Social Media Starter Kit for Nonprofits

As part of a two-woman marketing machine, having a social media marketing kit filled with tips, tricks, and tools is key. Without having a robust team of fellow experts to leverage to and from, resources that make your efforts quick yet effective are absolutely necessary. Over the past couple of years especially, I’ve compiled the following list that I use regularly. If you’re a fellow nonprofit marketer — and more specifically, a budding nonprofit marketer — I sincerely hope that this post will prove to be helpful for you as it has been for me.

Tips

1. 4-1-1 Rule

• 4 pieces of carefully selected content
• 1 reshare/retweet of a fellow nonprofit, sponsor, support/advocate
• 1 self-serving post.

2. 3-Part Strategy

• ⅓ Appreciation – recognize donors, supporters, volunteers, and employees
• ⅓ Advocacy – engage and share with the content of others
• ⅓ Appeals – solicit donations or help

Tricks

1. Highlight your supporters (volunteers, donors, sponsors).
   TechBridge Testimonial: Our engagement spikes whenever we go this route. Why? Because it’s spotlighting our support system that’s vital to our existence and community impact. It’s always good to recognize good deeds.
2. Directly connect with fellow nonprofits and companies to gain more support for your mission. Remember #TeamworkMakeTheDreamWork.
3. Showcase your behind-the-scenes content. Throwing an event? Show your audience some sneak peeks of what’s to come. Giving the inside scoop is always fun. It also makes people feel like they’re a part of something exclusive, and who doesn’t love exclusivity?
4. Post thank you messages and be sure to mention (using the handler/user name) of the sponsor(s) or partner.
5. Double your engagement metrics by using images in your social posts. Coupling your posts with pictures and videos will get you better traction and will resonate more with your audience.
6. Add a marketing expert to your board. Someone who really gets it and will be happy to leverage their expertise and resources for the benefit of your nonprofit’s outreach efforts.
7. Schedule daily 15-minute once-overs of your social accounts and another 15 minutes for educational articles, trends, news, etc. TechBridge Testimonial: I know how it feels to get bogged down by your to-do list. Do this and you’ll be more balanced in your knowledge of what’s happening with your org as well as what are the trends that are going right now.
8. .Converse with everyone that gives your nonprofit a response. Be it good, bad, and most definitely the ugly, responding to and participating in the conversation is what social media is all about. So embrace it!

Free Tools

Photo by Voxogos.