3 Social Media tips for Nonprofits with no time.

As a nonprofit professional, you know that time is a scarce resource in every non-profit.
To use it efficiently and have the best social media with the least time, I analysed two articles and extracted 3 actionable recommendations to start your lean social media strategy:

The first article, “3 Things They’ll Never Tell You About Social Media (plus tips for the haters)” by Andy Crestodina analyses 3 less-known things about social media marketing and provides some off-road tips on how to streamline your social media presence.

The second article is a twitter chat transcript: “Should Your Nonprofit Pull The Plug On Social Media?” from #fundchat where several nonprofit fundraisers discussed the power of social media. It analysed reasons to use social media, channels and strategies for fundraising and showcasing several organizations’ work.

Based on these two articles and my previous corporate social media experience, these are the 3 things that you absolutely have to do if you want to spend the least time possible with your social media presence:

• Redirect to main social network: Choose one social network to be active in (most non-profits prefer Facebook, Instagram or Youtube), set up your profile in other social networks and write a post or tweet stating you are only active in social network X. Your name is prime real estate in social media!

• Use social media aggregation: Tools like Hootsuite or Buffer allow you to prepare your posts in advance and schedule them in your various networks.

• Start with Instagram: Instagram is great because it allows you to share VISUAL content and videos, with a fast edition process and you can actually integrate Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. With the touch of a button, you update 4 social networks at once. Consider using simple design tools (like Canva) and Instagram schedulers (like Crowdfire) to be able to upload pictures and videos from your desktop.

Save your time

These tips are ideal for when your non-profit starts using social media. Hopefully, you will be able to attract more volunteers and donations through this increased awareness and start to develop a real content strategy that includes 4 types of posts.

About the Author:
I am a recent Marketing graduate enthusiastic about non-profits. I worked two years in a volunteer setting and produced an extensive research in storytelling in non-profits for my Master Thesis.
Connect with me through twitter: @ARuivoFelix

Charities: 3 essential posts in Social Media (that are NOT donation appeals)

Do you manage the social media of your charity? If yes, this post is for you. Most small non-profits will usually only use social media for donation appeals and recruiting. This is not sustainable, as you are not creating a relationship with the audience. In this post, I will present 3 other types of posts that you should share on your social media.

1. Showcase your impact

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (@doctorswithoutborders)

An impact story with a strong emotional appeal from MSF’s Instagram.

Donors are not primarily donating to your organization: they are donating to your cause. Potential donors want to see that you are actually making an impact and that their donation is put to good use.

3 simple rules:

• Tell stories – Stories have the effect of emotionally impacting your donors while creating a simple way for people to understand your impact.

• Use visuals – to grab the attention of the reader and add a layer of identification to potential donors, use photos of your particular efforts, events or even people that benefited from your services.

• Be authentic – do not invent anything! Only use true stories and related photos and get the permission of the people present in your story.

BONUS: If you can present small video, you can improve authenticity and engagement!

2.Document your events

Why does #HabitatforHumanity build? Find out here: https://t.co/tTaxJdGRix pic.twitter.com/DlMFQN4NUk

— Habitat for Humanity (@Habitat_org) November 1, 2015

Great example from Habitat for Humanity

An engaging way to attract to volunteers is to show them what you do. Share photos of events and other volunteer activities, with real testimonies of current volunteers.

2 rules:

• Photos with action – showing your volunteers doing something proves that volunteers contribute and shows what new volunteers can do.

• Show happy faces –  Show potential volunteers that they will not only help, they will also have a good time!

3.Thank Donors

A huge thank you to @nationalgriduk employees who have raised an incredible £606,340.76 in the last two years 💚👏 pic.twitter.com/O26fsT656N

— Macmillan Cancer Support (@macmillancancer) February 11, 2016

A great way to thank Corporate Donors by Macmillan Cancer Support.

This is extremely important! While it may appear self-involved, donors do not only want to make sure their gift is used, but some also expect recognition. A Thank-You note is extremely important to recognize the importance of both single and individual donors and make sure they keep giving.

2 rules:

• Ask permission to identify the donors – send a direct message through Twitter or Facebook and explain you want to thank them in your social networks. Some donors may not like the attention.

• Ask for a testimony of why they gave – it will allow you to understand their motivation to help and provide important social signals and examples to future donors.

 

Donation appeals still need to appear in your social media, but add these 3 kinds of posts to improve your non-profits authenticity and create sustainable relationships.

About the author:

I am a recent Marketing graduate enthusiastic about non-profits. I worked two years in a volunteer setting and produced an extensive research in storytelling in non-profits for my Master Thesis.
Connect with me through twitter: @ARuivoFelix

Fundraising from Pinterest: 4 great ads and the 3 things they have in common.

Marketing professionals, if you are like me you need to be in the loop with the best trends in non-profit marketing. To benchmark the best non-profit fundraising, I will present 4 great posters found on Pinterest and highlight the 3 common points that make them persuasive.

Lung Cancer Alliance

Source: Design Taxi

This advertisement for Lung Cancer Alliance features a large, provocative headline followed by smaller copy to drive home the appeal.

Menschen für Menschen

Source: Graphic Design Junction

This poster tells a story in two images, by showing what is happening today and the idealized future.

Harrison’s Fund

Source: One.org

This ad starts with an aggressive, “taboo” statement and goes on to explain its meaning.

UNICEF

Source: Jinspiration

This ad presents a negative situation very visually, with a clever way to present what could happen if donors support the child!

3 things that make these ads very effective:

• Negative first statement: The first reaction to this advertisements evoke negative emotions. It creates a negative state in donors that they will want to solve.

• Human-centric: all the adverts have a person, which allows donors to create an empathic connection with the charity.

• Minimal background: People see thousands of adverts per week, so it’s important to follow the principle of salience- don’t overcrowd your pictures with unrelated details.

The 3 tips summarized.

These details are not difficult to work into your non-profit’s appeals and, even if some look risky, you will definitely receive a boost in engagement and donations by creating similar ones!

About the Author:
I am a recent Marketing graduate enthusiastic about non-profits. I worked two years in a volunteer setting and produced an extensive research in storytelling in non-profits for my Master Thesis.
Connect with me through twitter:@ARuivoFelix

Facebook launches site to help non-profits succeed in the platform.

If you are the social media responsible on your non-profit, you have to read this!

The new Facebook for non-profits website, launched by Facebook itself, is a great free resource for all non-profits to have the best results on this platform.

This resource is invaluable: easy to read, with short texts and demonstrative pictures, it’s perfect for people who lack  time.

From fairly simple points, such as how to set up a page it evolves to more oriented and technical points, such as adding a donate button on your page or posts.

It also gives simple social media marketing lessons for non-profits: from showcasing stories to using less formal language, this website is an invaluable crash course in social media marketing (and not just facebook).

Finally, even if you are very experienced with Facebook marketing, you can benefit from the 8 success stories, in areas such has creating urgency around donations to disseminating content on a budget.

Photo by MoneyBlogNewz via flickr (CC BY 2.0)

If you plan to take the most advantage of the platform, explore their website carefully. Also, take into consideration the 3 tips for the best visual storytelling appeal.

About the Author:
I am a recent Marketing graduate enthusiastic about non-profits. I worked two years in a volunteer setting and produced an extensive research in storytelling in non-profits for my Master Thesis. This article was done in the scope of the Social Media Marketing Specialization in Coursera.
Connect with me through twitter: @ARuivoFelix

Fundraisers: 3 crucial science-based tips to improve online fundraising.

As a non-profit fundraising professional, you should know that online giving is on the rise. To help you,  I will analyse two scientific articles on the subject and give 3 actionable tips on how to have the best online appeals.

The first article, “Economist finds formula for ‘perfect ask’ in online fundraising” published by ScienceDaily, presents the findings of a research conducted by a University of Warwick’s team about online donor behaviours in the JustGiving platform.

Unsplash

The second article, “Fundraising 101: Tempting alternatives increase willingness to donate”, published by ScienceDaily, presents a Journal of Marketing Research’s paper findings on using comparing the cost of donating with indulgent, impulse-bought products bought  to drive more donations.

Relying on these articles and my former background, I have summarized the 3 most relevant findings that you can apply to your online giving appeals:

• Set targets: showing how much you still need to fundraise will allow potential donors to understand you have concrete goals in mind and that you track your impact.

•  Compare to tempting purchases: evoke tempting purchases they do on a daily basis and compare them to what your non-profit could achieve with the money.

• Mobile-friendly appeals: Most of your donors will access your website and see your appeals on mobile devices (phone/tablets) so assure that all your appeals (website and e-mail) are well read on smaller screens!

Implementing these 3 easy steps will put in the forefront of online fundraising!

About the Author:
I am a recent Marketing graduate enthusiastic about non-profits. I worked two years in a volunteer setting and produced an extensive research in storytelling in non-profits for my Master Thesis.
Connect with me through twitter:@ARuivoFelix

Fundraisers: 3 essential elements for your first visual storytelling appeal.

As a non-profit fundraising professional, you know that visual storytelling is becoming one of the most important tools of the trade. As an exercise for the Social Media Marketing MOOC, I will present two articles focused on their importance and add the 3 essential elements that should be present in your first storytelling appeals.

The first article, “Telling our story in less than two minutes” by Hayley Coristine in CharityComms blog, showcases the process of creating an awareness, animation-style video. It goes through the choice of style, preparation and testing of the video and adds some lessons learned during this project.

pixabay

The second article, “#mygivingstory: Resources and Best Practices for @GivingTuesday Nonprofit Storytelling “ by Beth Kanter, explains why storytelling is important in non-profits, summarizes a twitter chat about this practice and adds several resources to explore more.

Relying on these articles and the profound study I have done in my master thesis about Effective Storytelling in Charitable organizations, I have summarized the 3 most relevant elements that your storytelling appeal must have:

• Make it short – Your audience doesn’t have a long attention span: 15 to 30-second videos work best, especially in the first few times.

• Three–stage act – it now only allows you to present your issue fast, but also integrates the audience as the hero of your story (through their donation, the conflict – issue you are trying to improve- is resolved )

• Use 1 protagonist – research into the “identifiable victim effect” shows that even having 2 protagonists lowers the emotional impact of the appeal.Storytelling is a great way to create an emotional connection and, as you can see, not a big monster that is hard to tackle: just ensure you use honest stories of your impact.

About the Author:
I am a recent Marketing graduate enthusiastic about non-profits. I worked two years in a volunteer setting and produced an extensive research in storytelling in non-profits for my Master Thesis. This article was done in the scope of the Social Media Marketing Specialization in Coursera.
Connect with me through twitter:@ARuivoFelix