For a business or a nonprofit, the idea of taking on a new marketing strategy can be overwhelming.
 But in today's economy, you'll be hard pressed to find a more cost efficient way to better connect with your supporters and the community.
 Tools like blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are free to use.
All you need is a commitment to your social media strategy.
With that in mind, let me cover some concepts that can help you succeed:  Take some baby steps:  Your first move should be to set up accounts at the social media sites you want to use.
This doesn't take a lot of time.
You'll want make sure that you're using and uploading the correct contact information, logos, and summary of your organization.
 While this may not be the most exciting task, it's an important thing to do first.
Don't go public until you're ready: To many organizations try to jump into the social media pool with out knowing whether they can swim.
If you're creating a blog, write a few posts before you publish any.
They'll be safely stored online until you're ready to share them with the world.
This can take away some of the pressure to produce content.
Also, decide how often you want to post on your blog.
Make sure it's a realistic and reachable goal.
Make a time commitment: Decide how much time you can spend on social media every day.
This can be a minimum amount and it would be great if you can do more.
But often people make a big time commitment that they can't fulfill after a few days.
Then they get frustrated and nothing gets done.
To prevent this, pick a number and don't leave the office until you've fulfilled it.
Ten minutes a day may not sound like much but in a typical month it can add up to more than three and a half hours.