By Claire Kerr
Originally published in CharityVillage.com on January 30, 2012

With holiday campaigns wrapping up, and spring events still in the planning stages, many nonprofit professionals find that January offers more breathing room than other, busier months.

A downtime period at work is a great time to try a personal experiment...or two, or three!

Most of us have dabbled in one of the "big three" social networks currently reigning as most popular in Canada: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. (Often if only to follow our own causes and events, or share our organization's messages!)

According to Ipsos Reid, 60% of online Canadians maintain at least one social networking profile, with half of us visiting a social networking site at least once a week. If you're like most people, your favourite network is Facebook! It's the number one network of choice for Canadians. It shouldn't surprise you to learn that Twitter and LinkedIn are gaining momentum as well.

You've probably spent a good chunk of 2011 investigating how to leverage these new channels for your organization's gain. Why not push your boundaries and try something new in 2012?

Becoming comfortable with a social network yourself is the best way to understand how your supporters and donors might interact with your organization in social spaces.

Here are three less popular (but no less addictive!) networks that are worthy of a little personal investigation. Give a new network a try yourself before instructing your communications team to paste a new icon in the upper right corner of your organization's website!

Quora

This month, President Obama agreed to answer State of the Union address questions that were submitted through Quora, "an intelligent discussion" site. Intrigued? You're not alone. Quora has become the network for informed opinions on a variety of topics of interest to professionals.

Essentially a question-and-answer site, Quora allows you to post queries, write and review responses, and follow people or topics. Your favourite bloggers, authors, personalities, politicians and journalists may be represented on Quora, all answering questions in their areas of expertise.

Quora users can create a board to collect links, discussions or collaborate with other users. Individuals can vote "up" the most useful or insightful answers. The high quality of responses to questions on Quora has built this network's good reputation.

Why it's worth a try?

Want to know if you should try for an MBA in nonprofit management? Quora is a great place for professional advice from your peers. Posting answers through a Quora profile can also build credibility for yourself and other thought-leaders in your organization. You'll be able to share your knowledge on everything from environmental policy to taxation law with the wider community. What's your unique sector niche?

Maybe you might want to ask a physics professor "Is there a Sackur-Tetrode equation for non-monatomic gases?" Or, maybe you'd rather post an answer to: "What are good charities for a 5 year old to participate in?"

Pinterest, Google+ ... find the right network for you!

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