17 Social Media Tips & Tricks for Nonprofits

Melissa Mathews

August 1st 2014

TODAY’S AGENDA

1. The Impact of Social Media

2. Nonprofit Examples

3. Setting Goals & Measurement

Where do I even start?

3

• 68% donate money• 53% volunteer• 52% donate clothing,

food or other personal items

• 43% attend/participate in a charitable event in my community

• 40% purchase a product to benefit the cause or charity

• 25% contact my political representatives by phone, mail or in person

• 15% organize an event in my community

But I know I should start because…

…it matters to my audience.

#handittocleveland

Tip #1 Find Your Social Media Voice

Who the heck is this guy?

#handittocleveland

Tip #2 Pick the right channels #handittocleveland

Tip #3 Promote Your Profiles Everywhere #handittocleveland

Tip #4 Inspire Emotion #handittocleveland

Tip #5 Use Visuals

Use tools like picmonkey.com & piktochart.com

#handittocleveland

*Note: Image on Twitter should be 1024 x 512 pixels to show up in feed

Tip #6 Showcase people and their stories #handittocleveland

Tip #7 Capitalize on (relevant) trends

• Visit daysoftheyear.com to find out fun or important days/weeks/months

• Hashtagify.me helps you find popular hashtags

• Stay up to date on popular news that doesn’t always relate to your nonprofit

#handittocleveland

Tip #8 Optimize Your Social Profiles

• Use keywords in the about/company info section.

• Be consistent with boiler plate language.

#handittocleveland

Tip #9 Remember Location Matters

Let Cleveland Empower Your Nonprofit (even if it’s national)• Helps local SEO • Adding a complete address to your FB page

activates Facebook Location allowing people to check-in and review

• Google+ can help you takeover the SERPs

#handittocleveland

Tip #10 Live Tweet From Events

Not only your own events, but other events you attend or even webinars.

Use tools like Storify to highlight top influencers or tweets

#handittocleveland

Tip #11 Keep in mind your staff & volunteers are your biggest advocates

• Make sure to inspire social media activity among staff, especially founders/leaders

• Reinforce best practices and optimized profiles• This means volunteers, too! • Encourage them to share

Tip #12 Show Progress & Proof

• Celebrate successes. Your followers already believe in you, and they want to see that their support is making an impact.

#handittocleveland

That’s great, but how do I know if it worked?

And if my time invested was worth it?

Don’t worry, there’s still 5 tips left!

Tip #13 Set SMART Goals & Objectives

Awareness

Retention

Driving Action

Examples:

• Increase email list sign ups through social media channels by 500 names by October 31, 2014.

• Increase brand mentions online by 25% by August 1, 2015.

*Must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant & time based.

#handittocleveland

Tip #14 Track important metrics over time

Make a list of the metrics that would show you insight into reaching your goal.

#handittocleveland

Tip #15 Use free tools to help you find the data you need• Facebook Insights• LinkedIn Analytics• Google+ Analytics• Google Analytics – advanced to track ROI

• Set up goals & UTM Parameters

Tip #16 Create a social media calendar

Leave room for flexibility but try to stick to a theme

#handittocleveland

Tip #17 Never Stop Testing

• Social media provides great audience research for free• Possible tests:

• One hashtag vs. 2 or more• Time of day• Call-to-action vs. no call-to-action• Questions vs. statements• Post length• Pictures & videos vs. plain copy

#handittocleveland

THANK YOU QUESTIONS?