subject: Social Media Secrets for Non-Profits [print this page] While many businesses have already capitalized on the potential of social media as a promotional tool to increase their revenue, non-profits can also harness the power of social media to increase fundraising.
Social media allows you to breed possibly the best type of credibility you can muster by allowing others to spread their own word-of-mouth marketing about your non-profit.
Tips to Help You Have a Successful Social Media Campaign
Social media is a game you have to constantly work at in order for it to be effective. Like pretty much anything in life, you will only get out of it what you put into it.
Social media does not have to be complicated. Start simple and start with a plan.
Your plan needs to take into account where your potential donors and supporters hang out, who will handle the social media for your organization and how much time will be spent on the campaign.
The following tips will help you ensure your social media plan is effective and that you reach your campaign goals.
Build a community. This allows like-minded people to congregate. You are building relationships! Every piece of communication you put out through social media needs to be done from the viewpoint of starting and having conversations with people. Seek out like-minded individuals and groups and blog back and forth. All of a sudden, people will help out your cause on their own accord just because they think you have a worthwhile cause, and not because you asked.
Don't assume that people know what your organization is, what it does, or why it is important. Communicate this information conversationally. If possible, tell real-life stories that educate and enlighten your followers. Always keep in mind that you are having conversations on social media and that the ideal is to encourage engagement.
If you are going to collect donations online, use PayPal. Many people are already comfortable with PayPal, and it allows them to make any sized donation, whether it's $5 or $5,000.
If you use Twitter, use hash tags. A hash tag is the # sign before the topic, subject, name, etc. on Twitter. Hash tags allow you to group your tweets and make them findable using Twitter Search.
Some Things to Keep in Mind
Social media is not about reaching a large number of people at once, but rather, building a community that creates an online word-of-mouth campaign that reaches far and wide.
But social media is just once piece of a much larger pie.
In order for your social media to be truly effective, you must also accompany your campaign with traditional PR and marketing actions. You need email, web site presence, face-to-face events, as well as online and mainstream media.
With all of these parts in place your launch into social media will be more effective.
