Nonprofit Social Media Marketing
Have you ever tried looking for a brand or organization and went straight to social media to do so? I know I have more than once. Social media is how someone gains insight into organizations and what they are about. Nonprofits need to be using the power of social media for their organization.
Why Nonprofits Need Social Media
Social media is one asset that not all nonprofit organizations are using. Aside from being used to communicate and engage with audiences, social media can help nonprofits reach their goals. Nonprofits typically have goals for their organization, such as fundraising, community engagement, education, brand building, and program recruitment, which social media can help with.
Obtaining Nonprofit Goals
Social media lets anyone, including organizations, reach a wide audience. The benefit to nonprofits is that using these platforms is not very costly. However, they can choose to invest some financing into certain tools to help craft content or schedule posts ahead of time.
To retain audience members, messages need to be crafted that will engage supporters. So, using a social media monitoring or listening tool such as Hootsuite will help determine what is said about the brand and what types of post followers respond well to.
Social media for organizations such as these can be powerful tools, so designing a social media marketing strategy is very important. This strategy can align posts with the goals they have for their social media and the goals for the organization altogether. Researching best practices to obtain those goals through social media and even learning more about each platform can help develop a strong strategy. One thing to look for are what kinds of posts do well on certain platforms.
Additionally, “social media is not just about broadcasting information about your nonprofit(MissionBox, 2020).” Take the time to interact with your followers. Ask questions in posts or provide some call to action, then respond to their questions and comments. Even liking their comments will help develop a connection. Remember, “frequent posts and interactions can promote visibility and community engagement (MissionBox).”
Take Note
Although social media can provide nonprofits with some great benefits and help them achieve their goals, it might not be best for all organizations. When it comes to nonprofits, oftentimes they are very short staffed, with not even a handful of team members. For such a small organization, it can be difficult to maintain their online presence. “Staying active and engaging with your online community takes a lot of effort, time and resources (Izmailova, 2020).” If your organization simply can’t extend itself to add social media to all that it already does, then that time and effort may be better spent focusing on something else.
Sources and Additional Resources
https://www.self.com/story/social-media-sabbatical
https://www.missionbox.com/article/118/why-social-media-matters-to-nonprofits
https://learn.g2.com/nonprofit-social-media-presence
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/nonprofit-marketing-social-media-2295346
