How to Create a Social Media Strategy for Your Nonprofit

Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, oh my! Yup, social media can sometimes feel like traipsing through a dark forest of likes, comments, hashtags, and the occasional flying monkey. But armed with a social media strategy specifically geared towards nonprofits, you can find the yellow brick road to your organization’s greatest milestones. 

When it comes to social media nonprofits best practices, we’ve got the hook up. So without further ado, here’s your five-step guide to building a social media marketing plan for non profits—no ruby slippers required.  

Step 1: Set Up Those Accounts!

The first and most essential step to building your nonprofit social media strategy—getting social media accounts, of course! If your accounts aren’t set up already, be sure to create profiles for your nonprofit across multiple social media platforms.  

Make sure you’re taking full advantage of each platform’s nonprofit-geared profiles. Each platform offers unique features to help your organization reach more people, make it easy to donate right from your profile page, and even participate in platform-sponsored fundraising events. For example:

  • Facebook offers Charitable Giving Tools, Facebook Payments, and allows nonprofits to accept payments from private fundraising events. It also participates in Giving Tuesday, where Facebook matches donations (to a limit) to participating nonprofits. In 2019, over 97,000 organizations benefited from these efforts and over $120 million was raised.
  • In partnership with Google, YouTube offers Creator Academy lessons tailored to nonprofits as well as the opportunity to shoot or edit videos at YouTube’s global creator studios.
  • The latest source of viral sensations, TikTok has its own social media for nonprofits—TikTok For Good. With user analytics, promoted charitable hashtags, and account management help, nonprofits are set up for success on this fun and addictive app. 

Already have social accounts but didn’t sign up for nonprofit or business pages? Head to the settings page or reach out to customer service. You can switch over to a new account setting seamlessly. 

Quick Tip: Some platforms don’t have nonprofit profile options—that’s okay. In these cases, sign up as a business. You’ll be able to display contact information, donation options, and more. 

Step 2: Decide Your Social Media Goals and KPIs 

A social media account that isn’t aligned with an organization’s goals is like a bald porcupine—it’s pointless!

(Crickets)

Okay, well, you get the picture. Social media is an insanely dynamic tool that can help boost some of your organization’s most important goals. But first, you’ve got to articulate those goals and figure out how to measure them through key performance indicators (or KPIs).
Here are just a few examples of social media account goals you can achieve along with some sample KPIs: 

  • Amplify awareness – If you want your organization to be as well-known as the Salvation Army or Locks for Love, social media can help you reach new audiences with hashtag campaigns, engaging content, and more.  

Sample KPI:  5,000 followers by the end of Q4

  • Make connections (near and far) – When people connect to a cause, they’re more likely to participate in that cause. And social media is all about connection! 
    • Sample KPI: Average 500 social media engagements (likes, comments, shares) a week. 
  • Call communities to action – As a nonprofit, you want to change the world—but you know you can’t do it alone. Inspiring communities to support your efforts can be done with a savvy social media plan. 
  • Sample KPI: At least 100 donations sourced through social media donate buttons during a holiday fundraising campaign. 

Step 3: Figure Out What You Want Your Content to Look Like

Hungry for a social media strategy analogy? Take a seat!

Let’s say you’re having a dinner party at your house. The guest list? People you want to impress—in-laws, coworkers, Beyonce, whoever. 

As any good host knows, the menu can help curate the environment of your dinner party. The food helps tell a story about how you want your guests to feel and about the kind of person you are. 

So are you going to serve Hamburger Helper to Queen Bae? Of course not!

The content of your social media posts should be designed to propel your organization toward its goals. Use those goals as well as your organization’s unique identity to figure out:

  • Audience – Or, who’s coming over for dinner? Understanding who you’re trying to connect to through social media can help you curate your content for your target audience. 
  • Story and Mission – Who you are and what you’re trying to achieve should always be a consistent undercurrent in your content.
  • Voice – Every post, every Tweet, every emoji should be informed by your organization’s voice. Is your organization’s voice fun and quirky? Is it serious but compassionate? Keep your audience and mission in mind and you’ll craft a voice that speaks volumes across all of your platforms. 

Step 4: Build a Content Calendar

For a successful social media campaign, you’ll need a social media content calendar to help you plan out your content. It will also help align your efforts with other campaign efforts, events, and popular trends. 

A basic social media content calendar should include:

  • The images you’re going to post
  • The words you’re going to post
  • Any associated hashtags
  • A timeline of when you’re going to post them all

Step 5: Stay Consistent and Be Patient

Social media successes don’t happen overnight—not even to Justin Beiber. It takes consistent work and patience to make the most out of your nonprofit organization social media strategy. 

But you don’t have to do it alone. 

For Your Nonprofit’s Social Media Success, Choose Puzzle Pieces Marketing

Your team are the experts when it comes to bringing good to the world—we’re the experts at helping you do that. At Puzzle Pieces, we’re dedicated to streamlining your nonprofit social media marketing strategy because we want to free up your time to do what you do best—change the world for the better.

Give us a call today and let’s strategize how your organization can take the social media world by storm!

Sources:

Facebook. Social Impact Partnerships at Facebook. https://socialimpact.facebook.com/Google. YouTube for NonProfits. https://www.google.com/nonprofits/offerings/youtube-nonprofit-program/

TikTok. TikTok For Good. https://www.tiktok.com/forgood?lang=en

Hootsuite. Social Media for Nonprofits: 11 Essential Tips for Success. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-nonprofits/