Do You Have a Social Media Plan?
If COVID taught us anything, it’s the value of social media. It became everyone’s go-to place for information, entertainment and for many nonprofit organizations, donations and donor acquisition. That’s why it’s essential as a nonprofit to be in the digital space.
However, we know this can be an intimidating or difficult demand on many nonprofits. That’s why we’ve developed these tips and tricks to help you make the best use of your time and social media platforms!
Content Calendar
Like any endeavor, the best way to begin—or revamp—is to start with a plan. In the digital space that’s often a content calendar.
Like a direct mail or acquisition plan, a digital content calendar is a plan for what you will be posting throughout the month. This is one of the most effective tools you can use to create consistency and cohesion in your social media.
Keep in mind the following:
The beginning of the month is a great time to post an update from your Ministry. This allows donors to know what you have been doing, as well as promote any upcoming projects.
For organizations with a religious audience, Sundays can be a great time to post Scriptures. This often generates a lot of engagement (shares and likes).
Utilize the days leading up to events. In the content calendar below, the week before the event has a post every day to flood people’s news feeds with information promoting the event. However, you can also do this further in advance, especially if your event is ticketed. You also don’t have to reinvent the wheel with event posts. These reminders can all be the same or similar pictures with varied verbiage.
Here is a sample content calendar:
Preschedule Posts
As a nonprofit, we know you’re often a one man or woman show, so time is of the essence.
One of the best time savers is pre-scheduling posts for all your social media platforms. This allows you to create future posts, which will be saved and shared automatically on the dates you choose. This can be done up to a month in advance, so you don’t have to get on Facebook every day to create posts.
You should, however, be monitoring engagement on posts every day, regardless of whether you use a posting tool.
There are a variety of different programs that offer this tool, but two of the best are Hootsuite and Buffer. They offer several different plans with a varying number of social media platforms, posts and prices. Additionally, both Hootsuite and Buffer offer 50% discount for nonprofits on their Professional Plan and Buffer has a free option which allows you to use their scheduling platform free of charge with up to 3 social media platforms.
Engagement
Once you have consistent content, the next step is engagement. There are several ways to engage your donors via social media, but simply having a direct call to action often creates the best engagement.
As fundraisers, we automatically think “donation” when we hear call to action. However, in social media especially, this can also include prompts to “comment how the Mission has helped you,” “share this post,” or “like our Page.” Adding one of these calls to action to the end of your post can make a huge difference!
The goal of engagement is to create a two-way conversation with your donors. Social media gives you an opportunity to engage in a one-on-one way. However, this means that your response to donors’ comments and shares is important. Donors will often ask questions in the comments about ways to get involved, and you don’t want to miss those opportunities to share more about your Ministry!
In conclusion? Don’t fret if you know your social media isn’t up to par—just use these three tips to help get yourself organized, scheduled and engaged!
By Raianne Vasquez
Vasquez is a Client Account & Digital Manager with MDM Fundraising. She has been with MDM since 2018 and brings expertise in Facebook, display and Google Ads marketing. She is a skilled social media master with a keen eye for high-impact digital design and a passion for helping others tell their story through digital media. She can be reached at rvasquez@mdmfundraising.com