• Social Media Marketing
• 19 October 2017

Nonprofits often struggle with one of the biggest marketing challenges: having no money. Most companies spend a few hundred dollars a day on their social media marketing efforts, which nonprofits can’t do with their limited budgets.

It can seem impossible to grow and raise awareness for your business without spending a ton of money. But it’s not impossible for nonprofits to be successful on social media with a smaller budget.

Want to know how to use social media marketing on a limited budget? Read on to learn 7 social media marketing tips for nonprofits.

Tip 1: Use Videos to Tell Your Organization’s Story

Most companies use video as a form of social media marketing, so nonprofits should too. Videos speak to viewers. They’re easily shared, and they can convince people to get involved with your organization.

Here are some reasons why videos are important to nonprofits:

Videos Let People Know Who You Are

Short videos are a great way to share some insight into who you are, what you stand for, and the work you do for the community. Intro videos can introduce viewers to your organization leaders, and highlight all the services you offer.

Videos Inspire Action

Videos can convince viewers to contribute to completing your mission or goal. They can also give viewers more info about how to get involved with your organization. They may also even be inspired to get their friends and family involved.

Videos Can Bring Attention to Your Fundraising Efforts

Videos can introduce your fundraiser to people and show them how they can get involved or donate. Videos can also explain your fundraising goals and give people a good idea of how they can contribute. Videos are also more personal and less money-focused than an old fundraising letter.

Here are some video marketing tips for nonprofits:

• Announcement videos (keep your audiences up-to-date on everything you’re doing so they know how to get involved)
• Staff videos (give your organization a human face by highlighting employees and the great work that they do)
• Testimonial videos (show who you’re helping, and let their stories and words speak to your organization’s hard work)

Tip 2: Take a Multi-Dimensional Approach

You should blog, create social media posts, and post videos to YouTube. You should also encourage followers to share content. By doing this, you can take advantage of every channel in the best way.

Allow the people you impact to share their stories by creating content.

Tip 3: Embrace User Generated Content

The best marketing tip for nonprofits? Take advantage of free marketing whenever you can. Content from followers and fans is a free form of advertising, and it’s a great way to get people excited about your brand.

By encouraging followers to submit videos, posts, and testimonials, you can increase brand loyalty and trust.

Tip 4: Get Your Volunteers & Community Members Involved

One of the best marketing tips for nonprofits is getting volunteers excited and involved in social media efforts. Post videos and photos with your volunteers in them. Film them telling their stories, and urge them to share these posts.

By making them feel special, they’ll be more likely to share your posts with their friends, families, and peers.

Another tip: Take advantage of the talents of your volunteers and community members. Maybe there’s someone with video experience who would love to film a video of your organization for free.

Tip 5: Become a Trusted Member of Your Community

You should make a sincere effort to become a member of your community. Do this by responding to comments and questions on posts. Follow organizations like you, and show people you care.

If you do this right, you can increase donors, volunteers, and money. All you need to focus on is time, consideration, and trust.

Tip 6: Define Social Media Marketing’s Role in Your Overall Communication Strategy

What’s one of the most important marketing tips? Making sure your social media is in line with your greater communications strategy. Your business goals should match your social media plans.

What Do I Need to Know About This?

• Your social media work should impact your most important business goals, like engagement and community involvement.
• Your social media efforts should tie back to your existing content, i.e. your website and blog, email marketing, event promotions, and other pieces of content you share online.

Tip 7: Determine What You Want Your Organization to Achieve

The key to a successful social media campaign is aligning it with your main company goals. So before you start on any social media campaign, make sure you define those goals, and come up with metrics for success.

If engagement is your goal:

You can measure success by the number of responses to your posts and audience engagement, as well as the use of your organization’s hashtags by others.

You should also develop audience personas, which are representations of your ideal follower, so you know who you should be targeting. These personas should be based on demographic information and actual followers.

What to Remember About Marketing Tips for Nonprofits

If you’re a nonprofit you’re doing great work with your community, and that work should be shared with the world. By taking advantage of these social media marketing tips, you can increase your online presence, engage with followers, and increased donation and revenue.

If you’re working with the most basic of budgets, try to simply keep these best practices in mind.

• Find out what time your audience is most active on social media channels and post during those hours (keep in mind, the time of activity differs depending on social media network)
• Be consistent (pick a time and day you’re going to post, and post on those days. The less consistent you are, the less likely audiences will want to connect with you.)
• Get to know your audience (post polls, ask audience members for feedback, and make sure to always respond to questions and comments.)

Are you a nonprofit? Have you tried any of these marketing tips for nonprofits? Which ones worked best for you? Let us know in the comments!