from Philanthropy News Digest:

Four Reasons Why You Need an In-House Social Network

Humans were built to connect with others – to form communities. And online communities are a natural extension of our real-world lives. In an online community, your supporters are surrounded by, and consistently interact with, like-minded people with similar interests and passions. The result is a new level of energy, heightened communication, and a significantly greater exchange of opinions and knowledge.

Facebook has its place, as do other public social networks. (By the way, I’m a huge fan of nonprofits using more public or third-party social networking sites such as Facebook…) On the other hand, as a nonprofit, don’t you want to know as much as you can about the interaction, relationship building, opinion sharing, and engagement that’s going on around your issue? Wouldn’t you like to learn more about the people who are supporting you by capturing that data?