Most organizations have social media profiles but, does your organization have a strategy? What about a content plan? What campaigns are you running? Your social media pages can harness a lot of power but, they can also be a waste of time and energy if they are not being used with purpose. Use these tips to start building your organization’s digital community and creating posts that convert.
Create Profiles on Every Platform
Your organization should have completed profiles on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Tik Tok. It may seem like a lot but, having a profile doesn’t mean you need to be active on the platform, it means, that if someone on that platform searches your organization, they will find you and know how to engage with you further. Pro Tip: make your handle/name the same on all platforms
Optimize Your Profile
When a potential supporter visits your profile they should clearly be able to tell who you are, what your mission is, and how they can support your organization. In addition, make sure all parts of your profile are complete and that you have a clear profile photo.
Choose Which Platforms to be Active On
The size of your social media team likely depends on the size of your organization and will play a large role in how many platforms the social media “team” has the time to use strategically. In a perfect world, all organizations would an entire team dedicated to social media but, this is often not the case, therefore, it is important to choose which platforms will be most effective. When deciding which platforms will be most effective for your nonprofit it is important to think about the demographics of your supporters. How old are your supporters? What is your mission? What information do you have to share? Once you’ve identified your demographics choose the platform/s that will allow you to reach your supporters best.
Create a Content Plan & Social Media Strategy
Your content is what drives people to take action and is the most important part of your nonprofit’s social media presence. Here are a few tips to consider as you develop your content plan and social media strategy.
- Your content should be diverse but, also show consistency. In order to accomplish this pick a few categories for your content, ensure each piece of content fits into one or more categories and then share content from each of those categories equally. Think appreciation, mission, and appeals!
- Visuals, visuals, visuals. Posts with videos and photos perform significantly better than content with only text.
- Don’t underestimate the power of telling a story. Stories have a way of evoking emotions that other copy may not have, give it a try, you might be surprised at the response!
- Always include a call to action. Each post should have a call to action that clearly asks the supporter to do something. This not only engages your followers but, also gives them a sense of purpose and keeps them coming back to your content.
- Tag other profiles, locations, and use hashtags when appropriate. These small additions to a post can boost the number of impressions significantly.
- Repurpose your old content. Don’t recreate the wheel, when you find content that works it’s okay to save it and use it again in the future, in fact, it is encouraged.
- Create ad’s or boost your content. When a piece of original content does well organically there is an opportunity to put money behind the post to reach new followers and expand your community.
- Engage with other accounts. Engaging with other accounts creates more visibility for your organization so start liking and commenting on posts from your supporters and other accounts that are relevant to your mission and to your audience!
- Know when your audience is online. Most platforms provide analytics that will show you when your audience is online so you can post at optimal times. If the platform doesn’t provide the analytics, start testing out what days and times your content performs best.
- Continuously evaluate which content is performing best. When you identify the types of content that are performing best you get to know what your audience finds most engaging and can adjust your content plan to better reach your audience.
Think Long Term
Social Media holds a lot of power as a marketing tool but, it takes time to build a following and to see the positive effects. Don’t think you’re going to create an account and bring in thousands of dollars immediately. Instead, view your social media presence as an extension of your offline interactions and use it is an opportunity to build long term relationships with your followers and gain their trust and support of your mission.
