As a non-profit organization, one of the most important aspects of your whole marketing strategy is donor development. This is true of NPOs in San Jose and San Francisco, or anywhere else across our country.
Without those vital funds coming in from new or repeat donors, there’s no way to keep working on all those incredible projects and bring more good into the world.
But how to reach them?
It’s not always obvious, and traditional marketing methods can be costly and time consuming. So what’s a smart non-profit to do?
The Power of Social Media
Social media is exactly what it says on the tin – it’s social. People talk to each other. Word of mouth marketing has always been one of the most powerful and desirable forms of marketing for any business, and now the power has global reach.
For example, your fundraiser or capital campaign in San Jose can have local donors as well as philanthropists from anywhere in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
No longer restricted by physical and geographical boundaries, we find ourselves in a position where almost anyone can speak to almost anyone else, at anytime they like, from practically anywhere.
Wow.
Now don’t you have a message you’d like those people to be spreading for you?
How Do I Join the Conversation?
The best places to start are Facebook and Twitter. You will hear of others being mentioned (Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr etc) but for now let’s just focus on the ‘big two’.
Facebook is more flexible in terms of what you can post, so if you have more visual content such as videos and pictures, then you’ll do well there. You will start a business page and begin to post content that will be of interest to your audience. You can also provide a link back to your website, and offer options such as email sign ups or ‘buy now’.
There’s a great guide to growing your Facebook page here, and a really in-depth guide to Facebook marketing that you will find useful.
Twitter is like the ultimate networking destination on Earth. Posts are limited to 140 characters, meaning you have to be quick with the message you send. You have the ability to ‘favorite’ and ‘share’ posts of other influencers, which is a great way to get attention.
Once you have built your following and established loyalty and trust, you can start making offers and requests to them for donations.
When you’re ready to start improving your Twitter outreach, check out this blog post, which is a huge resource for Twitter marketing.
Be Share-worthy
As we mentioned, the power of social media is in its social aspect. People trust what their peers and friends say, more than they trust what companies and non-profits say, no matter how noble the mission.
When they see their friends sharing your content, they will be more likely to pay attention to it, like it, share it, and more importantly notice your cause and hear your message.
That means you have to be ‘share-worthy’.
Create content that is of interest to other people, not just your organization. If people find it interesting, they can get behind the message, or it represents how they feel they will be more likely to share it with their audience.
In a nutshell, this is what social media is all about; leveraging other people’s audience and getting their endorsement of your material and organization by presenting content of interest to them, leading to traffic and ‘conversions’ (donations) for your non-profit.
Is it worth the investment?
Social media is an investment and it takes time and money to get it right. However, once you have momentum, it is one of the most powerful ways to gain an engaged audience in today’s overcrowded market place.
You can get started doing it yourself, by using the tips and resources above, or you may want to consider using a dedicated social media management for nonprofit service, to handle the work for you.
Either way, it’s a marketing channel you simply don’t want to ignore.
