Research shows that 55 percent of people who engage with a nonprofit on social media eventually take some kind of action (donating money, volunteering, etc.)
If you’re not using social media to promote and grow your nonprofit organization: now is the time to start. Creating a Facebook or Instagram account is the first step, but to increase the power of your messaging and have it resonate with your target audience, you must create an all-encompassing social media marketing strategy.
A strategy with clear goals, high-quality content and measurable results. When you take the time to plan out the who, what, and when of your social media content, your followers and engagement rates will explode.
Let’s get started. Below are the guidelines your nonprofit can follow to develop a comprehensive social media marketing strategy:
1. Establish Performance Goals
Start by sitting down with your team and discussing what you want to accomplish with your social media strategy. What does growth mean to you?
The following are some potential performance goals to consider:
- Educating your audience about your cause and mission
- Amplifying fundraising efforts
- Recruiting a greater number of volunteers
- Recognizing your donors
- Hosting more fundraising events
Regardless of your specific goals, knowing exactly what you want to accomplish can help you to fine-tune your content creation and ensure every post you create has a purpose and clear message.
2. Define Metrics
In addition to identifying your goals, you also need to define your metrics. In other words, how will you know whether you’re growing and making progress toward your goals?
For example, if you’re focused on building brand awareness, you might focus on metrics such as impressions and reach. If you’re focused on recruiting more volunteers, you might focus on metrics such as the number of visits to the volunteering page of your website (from your social media posts).
3. Identify Your Target Audience
Your next job is to define your target audience. Whom are you trying to reach on social media? Do you want to target people in a particular location? What about people with specific interests or hobbies?
Ensure your target audience is bound by 1-2 characteristics. Similar age, location, and lifestyle characteristics are a great start. For example, if you are targeting individuals who are all in the age bracket of 18-24, you can cater your social content around volunteer opportunities that can help young adults build valuable skills that are later transferable in the workplace.
4. Choose the Right Channels
Now that you know who is making up your audience, think about where they spend their time most often.
Are they more inclined to use Facebook? Instagram? LinkedIn? TikTok? Incorporating TikTok into your marketing strategy is not only effortless but is much needed in 2022 if you want to compete with the top brands!
If you’re not sure where to begin, you can look at your competitors’ social media presence. Do they seem to be posting more on one platform than another? That can help you get an idea of where your audience will be when helping to decide what social channels to use.
5. Create a Style Guide
After you figure out to whom you’re writing and where you’ll be publishing content, start creating a style guide. That way, you and your team can plan out a clear, cohesive message on your chosen social media platforms. This will help you to see more growth, faster.
Your style guide should include information about:
- Tone of voice
- Fonts/typography
- Hashtag usage
- Colour palette
- Imagery
6. Make a Content Calendar
If you want to grow your nonprofit and achieve your goals, you need to post consistently. One way to do this is to create a content calendar.
A content calendar is a way to preplan you’re posting so you always know what you’re publishing and when. It also allows you to batch-create content so that you’re not always having to design graphics and write captions in real time.
Every social media platform has different optimal posting times and days that result in maximum engagement. Want to know the best times to post on social media in 2022? Check out this master guide.
7. Focus on Content Quality
It may be tempting to post every single day or multiple times so you can build your social media presence and start seeing results faster. Remember, though, that content quality is more important than quantity.
It’s better to post valuable content once every other day than it is to post low-quality, non-helpful content three times per day.
When you’re batch-creating content or putting together your content calendar, be realistic about what you and your team can accomplish. That way, you can be consistent but still provide interesting, unique, and beneficial content to your audience.
8. Invest in Visuals
It doesn’t matter if you hire a professional photographer or partner with an influencer to utilize authentic user-generated content. Investing in visuals is worth it since they’re such an important part of the social media marketing world.
With great visuals, your audience will have an easier time connecting with your organization and getting behind your mission. This, in turn, can lead to making better progress toward your goals.
90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Therefore, investing in stock imagery or utilizing user-generated content will be better received by your target audience.
9. Encourage Engagement
Speaking of engagement, it’s important to invite people to engage with your social media content, too. When writing captions, for example, encourage them to leave comments or visit your website to learn more.
You can also create interactive posts, such as polls or surveys. This gets people engaged with your content and provides valuable insight into what your audience wants to see more of moving forward.
10. Measure and Review The Results
Finally, make sure you’re measuring progress and regularly reviewing your analytics.
The great thing about the explosion of social media marketing is that most platforms offer a wide range of tools to help you monitor growth and see how you’re performing over time.
Use these resources regularly so you can see what’s working and what’s not. They will help you refine your future social media content strategy.
Level Up Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Today
In the past, you may have been a little unsure of using social media marketing to grow your nonprofit. These days, though, using social media is one of the most effective ways to improve your performance and make more of an impact online.
Follow the tips outlined above, and you’ll have a much easier time creating a social media marketing strategy for your nonprofit—one that is differentiated, comprehensive, and powerful.
