August 4, 2017
Think of how you use social media. Sure, you connect with your family and friends online, but social media is also the place where you check the news, share information and ideas, and go for entertainment (Pew Research Center). Your donors are no different!
The Salvation Army has the opportunity to connect with constituents, raise awareness for their cause, and collect donations. Storytelling is one of the best ways to connect with donors and raise funds. When done right, the stories you tell will be memorable, moving, and powerfully motivating to constituents. Your organization wants to give your social media followers a reason to follow you. But how do you turn your social media followers into donors?
Here are 4 tips to engage your social media followers and motivate them to give:
- Post Engaging Content
A successful, long-term social media strategy should include a variety of engaging posts and opportunities for conversations, not a constant bombardment of posts asking for donations. The Salvation Army should aim to cultivate the follower’s connection by providing impact reports, supporter recognition, and cause awareness via storytelling and educational pieces.
Did you know that not all the individuals who see an organization’s Facebook post are fans of that organization’s page? In fact, 45 percent of Facebook users who saw a given post were not already fans of the nonprofit (2017 M+R Benchmarks Report). That means you can showcase a mix of content about your organization to appeal to new individuals, and cultivate your existing followers at the same time. - Use an Editorial Calendar
A social media editorial calendar is key to organizing the variety of your engaging posts. Content outlines can be built out months in advance, and finalized post content can be built on a month-to-month basis. Posts should consist of a mix of types — including links, photos, and videos.
The editorial calendar will not only help maintain a consistent cadence, it will also allow you to map out time-sensitive content in advance, and help enforce the basic “411 Rule.” The 411 Rule: For every 1 soft promotion and 1 hard promotion, post 4 educational or entertaining posts. For example, a soft promotion could be a starting of a hashtag. An example of a hard promotion is a more explicit call to action like “Donate Now.” This approach provides flexibility to post more than one “type” of post per day, frees the organization from a rigid and thematic posting schedule, and encourages conversation without being overly promotional. - Include Various Donation Ask Amounts
For every 1,000 email subscribers, the average nonprofit organization has 428 Facebook fans (2017 M+R Benchmarks Report). Because of this, the “hard promotions” in the 411 Rule should be a mix of evergreen appeals and campaign-specific appeals. The 40 percent of email subscribers who are connected with your organization on Facebook should receive multiple touchpoints. This will reinforce the imagery and campaign theme, while maximizing the impact for that appeal. Please note: There is no guarantee that your fans will see each and every post, due to Facebook’s ever-mysterious, ever-changing algorithm. However, as a simple rule-of-thumb, the more an individual interacts with your posts, the more likely and often the prospect will see your content. - Paid Efforts
Because the average nonprofit will reach just 8% of its fans with an un-promoted post (2017 M+R Benchmarks Report) having a budget allocated for boosted posts can be helpful in reaching more of your intended audience and an effective part of your social media strategy. When done well, promoted posts can increase conversions, and help you reach new people. A little budget boost can go a long way.