For non-profit organizations, social media is a necessary software for driving group engagement and model consciousness.
In line with a 2019 report from the YMCA, 33% of younger folks (aged 18–38) present assist for the causes they care about by sharing them on social media.
However with so many alternative platforms and options, it may be arduous to know the place to focus your vitality for the very best outcomes.
To assist make it simpler, we’re sharing construct a profitable social media technique for non-profits.
Tips on how to Use Social Media for Your Non-profit: A Step-by-step Information
Whether or not you wish to create your very first social account or audit your current content material, these steps will get you heading in the right direction:
Step #1: Outline Your Group’s Social Media Objectives
Step one in your non-profit’s social media advertising journey is to outline your objectives.
To start out, spend time answering the next query: What would you like your social media content material to perform?
As a non-profit, your objectives may embrace any (or all) of the next:
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Construct better model consciousness
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Educate folks about your trigger and mission
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Elevate funds from new and current donors
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Have interaction your current supporters
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Enhance your attain by attracting new audiences
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Encourage different (non-monetary) actions corresponding to volunteer sign-ups
The Innocence Venture — a company dedicated to exonerating the wrongly convicted — for instance, makes use of Fb to encourage donations.
Understand that you have to be setting “SMART” objectives:
S – Particular
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Related
T – Time-bound
In case you observe this framework whereas setting your objectives, will probably be simpler to trace your progress and measure your success.
For a non-profit, your SMART social media objectives may be to boost $5,000 from Instagram donors by the tip of the yr or drive recruit sign-ups by 10% by the tip of Q3, for example.
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Step #2: Decide Your Goal Viewers
The potential viewers for a non-profit on social media is huge — check out the stats:
However not everybody will resonate together with your mission, so earlier than you begin posting, you’ll want to decide your audience (aka the group of individuals most probably to assist you).
The place are your supporters positioned? How previous are they, on common? What pursuits or values have they got in widespread?
Defining your viewers will allow you to focus on them extra successfully with content material tailor-made to their pursuits.
Take The Trevor Venture, for instance. This group, which gives disaster counseling to queer youth, has a widely known and well-defined viewers: LGBTQ+ youngsters and younger adults.
In case you scroll via their social media pages, it’s clear their content material has been designed to enchantment to that group.
The Tory Burch Basis, however, is targeted on empowering ladies entrepreneurs, so their content material is written for an older, business-focused viewers.
TIP: Leverage what you already know about your present supporters (their pursuits, demographics, and many others.) to assist outline your audience on social media. There’s often an overlap between the 2.
Step #3: Construct Your Content material Technique
Along with your non-profit’s social media objectives and audience outlined, it’s time to construct your content material technique.
First, you’ll must establish the very best social media channels on your group.
As an alternative of spreading your self skinny by attempting to determine a presence on each social community, begin by selecting one or two key platforms to concentrate on.
As an illustration, in case you’re primarily concentrating on Gen Z, it’s possible you’ll wish to prioritize TikTok and Instagram. But when your audience is new mothers, you’ll in all probability discover extra success on Fb and Pinterest.
Take the Malala Fund for instance.
Whereas current on just about each social community, they put the vast majority of their concentrate on TikTok and Instagram to have interaction with adolescent women and younger ladies.
Step #4: Plan and Schedule Your Content material
As soon as you already know which social networks to concentrate on, you’re prepared to start out planning your content material.
To maintain your posts organized, you’ll be able to create a digital content material calendar that outlines what you’re going to submit and when — and plan a number of weeks (and even months) upfront.
Whereas placing your calendar collectively, preserve the next finest practices in thoughts:
**1. Share Tales About Individuals
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Take your social media followers behind the scenes of your non-profit by introducing them to your group, main donors, and the communities your group helps.
**2. Prioritize Visible Content material
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Research present that visible content material far out-performs text-only content material on social media. Individuals are 3x extra doubtless to have interaction with Tweets that embrace visuals, and movies out-perform static photographs on most social media platforms.
**3. Create Straightforward-to-share, Academic Content material
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As a non-profit, you’re thought of a topic professional in your trade.
Reap the benefits of that through the use of your professional standing to share worthwhile, reliable, academic content material.
Think about creating carousel posts on Instagram or infographics — they’re visually interesting and a extra digestible strategy to share info.
**4. Encourage Engagement With Clear Calls-to-action (CTAs)
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At all times embrace clear CTAs to let followers know assist your trigger.
Ocean conservation non-profit, Oceana not solely straight asks followers to “TAKE ACTION,” however additionally they drive clicks to a webpage with a petition web site.
5. Think about Partnering With Like-minded Creators and Manufacturers
One of the efficient methods to spice up your attain on any social community is to companion with individuals who share your values.
By working with influencers or creators, you’ll be able to leverage their viewers to extend consciousness of your trigger and develop your following.
New to the world of influencer advertising? Uncover every little thing you’ll want to execute your first collaboration on this weblog submit: The Final Information to Influencer Advertising
Step #5: Monitor and Measure Your Outcomes
To find out what content material works finest on your non-profit on social media, it’s all the time value experimenting and monitoring how effectively several types of posts carry out.
In case you’ve created a “enterprise: non-profit” account (out there on each social community) you’ll have the ability to entry Instagram Analytics to be taught extra about your posts’ efficiency.
You may be taught extra about who your viewers is, what instances of day they’re lively on-line, and what sort of content material they interact with most frequently.
You can even use your Later’s Instagram Analytics characteristic for an easy-to-understand, visible overview of your social posts’ efficiency.
Social media advertising generally is a game-changer for non-profits. It’s a strong software that will help you obtain your objectives and attain all-new audiences.
However constructing out a social media plan requires trial and error, so be affected person, check out new content material, and refine your social technique when obligatory.
You’ll be a social media professional very quickly!
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