4 Key Considerations for Nonprofits to Grow Social Media Communities

I regularly add to the Social Media Series I began this past summer as maintaining a presence on some of the largest platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest has become integral to any successful nonprofit fundraising marketing plan. Recently Blackbaud Index results have shown a tremendous growth in online giving revenue in the small to medium sized nonprofit organizations with a 9.6% and 7.6% increase respectively in the three month period ending in September 2012 over the same period in 2011. Despite this growth this only represents a small fraction of overall fundraising results, leading to the belief that there is still much room for improvement.

Once an organization has committed to implementing social media into their fundraising marketing plan the next challenge becomes finding social media advocates and growing an online community. There are some key aspects that should be kept in mind to reap the benefits that social media can deliver for optimal online engagement. As we plan for 2013 and the continued growth of social media, nonprofits should keep the following 4 key considerations in mind to help grow their online community.

1. CONTENT IS KING – Developing content that is informative, engaging and of interest to your target demographic is essential to the development of your social media following. Content that is too self-promotional or lacking in focus on the type of topics that appeal to your target audience can ultimately work against your efforts. Posting poorly composed, random information can be construed as spam and content that is not useful to your followers can lead to them un-following you. Planning your content in advance will ensure that your target audience is reached which increases the likelihood that they will share the information with their networks. Blogging is the most effective method of developing on-going content and I recently covered this in a post titled 7 Tips for Successful Blogging.
2. APPEAL TO THE EYE – As important as engaging and informative content is, so too is the image that accompanies it. Not only is visual content more appealing and attention grabbing, it is generally processed by the brain a lot quicker than plain text. Almost all social media platforms automatically include the associated image when the content is shared. Including a picture that is creatively related to the theme or opinion of your content will increase the likeliness that your content is read and shared again. Pictures can be original or existing and I covered some tips in the post 4 Photo/Video Tools for Nonprofit to Help Increase Supporter Engagement.
3. MAKE IT SHARE-WORTHY – Once content has been developed, don’t assume that simply sharing a link is enough to get the attention of your audience. As social media continues to grow so does the number of organizations that are vying for visibility in each platform making catching the attention of your followers and making sure your content does not get buried even more difficult. To increase your chance of breaking through this barrier, include catchy titles, eye-catching images, interesting (and good quality) outgoing links and comments or notes with each link to personalize it and make it standout to motivate your audience to invest the time in clicking your link, reading the content and (hopefully) sharing it with their network.
4. TAP INTO EMPLOYEES AND ADVOCATES – A nonprofit’s employees and/or volunteers are the best resource to growing a social media community. Once content has been developed and shared across the various platforms, encourage these advocates to share it with their own networks to help expand and grow your online community. Holding regular (monthly or bimonthly) meetings to discuss your social media plan to outline the ideal activity (i.e. how often to post/repost links, sharing links, on which platforms and goal setting) will personalize the involvement for your advocates making them feel more invested in the process and its success. Not only will your online community grow with theirs but you never know where the next great new idea or approach will come from. Review 6 Key Social Media Benefits & Principles for Nonprofit Engagement and Facts and Tips on Strengthening Nonprofit Engagement from Hubspot Report for more information.

Growing an online community can be challenging and will not happen overnight. It requires a dedicated and conscientious effort from thoughtful planning through to concise execution. However, once the ball is rolling and engagement is increased the results will be rewarding. With 2013 on the horizon I will be sharing more tips on how nonprofits can maximize their social media initiatives for a stronger new year.

Feel free to browse through the other posts in our Social Media Series for nonprofits which includes a series on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest along with other related topics.

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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.