A Strategic Guide to Social Media for Nonprofits

Alicia Johnson | SproutSocial
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/nonprofit-social-media-guide/

SproutSocial’s Alicia Johnson maps a strategic guide to social media for nonprofits, providing the following tips below:

• Define Social’s Role in Your Nonprofit’s Communications Strategy
  • Implement consistent messaging across online and offline communications. “Social media shouldn’t be out there alone; it should be integrated and aligned with your strategic goals and target audiences,” said Beth Kanter, Nonprofit Consultant and Author of Beth’s Blog.
• Determine What You Want to Accomplish
  • Be clear. Be specific. Choose one goal that align with your efforts:
    • Community engagement and education
    • Brand building and reputation management
    • Program recruitment
    • Fundraising
• Identify Your Target Audience
  • Is there an echo in here? Bridgett Colling, Director of Content Marketing at See3 Communications, also recommends nonprofits develop audience personas. We know these representations can help to craft your ideal supporters based on demographic data and information about individual members of your target audience.
• Choose the Right Networks
  • Don’t spread your organization too thin. Johnson says, “Do an excellent job on two or three networks with a large potential for reaching your audience instead of a mediocre job on five.”
• Create a Content Strategy
  • This section linked to another article titled “39 Free Tools for Creating Unique Images” including Canva, Piktochart, and others here.
• Put Engagement First
  • Remember, it’s social. “The most powerful thing about social media is something many companies and organizations often forget: It’s social,” Chara Odhner, Senior Copywriter at charity: water. “Instead, many brands use social media as a broadcasting platform.” Be sure to facilitate two-way communication.
• Empower Your Advocates & Cross-Promote Your Content
  • Like in person community partnerships, cultivate online collaborators. Johnson says, “Show them the value of following—the stories, tips and images they can expect to see—and educate them about the best ways to show support. Don’t be afraid to cross-promote your social media content on other channels.”
• Track & Measure Your Results
  • Colling explains that with the use of Google Analytics, you can see how many referrals actually led to someone completing a donation. Check out SproutSocial’s tips on utilizing Google Analytics here.

While several rules are fairly simple, they are good reminders of how transferrable tips learned in this course are across sectors and industries. It doesn’t hurt to go back to the basics.

Questions

• What are the key parallels between this course and SproutSocial's tips?
• As for social engagement goals, how accurate are the following?
  • Community engagement and education
  • Brand building and reputation management
  • Program recruitment
  • Fundraising
• Would you represent these goals differently? Are they consistent with that of your organization's planning methods?

Source: SproutSocial