6 Tips: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media - iContact

• Updated on: 2017-12-10
• Read original article here

Just like for-profit organizations, social media has become essential for nonprofits as a method of spreading awareness about a cause, connecting with a target audience, and ultimately, raising funds.

If you’re new to social media, here are six useful tips that can help your nonprofit stay front and center on social media channels.

The first thing to consider when initiating a social media campaign is to determine a goal. Do you want to raise awareness for your cause? Do you want to inspire others? Do you want to raise money or have people attend or volunteer for a charity event?

Knowing the purpose of your campaign will guide you to create the right type of content and connect with the people who will engage with your organization’s mission.

Social media marketing should always be a mix of original content (like announcing events or sharing your blog posts and other marketing content) and shared content from sources that connect with your audience. For example, if you ran a local pet shelter, you could share content from other nonprofit organizations like the ASPCA or tips from influencers like the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan.

Kevan Lee fromBuffersuggests you keep the Rule of Thirds in mind when mixing up your content. This means that ⅓ of posts are about you, ⅓ are curated content, and ⅓ are conversations.

Another nifty tip is to use the “Three As” in your content creation. These include:

People love visual content, especially on social media. Whether it’s an inspiring photo, an eye-catching infographic, or a donate button on a YouTube video, the more visual content you have, the more likely it will be shared and resonate with your target audience.

Take the time to begin building a good image library if you don’t already have one. Great images can be an important part of telling your story, sometimes a lot more effectively than text alone can.

If you’ve done your homework in advance, you know the channels where your specific audience prefers to spend most of its time. Or you can follow the lead of other nonprofits —98% to be exact— and be active on Facebook. Other popular channels used by nonprofits are Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Besides using those channels, don’t be afraid to be innovative and try newer social channels. For example, only15% of nonprofits use Instagram. That could be a good opportunity to tap into a market that is overlooked by nonprofits.

Nonprofits rely on the support of others to succeed. When you partner your social campaigns with email marketing, you amplify your message to reach the right people and communicate the right message without denting already small budgets.

When thinking about your email marketing campaign, make sure you focus on:

“We need to stop talking about me, me, me, and start talking about them, the donors,” Mark Horvath from Invisible People toldHootsuite.

By telling the story of your donors and not just the nonprofit, you’re proving they are valuable members of the community and their efforts are a major part of your organization’s story.

How will you determine the success of your social media campaign? In most cases, brands examine engagement analytics such as shares, comments, or likes. Nonprofits, however, prefer to look at the amount of donations they have received after launching a campaign. In fact, studies have found this is the case with around half of nonprofits.

Yet, numbers don’t tell the whole story. You also want to look at the broader impact of your social media activities. Do you remember the ice bucket challenge? The popular campaign generated a ton of participation on social media and raised more than $200 million; the viral campaign ultimatelylead to the breakthrough discovery of a new gene associated with the disease. The money raised from the campaign was able to fund research projects, such as Project MinE, which identified the new gene.

“It’s very exciting because it shows everyone who contributed to the ice bucket challenge that their donation had an impact on the research,” said Brian Frederick, executive vice-president of communications and development at the ALS Association. “The work that Project MinE is doing is really important, and the discovery of this new gene will help us better understand ALS.”

The numbers are important, but the overall impact is also a big piece of  your success.

How has your nonprofit used social media? Share your own tips in the comments below.