Social media can be a time-consuming, but worthwhile way for non-profits to engage with their constituencies. Learn practical tips from this white paper from Elon Media Analytics students.

1. Social Media for Non-Profits
Alexandra Giglio and Calvin Mincer
Elon University
10/11/2016

2. One challenge for non-profits has always been to find and engage audiences in a
meaningful way. As online audiences grow, it’s important for non-profits to have a presence
on social media platforms. However, there is undoubtedly a difference between simply
having social media accounts for your organization and running a successful and effective
social media campaign that makes your organization better as a whole. Furthermore, the
steps between the two are not always clear or simple. But those steps are achievable and any
non-profit willing to dedicate the time and effort to cultivating their online presence will be
able to reap the rewards of connecting with greater audiences than ever before.
The important social media platforms for non-profit to build a good social media presence
will be covered in more detail later on, but across everything there are three things to always
keep in mind:
INTERACT Respond to your audience. Ask them questions. Be the human element
that drives these algorithm-based websites. Audiences don’t want to just be fed promotional
content. They want to feel like a part of it. If they ask a question, respond. If they praise your
organization, thank them. It can be as simple as liking their post or following their account
– social media users live for that gratification. If your organization can provide that for
them, it builds goodwill.
REACH Always look to grow your scope. Knowing your audience is essential to having
successful social media content. But knowing your audience also helps you know who is not
your audience, and that is where you learn how to expand. Once you’ve engaged one age
group, think about how to go older or younger. If you’re prevalent throughout North
Carolina, how can you reach into South Carolina or Virginia? Social media has a way of
fragmenting demographically similar people into smaller networks. Improving your reach
means crossing networks and engaging with new audiences.
FUNDRAISE Do not lose track of how this all helps the non-profit. All the hard
work goes to waste if social media can’t generate any tangible benefits for the organization.
Be sure to continually promote events or campaigns the organization is currently working
on. If someone is ever looking to contribute but doesn’t know how, help them and then
make it easier to find answers in the future. Audiences will be driven away if you’re always
asking for money, but ways to contribute or get involved should never be a mystery, even to
someone that’s brand new. Finding the middle ground between being pushy and passive will
be key to effectively monetizing your social media.

3. Getting Started
Across social media it’s key for a non-profit to know its audience. When building a
social media presence the first thing to do is form a persona for your audience. Gather
everything you know about them. Some examples that could be helpful:
• If the organization has a website, see what data it collects on users and traffic
• Check what information Google analytics can provide about your sites
• Check analytics from pre-existing accounts (e.g. YouTube)
• Information collected from previous raffles or contests (emails, phone numbers, etc.)
• Observations and anecdotal data from people within the organization
Use any and all data you can find to get an idea of your audience and, subsequently, what
they’re drawn to.
The best way to cater to your audience will be to ask them. You can ask on social
media or in person. Conducting Twitter polls is an easy way to get quick feedback on a
specific topic. Ask people in person as well. Always be improving the interactions, reach and
fundraising by listening to your audience and accepting critiques and advice.
Whether you decide to just use one platform, or three, or eight, make sure they’re all
connected as seamlessly as possible. Don’t let the Instagram account go two weeks
unchecked while the Facebook is posting every day. Everyone has a platform they like the
best and it’s the social media manager’s job to be able to reach all of them. The seamless
connection means that users can hop between platforms and find whatever information
they want to know easily.
• Put the Twitter handle in the Instagram bio and vice versa.
• Link the accounts to the website.
• Have people outside of the organization interact with your social media to see what
they do or don’t like or what makes their experience anything but smooth and
enjoyable.
When you first start you’ll want to have a way to send people to the new accounts.
Have contests or giveaways for followers. It should be immediately clear to the audience
that following your non-profit will have a positive effect on their life. Maybe they’ll receive a
shirt or a sticker. Maybe they’ll be entertained by your content. Or maybe they’ll just feel
good about themselves because they feel like they’re a part of something good in the world.
Whatever it is that gratifies their use of social media, show that you can provide it.

4. Facebook
Facebook has 1.13 billion daily users. 71 percent of Internet users use Facebook. The
25-34 age group makes up 22 percent of all users, but about 60 percent of users are over
40, so older adults make up most of the Facebook audience. There are 1.03 billion daily
mobile users, so your content needs to look good on mobile devices as well.
INTERACT Interactions on posts increase after the work day is over (9 a.m.-5 p.m. in
America), which is likely because there are fewer posts so yours is more likely to be seen.
With less content being generated, users may spend more time processing and interacting
with the content they see.
Users are more likely to comment on posts that are longer because they invested
more time into reading the posts. Questions are a great way to get users engaged and this
can be a good time to ask users what kind of content they want to see.
Contests, giveaways, and discount codes tend to draw a lot of users to your page and
can be a great time to engage with them. For example people could write a caption for a
photo and you can repost the photo with the winning caption. If you sell merchandise, you
can tell people to “like” your page in order to receive a discount code.
REACH Engagement is highest on Thursdays and Fridays between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., with
a 10 percent spike on Friday. The best time to get shares is at 1 p.m., likely due to the fact
that that is when users see the most content.
Facebook is seen as a way to keep in touch with people. It is not a good idea to flood
users’ newsfeed with promotional posts. Ideally you should posting once a day and average
no more than 10 posts a week.
As a nonprofit organization, consumers want to see and understand why your cause
is important and why they should care. Videos that invoke emotion from people create a
stronger connection between your audience and your brand. An emotional connection to the
cause will incline people to donate.
FUNDRAISE Add a donation tab to your
Facebook page. This will allow users who
stumble onto your page to make a quick
and easy donation.
Donors like to see thank you posts
and success stories to show users that their
money is appreciated and useful.
There are many creative ways to use
Facebook for fundraising. You can have
people “donate” their statuses (share/
repost style) and include a link to donate
money. Even if people can’t afford to
donate, the link is shared and more people
will check out your organization. Try
matching the amount to a significant
figure. If the 6th is a special date to your
organization, ask people to donate $6.

5. Twitter
Twitter has 320 million users, or 23 percent of all Internet users. 79 percent of its
users are outside of the US so this is a good platform to target your international audience.
80 percent of users are mobile, so make sure content looks good on both a computer and a
cell phone.
INTERACT Tweets after work get more retweets and favorites. However, 1 p.m. is the
busiest tweeting time, so that means that there are more users to see your tweet but more
content which could bury your tweet. Understanding your audience is key to knowing when
to post so experiment before you have something specific
to promote.
Reply to people who are taking the time to tweet
about you. People use Twitter to ask questions, share their
experience, or promote a company. If users can see that
you reply a lot, they are more likely to tweet about you.
They see that the company genuinely cares about them.
Use visuals. Tweets with photos get more
interactions than tweets without photos. The brain
processes visuals faster so this is a good way to make sure
people are reading your tweets. Tweets containing
hashtags get double the interactions, but only use one
or two hashtags.
REACH Don’t be afraid to ask for retweets. Strong calls to action get attention. Use words
like “please retweet, help, follow and how to.” This is a good way to get people to see what
you have to say and inspire others to learn more about your organization.
Cross promote events. If you are doing a Facebook giveaway, do a Q&A on Twitter to
promote it. This will get Facebook users checking out your Twitter and hopefully they share
information on various platforms to their followers.
FUNDRAISE Since hashtags are so successful on Twitter, create a hashtag for
fundraising events and promote it. Get people to post about it using that hashtag so other
users can see it and learn more about the organization.
If your organization is hosting an event, live tweet it with a custom hashtag. This
shows your followers what kind of events you host and hopefully inspires them to come to a
future one. Also, be sure to tweet the donation link so people who aren’t physically there can
contribute.
Tweets that contain links get 83 percent more interactions. Sharing a link to your
donation page or to your organization will be more successful because they get shared more.
Videos are good for swaying people to donate to your cause. People are 85 percent
more likely to invest in a product after seeing a video about the company.
If someone tweets about donating, thank them! Donors like to see that their actions
are meaningful so they are now likely to donate again and other people can see that you
really care. Make general thank you posts as well for those who don’t tweet about it.
Followers also like to see progress updates so they know what their money is going towards.
Photo from https://blog.bufferapp.com/

6. Instagram
Instagram has 150 million users. Over 90 percent of these users are under 35.
Despite being a platform that is mainly focused on photos, Instagram only counts for seven
percent of daily photo uploads across the top photo-sharing platforms. There are 544
million daily uploads. Instagram also allows users to upload or record videos that are a
maximum of one minute long.
INTERACT Since Instagram is about quality, post once a day or every other day and make
sure the post is a worthy picture to post. You can download photo-enhancing apps from the
app store specifically targeted to making your photo Instagram quality. This will keep
people still paying attention but won’t annoy them.
Instagram creates a feeling of community. There is a discover page that allows users
to see content that is similar to who they follow and what they like. Users like photos that
contribute to that feeling of community. Use photos with faces. Try posting behind-the-
scenes photos of your employees working or photos from past events.
When posting a photo, ask questions in the captions so people can comment their
answer. Caption length has been found to be irrelevant to how well a post does so you can
end each caption with a question. This is a good way to see what your followers want to see
and also will create traffic to your post.
REACH Hashtags help people find your photos. You can add as many as you like but five
is a good number to use. Use popular ones like “#tbt, #love and #instagood.” Try using
some less popular ones in hopes that yours will be in the top 9 posts when people click that
hashtag. Also, tag your location when possible. This is another way users can find your
photos if they aren’t following you.
You can also ask people to repost photos or make the caption something like “repost
if you agree.” It just takes a simple screenshot to do so. Make sure you have your company
name and handle in the photo!
FUNDRAISE Make sure your donation link is in your bio. This is the only place that links
are clickable so place your most important link there. Since captions aren’t the main focus of
Instagram, you need to make your photos speak:
• Use photos to promote a text fundraiser.
• Use photos to promote discounts if you sell merchandise.
• Create a hashtag.
Photo from http://www.nptechforgood.com/

7. Case Study: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
The gold standard for raising money through social media is the ALS “Ice Bucket
Challenge.” During the summer of 2014, more than 17 million people dumped a bucket
of ice water on their heads, resulting in
2.5 million people giving $115 million
to the ALS Association. So how did
they do it? Besides the luck associated
whatever trend the Internet will latch
onto next, they executed “interact,
reach and fundraise” to its greatest
potential.
INTERACT By challenging multiple
friends per video, the level of
engagement increased exponentially.
Some people even offered to give a
certain amount of money per like or
retweet, fueling the gratification that
rewards interaction on the Internet.
REACH By crossing networks and reaching
celebrities, the reach of the hashtag
exploded. People would challenge three people, but instead of their three best friends it
would be their mom’s friend, their co-worker and their cousin in another state. Tactics
like this built the challenges reach. Once it inevitably got to celebrities and media
figures, the reach took care of itself and the movement boomed.
FUNDRAISE During the summer of 2014, cynics would say, “How does dumping
water on your head help someone with ALS?” Well those who refused the challenge were
encouraged to give to the ALS Association ($100 was suggested). Many gave in addition
to dumping the ice water. But even those who couldn’t give, simply by passing the word
along, increased awareness and grew engagement, possibly reaching others who could
give.
Photo from http://www.thenational.ae/

8. Social media has become a part of our culture because of the benefits it can provide
and the entertainment it can bring users. Whether your nonprofit is new or old, social media
can increase brand awareness and loyalty. It can also be invaluable in gaining insight from
your audience. It can benefit your company on a daily basis but the perks are maximized by
focusing on the three goals we’ve stressed: interact, reach and fundraise. If those remain the
focus of a company’s social media presence than it will grow the non-profit and increase its
effectiveness in the 21st century.
How To Learn More
7 Powerful Facebook Statistics You Should Know for a More Engaging Facebook Page
http://bit.ly/2eoz4ts
10 Twitter Tactics to Increase Your Engagement
http://bit.ly/2eoA8xp
How to Get More Likes and Comments on Instagram, According to Science
http://bit.ly/2d5jxP8