Nonprofit Guide to

HACKING SOCIAL MEDIA

What You Can Do to Stay Ahead

The Need for Social Media

Whether the goal is to fundraise, drive action, or recruit new supporters for your cause, social media is one of your organization’s most effective tools. With the growing importance and reliance on social media, it can sometimes seem a bit overwhelming. Utilizing social media more effectively and strategically can prove to be not only lucrative but also crucial to accomplishing your mission.

These days, social media should no longer be an afterthought, it should be viewed as a hub to connect, grow and engage your community. This guide will cover best practices for nonprofit social media, including on when, what, and how to post in order to grow and engage your following more. It will also follow up on the best call to actions to move a donor up the ladder of engagement.

Best Practices

Keep in mind that 97% of social advertisers

still use it as their social media platform so

this platform will be more crowded potentially

making it harder for your message to be shared

Don’t make every post a plea for a pledge.

A good rule of thumb is that financial

contributions should make up no more than one

of every 10 content pieces

Do post replies to tweets roughly once an hour.

Do pin your best tweet at the top of the page.

Don’t just retweet—instead consider quote a

tweet adding your own opinion and value to it.

Do use hashtags. Search which ones are the

most popular and the most relevant to your

organization and the type of supporters you

are trying to attract.

Do keep hashtags to three or four at most in a

single post, otherwise, it can seem a bit messy.

Don’t be inconsistent with posting, make sure

you post frequently and at times that your

audience is the most engaged.

Only one half off all teens are reported to using

this platform, so if your message is aimed at

millennials potentially share your content on

another platform.

Don’t take on a negative tone—this may come

off as being desperate.

Do perfect your bio, making sure to add your

location and website link

Don’t tweet in bursts, this has been found to

cause people to unfollow.

Do keep in mind that Instagram attracts a

younger audience.

Do use ‘Camel Case’ for clarification. It’s the

difference between this: #whichishardtoread,

and this: #WhichIsMuchEasier

Don’t take a long time to respond to comments

or messages, this seems inconsiderate and

unprofessional.

What Makes a Good Photo?

TAKE PHOTOS WITH PLACEMENT IN MIND

THINK ABOUT THE MESSAGE THAT YOU WANT TO SHARE WITH AN IMAGE

MAKE SURE THERE IS ENOUGH LIGHTING!

MAKE IT AS ACCESSIBLE AS POSSIBLE, TRY TO BRAINSTORM WHAT WOULD BE EYE-CAPTURING

IF ALL ELSE FAILS HERE ARE SOME GOOD RESOURCES FOR FINDING GOOD STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY

How Long Should a Post Be?

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

80 CHARACTERS OR LESS GET MORE ENGAGEMENT

70–100 CHARACTERS

UNDER 125 CHARACTERS

30–60 SECOND VIDEOS

THE SWEET SPOT FOR THE BEST ENGAGEMENT

How Large Should Your Be?*

200 PX

200 PX

640 PIXELS WIDE 360 PIXELS TALL 820 PIXELS WIDE 312 PIXELS TALL

SMARTPHONES COMPUTERS

1080 PIXELS 1920 PIXELS

VIDEORESOLUTION

FACEBOOK PROFILE PHOTO FACEBOOK COVER PHOTO

INSTAGRAM VIDEO

*These are accurate as of the release of this content offer in April 2019.

How to Grow Your Following

Supporters are at the core of any nonprofit and by extending your social media reach you’re able to raise more money and ultimately maximize your impact. Here are 5 simple ways to increase your digital footprint.

Figure out what your goal is. What sort of metrics will you be looking at? Is it more followers on Instagram or Twitter in advance of fundraising season? More donations to reach a new fundraising record? More volunteers to keep your organization running smoothly? Whatever the answer, you need to define it so that you can create and curate content that attracts the audience you are trying to target.

Include a visual with every post, this makes your content more eye-catching and memorable. In the same avenue, keep in mind the quality and the brand you’re trying to communicate.

An easy way to incentivize people to follow your account is to hold a raffle and a stipulation is that they follow you. There are different formats of contests where people can comment to win or tag a friend to win. Make sure to promote it everywhere to drum up excitement!

Share your social handles at events when tabling as a simpler way for people to remain connected to your mission. Tag people in images you may have taken at the event—this allows them to share these images with their network., Instagram and Facebook stories are a great resource for this!

Give followers a reason to like and engage. Use Twitter to share news and alerts. Use Facebook to tell longer stories about your organization and use Instagram to share behind the scenes information and paint a visual picture of the organization.

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How to Move Followers Up the Ladder

When an organization is looking at increasing their supporter base they should consider the logistics of moving an engaged follower up the ladder of engagement. One way to do this is by building more meaningful relationships with supporters by tapping into their social networks. Through tools like EveryAction’s social network integration, an organization is able to easily take any supporter record with an email address and then match that to their corresponding social media handles.

It is also important to encourage supporters to spread the word on Facebook or Twitter with social sharing tools available through online forms. Similarly, you can track the impact of those shares and identify which supporters drive action and generate new sign-ups. This will allow you to figure out which supporters to focus more time and energy on.

Not only is it important to have a growing, engaged group of followers but an organization should also make it easy for these people to take action. This is done through effective and clear call to actions. With EveryAction’s Advocacy toolset, you can send calls, emails, form submissions, tweets, and more with the click of a button. This allows you to quickly mobilize thousands of supporters to either tweet, call or email an elected official or a another custom target.

Have a call-to-action in every single social media post. There should be something that followers want to or need to do. This might include simple things such as “tweet this” or “share with colleagues” or even “tag a friend”. Creating a sense of urgency in your messaging can also inspire people to act. Including a phrases like “Donate by June 1st” or “Email now and receive a free gift” can help maximize your efforts.

But at the same time make sure you’re not overdoing the call to action, make the experience feel unique and custom to your audience rather than blasting them with commands!

How to Drive Action

SOCIAL MEDIA

BRAND VOICESimple

Detailed

Eccentric

Transparent

UniqueSharp

EngageAnalytic

ComfortStraightforward

InspireAuthentic

Proper

PURPOSETONE

LANGUAGE

As an organization, it is important to find and define your voice. By asking yourself questions like:

Deciding what your key focuses are will help you determine what type of content you want to post and will ensure that you’re communicating with your audience in the right way. When it comes to voice it’s natural to also touch on tone. The difference between the two is simple essentially, there is one voice for your brand and many tones that refine that voice. Moreover, voice is like a mission statement. Whereas tone is the application of that mission.

What does your nonprofit’s brand voice look like?

What is our overall tone? Is it informative, positive, goofy, sarcastic, serious?

What is the general feel of the brand? What kind of imagery are you using? What mood does your color palette invoke?

Finding Your Social Media Brand Voice

What sort of words are you using in your social media dialogue? Focus on your language.

Are you a member-driven organization or are you a movement?

Do you want to talk about the news and keep people informed? Advocating for them to take action? Moreover, what is your purpose on social media?

In a 24-hour news cycle, every minute counts. By developing a rapid response plan, you can prepare your team to handle breaking news with swiftness and class. Responding to events quickly reinforces your message and your dedication to your organization’s mission. It isn’t about which voice is the loudest but rather which one is adding value and context.

Use this checklist as a guide to develop a structured, efficient rapid response plan.

Does our nonprofit have a stake in the issues?

Will our supporters see us as a leader on

these issues?

Is this conversation relevant to the people

we’re hoping to represent or mobilize?

Anticipate any potential attacks

Stay on top of any opposition or developing

news: this might include subscribing to email

and newsletters and list of PACs, follow them

on social media to see what they’re posting

Create an on-call schedule and stick to

it: make sure there is always someone

responsible for the news and social media,

to see if there is anything breaking

Develop an approval protocol for rapid-

response: decide what needs to potentially be

reviewed or looked at by someone else

The tone might change a bit depending on

the platform

Speak to the most important part of the news

article; don’t focus on every little detail

Rapid Response

DECIDING WHEN TO ACT

RESEARCH

BASIC PREP

THE RESPONSE

STEP 1

STEP 3

STEP 2

STEP 4

Establish a Weekly Planner: What to Do When

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

- Write and schedule all of your posts across all social media avenues, using the information you learned from the previous week

- Design graphics for next week’s social media posts (if necessary)

- Take any photos for upcoming Instagram or Facebook posts

- Look through your posts and see if you’ve received any comments or messages you need to respond to- Start looking for content for the next week

Best day to post on Instagram

across all vertical!

- Block out an hour to two to analyze how your posts performed across all social media platforms. Focus on what did really well and what did not well. Then strategize how to improve this for the next week.

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