Social Media is a crucial piece of an organization’s marketing plan. There are two main ways you can utilize social media: paid ads or organic growth. While both are beneficial for different reasons, I’m going to focus on tips for organic growth, as it costs nothing but a bit of a time.
Social Media has seemingly taken on a life of its own since coming into existence. Larger organizations have entire teams devoted to social media marketing across all platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and newer to the scene, apps like Snapchat and TikTok. It’s okay if you don’t have accounts on all of these platforms. Depending on your business, it may serve you to focus on one or two, and grow your audience there first.
Often, we hear clients say “I don’t have the time to spend several hours a day creating content and posting on all of my social accounts. I know it’s important, there is just no time.” Sound familiar?
Well, we are here to tell you that today in 2021, there are a multitude of ways to meaningfully engage with your audience and it doesn’t have to take up too much time at all. In fact, you can take a look at our recent Case Study for our Social Media Client Cancer Kinship. We had astonishing engagement rates utilizing only 4 hours per month. It’s about making sure you connect with a real audience in an authentic way.
When social media first began, algorithms were set up differently and posting daily really did have a lot of weight on who saw your posts. But not anymore. Social media used to focus on things like vanity metrics (follower count, likes) as a quick way to evaluate how an org is being received. While follower count and likes are valuable, engagement and sales conversions are much more profitable for any org. Now, you can use social media to find prospective clients on social media and even find new donors. Who doesn’t want that?
However, in an oversaturated marketplace of competing messages, how do you stand out?
Here are 5 tips for making sure your organization is engaging effectively on social media:
1. It’s called SOCIAL media – so, be social!
Social media works best when you interact with real humans. It’s not about posting into the void and hoping for the best. These are still networking platforms, so it requires you to actively participate with other people. Don’t be afraid to leave comments and genuinely respond to posts that move you. People are scrolling and want to know more about your org. Interacting is a great way for them to understand more about who you are.
2. Find leaders in your field and look at who follows them
Finding an audience of like minded people can feel challenging, but this tip can help with that. Let’s say that you run a nonprofit focused on education. You should be targeting parents/caregivers and teachers. Give those people a follow and meaningfully engage with their posts. Pro tip: Make sure the people you follow are actually active on social media. If someone hasn’t posted since last year, that might not be as productive as following someone who posts every week.
3. Follow real people, not just organizations
Many organizations often struggle to keep up with their workload, let alone connect with you on social media. This is why following & interacting with individuals, and not just organizations, will have a bigger impact for you and your engagement.
4. Craft your ideal follower and create content for them
You’ve probably heard about the importance of a Buyer Persona for your business. With social media, you want to create the same type of persona. Hubspot offers an easy way to help you create a persona. Click here to utilize their free tool. Once you understand more about who your ideal follower is, how they think, and what interests them, you can begin to create customized content that feels personal and specific.
5. Be sure to post stories & reels, not just grid posts
In terms of algorithms, grid posts perform differently from stories or reels. Stories and reels have the ability to have a much broader reach. It’s a great way to showcase who you are as an organization. Reposting stories or reels that other orgs/people have created is also a great way to interact and engage. Contrary to popular belief, social media is not all about you. It is about building a community and providing value for those people. If you can let that rule guide you, it becomes a little easier to focus your strategy.
Check us out on social and let us know how we’re doing:
Instagram: @DigitalMountaineers
Twitter: @DigMountaineers
LinkedIn: @DigitalMountaineers
Facebook: @DigitalMountaineers
Have follow up questions about being social on social media? Let’s chat! We’re here to help.
