Guest Post by Celeste Wroblewski: Seth Godin, Want Nonprofits to Embrace Squidoo? Give Us Case Studies on the ROI

Photo credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hauntedpalace/ / CC BY 2.0

Note from Beth:   Celeste Wroblewski writes the studio 501c blog.  We have been reading each other's blogs for a couple of years since we are both passionately interested in nonprofits and social media effective use.    Yesterday, Celeste left a comment about the Seth Godin outburst about nonprofits on my roundup post.   She refined the comment as a post on her blog and she kindly gave me permission to republish it here.   If you have thoughts, comments, or questions, let's discuss this over in the comments at the original post.

In response to this post by Seth Godin on nonprofits and social media, I repeat what I said three years ago over at the Netsquared Community.

It's what I wrote in 2006, when Godin slammed nonprofits for not using his Web service, Squidoo.

Given the episode in 2006, plus Godin's response to Tom Watson about Squidoo, one can't help but wonder if the nonprofit execs that Godin cites in this week's post were rejecting Squidoo, rather than online fundraising and social media in general.

In fact, a friend from a large nonprofit told me his nonprofit was treated arrogantly by Seth's Company when they refused to get involved with Squidoo -- the nonprofit leaders were made to feel stupid.

And if we're talking about blowing people away, as Seth suggests, you know what would blow me away?  Seth publishing a detailed report showing exact amounts raised by each nonprofit in the Squidoo program, along with case studies of the time and resources they expended. To my knowledge, detailed figures have never been published -- there are only vague statements about thousands raised.

If Seth wants nonprofits to change, and if he wants them to use his product, he should start with a thorough, transparent report on the uses and results of Squidoo.

Comments

[Celeste Wroblewski]

Hi, all. Seth responded here: http://bit.ly/2JKYb4 . (Thanks, Seth.)

Because the comments are being posted at my blog, I want those who might not hop on over there to know that I corrected my poat to say that it was someone FROM Seth's company (not "Seth and company") who interacted with my friend. My use of "Seth and company" was imprecise--I meant to refer only to Seth's organization, not him personally; I apologize.

[Beth]

corrected

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 8:46 PM, wrote:

[twitter.com/susan_m_steele]

I've always wondered why Seth is always hyping Squidoo -- for anybody. Not that I have anything against it; just not sure what the benefits are. Certainly having him share some specific examples of how it might work for nonprofits would be a big help to everyone.