4 Time Saving Social Media Tools for Nonprofit Fundraising and Engagement

Social media and digital marketing require dedicated time and attention and can often be overwhelming to even the most seasoned nonprofit fundraising marketing professional. Luckily with the advancement of technology there are many tools that are available to help alleviate some of the burden and clear the clutter. I previously highlighted 5 Tools to Complement a Nonprofit’s Website Development & Social Media Engagement Initiatives which might assist with this and today I am featuring 4 of the top tools/apps that I have come across that can be beneficial to a nonprofit’s social media and digital marketing efforts.

1. Help Scout – Take your donor’s experience to the next level by using this virtual helpdesk which allows multiple team member access and responds to donor’s emails and correspondence, ensuring that no communication goes without a response. Features include: email integration that allows you to respond from your own inbox; private notes can be left to communicate with your team; robust actionable reporting which gives you insight on response times and team performance; and real time monitoring that lets you know when someone has accessed or responded to each correspondence.
2.  Prismatic – Finding and researching relevant content to share with your community can be a challenge when combined with all the other reading one does in the natural course of a business (or personal) day. Having to scour through hundreds of social media posts, blogs and news alerts can be time consuming but Prismatic can help. You can use Prismatic via its website and iPhone/iPad apps to help you save time by intuitively learning your reading preferences based on your reading habits and translating that into a newsfeed based on your interests. You can then share these relevant/interesting sources with your social media communities.
3. Dragon Dictation – This free application uses voice recognition technology that transcribes the words you speak so they instantly appear on your screen. Whether to compose an email, updating your status on a social network or writing a blog post this app is five times faster than normally typing on a keyboard and can do so in up to 31 different languages. The app however is designed specifically for iPhones and iPads. Alternatively installing voice recognition software on your desktop and connecting a microphone/headset could also be a great alternative to getting your thoughts on your screen.
4. Buffer – There are many third party social media management tools on the web nowadays, making being social and engaging with supporters much easier. Buffer is unique in that you add the content you want to share through your desktop or on your mobile and they will “automagically” post them to your social media networks (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) throughout the day. Although there is a low $10 monthly fee, you can manage multiple accounts on all three networks, it provides detailed analytics and can be accessed by your whole fundraising team.

These tools help make maintaining a presence on social media easier while staying on top of its many changes and keeping up with its fast paced nature as they save you time that you can then spend on optimizing nonprofit fundraising and engagement opportunities. Throughout the year I will continue to feature tools that can help take your social media initiatives to the next level without increasing the demand on your time. Until then, you might want to read our Social Media Series which includes several posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin along with many reports, trends and tips which also might help with your social media marketing efforts.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.