How do you make the most of social media as a non-profit? You’ve heard your organization needs to have a social media presence, but you don’t know where to start or how to figure out what level of investment (of time and resources) to make for the return on investment (ROI) you are looking to achieve.
Here is my six-point plan for making the most of social media for your non-profit.
- Be clear on why you are using social media.
- Be clear on the voice you want to use to represent your non-profit.
- Have a plan
- Put sound policies and procedures in place.
- Execute efficiently and consistently
- Review metrics and ROI regularly
Yep, I just laid it out right there. You do these six things and your return on investment will far exceed 100%. In fact, if you implement based on these six steps, your brand awareness will increase by many times that!
How does social media fit into your Communications Plan?
Social media is one aspect of your communications plan. Thoughtful strategic planning for social media platform use will benefit your organization in a variety of extraordinary ways! Social media changes rapidly, but that doesn’t mean it if beyond the capacity of you and your organization.
Six Point Plan for Leveraging Social Media for Non-Profit Organizations
Be clear on why
Be clear on why your organization is using social media channels for marketing, communications and brand awareness. Social Media Strategic Planning self-assessment.
Be clear on your voice!
We can help you by working with you to create a customized brand voice guide. For more information about working with us, go to Getting Started!
Have a plan
You know that I am all about planning – but this is key for social media use because of the labor needed to monitor, and develop on-brand content. There is a downloadable social media self-assessment that can and should be completed as part of a strategic planning process – which i linked to above.
One of the most important parts of your social media operational plan is an editorial calendar that lays out the date, the text of the content, the platform (and modifies that text (especially length) for different channels), and a relevant image if appropriate for the channel. For our social media management clients, we create a customized editorial calendar in conjunction with you, and help find licensed images if you don’t already have some!
Put Policies and Procedures in place
It is really important to you are clear about how people associated with your organization conduct themselves in social media contexts. It matters what they say, how they say it, and how they respond to others (particularly on a contentious topic) will impact your organization’s reputation and standing.
The key policies and procedures you should consider having in place include:
- Privacy policy
- Social media use policy
- Communications procedures
- Brand voice policy and procedures (based on the brand voice guide)
Execute Efficiently and Consistently.
Consistency is key to building momentum in social media contexts. It doesn’t mean you always have to be creating brand new content – people are not paying as much attention to your social media as you are. This means, periodically repeating content is a good thing! The recycling content can help create a consistent voice that seems so elusive.
Review Metrics and Return on Investment (ROI) regularly
Do you know whether your efforts are yielding any kind of return on investment? Metrics help you determine what is working and what needs to be tweaked. The return on investment can be challenging to track to specific metrics, so a holistic approach is important. For example, you might find an interest in social media engagement corresponds with a greater engagement with other forms of outreach – phone calls, email open rates, events, and mailers.
If you’d like to explore ROI for conference attendance, we have an article about multiplying the value of conference participation.
If you’d like to ask questions about this topic or chat about how we might be able to help you, reach out through Get Started