Using Social Media to Engage & Connect with Supporters
Many know by now that social media is not just for cat videos and dance challenges. It’s a powerful and cost-effective tool that nonprofits can, and should, embrace to increase their reach and grow engagement.
According to Nonprofit Source, 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media take some action. And of those, 59% donate money. It’s known that people don’t contribute to organizations they aren’t familiar with, so establishing an active presence on social media is critical.
At a minimum, social media generates awareness of a nonprofit’s existence and boosts the visibility of your organization’s mission. Developing a strategy to use social media to its fullest potential can bolster and bring attention to an organizations impact, actions and needs.
Organizational Impact
Share your organizational impact by sharing stories of those served. Tell stories about how you are fulfilling your mission with the dollars and in-kind items you receive to help illustrate your impact. Celebrate your victories, big and small, and always remember to thank those who helped make them possible. Using numbers here is a great way to solidify your point.
Organizational Action
Give shout-outs to your team for their work and recognize your volunteers, committees, and Board of Directors. Feature the faces that are behind the work at your organization. This will not only show appreciation but can also be a motivator and retention tool to recognize those working tirelessly to ensure your mission is successful.
Organizational Need
Every social media post should include a specific call-to-action; this can range from financial/in-kind/time support to giving an opinion, i.e., “Like this post if you agree!”. Ask for concrete action to help your supporters rally behind your cause. Keep it simple and direct, and respond to all questions and comments.
Other Key Considerations
Designate a person or people that will be responsible for developing consistent and compelling content, posting regularly, monitoring channel(s), and evaluating efforts. Be sure they have the time, as this can be a big job and should not be underestimated.
Create a social media policy with a style guide to help keep posts on-brand with consistent messaging. Also, having a set of social media guidelines provides guardrails to those running social media on how to conduct themselves.
Don’t try to be everywhere. It’s best to choose one social media channel and be consistent than to have five and be haphazard with posts.
Post regularly, and social media algorithms will reward it. It’s helpful to start small, i.e., 2-3x per week, and be consistent, then gauge your capacity of time and content before planning to post more frequently.
Set specific days of the week for certain types of posts to help identify the content needed, i.e., Donor Feature Mondays. This strategy will also help you prepare content beforehand, so you don’t struggle to pull something together at the last minute. Developing and utilizing a social media strategy and content calendar will help pull it all together.
Be authentic in your outreach. This helps supporters connect with you even more. Share bright spots and share challenges (always remaining professional and following guidelines), and you may find your organization gaining even more fans and followers.
How is your organization using social media to increase reach and grow engagement?
About Rachel M. Decker
Having spent nearly 20 years in the nonprofit sector as an effective and strategic fundraising and foundation executive, Detroit Philanthropy Founder and President, Rachel Decker is passionate about helping others, making meaningful connections, solving problems and, most importantly, creating impact in our community. With the founding of Detroit Philanthropy, she turned that passion into a commitment to champion philanthropy throughout metro Detroit as a philanthropic advisor, fundraising consultant and speaker.