Spring Your Nonprofit Social Media Profiles Into Action

You may be busy with many other priorities at your nonprofit, but we think it’s time to get back into action on those dusty social media accounts. Although it’s okay to sometimes let some things take a backseat as you pursue other projects, let’s keep in mind that social media is an incredibly powerful way for your nonprofit to spread the word and engage your following. This only happens when used correctly.

Here are 5 affordable and doable ways to improve nonprofit social media presence.

1. What’s your nonprofit’s social status?

If you haven’t updated your social media pages in awhile, go through them.Take a look at how to create a more optimized LinkedIn profile, and consider applying such changes across the board.

If you can’t manage to monitor them all, consider removing ones that aren’t as relevant to your audience. Here’s a post on finding which social media networks you should be on and just focusing on those. Don’t be afraid to cut out places that aren’t right for you for right now.

2. Run paid ads.

Paid ads are one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your pages, especially if you’ve been inactive for awhile. Yes, as a nonprofit “paid” anything sounds daunting. But fortunately not only does this have a huge pay off if done well, it can also be affordable due to how Facebook, Google & other tech giants offer discounts for nonprofits.

Moreover, social media has made changes to make news feeds more relevant to users. Consequently, your nonprofit might not just show up in front of users as it once did, unless you invest in promotion.

Review the resources below including offers and basic best practices for social media and paid ad campaigns.

• Google AdWords – $10,000 in Google Ad Grants
• Facebook – Facebook Ads Guide & 3 Ways to Decrease Your Facebook Ad Spend and Increase ROI
• Twitter – Tweet It & Weep with Joy
• LinkedIn – Link Up & Create Sponsored Updates

3. Run a contest or giveaway.

Ask yourself, what’s something you can give away to your audience? Is a dinner at a fancy restaurant? A tech product given to you by a donor? Get creative!

Once you have promoted this offer, you can ask people to participate on your social media page or clicking through to a landing page on your site. If you choose the social media route, you can ask people to interact with you via a certain hashtag. If you link to your site, you could place a form on a landing page to collect information about users. By doing so, this is not only a fun way to engage your audience, but can help you gain contact and interest information to put into your donor and volunteer database.

4. Create a social media-specific campaign

Ice bucket challenge anyone? If you’re having trouble incorporating social media into a current campaign, create a social media-only campaign. Use social media with what it’s best at – getting people to interact and share with each other.

Review how the Ice Bucket Challenge worked and find more ideas here.

5. Interact with others

• First off, always reply to posts on your social media pages. You don’t want to miss the chance to respond to feedback or make your following feel appreciated. Take a look at “A Lesson in Customer Delight on Social Media from Bruegger’s Bagels“

• Similarly, get involved in the conversation. Curate content, tweet or write to others in the field, and participate in Twitter chats.
• Follow relevant influencers (people who have a large following in your field and who share content) and follow your followers. In the end you want to show people you’re present and excited to interact.

For more help with your social media strategy, contact the social media strategists at ArcStone!