YOU HAVE THE
WHOLE WORLD IN
YOUR HANDS:
HOW TO MAXIMIZE
SOCIAL MEDIA
Keith Casebonne, Disability Rights Florida
Megan Hollis, FSU Career Center
Colette Podgorski, FSU Foundation
OBJECTIVES
• Why Use Social Media?
• Five Steps to Social
Media Success
• Social Media Best
Practices for Nonprofits
• Tips and Tricks
• Fundraising with Social
Media
• Resources
WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
• Community Engagement
Build influence, Improve reputation, Earn trust
• Inform Your Audience
Announce news and
events, Promote how to
get involved
• Grow Your Organization
Increase email lists, add
members & donors,
Increase legislative
awareness
FIVE STEPS TO
SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS
STEP 1: SET GOALS AND
PLAN WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY
• Don’t just jump in because you feel
like you should be using social
media
• Set goals for your presence on social
media that relate to your mission
• Ask “Who is my audience?” and
“What messages do I want to share
with that audience?”
• Without clear vision, you can
confuse your potential audience
STEP 2: BE ACTIVE,
ENGAGE, AND MONITOR
• Log in daily
• Respond to all comments directed towards your
organization
• Listen, ask questions, share
resources from others
• Remember, you are not
selling — you are sharing
• Set a target amount of time
each week that you can
spend on social media
STEP 3: WRITE GREAT
MICRO-CONTENT
• Small information chunks that can
stand alone or be used in a variety of
contexts
• The average user has a very short
attention span
• Six features of good micro-content
1. Short, selective
and specific
2. Easy
3. Personal
4. Sharable, likeable,
or conversation
starting
5. Clever … but
careful
6. Accessible
STEP 4: ANALYZE
AND ADJUST
• Especially in the beginning,
you will find that some posts
work and some do not
• Use analytics to evaluate how
you’re doing
• Make adjustments to your
social media strategy based
on what the analytics tell you
• Then analyze and adjust again
• Then analyze and adjust again
… and again … and again …
STEP 5: BE AVAILABLE
AND A RESOURCE
• Make your organization easy to contact, and add your
website link to posts whenever appropriate
• Include all relevant contact info on your social media
accounts
• Respond to posts and questions from others, both
positive and negative
• You are a customer service representative, so respond
like one
• The better and more resourceful your posts are, the
better your organization is perceived
SOCIAL MEDIA BEST PRACTICES
FOR NONPROFITS
FACEBOOK BASICS
• Over 1 billion users
• Create a page for your organization
• Share experiences through status updates, pictures,
videos, and links
• Wide demographic range
• Paid advertising options
• Common terminology:
status update, like, share, tag
FACEBOOK POSTING
• Post 4 – 5 times per week minimum
• Do not post more than twice per day
• #1 reason users unlike a Facebook
page: too many posts!
• Posts with links (with previews) and/or
photos get 50% more likes than
text-only posts
• Keep posts to 80 characters or less
(shoot for 40!)
• Schedule posts for the evening and
weekends
FACEBOOK DONATE
NOW BUTTON
• Add a Donate Now button to Facebook
• Click Create Call to Action (found near the bottom of
your Page’s cover photo)
• Select Donate Now as your Call to Action and enter the
website address of your organization’s donation page
• Click Create
FACEBOOK TIPS
• Best times to post: weekday evenings between 6 – 8
pm (more views), and weekends around noon (more
shares)
• Enable Similar Page Suggestions in your Admin Panel –
huge source of new fans
• Try paid ads: you only pay for the
impressions or clicks that your ad
receives, and if they are targeted
well, this can be very effective.
TWITTER BASICS
• Over 500 million users
• Tweets are 140 character messages
• Cultivate individual personalities
• Mention others to show
recognition or gain attention
• Hashtags categorize subject
matter and encourage discussion
• Common terminology: tweet, follow,
retweet, DM, mention, hashtag
TWITTER POSTING
• Tweet or retweet 2 – 8 times a day, no more than once
per hour
• Schedule tweets for weekends using Hootsuite or Buffer
• Always include a link: tweets with links get almost 90%
higher retweet rates
• Use hashtags, but never use more than two per tweet
• Tweets with photos get retweeted about twice as much
as tweets without photos
TWITTER TIPS
• You can pin ads that you always want to appear at the
top of your feed
• It’s OK to reshare or retweet content on Twitter – in fact,
it’s encouraged!
• Tweets that end in a period
or colon are more likely to
get retweeted!
TWITTER TIPS
• Remember that 140 characters includes spaces,
symbols, etc.
• If you reference another person or group that uses
Twitter, make sure you include their username
• Create accounts for specific people in your
organization – personality on Twitter is important
TWITTER #HASHTAGS
• Don’t forget to use 1 – 2 hashtags in your tweets
• Some popular nonprofit-related hashtags:
•
#volunteer
#causes
#donate
#nonprofit
#dogood
#charity
#findraising
• Use hashtags specific to your
nonprofit’s cause or purpose
• Don’t know any? Google it!
LINKEDIN BASICS
• 400 million+ members
• Manage your professional identity
• Build and engage with your professional
network
• Access knowledge, insights and
opportunities.
• Professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate of
more than two new members per second.
• There are more than 40 million students and recent
college graduates on LinkedIn. They are LinkedIn's
fastest-growing demographic.
LINKEDIN WHY?
• Establish credibility
• Share your story
• Find volunteers
• Find board members
• Find employees
LINKEDIN USE YOUR
OWN PROFILE WISELY
• Stay active!
• Post updates
• Connect with people
• Especially your colleagues, board member, volunteers,
etc.
• Join groups and contribute to the discussion
• Give recommendations
• Publish a Post via Pulse
• Be the expert!
LINKEDIN CREATE A
COMPANY PAGE
• An online “storefront”
• Keep followers informed of
initiatives and events
• Establish your presence
• Showcase pages
LINKEDIN
STAYING ACTIVE
• Post company updates
regularly – 3-5x per week
• Have colleagues,
constituents, volunteers,
etc. submit posts
• Good for them and you!
• Share content during
other days
• News, hot topics,
updates from other NPs
https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/site/subsites/contentmarketing/img/V2/e3_Infographic_Draft_11_1200.pdf
LINKEDIN “THREE A’S”
Appreciation
Advocacy
Appeals
• Appreciation – 1/3 of your social updates should recognize
your donors, supporters, volunteers, and employees
• Advocacy – 1/3 should engage and share with the content
of other groups or nonprofits who are relevant to your area
• Appeals – 1/3 should solicit donations or help
Steven Shattuck, HubSpot
LINKEDIN GROUPS
• Place for discussion among partners, volunteers,
friends, constituents
• Create after a company
page
• Open or
closed
INSTAGRAM BASICS
• 300 Million users
• 40 million photos are posted per day
• 8,500 likes per second
• Fastest growing social media platform
• You should post AT LEAST twice a week
• 6% higher engagement rate
INSTAGRAM HOW TO USE
1. Promote your website
2. Promote your text-to-give
campaigns
3. Launch a hashtag fundraising
campaign
4. Promote Fundraising events &
activities
5. Partner with business to offer
discounts
6. THANK YOUR DONORS
INSTAGRAM SUCCESS
• Liking other people’s photos generates more
followers and likes for you
• When do I post? Research says Monday at 8 PM
and Wednesday or Thursday at 6PM are the best
times to post a photo & most likely to get the
greatest number of comments and likes on your
photos. A photo is the most active during the first
three hours
• Images that are about lifestyle or that
are personal tend to get the most
engagement. Healthy balance of fun
and business
INSTAGRAM SUCCESS
• Include Instagram photos in your e-newsletters so
constituents can save the photo then post it themselves
• Tell your story, people review old photos and look at
the profile as a whole
• Highlight volunteer work & feature donors
• Combine your images
• Short 15 second videos – Share Testimonials, donor
stories, thank your donors and highlight fundraising
activities
INSTAGRAM HASHTAGS
• Use Popular Hashtags
• Top Instagram Hashtags:
#love #instagood #me #tbt #cute #photooftheday
#instamood #beautiful #instadaily #follow
• Hashtags are the top way people find new photos on
Instagram.
• Research your target audience’s hashtags and begin
to use them as well.
INSTAGRAM HASHTAGS
• An inspirational quote on #MotivationMonday
• A before and after pic of a project on
#TransformationTuesday
• A picture of a female volunteer or staff member who
went above and beyond on #WomanCrushWednesday
• An image of a community you helped before the
transformation on #ThrowbackThursday
• A goofy picture of your staff members on
#FridayFunday
• Anything you want that is easily shared on
#SocialSaturday
• A selfie of someone that your nonprofit helped on
#SelfieSunday
YOUTUBE
• Videos catch attention (62% more than the ordinary photo)
• YouTube has a BILLION monthly users
• Any video your agency has should be uploaded to YouTube
• As more people watch and share videos it will spread
awareness
• Create Effective titles and Descriptions
• Research says by 2019 that 80% of
internet traffic will be dominated
by video
• Live streaming such as Periscope
and Meerkat is picking up the pace
SNAPCHAT
• SNAPS are picture or video messages that can be sent
directly to Friends or shared to your nonprofit’s story.
• Snaps can be viewed for an unlimited number of times for 24
hours and then they disappear.
• To begin, try an easy first Snap such as a picture of your
nonprofit’s location. Then add text to declare that this is your
first Snap.
• On Snapchat you don’t get likes or resnaps, but Friends can
leave remarks and your nonprofit can gauge your Friends
interest in your Snaps by monitoring who has viewed your
story.
• Even if you have no immediate plans for using Snapchat,
you’d be wise to sign up to claim your username. Your
nonprofit must always be proactive and reserve your
username.
PINTEREST
• What is Pinterest? Pinterest is a place to organize and
share online images you find interesting or inspiring.
• Once uploaded or shared on Pinterest, these images
become known as Pins, which the user can place on
customized, themed Boards.
• Pinterest is based on images. This is the important part
for nonprofits to thoughtfully consider.
• What compelling images do you have that folks might
want to share? Cute puppies, amazing visual art, hug
from a volunteer who’s just delivered a meal, silent
auction items, smile from a child who’s just received a
comforting teddy bear or view of a beautiful
landscape on a piece of recently conserved land.
PINTEREST WHY?
• Now equivalent to twitter in terms of adult
users and has 25 million unique visitors
monthly
• Pinterest is aspirational, not of the
moment, longer shelf life – People pin to
collect and save for later
• 80% of pins are repinned from other
people’s boards. So if you offer original
content, folks will be hungry for it,
creating huge engagement potential.
• Huge ROI by linking original pins back to
your website
• You can tweet or share Pins on Facebook
to help expand your network across all
three services. Or you could include the
pin on your blog or website
COMBINING IT ALL
WRITE A STORY
• Blog, E-newsletter or Website
• Remember to include all Social Media links
• Don’t forget the #hashtag
• Make it happen once a week; social media doesn’t
work in silos
• Include a video then link it to YouTube
• Share the article on LinkedIn
• Make sure the story has an image
to use on Pinterest or Instagram
• Then once the image is on
Pinterest or Instagram share it
on Facebook and Twitter
GENERAL TIPS & TRICKS
ONLINE TOOLS & APPS
• HootSuite – free version
• 3 social profiles
• Message scheduling
• Basic analytics
• Use online tools like
• Canva.com (design
documents)
• ReciteThis.com (visual
quotes/images)
• Piktochart.com
(infographics)
• PicMonkey.com (photo
editing)
• Use free photo editing
apps like
•
•
•
•
•
Photoshop Express
Photo Editor by Aviary
Pixlr
Fotor
Tadaa
• Use social media apps to
post on the go
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn … etc.
5-4-3-2-1 RULE
• How often should I post on each outlet?
• 5-4-3-2-1 – based on popularity of each of your sites
• 5 – Twitter
• 4 – Facebook
• 3 – LinkedIn
• 2 – Instagram
• 1 – Other
GENERAL TIPS
• Find who your constituents are
• Use hashtags strategically
• Market your accounts – website, email signature, newsletters
• Be useful
• Respond to comments or tweets using the Social Media
Response Tree
• Have fun! Show the human side of your NP
• Include pictures and videos in your posts
• Posts don’t always have to be related to your NP
• Make social media a team effort
• Create a calendar
WHAT NOT TO DO
• Create an account and not use it
• Ignore comments
• Post the same thing on all accounts
SOCIAL MEDIA FUNDRAISING
PLAN IN WRITING
• To have a goal you must first have a plan and a budget
• Call out your campaign/event - Get followers excited about the
campaign with teaser posts or countdown – use agency hashtag
and event/campaign hashtag (This can also help inspire supporters
to create their own posts).
• Share your campaign progress with photos that show the impact
you are driving. It is also good idea to share photos when the
campaign has hit specific milestones.
• Create posts designed specifically to thank donors.
• Make it easy for people to learn how to get involved and including
your campaign/donation page URL in your captions, profile and
comments!
• Using power words can actually change the meaning, the mood,
and the motivation of the reader. To make that connection, to
inspire, and to motivate the audience.
USING POWER WORDS FOR
SOCIAL MEDIA FUNDRAISING
• Titles — Integrate power words into your titles for more clicks.
• Subject lines — Engage your email subscribers and
encourage them to click with a strong subject line.
• First and last paragraphs — Insert power words throughout
your copy, especially in the places where they will stand out
the most—the first and last paragraphs.
• Comments — Social media writing isn’t
limited to just what you post, it’s also about
your responses. Tailor your comments on
social media to include power words where
appropriate.
• Calls to Action — When your audience
knows what you want them to do, they are
more inclined to take action.
BEST NONPROFIT
POWER WORDS
#now #free #Proven #Learn #try #exclusive #you
#Power #howto #click #bonus #results #imagine
#discover #create #increase #promote #announcing
#improvement #tellus #inspires #remarkable #challenge
#hurry #join #becomeamember #donate
MORE FRIENDS/FOLLOWERS
= MORE MONEY
• Make sure you like your supporters and thank them on
each social media platform! Remember, donors should
be thanked at least 7 times.
• Hyperlink website or giving page on images.
• Highlight board members and volunteers.
• Congratulations & Praises to staff, clients,
volunteers.
• Donor of the week stories.
• Create social media contest.
• Participate in Days of Giving such as
#GivingTuesday #BigBendGivesBack.
• Create your own catchy Organization hashtag – this is
KEY - use on all marketing – hashtags allow you to track
the posts your supporters are sharing.
• Have your organization get involved in their daily
conversations. Each positive and unique interaction
you have with your donors can leave them feeling
more connected to your organization.
• # 1 rule: Be Quick to Respond – same day…. for Twitter
it’s 2 hrs!
6 STEPS FOR SUCCESSFUL
SOCIAL MEDIA FUNDRAISING
• Active on at least two social networks and experimenting
with a third.
• Claimed your LinkedIn Page and you post a minimum of
weekly.
• Blogs or publishes a story on your website at least twice
monthly – EVERY e-newsletter has prominently featured callsto-ACTION.
• Easy giving process – not a lot of clicks and can take digital
payments.
• Does not automate Facebook
posts to Twitter
• Regularly creates promotional
graphics for events and
fundraising campaigns.
RESOURCES
• Nonprofit Tech for Good – Social Media Archive
http://www.nptechforgood.com/category/socialmedia/
• Nonprofit Marketing Guide
http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com
• Community Organizer 2.0 – Social Media
Presentations
http://communityorganizer20.com/presentations/
• How Nonprofits Can Benefit From LinkedIn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wnZV2EWuP
U&feature=youtu.be
RESOURCES
• LinkedIn for Nonprofits
https://nonprofits.linkedin.com/
• Social Media for Nonprofits
http://socialmedia4nonprofits.org/
• Nonprofit Hub
http://nonprofithub.org/
CONTACTS
• Keith Casebonne, Disability Rights Florida
[email protected]
• Megan Hollis, FSU Career Center
[email protected]
• Colette Podgorski, FSU Foundation
[email protected]
QUESTIONS?