“The biggest thing that we are recommending to clients is blogging,” said Sharon Gallagher, a partner with Sage Communications, which is not related to Sage North America.

“If you’re going to be doing anything online…to get them going onto your blog is much better than getting them to follow you on Twitter or fan you on Facebook,” Gallagher said.

The United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania has been promoting itself on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for about a year, said Joseph DiVincenzo, its vice president of marketing and communication.

The agency’s workplace campaign raises about $50 million for area charities, so the social media United Way uses aren’t going to replace that any time soon.

But DiVincenzo said, they do allow the agency to reach people it doesn’t reach through its workplace campaign, including people in their 20s and early 30s and self-employed people, such as artists and entrepreneurs.

“It’s not raising us $50 million, but it does put us out there to people who don’t know about the United Way,” he said.

How nonprofits can best use social media is a major topic of debate, even among people who are familiar with them. One place the issue is debated is at the monthly meetings called Net Tuesdays held by Philadelphia NetSquared.

NetSquared is an initiative of TechSoup Global, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that works to help nonprofits throughout the world obtain and use technology. Founded in 2005, its affiliated groups, including Philly NetSquared, hold meetings in more than 50 cities in the United States and elsewhere.

Seth Horwitz, an independent knowledge-management and online-collaboration consultant, said he got in touch with NetSquared about holding Net Tuesdays in Philadelphia about two years ago because he wanted to learn more about using social media for social change.

Net Tuesdays typically attract from 25 to 50 people, including nonprofit staffers, community activists, and information-technology professionals. Each meeting usually has a theme, such as using Twitter or Global Positioning System technology. The upcoming meeting will give people a chance to talk about books about using social media for social change.

“We won’t know until we get there exactly what books will be discussed,” Horwitz said.

Although ways for nonprofits to use social media are still emerging, the most successful strategies involve using each to do what it does best.