Depending on the needs of a nonprofit organization, social networks allow solving the necessary range of tasks. In this article, we will consider how to set up social media policy in such companies.
Social media as a means of communication for nonprofit companies
With the advent of the Internet, public attention and development have gradually moved to a new plane of online interaction. One of the main trends in the development of the Internet over the past five years is the rapid growth in the popularity of social networks. The functionality of this tool is now being actively introduced into its activities by the nonprofit sector. However, its role is far from clear. On the one hand, social networks open up additional opportunities for non-profit organizations, on the other hand, they reveal problems that were not obvious to the “third sector” until a certain point. In this regard, new areas of activity are emerging, within which NPOs have yet to develop and transform their usual, well-established communication channels.
Social networks for NPOs, first of all, are a means of communication. Companies use social networking applications such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube to reach potential supporters, build trust among them, run fundraising campaigns and recruit volunteers. Social networks remove temporal and spatial restrictions, thereby significantly expanding the audience. Thus, social networks are transforming both the ways of communication and the formats of interaction between people in society.
The industry of charity in its development relies on social media tools, which provide it with new opportunities to interact and communicate with stakeholders such as donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries. At the same time, not the entire non-profit sector was able to assess the possibilities of social networks in time. The situation associated with the coronavirus pandemic has put the NGO sector in front of the need for increased attention to such a tool as social networks. Like the rest of the world, NPOs turned out to be unprepared for a situation where offline communication becomes completely inaccessible.
How to create a nonprofit social media policy?
There are several important steps to build a successful online social media community for the nonprofit company:
- Make a thematic plan. The whole team should work on social networks. Employees should think together about what topics should be covered on social networks.
- Make a calendar plan. Every organization has its seasonal themes. You can also link topics to specific dates. It is worth arranging these topics on the calendar and scheduling publications in advance.
- Form a group on social networks. It is important for the audience that the information is presented beautifully. You can design posts and choose a beautiful template on canva.com.
- Invite the loyal. First of all, you need to invite volunteers and beneficiaries, partners and friends to your group. It is also necessary that the posts are published by different people. It creates the atmosphere of the club.
- Announce one regular category or hashtag. You can devote a month to one topic or one format. Since NPOs usually don’t have a lot of free hands, it will be easier to cover one thing.
- The presence of the first persons of the organization. If the speaker is well-known and respected, the audience is more likely to accept the message that the NPO wants to convey.
- Invite an authoritative guest. You can ask a well-known expert to talk about films, books, TV shows on your topic.
- Creating a test. The audience loves easy interactive content. In order not to overload the test, it is advisable to make links to materials that say more about the problem.