On a recent ICL audio conference, the leader of a grassroots environmental organization lamented the quandary many small groups find themselves in. While the growth of online tools and social networking sites have created many opportunities for engaging people in their work—and some groups are using them with great success—the opportunities have also made things more complicated.

“A lot of information about online tools is confusing and contradictory,” said one exasperated executive director on the audio conference. She even cited ICL’s recent Reality Check article which highlighted two organizations that had different experiences using Facebook as a way to connect with people. “We’re a small organization so investing time and money takes serious consideration,” she continued. “Some of our board members are unfamiliar with online tools and social networking, so it takes a lot of education to make informed decisions that everyone’s comfortable with.”

Organizations face new choices, but the old rules still apply. Finding a variety of ways to engage your members, volunteers, and donors will reap the greatest impact. Our best advice, based on our experience with hundreds of small- to mid-sized environmental and conservation organizations every year, can be summed up in the following three rules.

1. Communicate with people regularly and in different ways. Relationship-building will always be important to developing a strong member constituency and a strong donor base. The difference today is that people have more choices about how they receive information and communicate with others. Successful organizations use different communication tools to reach different segments of the community. They run tests to see which get the best response from their members and key audiences.

With nearly 60% of Facebook users under the age of 35, the social networking site is a natural choice for many organizations seeking to engage that segment of the population. For example, the Pinelands Preservation Alliance (PPA) in New Jersey is aggressively exploring ways to use Facebook in support of its work and now has over 1,000 fans. It uses Facebook to inform them about important issues, upcoming events, and posts pictures of volunteer activities. PPA recently held a tour for its Facebook fans and is experimenting with ways to increase their engagement with this large group of potential members.

Electronic communication will never replace the personal touch when reaching out to a potential donor or talking one-on-one with a member. Frequent e-communication that has a relevant message leads to higher average gifts and member renewal rates. According to research by Convio, the online marketing and fundraising company, online exposure does not reduce lifetime gifts offline, but only adds online gifts.

2. Tie your online engagement strategy to your strategic priorities. While it’s important for all organizations large and small to have an online presence, think carefully about how doing so is part of your overall planning and goals for member engagement. If the goal of your e-communication is to drive members to take action (write a letter, volunteer, attend a meeting, etc.), how will your website help them do it in the fewest clicks? For those people who take action, your organization must have the capacity to provide them with the information, support, and good “customer service” that will ensure that they have the support they need to be effective.

3. Start where you are at and plan for the long-term. As a wise person once said, “Some people spend a lot of time waiting for the bus marked “perfect.” The most successful organizations we have seen are ones that experiment, take some risks, and learn from their mistakes. Most organizations do not have the resources to develop and implement and full-blown plan that seamlessly ties together a website presence, e-alerts, e-newsletters, e-solicitations (not to mention segmenting lists!), social networking, YouTube videos…in addition to print materials and the development of personal relationships.

Your first step might be upgrading your contact management system so you have accurate records to begin communicating with members in different ways. Or, maybe you will try coordinating website sign ups, email campaigns, and Facebook for one member advocacy alert, and see what results you get.

Different organizations have different needs so talk to your colleagues about what they do, why, and how they made the choices they did. Talk to staff, volunteers, and board members to find out what people are excited about and how it supports the work you want to accomplish. Experiment and track the impact. Once you’ve assessed your results you can continue to evolve whatever action you take.

At the end of the audio conference, the exasperated executive director was able to take a breath. “I still have lots of questions about our online presence, but I realize that we don’t have to do everything all at once,” she said. “We can take a few small steps, learn from them, and build our own internal capacity to implement online strategies that truly support our work, not just make us look good!”