I just had a meeting this morning with a non profit discussing marketing and social media and the world wide web in general. There seems to be this general trend of all out fear when it comes to using the internet for marketing in the non profit world. The sentiment is "OMG what if "they" say horrible things?" or "We can't control what's being said". And they're right. You can't control what other people (the good-intentioned people and the crazy people) are saying. But like it or not people ARE talking about  you.

If you are not at the VERY least listening, you are not in control of your message and you are at the mercy of the Average Joe and his modem. Join the conversation and you have a hand in crafting the image of your organization. Ignore the conversation and you have no one to blame but yourself.

Another sentiment I hear often is that managing social media and internet activities takes too much time and effort. I couldn't disagree more. You have the time to open the mail the postman brings. You have the time to field phone calls from the public. Social media and the internet is no different. Yes, it takes time to read email and answer messages, but these are just tools, just like the mail and the phone are tools.

I also get a sense there is fear about letting your employees run wild on the internet. If you send your employees out to comment on blogs, you can't control everything they say. Face facts, you can't control what they say anyway. If you are allowing your employees to pick up the phone or attend conferences in your organizations name, you trust them enough to interface with the public then you must trust them enough to interact on the web. The internet is no different than a receptionist desk or the telephone, it is simply a new communication vehicle. If your employees are happy, and excited, and passionate about what they do, that enthusiasm will carry over on to the internet and social media. If everyone hates working for you, then you should not let them even touch a telephone or talk to a single customer because that sentiment will carry through also.

The simple fact is that if you do not have a strong internet presence, your organization will find it more and more difficult to survive and thrive in the coming years. The teenagers of today are the Vice Presidents or tomorrow. They are growing up in a world where they cannot function without Google. Their daily lives involve Facebook and other social media outlets. If they cannot find you and engage with you on the web, you simply do not exist in their world.

So take a deep breath, jump in. The social media world is not that scary.