You understand the value of social media, but for some reason your company insists on blocking use of social media sites by employees. As of last October, half of all US businesses still block social networks, but that number is dropping. Even the US Military announced this week that it has relaxed it's policy on social media use by the troops.

Originally published on the TechSoup Blog.

Are you ready to start using social media in your organization? It's a more complicated question than you might think: adopting new media necessarily means giving up a certain degree of control over your message, and there's a host of reasons not to loosen the reins. On the other hand, losing that control can bring your message to exponentially more people than were previously possible. Consider the story of Mister Splashy Pants (via):

The Social Media for Social Good collection from NTEN and NetSquared calls for your case studies in leveraging social media tools in your program work.

Social Media for Social Good

Everywhere you turn, you’re hearing about social media. Especially when it comes to fundraising. But at NTEN and NetSquared, we know that social media is good for a lot more than raising money. We know that social media can be used to change the world. That’s why we’re launching the Social Media for Social Good case study collection!

There are a lot of well-intentioned people in the world with groundbreaking ideas to make a real difference.  They'll sit down and strategize how to raise the funds, what they're going to do and where they're going to go.  However, often times a very fundamental piece of the equation is left out: Story-telling.

This is not your 5-year-olds definition of story-telling, this is the concept of effectively spreading the word about your mission in a passionate and compelling way, and at the same time, reaching those people who want and/or need to hear it.

This post is cross-posted from the #4Change blog here.

Running campaigns in support of one or many great causes can be very time consuming and demanding for all of those who are determined to make a change. It seems easier in the beginning when a fresh campaign for a cause is just launched – supporters are jumping on board, influencers are engaged, buzz is flying about, awareness is spreading, change is happening. But what happens when the social magic begins to wear off and change starts to feel more like a chore then a contribution?

The Facebook application Causes recently announced it hit the $20 Million mark in donations.  The America's Giving Challenge from Case Foundation spurred $2.1 Million in donations for charities this past winter.  But, despite these numbers, for most organizations and causes raising money via social media is still a hard thing to do.  There are different rules and new opportunities with online fundraising and every platform or application comes

To say that the last week was “intense” would be an understatement. From the minute the earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement pulled out all stops to help the people on the ground.

Communications is only a small part of that response and social media an even smaller part. Nevertheless – here are my observations:

http://sm4good.com/2010/01/24/haiti-earthquake-social-media-response/

Over the last week, technology has played an unprecedented role in bringing aid to and saving lives in Haiti. Over $22 million has been raised by the American Red Cross via text message (about a fifth of total Haiti-related giving to the organization so far). And then there's the role that Facebook and Twitter are playing.

More and more nonprofits are exploring and finding benefits from using new social media tools like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter in their online communications. But while the tools themselves can be relatively straightforward to learn and adopt, many organizations struggle with how to effectively coordinate messaging and communications across their suite of online channels – from web and email, to blogs and social media, and beyond.