Many people still think that social media is only there to offer trivial or fun content. Others think that what works on some social media platforms like Instagram can’t be taken seriously. But, there’s a lot more behind that. Why do top organizations put so much effort into social media? How effective are these channels?
When it comes to connecting with their audiences, many nonprofits experience the exact same challenge. They do meaningful work, they have worthy causes, but no one seems to notice. Why? They don’t know their audience, they don’t know how to deliver the right message, they don’t have a strategy, they aren’t willing to invest time and money, and ultimately, they don’t know how to connect with their audience.
UNICEF’s way of using social media for social good paves a nice and smooth path for the NGOs to follow. Let’s find out how other nonprofits can achieve their fundraising goals through social media.
How to Link Innovation and Impact to Social Media
Step 1: Think of the Impact
To make a real impact in your audience, you need to follow these steps :
First, you have to communicate your difference, your new methodologies, technologies and innovations. If you are not yet innovating, you have to communicate about your approach and your solutions to advance your cause.
Secondly, it is important to focus on impact; how are you improving, advancing your cause? The solution is to do this by creating an emotional link between the audience and your content. It is important to appeal to emotion; your target audience needs to feel the sentiment you are trying to communicate through text, images or videos. It’s important to understand your audience very well, psychographics and demographics are essential to know what message resonates best with them. What type of content to use? The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words, the same goes for video, a video is worth a thousand pictures.
Finally, you have to connect your work with your audience; show how it affects them or impacts them personally to advance your cause. What is the value to humanity and also to donors? Calling for a specific action, however small, is a commitment, a first step that will grow and change things. It is your work to regularly show how they are changing and improving thanks to them and to you, to the common effort of both. This is what powers all things.
Step 2. Leverage the Power of Social Media
Whatever your top priorities are: fundraising, building brand awareness, recruiting volunteers or sharing news: Social media is the perfect tool for most of those goals.
Why? Because to achieve your goals, you will need to reach your audience where they are and exchange, on social media. The mobile penetration rate of social media in Europe is over 90%. This means that there is no shortage of opportunities to find people who can support your cause through platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Also think about a consistent budget to invest in social media, without which the effect of any campaign will be limited.
The right use of social media gives you the opportunity to promote your non-profit organisation and find people to help you with your mission.
Ideas for using Social Media for Social Good
Share stories
You can share inspirational or motivational stories on your platform, along with images and videos. Knowing the basics of storytelling is important. It’s not talking about your organisation all the time, but about your impact, about how the world is a better place because of your contribution. Show the human side of your organisation, your community, your team, the people behind the scenes. It’s a great way to connect with your audience and raise awareness. World Wildlife Fund is a great example, here their Facebook page with great fresh and inspiring stories.
Team up with influencers
In addition, it is important to enlist the help of influencers. Whether it’s a celebrity, micro-influencers or macro-influencers, engage them to foster leadership and gain visibility. It’s also a great way to make new connections, along with promoting social good. Knowing who the right influencers are for your organisation is no easy task. It needs to be very well regulated and defined. Both parties expect to gain from this collaboration, and it is often not obvious. At Buzz Factory we have worked with many influencers and can help you manage this part.
Throw a small challenge
There are many campaigns that trend all over the internet, which have an impact related to social good. Like many influencers, they raised money for a good cause while doing the Ice-Bucket challenge or the campaign Movember to spread awareness about men’s health issues. Make it easy for your donors to share their action on social media right after they do it. With the donation module, they only have to click once to share their donation with their followers, family and friends. There are several solutions for this like this one for WordPress, GiveWP.
Listen your community
Social media listening can help you understand the needs of your target audience. They tell you what the public and your community feel and think about your organisation. This activity provides important insights and valuable information about the public perception of an organisation and the success of a campaign. It is not just about analysing the quantity but the quality of what is being said. You can use all this information to correct or stop messages that are not perceived properly, create new messages. Network listening definitely improves the use of social media and your digital strategy.
Conclusion
The advantage of social media is that it helps to extend the reach of any organisation. Your content is key! But it is also important to allocate a significant budget to advertising, without which your content will have no impact. Unfortunately, the era of free visibility is over. Social media work allows two-way communication between your organisation and your followers. People can respond to your posts by liking, commenting or sharing them. It’s not just about posting, it’s about responding, educating, motivating and driving action.
The possibilities are endless in terms of the magnitude of impact and support you can get from social media. Remember that the most important thing is to have clear objectives, a solid strategy and a good understanding of your audience.
We’ve just shared our thoughts, and we’d be more than interested in getting your feedback. For almost a decade, Buzz Factory has been working with local and international NGOs to promote their social campaigns, and you can utilize our talented team to take your campaign to the next level. From Switzerland, we run campaigns at home and around the world, be it for animal protection, children’s aid, education and much more.