Social media can be extremely helpful for non-profits to share updates and fundraise, but it can also be hard to figure out what the best strategies are. Here are five strategies that have proven successful for other non-profits!
1. Create a social media marketing plan.
What are your objectives, and how will you meet them via social media? These could be fundraising, website click-throughs, pledges, higher Facebook engagement, etc.
Here’s a template for you to try: Marketo’s Social Media Tactical Plan
2. Curate existing content.
Many non-profits aren’t sure what content to share, or are afraid they don’t have enough. You probably already have a lot of content on your website, or follow other sources that have content you would want to share via social. Curating content means gathering that content (i.e. links, articles, blogs, images, videos, etc.) and adding a message (or post) to it to share via social.
For example, let’s say you want to share this article: The Benefits of Giving to Charity
You might curate it for Facebook so it looks something like this:
3. Ask your staff & networks to engage.
As space in social feeds becomes more and more competitive, it’s important (especially on Facebook – if you haven’t heard of EdgeRank, read about it here) to utilize the people who support you to help share and expand your reach on social media. The higher your reach, the higher your engagement will be. Ask your staff to like, share, retweet, or pin your content on their personal channels!
4. Be authentic & personal.
Organizations and business are too often failing to find their voice on social media, and most of all, be personal! Social media is after all, social. People want to talk to people – not a corporate policy or official statement (usually). The fact is, there are people that work for your organization or brand, and you should be transparent about that on social. Let your social media have a voice, an authentic and personal voice, and watch how your community engagement grows.
Here are a few of our favorite Facebook Fan Pages with great voices:
- All Hands Volunteers
- Invisible Children
- Humane Society of the United States
- Pangea Educational Development (One of our partners!)
What strategies have worked well for your non-profit? Share them in the comments or tweet us at @GA_Foundation.
About the author: Kayla Patterson graduated with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from Colorado State University while working for GoAbroad.com, and has been there ever since. Kayla serves as the GoMedia Manager and works very closely with GoSocial, a comprehensive social media management and consulting service. She is also the founder of SocialMediaForStudents.com, and the Marketing & Social Media Advisor for the GoAbroad Foundation. When she’s not pouring over the latest social media news, she enjoys movies, country music, dessert, shopping, and traveling the world! Follow her on Twitter: @kaylapatt