Why is social media an essential aspect of your marketing (fundraising) strategy?

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, TikTok… Around 3.6 billion users watch, read, comment, and share content every day.  

Social media is an effective marketing tool that allows nonprofit organisations to tell their stories. These stories can help engage current and potential donors, increase brand/cause awareness and promote fundraising initiatives. Some of its avails are: 

• Attracting potential donors and keepings existing donors engaged.
• Significantly increasing your organisation’s visibility as per the number of users. 
• Increasing awareness about your cause. 
• Directing viewers to your website and donation page.
• Allowing you to share interactive content empowering your viewers to engage.
• Social media is free!  You also have the option to invest to maximize your reach. 
• Acquiring volunteers or hiring new team members. 

For all the reasons mentioned above, sharing effective content and having a solid plan to support your social media strategy is crucial.  

That’s why we’ve  gathered the most effective ideas and tips on what, when and where to post. After reading this blog, you will be ready to rock your social media strategy. Ready? Let’s get started.

Maximising  your social media strategy

Planning in advance

Having a content planner would allow you to establish a schedule with what type of content you are sharing, what specific content, where, and when.

 Reflecting on that information allows you to: 

• Share a consistent message across all your social media platforms. 
• Ensure that content has maximised effectiveness considering the type of platform, type of content, and time to post.

Remember to consider the theme. Your social media should always refer back to your communication strategy and should align with your fundraising goals. 

Set your goals:  

• Awareness (impressions, view, reach). 
• Growth (followers, likes, subscribers). 
• Engagement (reactions, clicks, comments, shares). 
• Conversions (donations, registration, recruitment. 

Choose your frequency

Most studies agree that once per day is optimal, with a maximum of two posts per day. HubSpot found that pages under 10,000 fans experienced a 50% drop in engagement per post if they posted more than once per day.

Adapt your content for each channel Motivators our audience uses each platform vary and influence what type of content you share on each platform. 

Purpose of using social media platforms:

• Humor: TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit
• Connect with friends: Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat
• Current events: Twitter, Clubhouse 
• Professional connections: LinkedIn

Source:  Alaya’s webinar “Tactics to boost your social media strategy”.

You can run content in parallel across different platforms to maximise your resources and connect with different audiences. 

Take a look at the latest social media demographics for marketers. It would give you helpful information to maximise your posts and your resources.

Post at the right time for your donors

Each platform requires a different approach, and audiences can vary depending on the time zone. You will have to build a content schedule to cover the most significant territories where your donors are. Remember that a larger audience does not mean higher engagement. Some organisations have designed regional pages and one official account to post global content. 

Research shows the following times to be effective when sharing nonprofit content among these 3 popular social media platforms.

 Best times to post on Facebook for nonprofit

• Best times: Wednesday 10 am–5 pm
• Best day: Wednesday
• Worst day: Saturday (minor difference)

Best times to post on Instagram for nonprofit

• Best times: Wednesday 10 am–6 pm
• Best day: Wednesday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Twitter for nonprofit

• Best times: Wednesday 10–11 am, 2–4 pm
• Best day: Wednesday
• Worst day: Sunday

TikTok –  source 

High-engagement windows: 9 am on Tuesdays, 12 am on Thursdays, 5 am on Fridays.

Clubhouse 

High-engagement windows: Before and after working hours, and during breaks.
Suggested frequency: at least 1 interaction per day.

Snapchat 

High-engagement windows: Vary by individual
Suggested frequency: Spend 30 minutes engaging per day

Source

The above are guidelines based on research and data analysis. However, it would be best if you take a look at your posts’ performance and key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine what strategy works best for your donors and your region. 

Adapt your content to the audience

Who is the content intended for ?

 Each platform attracts a different audience and determines content preference.

 Interactive content encourages users to engage rather than passively consume it. 

80% of online users will watch a video, but only 20% will read the content.

Interactivity not only enhances conversions to 40-50%, but people just love to share cool, unique interactive content pieces, by as much as 28%

What is your Click-to-Action (CTA)?

What do we want the viewer to do after seeing our post? Visit your website, donate, share, comment, vote, participate in a poll? 

Make sure you have your CTA in mind when creating your post – and that it is clear to the user.

Here are a few examples: 

Share your accomplishments, give thanks and recognition to your donors and partners.

Share your programmatic and fundraising goals.

How do you want to share your content?

Different social media platforms have different ways to share your content.  

Stories – allow users to share photos and videos in a slide show format that is visible to  followers of the user’s Instagram account. Content is available for only 24 hours from the time of posting.  Ephemeral Content continues to  gain popularity. 

Reels are 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects, and creative tools. You can share reels with your followers on Feed and with the wider Instagram community through Explore. Reels in Explore offers anyone the chance to become a creator on Instagram and reach new audiences on a global stage.

In-feed the content shows in your profile indefinitely or until you manually delete them.

Live option lets you broadcast video to your followers in real-time. 

Some ideas to mix up your upcoming social media posts:

• Stories and videos to share your impact 
• Stories and videos to share the need for your programs
• Testimonials from beneficiaries 
• Testimonials from donors 
• Testimonials from volunteers
• Get behind the scenes of your day to day life
• Share Inspirational quotes from your beneficiaries, donors, founder, volunteer or  influential people. 
• Share how your organisation started  
• Informational infographics about your impact and programs
• Post some questions and answers to create awareness. For example, Do you know how many children in the world are refugees? then you share the actual number and a brief text to motivate  the viewer to donate. *
• Create a poll . It’s Pride month! Have you  participated in any event to support this cause? *
• Give a tour of your impact area or your offices. 
• Interview your staff
• Host an #AMA (Ask Me Anything)*

*Interactive content

Need some inspiration? Take a look at these posts.

Some last words of wisdom:

• Check out Google Trends analysis to spot trends. These could help to make the content relevant. Encourage your community to help spread the word- by providing ready to share content to your audience. 

• Tap into your social media profile’s “Analytics” function to get insights about your audience and content performance. 

• Reflect on the type of content that resonates with your audience. The more you share, the more insight you will receive and adapt.