Social Media 101 for Nonprofits
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This document contains the slides from a presentation on social media for nonprofits. The presentation covers the current social media landscape, how to develop a social media strategy by identifying target audiences and objectives, ways to build social media connections and engage audiences, potential financial and non-financial outcomes of social media use, common pitfalls to avoid, and tips for measurement and maintaining an appropriate content mix. The slides include hashtags, images, and sections on inputs, outputs, and maximizing visibility.
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Social Media 101 for Nonprofits
- 1. 1 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 Social Media 101 for Nonprofits # A L L I A N C E 2 0 1 7
- 2. 2 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 YOUR PRESENTER CAIT ABERNETHY MARKETING COORDINATOR JOINED SPARKROCK JANUARY 2016
- 3. 3 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 34 COUNTRIES NIBS HUGE FOODIE
- 4. 4 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 AGENDA I N T R O D U C T I O N T H E S O C I A L L A N D S C A P E S O C I A L M E D I A C A P I TA L F I N A N C I A L & N O N - F I N A N C I A L O U T C O M E S P I T FA L L S TO AV O I D P O P Q U I Z
- 7. 7 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 T H E S O C I A L L A N D S C A P E
- 8. 8 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 ISN’T JUST ABOUT SHARING STUFF ABOUT… SOCIAL MEDIA
- 10. 10 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 HER LATEST SELFIE or
- 11. 11 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 A LOT OF PEOPLE USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO TALK ABOUT OTHER THINGS LIKE… THE REALITY IS
- 16. 16 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 YOU KNOW, STUFF THAT REALLY MATTERS.
- 17. 17 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 MONTHLY ACTIVE USERS ON FACEBOOK 1.79 BILLION MONTHLY ACTIVE USERS ON TWITTER 317 MILLION
- 18. 18 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 SOCIAL MEDIA CAPITAL INPUTS OUTPUTS (Organization’s social media activities) IMMEDIATE OUTCOMES (Develop social media- based social resources) INTERMEDIATE OUTCOMES (Convert social media capital into cultural, financial, human, intellectual, or reputational capital) STRATEGIC OUTCOMES (Ex. Policy change, donations, accountability) Resources (Time, money) Audience Strategy Social media capital Other forms of capital Organizational outcomes Social media connections & messages Implement Communication Plan Resource Acquisition Communication Capital conversion Resource expenditure Direct expenditure of SMC 1 2 3 4 5
- 19. 19 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 INPUTS OUTPUTS (Organization’s social media activities) INPUTS
- 21. 21 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 “I heard it was free!” “Actually, it’s not.”
- 23. 23 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 C H A R A O D H N E R , C H A R I T Y: WAT E R Social media is designed for two-way conversation, and that’s when it is most powerful.
- 24. 24 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 OUTPUTS (Organization’s social media activities) PEOPLE OBJECTIVES STRATEGIES TECHNOLOGIES WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO ENGAGE? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE? WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE WHEN YOU’RE DONE? WHAT ARE THE TOOLS YOU PLAN TO USE? CRAFTING YOUR STRATEGY
- 25. 25 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 OUTPUTS (Organization’s social media activities) PEOPLE WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO ENGAGE?
- 28. 28 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 OUTPUTS (Organization’s social media activities) Loose Targeting Targeted by Persona Increased by $400 $400 0% 4,932 impressions 22,801 impressions 460% 40 clicks 61 clicks 66% LINKEDIN PAID ADS
- 29. 29 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 OUTPUTS (Organization’s social media activities) PEOPLE OBJECTIVES WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO ENGAGE? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE?
- 30. 30 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 OUTPUTS (Organization’s social media activities) PEOPLE OBJECTIVES STRATEGIES WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO ENGAGE? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE? WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE WHEN YOU’RE DONE? Thought Leader? Curator? Convener / Community Builder?
- 31. 31 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 OUTPUTS (Organization’s social media activities) PEOPLE OBJECTIVES STRATEGIES TECHNOLOGIES WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO ENGAGE? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE? WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE WHEN YOU’RE DONE? WHAT ARE THE TOOLS YOU PLAN TO USE?
- 33. 33 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 OUTPUTS SOCIAL MEDIA CONNECTIONS BECOME FOLLOW-WORTHY MAXIMISE YOUR VISIBILITY
- 35. 35 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 35 1. WORK ON YOUR PROFILE
- 36. 36 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 36 2. COMPOSE ENGAGING POSTS
- 37. 37 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 37 3. POST OFTEN AND AT THE RIGHT TIMES
- 38. 38 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 38 4. USE HASHTAGS
- 40. 40 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 40 1. DIRECT PEOPLE TO FOLLOW/SHARE
- 41. 41 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 41 2. FOLLOW EVERYONE WHO FOLLOWS YOU
- 42. 42 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 42 2. FOLLOW OTHERS & THEIR FOLLOWERS
- 43. 43 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 4. USE LISTS
- 46. 46 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 ALLOCATING TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA 20% CREATING & CURATING CONTENT 10% COLLABORATING WITH THE TEAM 10% ANALYZING PAST PERFORMANCE 25% RESEARCHING & PLANNING 35% ENGAGING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
- 47. 47 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 USE A FREE SOCIAL MANAGEMENT TOOL TO PRE-SCHEDULE TWEETS
- 48. 48 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 SOCIAL MEDIA CAPITAL INPUTS OUTPUTS (Organization’s social media activities) IMMEDIATE OUTCOMES (Develop social media- based social resources) INTERMEDIATE OUTCOMES (Convert social media capital into cultural, financial, human, intellectual, or reputational capital) STRATEGIC OUTCOMES (Ex. Policy change, donations, accountability) Resources (Time, money) Audience Strategy Social media capital Other forms of capital Organizational outcomes Social media connections & messages Implement Communication Plan Resource Acquisition Communication Capital conversion Resource expenditure Direct expenditure of SMC 1 2 3 4 5
- 49. 49 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 • CONVERT SOCIAL CAPITAL INTO CULTURAL, HUMAN, INTELLECTUAL, OR REPUTATIONAL CAPITAL • BUILD RELATIONSHIPS W/ STAKEHOLDERS • NET NEW VOLUNTEERS • BUILD ADVOCACY WITH AUDIENCES • INCREASE VISIBILITY INTO YOUR CAUSE • ATTRACT TOP TALENT TO WORK FOR YOU NON-FINANCIAL OUTCOMES
- 50. 50 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 • SAVE ON TRADITIONAL MEDIA COSTS (PRINT, BROADCAST, ETC) • CONVERT SOCIAL CAPITAL TO FINANCIAL CAPITAL • NET NEW DONATIONS • NET NEW MEMBERSHIPS FINANCIAL OUTCOMES
- 51. 51 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 ON A MISTY MOUNTAIN TOP… Meanwhile,
- 52. 52 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 ZEN KITTY and current problems with nonprofit social media
- 53. 53 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 DEAR ZEN KITTY OF SOCIAL MEDIA WISDOM, I want my organization to use social media, but I want to ensure that we do it right. What are some common pitfalls I must avoid?
- 54. 54 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 Well, there are 3 you must know…
- 55. 55 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 NOT TYING SOCIAL MEDIA INTO YOUR NONPROFIT’S CORE OBJECTIVES PITFALL #1
- 56. 56 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 Think about it like this: No General sends out troops without a good reason why.
- 57. 57 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 So why are we doing this again? Dunno, the boss just said to get out there and start engaging.
- 58. 58 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 WRONG. Get concrete with your goals or you’ll waste your staff’s energy, time, and money.
- 59. 59 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 Our upcoming projects will need a lot of fundraising and support. Can social media help out? Most likely. We know that most of our target audience is already on social media. We can leverage Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic to the donation page on our website to create a multi-channel campaign.
- 60. 60 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 MUCH BETTER. • You can focus your resources • You’ll know what tools make the most sense • You’ll know what metrics you need to measure success
- 61. 61 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 NOT ESTABLISHING A MEASUREMENT PRACTICE PITFALL #2
- 62. 62 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 Track progress Gather actionable insight Justify your resources WHY MEASURE?
- 63. 63 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 USING 100% PUSH MARKETING PITFALL #3
- 66. 66 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 And now, young grasshopper, you are ready for the world of social media.
- 67. 67 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 TELL YOUR STORY, CREATE YOUR CHANGE: Harnessing the Power of the YouTube for Nonprofits Program
- 69. 69 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 EVALUATIONS P L E A S E T A K E 5 M I N S T O C O M P L E T E A S E S S I O N E V A L U A T I O N . WIN ME! One lucky survey will take home a Ecobee Smart Wi-Fi Thermostat
- 70. 70 #ALLIANCE2017 #SOCIALMEDIA101 THANK YOU FOR LISTENING @ S P A R K R O C K I N C W W W . S P A R K R O C K . C O M
Editor's Notes
- St. Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest
- Pop Quiz at the end with prizes, so pay attention!
- Like it or not, social media has become an indispensable part of our lives. Fifteen years ago, many nonprofits were still hesitant to launch an organizational website on the Internet; today, we rarely come across a nonprofit that does not have a Facebook page or Twitter account. The reality is the that having a strong online presence has become important, and this is especially true for nonprofit organizations - whose causes rely heavily (and sometimes entirely) on their supporters. Since many nonprofits already have to deal with tight budgets and limited staff, social media isn’t always high on their priority list. However, while effective social media requires constant time and effort, the attention that your cause can garner along with the connections you can make with your audience are a worthwhile tradeoff.
- And with 317 million monthly active users on Twitter and 1.79 Billion monthly active users on Facebook, there are an infinite number of meaningful conversations, discussions and debates happening every day on social media. One of the obvious benefits of social media is that it has engendered new forms of communication and stakeholder engagement for nonprofit organizations. Now we propose something that is not so obvious but crucially important: it has engendered a new, novel, and highly valuable resource—social media capital.
- Social media capital is a special form of social capital that is accumulated through an organization’s social media network. Nonprofits can look at it as being the key immediate outcome derived from their social media efforts, and it is a resource that can be converted or expended, like other resources, toward strategic organizational outcomes. To illustrate why and how social media capital is the linchpin of social media’s return on investment, we present a logic model for nonprofit organizations currently using, or planning to use, social media. Unless nonprofits understand the critical role of social media capital within this logic model—based on a plan that is well organized around strategic outcomes—then their social media efforts may essentially come to far less than might have been possible. **Light chart explanation + for time’s sake, I’m going to talk most about the strategic inputs that are needed to craft your social media strategy and messages, as well as actionable tactics to employ in your outputs
- So, let’s break down that chart and talk about stage 1 - inputs
- Effective social media use requires nonprofits to dedicate inputs towards their end goal. You inputs are derived from two elements, the first of which is the resources you put into your social media – mainly time and money.
- Although social media platforms don’t charge you to set up a profile, the reality is that it isn’t “free” marketing. There are time costs associate with your staff, and between planning, executing, and monitoring, the time costs can add up fast. On average, for me, I spend about 7 or 8 hours a week managing our social channels. These resource commitments are typically sorely underestimated by nonprofit managers, and social media tasks are often passed off to a single staff member or intern as additional or secondary duties. The amount of resources you invest into social media depends on the breadth of your goals, and everyone’s strategies and tactics will differ.
- The second input you’ll need to start on your journey towards accumulating social capital is a targeted strategy, particularly regarding an organization’s communications role and its target audience. It is not enough to simply be on social media; instead, the organization needs to think strategically about what it wants to achieve through its presence.
- At the heart of your targeted strategy is determining which specific audiences your organization wishes to target and the communications role it will adopt to reach that particular audience. For all audiences, finding the right mix of one-way information, two-way dialogue, and mobilizing messages will help the target audience be engaged and grow while also allowing your organization to leverage that audience to help achieve your social mission.
- So what are the actual steps for crafting this strategy? Many people believe that before you post anything on social media, you should do the POST methodology, which will helps you determine: People – who are you trying to engage? Objectives – what end goal are you trying to achieve? Strategies – what will your social media messages look like? Technologies – what particular tools are you planning to use? So, let’s break it down and start with the first one - People
- A lot of nonprofits say “well, our target audience is the general public,” but if you think you’re speaking to the general public then the reality is that you’re probably speaking to nobody. Here is where your organization needs to do some research. An environmental organization working to reduce water consumption at home, for instance, might wish to target local lawmakers, coalition partners, opinion leaders such as journalists and educators, or current and future household owners (including teens and young adults). The point is that your organization should seek to cultivate a specific, well-defined audience for your social media communications. In the world of marketing we call these Personas, which are a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience. You need personas to help you deliver content that will be most relevant and useful to your audience. When crafting your audience personas, you need to think about the demographics of the people you’re targeting: their age, sex, location, salary, education level, where they work, and do they have a family. Then think about what sort of goals and challenges they might have, what are their values and fears, and so on. Even for us at Sparkrock, we use personas to help ensure that the messages we’re putting out to attract potential clients not only appeal to their specific interests, but is also delivered to them in a way that also appeals to their personality. To learn about the demographic makeup of your current social media following, a good start is to use the native analytics on platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
- Just to help drive the point home how effective personas can be…I’m in charge of Sparkrock’s social media advertising. Before, we used to target a generalized demographic – people 25+ who worked in the nonprofit, human services, education or government sectors. Now, we have divided our personas to target the specific types of individuals in those organizations, such as their Finance Frank, HR Heather, and so on. By targeting our Twitter and Linkedin paid advertising towards these specific personas, we were able to spend the exact same amount of money on ads, but more than doubled our engagement and reach.
- You know how people say “don’t work harder, work smarter?” Well the same goes for social media, don’t spend more, spend smarter.
- Your organization then needs to be very clear about the goal it’s trying to achieve through its social media strategy. The starting point for crafting this strategy should be the end-game strategic outcomes your organization is hoping to achieve. With those outcomes in mind, your organization can then backward map and lay out a social media communications plan for reaching those outcomes. The role that it can play really well is engagement, especially donor engagement and donor retention, and getting people to pay attention. Consider how you’re going to connect your organization’s social media efforts back to your website and blog, email marketing, event promotions and any other content you share online.
- Your organization then needs to decide how it will engage with that audience. Key here is the role you will adopt to add value to you target audience’s social media feeds. Your organization might choose to become an expert or “thought leader” on a specific subject issue by crafting original content designed to inform, sway, or educate your audience. Alternatively, you might seek to be a curator of information on a particular subject—becoming, in effect, a go-to source for the latest and most relevant information produced by others. Or, your organization might consider itself a convener or community builder, relying on social media activities designed to foster connections among stakeholders and thus build a more cohesive online community. Differently put, your organization needs to define its intended strategic role on social media. Does it wish to be an information source? An opinion leader? A market builder? A curator? A community builder? Each role potentially adds value to your audience’s social media feeds, and you should seek to match your own proclivities, interests, and resources with your audience’s needs. In brief, before even beginning to bring hand to keyboard, your organization needs to develop a plan that clearly lays out its desired outcomes, indicates the target audience, and lays out a broad strategic identity for the organization’s communications efforts.
- Next you need to decide what tools you’re going to use. There are tons of social media channel options out there, but where is it that your targeted audience likes to spend their time, and which channels better cater to the types of content you want to put out there. Is your target audience most active on Twitter? Facebook? Linkedin? Do you have beautiful pictures to display on Instagram? Can you use Snapchat to show your constituents first-hand how your projects or events are going in real-time? Making sure that the right type of content is on the right platform is paramount to rounding out your strategy. Using the POST methodology will ensure that you have a targeted social media strategy before you start spending time and financial resources on social media.
- So now let’s talk about your outputs. How social capital is acquired through social media is narrower than how social capital is acquired in real life or offline settings. Whereas offline, your level of social capital comes from your personality, who you know, how you dress, what you talk about, or how engaging you are to others. On social media platforms, you will be building social capital with two main tools at your disposal: making connections and sending messages.
- So, how do you build your connections and get people to follow you on social media? Well, you start by focusing on two main things - becoming follow-worthy and maximizing your visibility.
- So how do you become follow worthy? There are 4 main things to do:
- 1. Work on your profile: Make sure your profile is complete with an image that shows your nonprofit’s logo, a header photo, and a solid bio. It's important that people know what your nonprofit’s mission is and the areas your efforts are focused in. Many people will read your Twitter bio before deciding whether or not to follow you. A good written bio can help you get much more followers than a poorly written bio.
- 2. Compose interesting, funny or thought-provoking posts: Most potential followers will glance at your most recent posts to see if you're worth following. Therefore, the better your posts, the more followers you'll gain. Try and be as interesting as possible and post about the different projects your nonprofit is involved in or any upcoming events. Pictures and other multimedia are important elements to include to give more of a personal feel to your profile and shift the conversation from simply telling your followers what you're up to, to showing them. As well, posting or retweeting interesting links that are related to your mission is a great way to add some variety to your wall and involve your peers in the discussion. Right to Play does a good job of this. They post a picture of a real child that they’ve helped alongside text like “Kevin is an 11 year old boy in a Right To Play program in Rwanda, Read his story”
- 3. Post often, and at the right times: Nobody wants to follow someone who never posts, therefore it's important to remain consistently active on social media. You should have a minimum of one post per day and ideally two or more posts per day to maximize your visibility. On the other hand, it's important not to inundate your existing followers with too many posts, as this can fill up their feed and come across as spammy, which might cause them to unfollow you. It's also important that you post at a time of day when the most people are active. No one will see your message if you're always posting when they're asleep. The best times to post are before people go to work in the morning (pre-9am) and after they finish in the evening (around 6pm).
- 4. Use Hashtags: Using hashtags is a great way to connect to people with similar interests and to increase the visibility of your posts. Stats show that Tweets with hashtags receive 2X more engagement than those without. Add hashtags to your messages and also create posts based on hashtags that are popular on social media at the time (you can usually see trending hashtags listed on the side of your home page). This will maximize your tweet's exposure. However, like everything good in life, hashtags should be used in moderation. Just pick one or two relevant or amusing hashtags which add to the quality of your message - don't just add hashtags onto words that appeared in the rest of your post or include them just for the sake of it. Studies show that tweets with only one or 2 hashtags have 21% higher engagement than those with 3 or more, and in fact, tweets that use more than 2 hashtags actually show a 17% drop in engagement
- The second aspect of getting people to follow you on social media is to increase your visibility.
- 1. Direct people to your accounts: You can direct more people to your social media accounts by putting "Follow Me" links on your blog, e-mail, other social networking outlets, and across the web. That way, people who are already interested in what you're doing can easily find your profile and follow you. Using graphics, such as a button or a follower counter can also be more effective at catching attention and getting you more followers. Also, don’t forget to promote your social media sites at events by putting your profile information in your presentation/speech/marketing materials and asking your constituents to follow you. Also, include share buttons on all of the content you put on your blog to make it easy for others to share your content with their own networks
- 2. Follow everyone who follows you: It might seem counter-intuitive to do this when you're focused on gaining followers, but it's a good practice because people who notice that you didn't follow them back might unfollow you. Many social media sites operate with an unspoken "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" type of mentality. Also, when you follow back, some people might respond to you publicly, which will give you some added exposure to their followers.
- 3. Follow other accounts with similar interests, then follow their followers: This sounds kind of complicated, but it's really not. Just look for users with similar interests to your own, but who have way more followers. Then all you need to do is follow that user and their followers. For example, if you’re a nonprofit that’s focused on ending hunger, find another nonprofit that has a lot of followers and then follow that account, and their followers. If it’s clear from your bio and your posts that you’re also working to find solutions for those who may not be able to afford food, then they are likely to follow you back.
- 4. Use lists to help segment your followers: A list is a curated group of Twitter accounts. You can create your own lists or subscribe to lists created by others. Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream of Tweets from only the accounts on that list. These lists can be private or public, and they give you a streamlined way to interact with segmented groupings of your overall audience, as well as gather insight from particular groupings of people (remember those personas we talked about) to keep tabs on what they’re talking about
- Now that we’ve covered making connections, you’ve got to engage those connections in conversation. Based off the plan you created using the POST methodology, you should have a good idea of the types of content you’ll put on your social media and what outcomes you’re looking to achieve through engagement.
- The basic methodology for putting yourself out there on social media is to engage, listen, respond, and then learn from your past efforts before repeating.
- Within this, you should allocate your time to social media efficiently in order to create effective messaging. **go through percentages
- Also, unless you have a dedicated social media person on your team, the likelihood is that you’ll be unable to truly keep up with the pace of social media and posting timely content. One of the best things that any company can use is a free social management tool to pre-schedule tweets. Here at Sparkrock, I use the social media management tool that’s built into our marketing automation software, but anyone can sign up for a free Hootsuite account. Hootsuite allows you to have one platform or dashboard to monitor all your social channels. One of its most useful functionalities is to pre-schedule posts ahead of time. *talk about how I use it to preschedule* Also, these kinds of platforms allow you to read and respond to others posting about you and accumulate all of your feeds into one easy place for monitoring.
- Alright, are you still with me guys? So to backtrack to where we started, all of your social media activities will help you build social capital. Why is having social capital important? Well, aside from the fact that having a social media presence is essentially “table stakes” for any type of organization these days, your social capital can be converted into other forms of capital such as cultural capital, financial capital, human capital, and intellectual capital, as well as bring about very real financial and non-financial outcomes.
- Basic slide. Duplicate this slide for all of the locations it’s needed.
- Basic slide. Duplicate this slide for all of the locations it’s needed.
- Meanwhile, on a misty mountain top, we find….
- Zen kitty, and current problems with nonprofit social media
- So, an eager nonprofit employee writes in: “DEAR ZEN KITTY OF SOCIAL MEDIA WISDOM, I want my organization to use social media, but I want to ensure that we do it right. What are some common pitfalls I must avoid?”
- Well, there are 3 main pitfalls you should watch for when executing on your social media strategy
- Experimentation is good! (when guided by a solid communication strategy), but don’t just post for the sake of posting. Everything that ends up live on your social media feed should have an intended outcome. Your intended outcome could be something more intangible such as increasing awareness about your cause, or something very tangible such as driving traffic to your website and therefore driving donations.
- Scenario 1
- Scenario 2
- No matter what your objective on social media is, you need to have measurements in place to ensure you’re hitting your goals and are effectively using your time and resources.
- Why measure? 1. Track progress – but a metric only tells a part of the story. When there are so many metrics out there, what’s the secret? Measure what MATTERS to your organization. For some, simply measuring follower growth will be enough, for others it could be the number of comments or re-posts you get on your posts or click-through rates. 2. Gather actionable insight, which leads to better decision making 3. Justify your resources – so that when your boss wants to know why you’ve spent hours crafting social content or spent money on social ads, you can easily prove your ROI
- Pitfall #3 is using 100% push marketing
- What is Push or Pull marketing? Push marketing is a strategy where organizations attempt to take themselves to the customer. The term push stems from the idea that marketers are attempting to push their products or their interests at their viewers, and it’s more about the organization and why it’s great rather than making it about the viewer. Pull marketing is the opposite. In pull marketing, you create content that is inherently valuable or interesting to the viewer. Content that pulls them in and allows them the opportunity to choose if they want to invest their attention in you, instead of being somewhat forced. Things such as helpful or interesting blog posts are great examples of pull marketing.
- In the end, your social media activities should strive to be 10% push marketing, and 90% pull.
- The last thing I wanted to note, I mostly talked about tactics for Twitter and Facebook today, but YouTube is also a phenomenal took for engaging donors and driving donations due to its inherent storytelling abilities. A few months back I did a webinar on the YouTube for Nonprofits program and how nonprofits can leverage it. You can find a recording of this webinar on the Resources page of our new website at www.sparkrock.com/resources
- What are the 4 steps/areas in the POST methodology for crafting your social media strategy? A. People, Objectives, Strategies, and Technology Who can tell me 2 ways to increase your social media followers? Who can tell me a non-financial outcome of growing your social capital? Bonus: How many different cats are in this presentation? A. 17