommended by your organization. It’s simplicity in design and overall use can provide additional value to your nonprofits engagement initiatives without having to dedicate any significant amount of time to your social media efforts.

Tumblr

An online micro-blogging platform, Tumblr allows users to share multi-media information including text, photos, quotes, links, music and videos from virtually any internet connected device. Founded in 2007 the platform now boasts over 31.8 billion posts since its inception on 74 million unique blogs making it a great channel to share content. However, it’s important to understand how to post effectively to get the best results from this platform as Tumblr does differ from traditional blogging and sharing sites.

Traditionally blogging has been seen as a post consisting of text, images and/or videos exploring specific topic(s) or subject(s). However, as a micro-blogging site, nonprofits can post more than just text on Tumblr and keep the content light, casual and fun. In fact since the platform is most effective because of the ability to post and share multimedia, it makes the network very attractive to a fairly young audience consisting of a demographic that is under the age of 25. Although this may not be an organization’s key target donor demographic, it’s still important to appeal to this growing and socially connected group as they can be advocates for your cause who eventually may become donors.

Ways to better engage on Tumblr include keeping content short and to the point, diversifying what you post by including a variety of photographs, videos, audio and links back to your main blog as well as following and engaging with other users who share your interests. As with all social media platforms you will see stronger results by interacting with other users by reposting and liking their content and building on your followers.

Maintaining a presence on Tumblr certainly has its benefits and can help in engaging a younger audience that will eventually grow into stronger supporters and future donors. Considering them now in your social media plans can reap future rewards.

Due to the success of our Social Media Summer Series, we will be continuing to explore how they can be used to benefit nonprofit fundraising and supporter engagement throughout the year. We will keep readers abreast of emerging platforms as well as provide ongoing tips, updates and developments on existing ones to help nonprofits build on their online strategies.

Feel free to browse through the other posts in my Social Media Series for nonprofits which includes a series on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest along with other related topics.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.