The nonprofit sector is a critical part of society. Nonprofits employ 10% of the total US workforce. Despite their importance to our communities, organizations that work for social good often struggle with challenges throughout their lifecycle. One of their biggest challenges is getting the word out about their cause and what they do for it.
In this blog post, we’ll dive into some common challenges that nonprofits face when it comes to social media and how you can overcome them.
The Soaring Costs of Promotion
Social media marketing benefits for nonprofits are immense, but the cost of marketing has soared. While setting up a Twitter account or Facebook page costs nothing, it takes time and expertise to create compelling content that will draw followers and keep them engaged enough to make donations. And then there are the ads themselves; the price of advertising on social platforms has skyrocketed since they started selling off their user data so they could turn profits big enough to compete with Google and Facebook in the ad market.
It means nonprofits should be thinking about how much they can budget toward social media marketing each year, how much time they’re willing or able to spend on it, where their money goes once it goes into those accounts, and whether or not you have access (or would benefit from) advanced tools like Pinterest Analytics or Hootsuite Ads Manager that let you target specific users based on demographics or interests.
To find the right partner for your nonprofit’s social media needs, look for someone who can demonstrate expertise with all major platforms, not just Instagram Stories.
Lack of Content Tied to Qualified Leads
When you create content, your nonprofit’s audience must find it relevant. That means paying attention to who’s following you on social media and understanding what they want from their engagement with your organization.
To do this, start by looking at the people who are interacting with your nonprofit now. Are they donors? Volunteers? Other partners in the community? Then think about what types of content would be most beneficial for them. You succeed in lead generation when your content is relevant to your audience.
Lack of Awareness and Insights
One of the biggest challenges nonprofits face is a lack of awareness, resulting from not knowing what’s working and what isn’t. Without this information, it can be hard to know where to focus your efforts. You’ll need to look at different kinds of data analytics to get a better idea of how people interact with your content and how much they respond positively or negatively to it. If you don’t have enough insight into what’s going on, then there isn’t anything that can help you improve engagement.
Awareness is also critical because it allows you to learn more about how people see your organization as a whole by tracking engagement across multiple channels. The more information you have on hand about what works best for each platform, the better equipped you’ll be when deciding where next year’s funding should go.
Difficulty Communicating With Others
Let’s face it, communicating with others is hard. It’s complicated to share your thoughts and ideas in a way that allows other people to understand you or know you’re listening. When we speak, so much of what we say has nothing to do with the words we choose, and it has to do with our body language and tone.
The same goes for social media. People often make assumptions about how we feel based on how often we post or how many likes our posts get (or don’t get). If someone isn’t getting the attention they want from another person on social media, they might start posting more frequently to be sure someone is paying attention. This behavior doesn’t benefit anyone involved and certainly isn’t helping nonprofits improve their use of social media for communication purposes.
Overcoming Social Media Challenges in 2022
You’re probably aware of the importance of social media for nonprofits. But if you haven’t looked at your nonprofit’s social media strategy lately, or if it hasn’t been updated in a while, now is a good time to do so.
There are many ways to overcome these challenges and use social media for your benefit. One way is by having a strategy that includes goals and objectives and how you will measure progress towards those objectives. Another way is to find qualified leads and talk with them directly on social media.
The most important thing to remember is that you don’t have to do everything at once. Pick one or two social media platforms, and commit yourself to learn as much as possible about them. Once you’ve got your feet wet in those areas, you can move on to another set of challenges. This way, your nonprofit will grow organically instead of trying to change everything all at once.
