Social media is perhaps the most important type of media that nonprofits can utilize to highlight their organization and mission, both because of its reach and the diversity of channels available. While there are certainly similarities between building a social media strategy for traditional businesses and nonprofits, there are unique aspects of the social media world that nonprofits, charities, NGOs, must navigate.

In this article, we will discuss social media for nonprofits in terms of creating comprehensive strategy that covers all aspects of social media management. We will begin by explaining the main uses of social media for nonprofits and why it is more than just simply posting regular content. This will be followed by a list of best practices that nonprofits should keep in mind when devising their social media strategy. Lastly, we will go through the important things you should keep in mind when looking for a social media tool for your nonprofit.

The Importance of Social Media for Nonprofits

When discussing how to create social media strategies for nonprofits, we should first clarify what the different goals of nonprofits are. As we already mentioned in the introduction, it is difficult to underestimate the importance of social media for nonprofits, NGOs, and various charities. This isn’t just because of the immense number of people who are active and a variety of social media challenges. In addition, the importance of social media lays in the fact that you can use various networks to fundraise and connect with donors, to keep your community updated on the latest, and to advertise job and volunteer opportunities. 

Let’s start with one of the important uses of social media for nonprofits: fundraising. While some may be not like talking about social media marketing for nonprofits in a way that is similar to tradition businesses, fundraising is an essential part of the everyday operations of many nonprofits and should be seen as a function of good marketing. There are two important aspects of this. First, you want to be able to reach as many potential donors as possible with your social media presence. Second, you want to produce engaging content in order to not only convince them of what you are trying to say, but also so that they interact with and share your posts, helping you to increase your reach. 

This last point about the need for engaging content is also relevant for announcing updates or giving news about your nonprofit organization. In this sense, you want to make sure that people are not simply passing over your announcements in their feeds, but rather are taking time to stay updated about what’s new. This can be especially helpful when advertising job openings and calls for volunteers. Like any business, nonprofits want to attract talented and motivated people to work for them. Due to its reach, social media can be a great medium for sharing job announcements. Moreover, many nonprofits are also on the lookout for volunteers that are willing to donate their time since they believe in the goal of the nonprofits, making it important that your content not only reaches a wide audience, but also convinces them of your overall mission.

From this overview above, it is clear that social media can be an important channel of communication. While the goals and benefits of nonprofits are clear in this regard, those who actually need to make it happen may be wondering if there are social media tips for nonprofits that can help them set up their strategy. That is why, for the rest of the article, we will go over what you should pay attention to when it comes to social media best practices for nonprofits as well as what tools may help you to this end.

Creating a Social Media Strategy for Nonprofits

As is the case with any type of marketing and communications endeavor, creating a well-thought-out strategy is an important ingredient for success. Social media management revolves around many, sometimes interlocking activities that range from research and analytic analysis to managing your community and posting content. 

Nonprofits vary in many ways and can operate on the local, national, or international level while also having different goals. This makes a creating “one size fits all” one strategy that is relevant for all nonprofits most likely unproductive. For this reason, it makes more sense to talk about some best practices that you can take into account when crafting your own strategy and plans. Below, we will go through our list of 7 social media best practices for nonprofits to keep in mind when devising your own strategy:

1. Do your Research
2. Learn from Others
3. Create a Comprehensive Content Strategy
4. Utilize Analytical Insights
5. Create a Community Management and Content Moderation Plan
6. Don’t Forget About Social Media Monitoring
7. Find the Right Social Media tool for a Nonprofit’s Needs

Tip #1: Do your Research

Whenever you are talking about social media best practices for nonprofits, researching trends and audience preferences should be one of the first things discussed. For many nonprofits, you probably already have a good idea of who your supporters are and who you want to speak to when creating your social media content. However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t constantly research trends, your top-performing social media networks, and how you can ultimately increase the size of your audience. There are two main aspects related to finding social media trends for nonprofits.

First, understanding trending topics and issues in your field and location is essential for creating relevant content that speaks to the issues important to your target audience. Trends can mean a number of different things, whether what posts are trending in a country or language, topics that are most often discussed in your field, or understanding the most popular hashtags. You can do this type of research manually, or you can also use a specialized social media research tool that helps you find various trending posts, topics, hashtags, etc., in your country, language, or field. 

Second, being able to research your audience preferences is equally important. After all, you are trying to find out what types of content resonate with them and the social media networks on which they are most active. In terms of finding what resonates with your audience, there are ways you can track and analyze the top-performing post formats, as well as find what content type generates the most interactions. When talking about the social media networks your target audience are using, it is generally beneficial to track how fast your number of followers are growing as well as your average engagement rates for specific time periods on every network. Therefore, you can see where your performance is the strongest. Moreover, as we will talk more about in the next point, you can also track the profiles of other similar nonprofits to see what networks they are most successful on, giving you a better idea of where potential lays.

Tip #2: Learn from Others

Sometimes one of the best social media tips for nonprofits, especially if you are just beginning to grow your presence, is learning from others who are working in the same field or have a similar target audience. For-profits businesses usually refer to this as social media competitor analysis. Nonprofits may not necessarily have any “competitors” in the traditional sense, but the real goal is to analyze other accounts in order to better understand what may be driving success.

When discussing social media marketing for nonprofits, being able to set realistic performance goals is important. A good starting point is to benchmark your own metrics against other nonprofits in your field that you think are having success. Conducting a benchmarking analysis is a great way to gauge which areas you need to improve in and create data-based goals that put your profiles at the top of your field.

Tip #3: Create a Comprehensive Content Strategy

Creating content that catches the attention of your supporters and, hopefully, those who may be interested in supporting your mission is a crucial aspect of social media for nonprofits. However, concentrating only on the end result hides crucial steps and organizational processes that need to be considered. What makes creating a content strategy so important is that there are many tasks that go into making a post successful. First and foremost, this means planning posts out for a particular week or month across your social media profiles that takes into account the different networks you are posting on and when you should post. This generally requires having a transparent overview of your posting calendar for your entire team.

Since there are most likely many different profiles that need to be posted on, having a centralized publishing platform can be helpful, especially when you are posting similar content on different profiles across different networks. Moreover, there could be different people working on the visuals, content, tagging, and the scheduling of posts. For these reasons, one of the best social media tips for nonprofits is to make sure you have processes in place that allows your team to work well together, share ideas, and give everyone an overview of who is responsible for what task(s).        

For many nonprofits, this makes a social media tool a necessity. There are many other features a social media publishing tool should have that we will discuss in more detail later. However, at its core, a social media tool should offer you a centralized platform that allows you to effectively organize, schedule, and post across several different social media networks automatically. Moreover, there are various other “nice to haves” such as AI content and image generators, sharing features for outside collaborators, and giving your team the option to set up approval processes. 

Tip #4: Utilize Analytical Insights

Almost any list of social media nonprofits best practices will most likely emphasize the importance of analytics. However, what should you pay attention to in particular? It is clear nonprofits are not operating in the same ways as businesses trying to make a profit, but they have many of the same performance goals when it comes to gaining followers and improving KPIs. As we said above, almost everyone on social media is looking for ways to increase reach, boost engagement, and grow their overall presence. Utilizing social media analytics tools is one of the key ways to make these goals obtainable.

All this makes analytical insights incredibly important since these can help you find, among other things, the best times to post, top-performing hashtags and content formats, as well as helping you discover what types of content leads to higher post interaction rates. Moreover, some social media tools provide you with sentiment analysis capabilities that are essential for analyzing the overall feelings and attitudes of people related to your profiles, other profiles, or general topics.

There are a few things to be on the lookout for when you are looking at various analytics tools. First, you should look for ones that offer strong content optimization like we outlined above, as well as benchmarking capabilities. This is because you want to be able to analyze not only your own data, but also that of others working in your field to find trends and best practices. Second, when benchmarking yourself against similar profiles or analyzing them to find out what they are doing right, make sure you can analyze enough profiles to create a meaningful data set.

Tip #5: Create a Community Management and Content Moderation Plan

Community management is an absolute essential part of a comprehensive social media strategy for nonprofits. This is not only because community management is an important factor in increasing engagement and gaining followers, but because it serves a way for you to help shape the attitudes of those interacting with your profiles and content. Moreover, content moderation is also an important task since it helps you ensure that your profiles and content remain respectful and your organization and content are protected from unwanted comments. 

Don’t forget that there are several important activities that are required to make community management and content moderation effective. First, you need an organizational and task delegation plan that specifies who is doing what and when. One option you have here is to organize work by assigning different social media networks or profiles to team members. Whatever work structure you choose, what is important is that you have an overview of tasks and responsibilities. It is also important to provide guidance and training to your team members who are responsible for community management and content moderation. Things can more fast and challenging situations can arise, so giving your team the adequate training is essential here. 

The challenge with community management and content moderation is that there can be many different profiles and social media networks that those working for nonprofits must keep an eye on. Moreover, community management and content moderation is a continuous process that requires constant attention. This means that social media management strategies for nonprofits need to take into account the various ways that comments and messages may arrive and what should be prioritized. There is also a need to have a system as to who should be assigned to which tasks. This can be accomplished through the good planning and organization, as well as the training team members who are responding to messages and comments. 

Tip # 6: Don’t Forget About Social Media Monitoring

Social media monitoring is an increasingly important topic for nonprofits and businesses alike. For businesses, there is a need to see what people’s opinions are about their brand and products. In many ways, nonprofits are no different, since they most likely want to know what people saying and understand opinions about their organization. For nonprofit organizations, this can be valuable to understand if they need to alter their communication strategy or address comments made about them. This makes social media monitoring for nonprofits an important activity. 

We have written about social media monitoring in general and detailed what you should be on the lookout for. However, you should keep in mind that effective monitoring for nonprofits shouldn’t be focused solely on social media networks but rather the internet as a whole. Social media is an important communication channel, but shouldn’t be seen as the whole story when it comes to finding out peoples’ opinions. That is why being able to monitor more than social media networks can be important for many nonprofit organizations.

Tip #7: Find the Right Social Media tool for a Nonprofit’s Needs

Unsurprisingly, as we mentioned a few times above, using a social media tool can help you implement many of the best practices we recommended. There are different social media tools for nonprofits depending on their needs and goals, so doing your research to find the right one is important. Most of all, when discussing the features of a social media tool for nonprofits, it is important to keep in mind the tips we highlighted above and make sure the tool you are looking at can help you with them.

Moreover, be careful not to automatically choose the cheapest tool option, since this might not give you all the features and benefits that you need. On the other hand, always be sure to look into what you are paying for and the most expensive tool, since the most expensive may also not be the best choice. 

So how do you find the best social media tool for your nonprofit? We recommend that you look at the different functions of a tool in relation to the different aspects of social media management that we mentioned above. Therefore, in this next section, we will focus on the key parts of social media tools that many nonprofits may need and highlight what you should be aware of when shopping for the ideal tool.

Looking for the Best Social Media Management Tool for Nonprofits

Finding a social media management tool for nonprofits can be challenging because of all the features that are required. Social media management tool for nonprofits would ideally be “all-in-one” solutions that provide a wide array of functions. The best social media tool for nonprofits will depend on exactly each one needs out of it and the budget they have to spend on it. 

If your social media presence is relatively small, confined to only one or two networks, and can be managed by one person, then there are some free and low-cost options that may not give you powerful features, but can help you with the basic stuff. However, if you have multiple networks and profiles to management as well as several people managing the various aspects of your social media presence, then it makes sense to closely look at the various tools available.

You may be asking what type of checklist you should take into account when shopping for a social media tool that is right for you. We have put such a checklist together and divided it into 5 general areas that you should be aware of. When shopping for the best social media management tools for your nonprofit, you should make sure it fits your needs in the following areas:

1. Analytics
2. Community Management
3. Publishing
4. Research
5. Monitoring

1. Analytics

As we already highlighted, many non-profits need to draw attention to their causes. This is, of course, easier said than done. However, what is helpful are features to track your performance as well as have the ability to analyze other nonprofits to learn from what they are doing. This is what makes having the ability to analyze historical data across platforms so fundamental to generating helpful analytic insights.

In many ways, having the ability to analyze an unlimited number of profiles is the key to strong analytical insights. This is because, when analyzing data of other similar profiles in your field, you want to be able to compile large data sets. If you are limited in the number of profiles you can track, then this can negatively affect the insights you can gain from a social media analytics tool.

As we already detailed above, the ideal social media tools for nonprofits should allow you to uncover optimization insights such as finding the right hashtags and times to post, the best content formats and content types, as well as giving you the ability to analyze sentiment. It is best practice to also look closely at the various types of analyses that social media tools offer to make sure it has everything you need.

2. Community Management

When researching the best social media tools for nonprofits in terms of community management and content moderation, they would most likely offer would offer 3 main features. First, that it supports all of the different social media networks you use in terms of managing them from a centralized platform. Second, that there are options for you to delegate tasks and organize different conversations while keeping a high-level overview of who is responsible for which conversations. Third, that there are features such as automation setups, AI integration, and template creation that help you work more efficiently. 

3. Publishing

Nonprofit organizations often use their social media channels to draw attention and support for their causes, and being able to create engaging posts quickly and efficiently across channels can be crucial in the success of these posts. Social media management tools for nonprofits should, of course, allow you to post through one single platform. Moreover, they should give you the ability to plan content well into the future within a content calendar so everyone knows what is planned going forward. However, there is much more than this if you are looking for the best publishing tools for nonprofits.

For starters, nonprofits generally have teams of people working on their social media strategy and taking part in one or more steps of the content creation process. This requires specialized organizational and project management features to help them work well together and share ideas effectively, whether they are working in the same office or remotely. This makes these types of organizational features a must for an effective publishing tool. 

Another thing to consider is the integration of new technology that helps you with creating various parts of the post. This includes the option to use AI features in creating things such as the content or images of a post to make your content creation process quicker. An image library that allows you to easily save and organize the images you create is a very useful feature to have as well. 

4. Research

As we already explained in our best practices section, researching trends can mean a variety of things depending on what trend you want to find. Searching for trending posts is one thing, but there is also a need to understand wider trends when it comes to best times to post, hashtags, sentiment, top voices, etc.

This is why a social media management tool for nonprofits should give you the flexibility to research individual trending posts as well as take a more analytical look at various trends within a certain field. Keep in mind that being able to find influencers can also be helpful if this is a part of your overall outreach strategy. When looking for a social media research tool, it is also important to pay attention to the filtering options both in terms of researching various keywords, industries, freelancer, and topics or selecting certain languages and/or countries to focus on. 

5. Monitoring

While we mentioned social media monitoring above, it is important to understand that various social media tools do this task with varying levels of effectiveness. The best social media management tools for nonprofits for those who need social media monitoring would allow you to monitor the social media network as well as monitor various sources on the internet. This is because social media can be a good data point for understanding what people think of your organization, but should not be the only data point you need.

In addition to knowing that there are comments about your organization, you should also have an array of analytical capabilities that goes along with this monitoring. Simply seeing that people are talking about your nonprofit organization is not enough. When looking for a social media monitoring tool, be sure to look at both the data sources that it covers, as well as what types of analytic insights it can offer. 

Key Takeaways: Social Media Management for Nonprofits

Nonprofits have many challenges that confront them, and hopefully this article has shed some light on the best social media practices and tips that they can use to create a successful social media strategy. Creating a comprehensive social media strategy for nonprofits means that you are looking at the various tasks and activities that need to be done in order to grow your presence, increase engagement, and make your message be heard. 

Keep in mind that creating a social media strategy for nonprofits is only the start. You also need the tools and team members to be able to make it a reality. That is why we have given a special focus to understanding the different parts of social media management and the features that a tool should give you to help you reach your goals. 

If you are looking for a social media tool that is made for the challenges that nonprofit organizations face in the social media world, you should consider taking advantage of Fanpage Karma’s free 14-day trial to see if this tool is right for you. This “all-in-one” social media tool allows you to manage and analyze hundreds or thousands of profiles if you wish. This can greatly improve the analyses you can do, both for benchmarking as well as finding ways to optimize your content. Moreover, there are research, publishing, community management, and monitoring features that your organization can utilize to cover all aspects of social media management. 

If you want to see an overview of the Fanpage Karma tool first hand, you can sign up for the free weekly webinar where our team will give you an introduction into how to use the tool.