Nonprofits, Please Use Social Media

Why I lament the lack of our online presence — and how we can easily fix that

Marketing existentialism. Image by Carlson (Universal Press), 2009.

A month ago, I made the leap from management consulting to working for an outstanding non-profit organization in Toronto, Canada with an amazing mission.

The vast majority of the funding we receive from the Government of Ontario is directed towards providing support, services and programs to those covered by our mandate (Anglophones, Francophones, Indigenous, Deaf communities). Very little funds are allocated for us to create + implement a thoughtful communications and outreach strategy to the various internal and external stakeholders that need to know what we do. Up until now, our organization’s communications output has mostly been an ad hoc collective effort with no clear strategy or measurable goals, subject to staff availability.

It’s frustrating because if there’s one thing about the nonprofit sector, it’s that people are often here by conviction. They’re mostly underpaid and overworked, and somehow there’s just as much passion as there is challenge.

At the national forum for COFA, a non-profit organization in Ontario that works to support adult Francophone learners.

There’s not a single day that goes by that I’m not taking screenshots, attending events, consuming articles on LinkedIn, or clipping news from Twitter to promote my organization either personally, or with my team because it’s relevant to our field.

For the first time, I feel passionate about what I do (and perhaps more importantly, what others do) and the work that’s left to be done in our field.

But it’s a crying shame when there is something to tweet about, but there’s no one to tag, there’s no one to like it, there’s no one to re-tweet, there’s no one to reshare — there’s no one to engage with.

As nonprofits, we say we want change so badly, but there’s no one to hear the tree fall in the woods.

The worst part? In my sector, we ourselves are not in the woods to hear the tree fall.

In this day and age, not having an online presence makes (and keeps) nonprofits powerless to the change that’s happening around us and ultimately to us.

Having an online presence but not knowing how to use it well, also makes us unengaging, unsuccessful, and ultimately, disappointed in the bleak outcomes of our efforts.

Most nonprofits are misusing social networks as a megaphone-only, and not as an issue-centric platform to establish thought leadership around their area of expertise. Source: Nonprofit Quarterly.

Here are just a few reasons why I think social media platforms are crucial for nonprofits:

• Thought leadership. As advocacy becomes a core mission for many nonprofits, social media provides a platform to share your reports, surveys, and opinion pieces on important topics in the field.
• More inbound traffic. Posting content will always make it that much more possible for others to click on your link, share your link and/or visit your website — especially/even if it isn’t indexed or optimized on search engines.
• Improved brand loyalty. Social media platforms can help nonprofits build trust with their followers, especially by being consistent to post content that’s relevant to their mission.
• Better customer satisfaction. Nonprofits don’t always call them customers customers, but the people we work with are happy when we engage with them on the social media channels that they’re already following.

So what should you do?

Well, you could get yourself a communications consultant to do an audit, devise a strategy, and a digital marketer to get things started.

But if you, like my nonprofit organization, are short on budget, manpower and resources, here are my 4 pleas for simple acts you can already do (starting now):

1. Please re-activate/awaken your social media accounts. Post at least 1x/3 days (can be a video, a picture, an article — yours or another organization’s).
2. Tagging. In your posts, try to post content that calls for tagging at least one another person/organization/government that has an active social media account. Oh, remember to use at least 2 hashtags.
3. Onboard your staff. Please, please, please ask your colleagues to like/retweet/share/comment on the organization’s posts — if we don’t care enough internally to optimize our communications, how can we expect others to?
4. Give back. Engage with those who react. React to other posts in your field.

By following just these 4 simple steps, you are already positioning yourself to be more visible in your field, and inviting others to join you in fulfilling your mission.

👏 You made it! What are your tips and ideas for building a communications effort in a context with limited resources?

I would love to hear about how you leverage social media to spark change. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter or on LinkedIn.