Rummaging through a number of “how to do not-for-profit social networking” posts, I came across one rarely cited but vitally important piece of advice: Be prepared for the big moment.

Typically it takes time for a message to percolate when it doesn’t have a supporting marketing budget. But whatever your effort is, there will come a moment that puts you in the news. Will you be able to retain all of the people that show up at your door? For nonprofits, a example scenario is the Red Cross web site after Hurricane Katrina hit. For a consumer Internet vendor, it could be a great mention in digg. (christine.net)

I suspect there are a lot of government communicators and marketers trying to scrape together the money, the infrastructure and the political support for social media projects - without giving thought to the strain that a truly successful outreach or marketing effort could place on your project and your shop as a whole.