If your nonprofit is looking for an extra boost via social media, these steps for developing a nonprofit social media presence will help.
By developing your nonprofit’s social media strategy and putting it into practice, your nonprofit can make more of a digital impact. While it can be helpful to bring in some social media expertise through a nonprofit digital media agency like TreeRoots Nonprofits, your nonprofit does not need to invest a lot of time or money to make significant improvements. You can improve your nonprofit’s social media presence with a big push and an hour a week or over time by investing a few hours per week both strategizing and taking action.
1. Define A Social Media Strategy For Your Nonprofit
Take some time to write out what your nonprofit wants to accomplish with social media this year and how you can get there. You should have both social media goals and platform-specific goals. It’s a great idea to define who will be involved in your nonprofit social media team. You might even want to build a social media content calendar or think about defining a social media marketing budget.
2. Experiment With Your Nonprofit’s Social Media Posts
You don’t want to experiment too much with which social media platforms your nonprofit uses on but you should experiment with your posts. There is no one size fits all when it comes to what works for nonprofits. Every nonprofit and every audience is different. Post original content from supporters. Or post a quiz or industry news. Repost from another organization. Mix it up and see what hits.
TIP: One strategy for Facebook that can help grow your audience is posting popular news articles related to your cause but not necessarily about your cause. For example, if you run an education oriented nonprofit you might post an article about a new popular ed tech device. Facebook might give more reach to this post as it’s a popular article and people who do not currently like your nonprofit’s page might see it. If it is a very shareable piece of content then then your followers will share with their audience too. You can then invite people who like the content but don’t like your page to like your page.
3. Follow The Build Measure Learn Methodology With Your Nonprofit’s Social Media Strategy
The Lean Start-Up methodology has a lot to offer nonprofits and their social media teams.
Your nonprofit should know what you are measuring and why. Doing the same thing over and over again leads to the same results. Experimenting for the sake of experimenting alone doesn’t move the needle either. Post, measure its impact and learn. Over time this year you will get better and better at engaging the right supporters at the right time. This SlideShare can help evaluate social media metrics.
4. Develop A Central Hub For Your Nonprofit’s Social Media Activity
A central hub for interacting with your supporters is essential. You can be using the Google Ad Grant Cheat Sheet to help make the most of your website traffic and build an email list. But it’s difficult to grow a community with email alone. Email is most often not a two-way street.
This is where social media can come into play. You should focus efforts on one platform and really try to communicate there in real-time. Connect with your supporters. Reach out to other like-minded organizations.
If you don’t have a community hub already and have a strong Facebook community, perhaps a Facebook Group is worth a shot.
5. Look To Provide Value For Your Social Media Followers
Of course you need to stay true to your mission – this is why you exist. So you should be posting about your organization and making occasional asks to support your mission with volunteering, fundraising, etc. You don’t need to be afraid to post these asks once in a while. On the flip side of that, remember that social media can push your cause and the ideas behind it forward.
Be thinking about what content provides value to your audience and mission and not always about what your followers can do for your nonprofit. Keep in mind being thankful to people or celebrating your shared success can provide a lot of value to someone’s day too. Finding a good balance between providing value for your audience and occasionally asking for help to support your mission can be tricky but it’s a great goal
6. Use Video For Social Media Posts
Video content is becoming more and more invaluable and easier to make.
Tools like lumen5 can help turn blog posts into video. You could try an animated video with animaker. Another option would be to get a cheap lapel mic and record a talking-head video on a good phone for a high-quality video. Additionally, you can explain why your nonprofit is important to you and ask your followers to do the same. These can be cut very easily on free software on your computer like iMovie. You could also try a live video of a behind the scenes of your nonprofit – this are great if you’re active on Instagram or YouTube.
There’s many types of easy videos you can use to test out videos. If successful, it might be worth investing in professional help. But make it a goal to test a video strategy that your nonprofit can use over and over again without breaking the budget.
Nonprofit Social Media Conclusion
Social media for nonprofits is not something that should be looked at as “one more thing”. Done in the right way, it can be energizing not only to your nonprofit’s supporters but also to your team. Test out new approaches and hone in on the strategies that work for both your team and your supporters.
If you want help, please sign up for a free digital evaluation with a digital marketing expert.
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