When we consult with nonprofits on social media best practices, most know it’s important for their organization to have a strong, consistent presence. However, with small teams, limited time and an overwhelming sense of not knowing where to begin, social is often put on the back burner.
Knowing who you want to reach, streamlining your content and having a plan in place are some ways to set yourself up for success. While we might not all have the capacity to be the Milwaukee Public Library (please check out their accounts – you won’t regret it), we can certainly take inspiration from their creative approach.
These 6 tips can help you form a better strategy for social in 2023.
- Find where your audience hangs out. Hate to break it to you, but your audience isn’t everywhere. Often, we spread ourselves too thin by trying to be on ALL THE PLATFORMS. So, think about who you want to reach, and go where they hang out. You probably wouldn’t go to dive bars if you only drink fancy cocktails! While LinkedIn is great for thought leadership in your organization’s industry, it may not be the best place to share a small community event designed for program participants. Thinking of social media platforms as places where specific people go for specific information will help save you time and provide more ROI.
- Which platform is best? For a long time, it was common for organizations to be on every platform on the market. With the unpredictability of constantly shifting algorithms, sticking to one or two platforms is your best bet. The National Parks Service developed a content strategy on Instagram that is fun, educational and comical. It’s clear they spent a lot of time crafting a voice that allows them to cut through the noise on Instagram. So, what are your organization’s goals and what is your unique voice? Use these two questions to determine which platforms you’ll shine on.
- Source authentic content. Your organization is already doing great work. Your challenge is to share it authentically. Now more than ever audiences are choosing content that blends information with an authentic voice. Your staff, the services they provide and your organization’s impact are all incredible stories you can tell. Not everything needs to be polished, branded and perfect. You don’t always need professional photography or videography to create content. Stay scrappy and get started with some of these ideas:
- A day in the life short video of your organization.
- A staff or volunteer feature.
- Capture in-the-moment content with stickers, stories and questions to ask your audience.
- Get organized. The key to a good content strategy is getting organized while also allowing for flexibility.At Barefoot we use tools like spreadsheets or Airtable to plan our content topics, the best days to post them and to identify a post schedule for upcoming events or articles we need to share. Having a system in place makes posting on social so much easier.
- Track your metrics. Analyzing what posts perform the best is key to planning your next of batch of content. Some easy tools to track metrics include external apps like Hootsuite, or “Insights” on Facebook or LinkedIn. We typically measure the following:
- Impressions: The number of times your content was displayed to users.
- Engagements: Likes, shares or comments.
- Post Link Clicks: The number of times users clicked links on your post.
- Have fun! Social media shouldn’t only feel like a chore or checklist.These platforms are brimming with opportunities to experiment with new ideas, trends and a place for your organization to showcase its authentic self. When your team is having fun or is passionate about their work, that shows in the content you create. This Barefoot Boomerang came together with creative ideas from four different team members. We chose a fun “punny” way to announce our new office space that really shows who we are. Guess what? It’s performing better than many of our other posts.
Cheers to having a more informed, audience-specific and FUN social media strategy in 2023!