Social media platforms are a pool of various interests, with people from all walks of life and demographics frequenting them daily. They serve as a point of connection for many users, and many organizations and businesses are leveraging them.
Non-profits are certainly not left out of the mix as they look to organize successful fundraising campaigns. Social media channels can be used to raise awareness about such campaigns and even help you generate more revenue.
But this won’t come out of the blues; you have got to take note of some things. In view of this, we have decided to share 11 essential tips that will guarantee your success as you use social media for your campaigns.
1. Create A Unique Non-Profit Account
The first port of call when attempting to use social media for your non-profit operations successfully is to create a unique account. The account should be in the name of your non-profit organization, with some brand elements infused into it. This is crucial for brand communication and awareness as people become more conversant with your organization.
The non-profit’s vision and mission should be distinctively highlighted on the page [bearing the account], and you can also add some other relevant information. Visitors do not have to go through hassles before getting a grasp of why your non-profit page exists. You should be particular about using simple, relatable words – and stories maybe.
The essence of having the unique account is to keep your non-profit operations independent of your personal social media page. It’s all about creating a clear boundary between organizational affairs and personal matters. This does not, however, mean you cannot share the post from the non-profit’s account on your page from time to time.
2. Maximize the Available Free Resources
There are multiple free resources available for non-profits’ use on social media. This is one of those growth hacks every nonprofit organization should utilize. Look out for these and save some costs while maximizing the time and efforts committed to planning. For one, you can jump on free training resources on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, and LinkedIn for valuable information on non-profit operations.
Platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc., also have resources non-profits can use to manage or monitor their progress. You can find essential resources like fundraising/charitable tools for your account setup on YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. You can make operations more seamless and effective if you learn to optimize these resources.
However, you have to meet specific requirements before you can use these tools. The requirements are not always a tough nut to crack for any non-profit with genuine charity-centered cause or objective. You should check them out whenever possible to see if the eligibility criteria are within reach.
3. Formulate Social Media Policies and Guidelines
Different social media platforms have policies and guidelines for non-profit operations, and these must be adhered to. But nothing stops you from having standards to guide your non-profit activities on social media. This is acceptable, provided they do not go against the platform’s policies.
A sound policy/guideline framework is intended to give directions on some cogent matters. For instance, consider incorporating policies on confidentiality, security protocols, and the conduct of volunteers and employees. That aside, guidelines on the best practices, use of specific materials/resources, etc., can also be provided for your team members.
To an extent, the formulation and eventual implementation of such policies and guidelines can raise your reputation. This is because the level of organization inherent in your non-profit can be reflected in the policy setup. Plus, it will be easier to earn the trust of stakeholders as you commit to these policies. In the long run, highly successful fundraising campaigns can be forged from there.
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4. Develop a Content Strategy and Calendar
You should develop a content strategy to help you stay focused on the big picture – a successful social media run for your non-profit. To this end, you will need to determine how frequently you want to post on social media and the timing of every post. You will be better guided on your non-profit content creation with a properly developed strategy in place.
You should be aware on which social network you should share content most frequently most also at what time. Surveys have shown that posts made early in the morning (between 6–8 a.m.), around noon, and towards the evening (6–8 p.m.) usually thrive better. This is because social media users are active during these periods; thus, the chances of your posts being viewed are increased. That said, you don’t have to post every day of the week; you can space them out strategically.
5. Share Appealing and Engaging Posts Regularly
It’s one thing for social media users to stumble upon your posts, and it’s another thing for them to respond graciously. To get media attention for your cause, you must intentionally create a ‘hook’ by putting forth appealing/engaging content.
Give your audience a reason to always pick an interest and look up to your next posts. It won’t be out of place to say that the reason for creating the non-profit social page is to woo social media users in the first instance. So, you cannot afford to backtrack on putting out highly engaging posts if you desire to keep the page relevant.
6. Run Polls Related to What You Do
Still on engaging your audience, you can create polls on your non-profit account from time to time. The polls can be about upcoming fundraising campaigns or other related events. For instance, consider asking questions like “what do you do with waste foods?” as you plan towards a food drive.
Over and above all, you should pick on the interest of the audience when running your polls. More so, you can look to create polls based on current trends. This could have doing some background work to know what the demographic you intend to reach are particular about per time. Over and above all, it helps to keep them closer, and you can leverage this to have outstanding outcomes from your fundraising campaigns.
7. Build Your Community Intentionally
With every engagement on social media comes the opportunity to build a community. Therefore, you should be intentional about this, ensuring a good flow in the community room. This can form the basis for creating a peer-to-peer network, which can significantly boost your fundraising campaigns.
Again, you should learn to use the data generated from the polls, share and like frequency to make informed decisions as you aim to create the community. It’s worth noting that the vibrancy of your nonprofit community will heavily dependent (on) and sustained by people and effort you put into it. Hence, it is necessary to make it about them while not forgetting the primary objective – your charity cause.
8. Consider Hashtag/Viral Video Campaign
You should be mindful to include hashtags under your posts to make them trend. This ultimately raises the level of awareness and makes your fundraising communications more impactful. Relatedly, viral video campaigns should also increase engagement on your non-profit page.
You should find a way of making your followers, volunteers, and community members to lead the cause. This will make the whole campaign more impactful, as more people get to know about what you do.
9. Organize Online Fundraising Events
Online fundraising events can be routinely hosted on your non-profit page. You can go live on Facebook or Instagram to do a silent auction or watch party. The resources available on these platforms have made it easy to start fundraising events online. Online fundraising events could sometimes see non-profits generating more revenues than what is achievable offline – it’s best to run complementary events, nonetheless.
In a similar vein, the medium can be used in facilitating online workshops for educating employees and other stakeholders. Your non-profit organization will have a better chance at scaling up when you invest in human capital.
Leverage social media for nonprofits to raise awareness and drive donations today!
10. Incorporate Donation Button
Incorporating a donation button on the non-profit page would be helpful and making sure your nonprofit’s UX is smooth, especially if you are a full-fledged charitable organization. With this, people can easily donate to the cause as they wish at any point in time. Again, you shouldn’t forget to include the donation link in the posts to solicit funds. In light of this, you should make sure the call to action (CTA) is as clear as possible – there should be no ambiguity about it.
11. Acknowledge Your Stakeholders – Donors, Volunteers, And Employees
For sustained impact, you should leverage social media to acknowledge everyone contributing to the attainment of your (fundraising) goals in one way or the other. For your nonprofits’ digital marketing strategy, devote some time to appreciate donors, volunteers, and employees regularly – not just after the completion of a project. This act [of acknowledgment] can inspire and even make them double down to do more – ensuring that more vulnerable ones are reached with the needed aid.
Final Words about Social Media Management and Marketing Tips for Non-Profits
Social media is there to explore for all non-profits looking to make a statement with their operations or fundraising activities. It is, however, those that take note of and implement specific strategies that would get the most out of social media. You must have gotten some vital details on these in the discourse above.
Growth Hackers is an award-winning digital marketing and growth hacking agency helping businesses from all over the world grow. There is no fluff with Growth Hackers. We help entrepreneurs, business owners and nonprofits apply our social media management and marketing tips, increase their productivity, generate qualified leads, optimize their conversion rate, gather and analyze data analytics, acquire and retain users and increase sales. We go further than brand awareness and exposure. We make sure that the strategies we implement move the needle so your business grow, strive and succeed. If you too want your business to reach new heights, contact Growth Hackers today so we can discuss about your brand and create a custom growth plan for you. You’re just one click away to skyrocket your business.
