Nonprofits have become one of the top users of social media since joining the platforms. However, many choose to pay hundreds, if not thousands for seminars that take away from the donors and the causes they support. In an industry that thrives on relationships and relationship building, social media marketing is the perfect tool for nonprofit organizations to engage with donors, volunteers, and supporters. How can social media help your nonprofit achieve its goals? According to a recent study, the top nonprofit communication goals for 2014 are: Acquiring new donors Engaging the community General brand awareness Retaining current donors How are you achieving these goals? This informative guide will introduce nonprofits to the importance and best practices in social media to build relationships, reach out to the community, and increase brand awareness for your nonprofit.

1. HotPotatoSocialMedia.com
Social For a Cause:
Social Media
Strategies
For Nonprofits
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Hot Potato | Social For a Cause: Social Media Strategies For Nonprofits
Though initially slow to adopt social media in comparison to their for-profit
counterparts, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have grown to become one of the
top users of social media tools for a multitude of reasons.
In an industry that thrives on relationships and relationship building, social media
marketing is the perfect tool for nonprofit organizations to engage with donors,
volunteers, and supporters.
How can social media help your nonprofit achieve its goals? According to a recent
study1
, the top nonprofit communication goals for 2014 are:
1. Acquiring new donors
2. Engaging the community
3. General brand awareness
4. Retaining current donors
Overview
Acquiring new donors takes on two meanings. The foundation of many nonprofits is
volunteers. Social media can help you attract and acquire new volunteers as well as
monetary donations or funds.
Engagement is one of the most powerful features of social media and can vary
depending on the scope of your nonprofit. Social media provides the opportunity to
engage with local, national, and even your volunteer community.
Social media provides one of the greatest opportunities for you to reach perhaps one
of your biggest audiences: those who don’t know about you. And with its viral nature,
there are many strategies to help you increase awareness and, ultimately, donations.
Donor retention rates have continued to decline over the past 5 years. Social media offers
several opportunities for you to extend donor communications and improve retention rates.
Below we will share detailed strategies and actionable tips for your nonprofit
to achieve the 4 goals listed above with the help of social media. First, lets start with
the top 10 social media marketing best practices for nonprofits. Then, take a look at
which social media networks are the most popular for nonprofits. And finally, a great
example of a nonprofit, WATER is LIFE using Twitter to promote their cause.
Social For A Cause

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Hot Potato | Social For a Cause: Social Media Strategies For Nonprofits
Top 10 Social Media Marketing Best Practices For NPOs
1. Show Don’t Tell – Nonprofits are inherently emotional, making visual storytelling
a necessity on social media. And visual content is the most popular on social media!
Consider the following statistics2
:
• Photos on Facebook get 53% more likes than the average post
• On Twitter, tweets with images get 150% more retweets.
Images. Infographics. Videos. Be sure to develop and use this content often on
social networking sites.
2. Grow Your List – Growing your email list is at the center of your nonprofit’s email
marketing strategy and social media can help you attract and convert new registrants!
Getting social media followers to join your email list can ensure your communications
reach them. With the constant changing algorithms and sheer amount of content
on social media, they may miss it! Embed a registration form into a custom tab on
Facebook. Tweet the link to your registration page on Twitter. Let visitors know the
BENEFIT of signing up for your enewsletter.
3. Drive Traffic To Your Website – Your website should be the hub and base for
your social media strategy. In other words, your website holds or hosts all of your
content. Provide short-form content on social media with links back to perhaps the
long-form version to encourage readers to visit your website.
4. Provide Recognition – The lifeblood of all nonprofits is its donors, stakeholders,
volunteers, staff, and supporters. Recognizing these people is such a simple but
powerful statement. With permission, recognize these people publically on social
media. Post photos from events featuring your volunteers, share a biography of an
important donor, tell a story about your volunteers.
5. Share Statistics – Statistics are powerful and often attract more engagement
on social media than a standard text post. Importantly, statistics are shareable!
For example, a Red Cross tweet after Hurricane Sandy helped increase volunteer
signups. They tweeted that 90% of their 5,700 workers helping with Sandy relief
are volunteers, and linked to a website to sign up for Red Cross opportunities.
6. Empower Brand Ambassadors – Your most powerful promotional tools are
those who already support your NPO. Build an army of brand ambassadors – these
are people who want to share your story and raise money for you.

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Hot Potato | Social For a Cause: Social Media Strategies For Nonprofits
7. Repurpose Existing Content in Creative Ways – Nobody wants to read that
10-page brochure. Make a short video (less than 1 minute) to give an overview and
share across your social media profiles. This sort of ‘micro-content’ is more engaging
and digestible on social media websites.
8. Recruitment – Leverage social media as a recruitment tool to attract volunteers
and supporters by showing them how they can make a difference! Share volunteer
and donor stories with permission.
9. Integrate Social With Website – Make it easy for website visitors to find you
on social media. Promote your social media profiles on your website by putting icons
with links in your header and calls to action throughout your website. Add social links
in email signatures and all online communications.
10. Social Listening/Monitoring – Monitor what people are saying about your
organization. Does market perception of your organization align with what you want
it to be? Leverage free listening tools: Google Alerts, socialmention, etc. What social
media content are people responding to? Create and publish social media content
that changes the conversation (if desired) and that continues to engage people.
And, be sure, to respond to negative and positive feedback!
Top Social Media Networks For NPOs
The nonprofit communications study referenced earlier also looked at the most
important social media sites for NPOs.
95%
Use Facebook
64%
Use Twitter
38%
Use youTube
26% Use
LinkedIn

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Hot Potato | Social For a Cause: Social Media Strategies For Nonprofits
Hashtag Campaign Gone Viral
One of the top nonprofit social media campaigns of 2013 came courtesy of
WATER is LIFE.
WATER is LIFE provides clean drinking water, sanitation, and WASH education
programs to schools and villages in developing countries.
They created an amazing video that went viral through hijacking the hashtag
#FirstWorldProblems. The video featured people in third world countries reading
tweets that were labeled with the hashtag #FirstWorldProblems, truly putting
‘problems’ and its insensitivities into perspective.
You can watch the video here.
Outcome: WATER is LIFE provided over a million days worth of clean water to
those in need as a result of the video.
Takeaway: Aligning your nonprofit’s social media campaign with current trends
can help increase engagement, reach, and shareability.

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Hot Potato | Social For a Cause: Social Media Strategies For Nonprofits
Social is the Future For NPOs
The use of social media to facilitate fundraising, solicit donations, attract volunteers
and supporters, retain donors, and create awareness will continue to grow as NPOs
optimize their social media strategies.
Additional Resources
1
Nonprofit Communications Trends Report Infographic
2
Images are the Most Preferred Content on Social Media Platforms Infographic
About Hot Potato
Based in Naperville, IL outside of Chicago, Hot Potato Social Media is a full service
social media marketing agency that helps companies and brands implement and
manage social media and other inbound marketing programs for measurable, and
often profound sales results. For more information, check out the website at
www.HotPotatoSocialMedia.com, or call 630-868-5062.