Best in terms of ethics as well as strategy?

Charities, non-profits and social enterprises need to avoid dodgy social media tactics and maintain and celebrate their positive values at all times...

Charities need to beware of unethical social media tactics and strive for the highest possible standards of social media output...

With more and more debate going on about the value of social media strategies for non-profits and charities, it's worth reminding yourself that consultants from the private and public sector; or with a background in those fields may not always have all the answers to social media networking...

Such strategy building needs to be developed on a case for case basis and sometimes the best people to do it are those savvy people from within your organisation...

Social media output is by no means a magic bullet to transform a non-profit’s fortunes in terms of fundraising or awareness campaigns...

However, it clearly is transforming the profiles of many non-profits...

Ultimately, it's about end results – in terms of organisational goal success, but like many things in life the journey is as often as important as what happens when you cross the finishing line...

Any social media campaign should set out with the simple question: What do you want to achieve by investing time maybe, and unless it is operated by volunteers, then money as well into your social media campaign?

What audience are you trying to attract? Is it a niche audience or are you speaking to a universal audience?

What values are you seeking to convey? Questions asked at the beginning and a guideline as to what it is you want to achieve with your social media campaign will help you establish a successful use of social media...

Which ultimately at the end of the day is about publishing positive updates and reports and connecting with your supporters, colleagues and partners...

While much is made of the fact that those in the private industry have more advanced experience of web marketing; and there are superb proponents of marketing in private industry, clearly, as well as external agencies, however there are also terrible examples...

So follow your instinct and ultimately the best advice is to be genuine...

There are pitfalls to avoid such as not keeping your social media network updated.

Don't go off topic completely - it looks like bad marketing trying to drum up too much support; and can appear in marketing speak even to be dreaded ‘spam’, which could end you up in trouble with the search engines and social media providers...

There are numerous tactics employed by private companies and even public sector departments that are disingenuous that would make a large article indeed, including posting comments masquerading as members of the public, i.e. fake comments offering praise and support...

It's common sense much of it...and each strategy needs to be bespoke, but building up trust over the long-term, focusing on your positives, your achievements, encouraging partnership in a genuine and human way, are themes that are proving highly successful for many charities...

Having a little fun occasionally with social media, these are themes that for many charities are just examples of expansions of celebrating and developing the good team work that exists in their organisation, effective management, etc...

These basics of functional organisations that value their members and where the members value the work they do and the clients they support... These values can be communicated via social media naturally and can help charities' social media sites to expand their brands and their supporter base exponentially...

Take UNICEF for instance that has recently reached two million likes on Facebook and is growing every week by about 17,000 new likes...

Don't expect overnight or amazing successes from social media output in terms of revenues... Think of it as spreading the good news about what you do, building your brand to a wider community...

It is possible to work out hard Return on Investment (ROI) i.e. whether the return from social media is generating actual revenues or membership sign ups. Developing such systems may involve customer research or the set-up of web tracking systems...

However, by taking an interest in positive and relevant subjects, groups and individuals outside your organisation as well as in; and developing and signifying to the world you are a community that you are proud to be a part of, staying close to your high standards and ethics at all times; ultimately this will become a community that others are likely to want to join in and become a part of as well...