I recently did a presentation for the local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Since time and money are often limited, I thought I would share a couple of the questions from this presentation to help those wearing all the hats in their non-profit organization. Keep in mind that some of this advice applies to small businesses as well!
- If you can only use one social platform, which do you suggest?
- I would suggest Facebook. As a non-profit, most of your donors are likely on that platform, and you have more capability to reach people via ads and fundraising campaigns on Facebook. Facebook generally has an older audience (millennial and older) and the ability to host fundraisers. These features make targeting your donors more manageable and more efficient given your limited time and money.
- Do we need to be on TikTok?
- No. While there are potential donors on this platform, you have to produce an absurd amount of content to stay relevant. This platform is geared more toward entertainment, shopping, and influencer-type content. I would not put your limited time and energy into trying to make this platform work.
- Is there a tool you suggest to help with scheduling posts?
- Absolutely! I would highly recommend Hootsuite or Sprout Social. Hootsuite is the cheaper option and has the basic features you would need to schedule your posts. However, Sprout offers excellent resources for reporting and analytics along with their scheduling. With either platform, I would recommend reaching out to them to talk with one of their salespeople. They can show you features you may want and need and put together a custom plan/ quote for you. Sprout does offer non-profit discounts.
- Is it bad if you post the same thing on Facebook & Instagram?
- Nope! You may want to alter your posts’ hashtags or layout, but posting the same content across both platforms is perfectly fine. While you may be targeting the same audience across both platforms, you will inevitably reach different people on each platform.
- How do we know what to post?
- I would recommend starting with a social media shell. This is essentially an outline for the types of posts you want to publish each day of the week. An example of this could be Mondays are Monday Motivation, Tuesdays are Tips, Wednesdays are informational days, Thursdays are engagement posts where you include a specific call to action, and Fridays are a fact or feeling about your organization. Once your shell is established, you can work on incorporating your voice and story into each post. You can include a mix of graphics, images, and videos.
- What do you do with analytics to help determine what type of thing to post?
- Reviewing your analytics each month gives you an idea of who is looking at and engaging with your content and what content worked versus what did not. You can dig into the time of day that your posts perform best in and even compare how your page is doing to similar pages on Facebook. Whether or not you have the analytics from Sprout, you can pull all the information you want and need from Facebook and Instagram through their platforms. I would recommend identifying your top three performing posts and bottom three so you can really compare them to see what is working. I would also keep track of your growth for ROI for your board, especially with your ad spend!
As I said, this is just a snippet of what we covered the other day. Hopefully, this helps any non-profit leaders looking to increase their social media presence. If you need consultation or would be interested in outsourcing this work, feel free to reach out. I worked in a non-profit for years and have such a heart for all that non-profits do for our community!
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