Social Media for Breakfast?

Social media is a big, wide open subject - and often, users (or prospective users), especially those who want to use its power to do good for their business or organization, struggle to find ways to optimize their use.

Luckily, because this is such a wide open subject, there's lots of room for discussion and debate about different strategies.  Even more fortunately, Calgary's social media community is incredibly warm, open and interested in discussion and sharing.

It's in these conditions that Social Media Breakfast Calgary (SMBYYC) began in our city over 18 months ago, based on a similar event in other cities.  I've attended many of these as a guest and participant, and have learned a great deal, and been provoked to think, discuss and learn on many facets of the use of these tools.  On July 22nd, I was fortunate enough to be able to speak with the group about how many nonprofits are using (or not using) social media, and the challenges and advantages they may experience in doing so.

However, the most interesting part of the conversation (at least for me!) took place around measuring the return on social media after the main presentation.  What do you think - can the benefits of social media be measured in numbers?  What are your goals in using social media, and how do you know if they're being met?

If you're so inclined, you can view a video of the presentation here (discussion on return starts around 40 minutes in).  The video that I tried to use in the presentation can be found here.  As well, a few people asked for a link to the study on funds raised through social media; it's located at www.netwitsthinktank.com.

Huge thanks to all who supported SMBYYC 20!

Breakfast sponsor: @urbanlighthouse

Venue: @mckenzietowneRA

Video taping: @TimboMatrixmvcc and @hangarcat 

The organizing committee:
Alex Poda -  @LexPoda, @McQDesign
Scott Baird - @mediapirate
Mike Spear - @mikesgene
Roger Kondrat - @west17media, @roger
Chett Matchett - @chett12, @podiumventures, @binstinctsgroup
Donna McTaggart - @donnamct
Eric Vondran - @nscafe, @dheadspaceb, @reviewskawphy
John Bardos - @smbyyc, @smbyeg @ideaeconomy, @jetsetcitizen