This blog post is part of our series on Social Media for Social Enterprise: How non-profits can earn revenue with Web 2.0.

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Welcome to the latest installment in our series on revenue sources for non-profit social media projects. Today, I'm looking at what many non-profits first think of (and often, recoil at) when it comes to earning money online: advertising.

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Social Signal has worked with many different non-profit organizations, of varying size and means, to create a variety of social media sites, of varying scale and ambition. One thing that just about every non-profit client (and most for-profit clients) ask is about the return on investment. How can non-profits assess the financial value of their social media investments? And perhaps even more fundamentally, how can they find the money to pay for sites that can be costly to build, and just as costly to run?

I just wrapped up a panel with David Jones of Fleishman-Hillard and HarperCollins' Steve Osgoode, ably animated by Scotiabank's Michael Seaton. Very smart people, these folks.

The subject was whether it's possible to market in social media and virtual worlds. But one theme kept coming up again and again: risk.

What if users say bad things about us on our blog? What if nobody shows up to participate? What if this flops?

Here's where I come down on those questions:

There's a chance of failure with any project, but the relative newness of social media adds an extra dimension of uncertainty. And while there are answers to all of those questions, there's no avoiding the fact that innovation and risk go hand in hand.

Can you mitigate that risk? Absolutely. Good participation design goes a long way toward avoiding a flop; a smart moderator can encourage productive conversations; a savvy organization can engage its critics.

But here's the thing: when you're charting new territory, then no matter how successful or unsuccessful each venture may be, it always leaves you with something valuable: knowledge.

Engaging audiences in participation and one-to-one / many-to-one / many-to-many conversations is, for most organizations, a completely new skill. The more of it you do, the more you learn; the more you exercise that muscle, the stronger it becomes.

The real risk doesn't lie in having a project that doesn't succeed, or doesn't succeed in quite the way you'd hoped. The real risk is being taken by organizations that aren't investing in learning those conversational skills – because increasingly, the public is coming to expect them. And if a company, organization or agency isn't listening, they'll turn to one that does.

Other bloggers' takes on the conference:

• Joseph Thornley: "Do you know your citizen marketers?"
• Arieh Singer: Liveblogging from the CMA's WOM Conference
• DaniGirl: Dani's day out in Toronto
  
• Scott K. Mac Donald: From Mass to Grass, Reflections on Mass to Grass I and Part II
• Provokat: Our creative director in T.O. for a day (et en français)
• Sean at CrapHammer: CMA my WOM
• Michael Seaton: Gut Marketing
  
• Cybrarian: Mass to Grass: Canada's Word of Mouth Marketing Conference
• ...and impresario Sean Moffitt's look-ahead post
  

I've just started a facebook group for Oberlin Alumni in Social Technology" -- either nonprofit technology specifically, or social media more generally. I have this theory that the nptech scene must include a fair number of Obies, and I'd love to connect with them. So I'm starting the hunt, and hoping I might even surface some fellow alums who will be at the upcoming NTEN conference in DC. If you're an Obie and you're reading this, please join the Facebook group or post a comment here.