Training Your Staff to Effectively Use Social Media Part IV

In this final segment for this series I’ll continue to discuss a few more practical ways to train your employees to use social media sites to your organization’s benefit.  Online fundraising and networking are musts for any successful nonprofit. These ideas can save you time (and therefore money) and bring the highest results for your efforts.

Add a Graphic

As we’ve mentioned before, there are a ton of Facebook posts and tweets out there. One way that you can make yours stand out is by adding pictures from your library or graphics. There are some great resources for this, one of my favorite places to find stock photography and free art is on Yahoo!. Type your subject into the search engine, click on the “image” tab, and voila! A variety of great graphics are at your fingertips. It only takes a few minutes but can add intrigue to your posts.

Social Media is a Two Way Street

Coming up with new posts, blogs, or updates can seem somewhat daunting at times, but we all know that this is a great way to connect with donors. The key part is to create content that will facilitate engagement from your followers. Try posing questions, creating polls, or asking for comments. This is a great way to see who is listening and to show that you care about what your contributors think; it creates a partnership of commitment. Of course every comment does not warrant a response, but interaction is an important step to public relations online.

What Does Your Audience Want?

People aren’t going to read content they do not care about. Vague posts written in riddles, uninspiring stories, and irrelevant comments will not get your donors’ attention and will be a waste of your time. What exciting project are you working on? Did you have a great success story to share with followers and inspire others? Was there a news story or statistic published that addresses your cause? Keep it interesting.

Know and Utilize Available Resources

There are many great sites out there that you can tap into to find social media success. For example, at Fundly we are proud to create an amazing product to help nonprofits, schools, and political campaigns alike garner donations, while sharing their cause through social media. When a donor makes a financial gift, they can post it to their Facebook page or Twitter for their friends to see. Others are more likely to get on board when they see that a friend supports a cause. Why go through the time, hassle, and financial expense of creating a donation site when you can use an established resource?

I hope that these tips over the past week have helped you and your staff gain insight into effectively using social media to promote your cause. We are working in a time like no other, with the potential to reach thousands of people with the simple click of a mouse. Like any new marketing strategy or advancement in technology, it takes time and practice to fine tune the skills to make the most out of this resource. It may take a little more effort in the beginning, but the end results are certainly worth the investment.