Many nonprofits flounder when it comes to social media. In fact, it can be a source of embarrassment. Perhaps asking a talented intern or volunteer for help is a good next step. It’s true that without someone very active on social media, it can be difficult to see results. Asking a volunteer or hiring a social media intern is the route many nonprofits take – but is this the right one? The answer, of course, is it depends. It depends primarily on the nonprofit’s social media goals and the volunteer or intern. Additionally, can they manage your social media is a very different question than should they manage your social media. Below are some considerations.
What are your nonprofit’s social media goals?
Do you want to get a lot of feedback from donors or about your programs? Do you really want to expand and use social media as a growth driver? Before deciding who will manage your social media, you need to decide what your social media will be focused on. Who is your target audience, how many people do you plan to reach and what action are you hoping them to take? Ultimately, the decision on who manages your social media might come down to wanting social media to be maintained, managed or used as a driving force for sustainable growth.
What kind of content will you be sharing?
Social media gets a lot easier depending on the digital assets you have at your disposal. If you already have, for example, a very good website, blog that’s consistently updated, plus a large digital library already with photos and/or videos you have permission to share, social media can be smooth sailing. When your nonprofit’s social media manager needs to create something from essentially nothing it’s a lot more difficult and time-consuming.
What social media platforms will your nonprofit use?
If you aim to focus on one or two social media platforms, it becomes a much more manageable task. Trying to be everywhere at once can be overwhelming even for the best and brightest volunteers or interns. Before rushing to decide on who will manage your social media, think through the platforms you think you can reach your target audience best on. This overview of some social media platforms can help.
How large is your nonprofit?
For larger nonprofits, social media can and probably should be much more of a two-way street. Smaller nonprofits might be happy getting regular retweets and shares, larger ones can and really should be trying to get much more quantitative feedback. Someone needs to not only keep up with this feedback, but inspire these interactions. Small or mid-sized nonprofits with big aspirations might want more powerful interactions from social media as well.
Should your regular staff manage your social media?
Social media as an “add-on” task for regular staff members can be a popular, though not always the most effective choice. Having someone who is involved with programming who has direct access to pictures and regular interaction with your stakeholders might be in a better position than an accountant, for example. However, in general, staff who have little expertise beyond their own personal social media endeavors may not be the best social media managers. If you have someone in communications or marketing, they can certainly do a good job with social media. Problem solved. Asking someone outside of communications to do it on the side will take some focus from their main tasks and could limit your social media impact.
Can you find a social media expert to manage it for you for free?
It can be a bit trickier to find someone who really knows what they are doing on social media to work for free. While perhaps an accountant or lawyer will be established enough in their field to be able to have time to help you here and there on the side, the generation most adept at social media is generally right in the beginning or middle of their career. Plus, taking on social media the right ways is more of a time-consuming job than answering a few legal questions or filing your forms once a year. It can’t hurt to try though – you can start by talking to your staff and see if they know anyone.
Is it worth paying an expert?
Again, this depends on your nonprofit’s goals with social media. If you are a large nonprofit, the answer is yes and likely several people should be involved. If you are a small or medium-sized nonprofit with a goal of expanding or improving your nonprofit thanks to social media, the answer is probably yes too. If you are just planning to use social media as a basic communications tool, then you can probably get away without using financial resources here.
Should your nonprofit ask volunteers or interns to manage social media?
Back to our original question. If you can find a social media expert to work for free, that will work perfectly if they have the time to do a good job. A professional marketer or person in communications on staff is obviously a good bet as well. Asking a volunteer or intern to help under their guidance can be a good next step to take some responsibilities off of their shoulders.
Having a volunteer with limited social media knowledge run everything alone might not be the best route. Perhaps they are very involved and have direct and consistent access to programming and you know you can rely on them to be consistent. However, there is little accountability when it comes to volunteers. They can be transitory. You may find yourself with a month or two of tons of posts and a month with none. The same goes for interns. With interns though, you know more precisely how long you have them on staff and can plan around this. Plus, there is usually more accountability either with their school or other documentation they have filled out.
If you choose the intern or volunteer route though, you need to ensure you have clear social media goals, choose your content, your platforms and a short-term and long-term plan. Include both the kind of messages that should be shared and what should not be shared. Having a few sample posts for each platform can give them a head start as well. Make their work as easy as possible by setting aside some time up front. The volunteer or intern can, and really should, be involved in this planning. Someone on-staff should be involved heavily as well. It needs to be written to ensure continuity and if you have multiple people involved in social media.