Strategic Online Communication for Nonprofits

Strategic Communications

Many organizations dedicated to social change have been using social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) to get the word out about their work and encourage donations.  These strategies can be very effective and best of all—they are low-cost and often offer quick results.

But social media can be more than just a PR tool to raise your profile among donors and stakeholders.

As different demographic groups become active via the plethora of mobile and Internet-based applications, social media is emerging as another powerful tool for behavior change.

Reaching Beneficiaries

Internet-based social networks are generally already well-segmented, so if you can get a few of the key opinion leaders within the network to take on your message as their own, your message can travel quickly and directly to your target population.  As those influencers begin to blog, tweet, text, or share the desired behavior change message with friends, it assumes a life of its own.  Other members of the network are inspired to comment, revise, or pass on the message, and suddenly it has taken on an authentic, powerful, viral form.

With this type of viral messaging strategy you lose control over the message itself, but you gain authenticity and multiplicity which can be quite powerful in shaping the social norms that influence our behavior.

If your outreach campaigns don’t include a social media component, you are likely missing a segment of your target audience.  Many people—particularly youth—have moved away from television, radio and print media, and now spend much of their free time on the Internet.  The early adapters have even begun to move away from the personal computer to their mobile phone, where they rely on messaging to communicate with peers and the broader world around them.  So if you’re not integrating these strategies into your outreach campaigns, you might be missing the boat.

Perhaps the best thing about a social media strategy is that you can monitor impact on a daily basis and receive immediate feedback from your target population, something that is virtually impossible when working with traditional unidirectional media.

If something isn’t working, you can quickly correct it and tweak your message or steer your strategy in a new direction.  And you can learn a lot about how your target population thinks, feels, and expresses themselves—without spending thousands of dollars on elaborate research studies.

By Elizabeth Beachy, Upleaf Co-Founder and specialist in Strategic Behavioral Communications

I came across an article today with 10 excellent tips and tools for marketing your nonprofit on the web.  The best part is that most tools are free and should take you little time to implement.

The article was written by Allyson Kapin and originally appeared on Beth’s Blog on July 24.  The 10 tools mentioned by Kapin are (in her words):

1. RSS Feeds: Add an RSS feed to your blog and news sections so people visiting your site can subscribe to your feed and stay updated on your nonprofits latest news. I like Google Feedburner because it gives visitors a choice to subscribe via RSS or email.

2. Add This: A widget that allows website visitors to share your content via 50 social networks and bookmark communities.

3. Pick Two Social Networks: My two favorite social networks are Twitter and Facebook (Fanpages). Spend 15 minutes a day talking to the community and cross promoting your campaigns, news, etc. 

4. URL Shorteners: Bit.ly, Tinyurl, and Pagetweet make links more manageable by turning them into short 20 character links. This is a great tool for sharing links and decreases the risk of links breaking after it’s been shared. Also bit.ly tracks data such as click-through rates, geographic locations, etc. Bonus points!

5. Care2’s Petition Site: Start a free petition on the Petition Site to rally support around one of your latest campaigns. You can even list a signature goal and download signatures.

6. Google Grants: Google gives nonprofits $10K in-kind grants for their AdWords program. Check out Robin Reed’s great tips for managing an AdWords grant.

7. YouTube Nonprofit Program: YouTube offers nonprofits some pretty cool benefits like branding, promotion on YouTube’s nonprofits channel and call to action overlays in your videos.

8. Listservs: Participate in listservs that align with your nonprofit’s mission and where your organizations’ issues are being discussed. Listservs provide great opportunities to not only promote your organizations initiatives but to listen to what other people are saying about your issues.

9. Widgets: Create widgets to share content or actions. One of my favorites is the Rock the Vote/Credo widget that helps to register people to vote.

10. FreeCause Toolbar: A nifty toolbar that is customized with your nonprofits branding. Link to your social networks, post current news, stream video and audio clips, etc. Bonus – for every click generated, FreeCause will donate money to your nonprofit.

Click here to view the original article.

Posted by Elizabeth Beachy, Upleaf Co-Founder

Many nonprofits are starting to dabble in Web 2.0— Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube—the list goes on.

Some organizations have been tremendously successful fundraising through social media, provoking massive viral responses to their wildly creative ideas.  The majority of nonprofits however, have been slow to see financial returns.

Facebook’s Causes just recently surpassed the $10 million mark for donations.  This sounds like a lot, but when spread between 26,000 organizations it amounts to only $385 per organization.  The reality is that many causes haven’t raised a dime, while others have drawn in over $100,000.

What makes the difference?

Strategy, creativity, and persistence.

It is clear that the most successful organizations have a clearly defined strategy, and each comment or photo or story posted is consistent with that strategy.  This is KEY.  You need to know where you want to go before you start walking, and stay focused until you get there.  Some nonprofits use social media not to raise funds, but rather to engage constituents and raise awareness about their work.  Many in this category consider their strategies to be a huge success because they’ve effectively increased their website traffic, have thousands of followers, and have grown their contacts lists exponentially.  Bravo!

Creativity also goes a long way.  The more you stand out from the crowd, the more Facebook fans you garner, the more you get retweeted, and the more popular your YouTube video becomes.  Again however, that creativity must help you reach your objectives to be considered effective.

As in everything else in life, persistence will take you far.  Maybe you don’t have a particularly creative message or approach, but you can still build your followers and fans little by little, day by day, by routinely getting your consistent messages out there.

There is a lot of information out there about how to make your strategy a success.  I’ve compiled several links below to help you find creative inspiration and follow some key tips for success.  We wish you luck!

4 Facebook Tips for Nonprofit Success

10 Twitter Tips for Nonprofit Organizations

Donations, Volunteers, Supporters on Social Networks

Six Online Fundraising Campaigns that Work

Viral Video for Nonprofits

By Elizabeth Beachy, Upleaf Co-Founder