When engaging audiences online, social media is a foundation for many nonprofits’ communications strategies. Raising awareness. Elevating insights. Sharing resources. Cultivating community. Whatever mix of approaches social impact organizations use, there’s a lot that nonprofits can do through social media strategy to tangibly support their missions—and multiple platforms to choose from that cater to different types of audiences. And unlike many other types of strategic communications, to be effective, social media is a channel that requires constant, ongoing effort.
Taken together, it can all feel a little overwhelming. Where to start if you’re just starting your social media strategy? How to prioritize and sustain existing efforts? What’s most effective in different platforms and why? How to measure results and adjust? And what are the right nonprofit social media resources for your nonprofit’s strategy? For organizations who want to get social media engagement right, it’s a constant process of planning, trying new things out, getting feedback, and improving from there. And unless you have an in-house social media expert or an agency to dedicate time to it all, success can feel more like error than trial.
At Constructive, our Higher Purpose is engagement. It’s a North Star that’s based on our vision and values that guides our work every day towards a better world—and social media is just one of the ways that we reach out to our community and also help our clients succeed online. So, guided by our Higher Purpose, for this week’s Constructively Curated, our Digital Marketing Associate, Kaylee Gardner has collected some of the best resources that she’s found to help crafting Constructive’s social media efforts. From the basics to more advanced ideas, we hope that you’ll find useful inspiration to strengthen your social media engagement.
The Benefits of Social Media for Nonprofits & Getting Started
If you’re still skeptical about investing time and resources into social media, check out this article. It defines many potential benefits to having a social media presence from being able to start conversations to growing your network or volunteer community. It also outlines important steps to getting started on social media for you to consider.
Picking Social Media Platforms
All social media platforms were not created equal and don’t work to serve the exact same purposes. It’s important to pick platforms to post on that will support your marketing and more holistic organizational goals. Check out this article to learn more about deciding between some of the major platforms: Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook & Reddit.
Writing Compelling Social Media Posts
One of the most important parts of developing effective social media content is writing captions and posts that resonate with your audience. But not every team has an experienced copywriter; so this article includes basic tips for nonprofits looking to write posts that will connect with their community and increase engagement.
Social Media Image Sizes 2021
Designing visual posts for social media can become a headache when every social media platform requires different media dimensions for images and videos. This guide includes the most updated specs for all major social media sites & post types that you can reference any time you go to begin designing a new post.
Free Social Media Design Tool
If your organization doesn’t have designers or access to costly design softwares, this free online design tool, Canva, is a great easy to use resource that’s built to make social media design accessible for anybody. Canva has pre-made templates for any social media size you may need and can be integrated with any of your social accounts.
Social Media Accessibility Basics
Many social media platforms leave a lot to be wanted when it comes to digital accessibility, which means that users have to take on the burden of making their content accessible to all. In addition to looking at the accessibility pages for each platform (Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook) this helpful toolkit is one of many available online.
Easy Social Media Mistakes to Avoid
As with any other activity, when your organization begins to build a social media strategy and post for the first time mistakes are inevitable. This list includes eight different mistakes that often interfere with nonprofit’s goals because they’re easy to make (but also just as easy to avoid if you know what they are!).
Social Media Strategy Tips from 32 Leading Nonprofits
The best advice that nonprofits can receive on the topic of social media strategy clearly comes from other nonprofits who have already been effectively using social media. This collection of quotes offers just this with tips for social media success developed with the advice of individuals from thirty-two different nonprofits.
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