August 2021
Running a nonprofit organization can be rewarding work. You are doing good by helping others within your community or the world. However, running a nonprofit isn’t always easy. You have to be able to secure donations and find volunteers. One way you can do this is through social media, but not all nonprofits are equipped to run elaborate social media accounts. We are sharing 3 steps you can take to easily run a successful nonprofit social media strategy.
The first step to running a successful nonprofit social media strategy is to set up and use a social media calendar. There are several free and paid online platforms you can utilize, or you can even just use a basic Excel spreadsheet. The idea behind using a social media calendar is to ensure a consistent presence online. You can plan out an entire month of content, and all you have to do then is schedule it. If you spend one day a month putting your content together and getting it scheduled, that frees you up for the rest of the month while still giving you the ability to remain visible to your audience. It is suggested that you post at least two to five times per week, but some accounts find that less is more. By looking at your analytics you’ll be able to see how and when your audience engages and adjust your calendar based on that information.
Even with a social media schedule, you’ll have to take some time one or two days per week to engage with your audience, answer their questions, and like their posts. This shows that your nonprofit is active and is interested in getting to know its followers.
The next step to running a successful nonprofit social media strategy is to share posts featuring employees, volunteers, or a peek behind the scenes. This is a great way to humanize your organization and showcase the amazing people who are working hard to help their community. You will always want to have their permission before sharing, but most people will be more than happy to be part of a feature for an organization they are passionate about. You can even build these featured moments into your social media calendar to ensure that they are happening regularly.
An employee or volunteer “takeover” is another fun way to showcase these individuals. This is where you let an employee or volunteer takeover a social media channel for a day, and they can share different behind-the-scenes looks at the organization. Instagram stories are a great way to do this, especially at a charity or donation event. This is a fun way to give your audience a look at your organization through someone else’s eyes.
Our final step to running a successful nonprofit social media strategy is to host virtual information sessions. You can set these up as Zoom meetings, Facebook or YouTube Live events, or whatever else meets the needs of your organization. The idea behind this is to give your audience a chance to ask questions and get to know more about your organization. You can even share the different ways they can volunteer, donate, or otherwise get involved. If you schedule one of these sessions per month on your social calendar, then you will have time to schedule informational posts and get a good audience together for each session. This is especially useful if your organization has volunteer opportunities that can be done remotely and you can let your audience know they don’t have to be in your area to participate.
We hope you find these tips useful as you work to get your nonprofit social media accounts up and running. If you already have social media accounts set up, try to incorporate these steps into your plan and watch your engagement and your followers grow.