10 Tips For An Effective Nonprofit Content Strategy
One of the biggest concerns voiced by potential clients is how to create effective nonprofit content strategies for their social networks.
Their struggle either comes from not having enough time to devote to social media or not having enough content to post. Truth be told, most nonprofits have an overwhelming amount of content on their websites or other communication channels that can be easily repurposed for social. Below are 10 tips for managing your time and dealing with the problem of feeding your organization’s social media beasts.
How does your nonprofit tackle content creation? Photo by Flickr User – juhansonin
Follow These 10 Tips for an Effective Nonprofit Content Strategy
- Content Calendar – Lay out all the content that you want to share for the week ahead of time. Don’t leave yourself or your intern scrambling to find content at the last minute.
- Weekly/Monthly Themes – Each week or month, pick one or two issues that your organization focuses on, and find content relating to those issues.
- Curation Platforms – Why spend valuable time searching for content? Let the content come to you. Services like Scoop.it and Spundge allow you to curate content based on keywords or themes.
- Flickr Users – Flickr is a treasure trove for finding visual content that is so valuable on social networks. Reach out to users who have content that represent your organization’s mission, and ask to repurpose their content. And always remember to attribute them for their work.We have found some really good people out there who are willing to help nonprofits.
- Over App – Don’t have a power Photoshop whiz on staff? If you have an iPhone, you don’t need one. With the Over app, you can overlay text on top of a photo. This type of content does great on Facebook, Google+ and Instagram.
- Repurposing Content – Once you develop your weekly or monthly themes, reuse content found on your website, direct mail offerings, reports, blogs or other any communication channels by highlighting different facets of the same piece of content.
- Staff Accounts – Does your staff tweet or use Instagram or Vine? Tap into their feeds when appropriate. It brings your organization to life and adds a personal touch that official messaging just can’t.
- Community Asks – Remember social media isn’t broadcast media. On social media, you offer opportunities for your supporters to interact with your organization. Encourage people to submit content around themes or campaign initiatives.
- Google Alerts – Set up Google alerts to monitor and share what people are saying about your organization. Google alerts also gives you the opportunity to stay up-to-date on issues relating to your organization’s work.
- Look at Data – Want to know what your community likes? Sign up for our Community Building Plans and get data that will guide you on the types of content that resonate well with your audience.
Why is having a content strategy so important? Social media is just media now. The convergence is no longer a possibility. It is a reality. According to the 2013 eNonprofit Benchmarks study by NTEN and M+R, nonprofit Facebook pages grew by 46 percent last year and nonprofit Twitter audiences rose by 264 percent. The need to feed the beast with content is only growing more important.