5 Ways to Make Social Media Marketing Easier #nonprofitmarketing #contentmarketing #nonprofits

The nonprofit podcast powered by donor bucks. Social media is a game changer in the digital  age where every post tweet and share counts, deciphering whether your social media efforts  are moving the needle can be a daunting task. Welcome to the nonprofit podcast. I'm Kara. I'm a nonprofit leader in fundraiser and I have the honor of serving as podcast  correspondent for Donor Box. We're here each week with practical actions you can use today to increase donations and  take your nonprofit to the

next level. Tomorrow, today's episode is your guide through that labyrinth of social  media marketing for nonprofits. Kelly Gian is the creator of nonprofit  marketing nerd and she helps nonprofit leaders, founders and fundraisers level up  their online marketing and storytelling. Kelly's here to share some of  her insights on how to make social media marketing easier for your nonprofit. So, Kelly, it's fantastic to have you with us. Yes. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to dive in

and nerd out. Oh, good. Well, let's do that together. Then let's talk through some ways  to make social media marketing, not just manageable or just one more  thing to do, but truly impactful. So, Kelly, there are so many types of  social media campaigns for nonprofits. What are some that nonprofits should consider? Yeah, Kara, I love to say, well,  first you have a strategic plan that then informs your marketing plan  that then informs your dial guide based on where you're going and then you  h

ave a huge brand package, right? And then you decide what campaigns you're going  to do and how you're showing on social media. But I've been there in house at a nonprofit, I'm  sure you have to, as many of the listeners have. And really the best thing you  can do is see where you at. Where do you want social media to take you? Do you want more donors? Do you want more volunteers? Are you focusing on program  participants and then start to figure out what do those people want to hear? Right? Who

are you talking to and  what do they want to hear? And that's how you'll decide what campaigns  or what social media content you should have. One of the ways I see nonprofit really doing  social media, the wrong way is they focus a lot on what I would call trifle brochure content and then  their events and then really major impact stories. But all of the other warm and fuzzy that  really make a nonprofit organization that we as a nonprofit employees, what keeps us  going to work every day is ne

ver shared. And so one of the campaigns I always  recommend nonprofits do is something that shows the reality and the behind  the scenes and the warm and fuzz. And so what that looks like for every organization is different that I would focus on  something that's warm and fuzzy. And if you are the person managing the social  media, maybe set up a campaign that excites you. Yeah, I mean, that's a good perspective. We're not a stuffy nonprofit. We are really fun and engaging. So why not invite oth

ers into that story? That's so cool. Now, consistency, there's algorithms  for every social media platform. And so I hear a lot about consistency  and how important it is, but sometimes social media is just one more thing  to do on top of all that's going on. Can you share some tips on how nonprofits  can maintain a consistent presence on social media without burning out  or overwhelming their audience? K The first thing I can say is that I  could go on about this for probably 20 hours and I'm a

big efficiency and  effectiveness nerd and consistency. Really those three things go hand in hand,  especially when it comes to social media market. One of the best ways is to be proactive, not  reactive with your social media marketing. And what that exactly looks like  typically means using a content planner and scheduling out social media out  of nonprofits all the time are guilty of, they have a lot going on and then they post a lot  and then they do nothing for three weeks, right? So one w

ay using a content planner  and scheduler will help you. Maybe you have three big donations come  in at once instead of posting three. Thank yous that day. Go ahead and schedule it out  over the next three weeks. You have consistent thank yous. One of the biggest pieces of advice. I always talk to executive directors that  are also managing their social media that exactly what you said, they cannot find the time  they're wearing all the hats they could have, should have, would have done this  an

d that with their social media. And you know, social media does have value. And if you buy that and believe  that you need to make it a priority. I recommend executive directors or whoever your  social media manager is to block out enough time. And I say two hours a week is probably what  you're looking at and treat it like a meeting. So that means you have ad nb social media  marketing meeting with yourself every Thursday from noon to two, close your door  and that will make sure that consisten

cy. Really, I'm a big fan of time blocking. Unfortunately, in my own efforts, social  media falls to Friday afternoon for me. And then I'm just trying to push something out. I like the idea of scheduling it blocking it out. Is there a certain day or time  that you see that resonates really well for posting So in terms of when to  post, I recommend scheduling out posts. And I would love to say it's every nonprofit should be posting at 6 p.m. and  8 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But that's reall

y depends on  who is your target audience of. What do you want to see if your target audience  is someone that works 9 to 5 and is looking at social media during work and maybe you're on  linkedin, then probably post during that time. If your target audience are maybe 30 to 45  year olds that are getting their kids to school and then at home in the evenings, maybe you're  posting at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. So that does depend. But the key is to get to them, you're  scheduling that content out ahead of

. So you do the work on Thursday, but perhaps  it's scheduled to release that next Tuesday. So you're working days ahead. Exactly. Yes. One of the other recommendations I  have and every nonprofit deals with that where they don't have the pictures, right? They have the idea and then they're like, oh, now I need to go out and get that picture  and that becomes very time intensive. If you have an idea, I need to go out and get. And so I do recommend at least once every quarter  to go do a mini pho

toshoot of your organization. Just batch get, they don't, they  can be with your smartphone batch, get as many pictures as possible all at once. And I'm talking like, you know, 300  plus pictures of people, of things, of volunteers, of staff, of silly things. You think you'll never need of your clients  if that is allowable at your organization and then you have those images to pull from and  that usually will get organization if you're scheduling one post that has images a week  that will usual

ly get organizations an entire, you know, three months worth of  content out of that one photo shoot. Oh, brilliant. That's a great use of time. Absolutely. Oh, I love that. I'm gonna do that this week. You talked briefly about your audience  and knowing who your audience is, how can nonprofit leaders really  define their target audience? And then further tailor that content,  this is really where nonprofits often go wrong is they never know who like  even the question of how right. I think a lo

t of nonprofits that  are listening are probably like, oh, I'm supposed to be like  defining a target audience. It, it really is important and  one of the key ways nonprofits go wrong is they try to say everything to  everyone and then no one hears anything. So again, that does go back to what are  you trying to do with your social media. So if you're trying to recruit more volunteers  than you're your current volunteers, who are your potential volunteers and your  social media content should be

something that those people would want to hear in a coffee  chat, something they would want to hear. If your goal is to get more  donors through social media, then your content should  probably be reflective of that. And you would be looking then at or your  current donors who are potential donors and providing content that they would  find interesting, attractive relatable. That's really helpful. You know, Kelly, I have followed  you on linkedin for quite some time. I know you have a great web

site  with kinds of inspiring ideas for, for nonprofits to use when  it comes to social media. And when I've read some  things that you've written, you've talked about the concept  of content pillars for nonprofits. Can you explain a little bit more  about what these pillars are and how they can help nonprofit organizations  streamline those social media efforts? Absolutely. You know, one of my core goals and nonprofit  marketing nerd is to help make social media marketing easier for nonprofits,

not  more cumbersome, not more stressful, not all these, there's so many widgets and gidgets  out there and that can be like scary for people. And so content pillars are literally buckets or concepts that all nonprofits should be  talking about on their social media. It might be one or two different dependent  on your mission, vision and goals. But in general, these are the or pieces of  content, all nonprofit should be sharing on their social media platform, things like mission,  warrior conte

nt advocacy that are better than trifle brochure content but similar to that impact  stories that show real faces and real people. Direct asks and maybe not just for  donations but direct asks for if you're a faith based organization,  maybe direct ask for prayers. If you're a advocacy related organization, maybe direct, asked to reach out to  a legislator or whatever the ask is. Direct ask. Thank you use, which is the number one thing  nonprofits forget or neglect on social media. Every nonprof

it should be saying thank you to  someone at least once a week on social media. This is really how you build community  behind the scene and campaigns, which we did talk about a little bit earlier. Now how to do that and really still  be authentic in that approach is hard. So we hear the term authenticity a lot. I think it's the word word of the year for 2024. Could you shed some light on how a plays  a role in nonprofit social media marketing today and maybe some tips on finding  that balance b

etween being authentic. But yet over sharing, it's a fine balance. I'm going to take a step back for people that are so worried about social media  that they actually do nothing. One of the key recommendations I have is  something called the Garbage Post Challenge. This is not created by me, but it's something  that I'm actually currently doing and that I do recommend nonprofits that are trying to figure  out where that line is to go ahead and do. And this is, it's going to scare you, Kara and 

you're probably like, no, Kelly, that's too much. But the garbage post challenge is within 30  days, you're going to post 100 pieces of content, whether those are stories or pictures or posts  or email blasts 100 pieces of content in 30 days. And that's a lot. But what it does is it helps you find that  voice, find that authenticity, maybe give over, get over some of those perfectionism  hurdles a lot of times as humans. But especially when we are representing our  organization, we might take th

at a little bit. I don't want to say too seriously, but  it might be a very scary thing for us. So then we lean back and depend too much  on Canva graphics and formal language and that is nothing that's going to connect  you to whoever your target audience is. So the garbage puss challenge is really  a way to get over that you're not going to be able to create 100 perfect can  graphics that are boring everyone. So you're going to be forced to  just show up and do some lives. You're going to be f

orced to show stories  of the war fuzzies behind the organization. I think that's a really good way  to find your authentic voice. If you're trying to figure out where  the line, another way nonprofits go wrong in terms of authenticity, you  asked about what's over sharing. The way nonprofits typically go wrong is  they unders share or they get too cold? So I'm almost like, well, Carol, I'm not going  to give that question of over sharing a lot of weight because the biggest way nonprofits are no

t  serving their organization right through their social media is they're not sharing at all or  they're sharing in a very cold disconnected way. And so a great way to figure out an  authentic voice is just to go live, to go live more times than you  think you should if you're the executive director and I don't care if  you're like, oh, this sounds so scary. I don't want to do it, but I'm terrified. I'm terrified, Kelly. And that's why you should. , and I think lives are a good way to  start to

find that authentic voice and at the end of the day, whoever your  target audience is, they are craving, understanding the heart and soul of your  organization that's going to get them to act and they're also craving like to  know and trust you as an organization. So showing a real face, an authentic  voice, maybe over sharing a little is probably the best way to go to truly  connect with your target audience. Well, it's true if you think about the  people you connect with most in life, it's tho

se who see all sides of you, right? So it's scary to be vulnerable. It's scary to be not perfect  and a little unpolished. I may take this challenge on this quarter. Who knows? I learned so much from you. I have applied a lot of the  principles that you've shared. You have a great content  planner that I've utilized. But if our listeners are interested in  learning more about working with you, how can they get more information  and maybe follow you around too. I'm Kelly, the nonprofit marketing

nerd. I provide a lot of content tools and  templates entirely for free on youtube. So go there first. You can also connect with me on linkedin  and Instagram, the nonprofit marketing nerd. Awesome. Well, Kelly, I have learned so much today. I'm a little more empowered  than I was even 15 minutes ago and I'm sure our listeners will be as well. So thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for having me. It was a blast and thank you to  our listeners for choosing to spend your time

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