What are the principles of using Social Media in a non profit organization?

We would like to talk about the eight principles of a successful social media campaign. First, you need to commit. The method of creating a strategy, and the tactics within the list are easy to do, but it’s up to you and your team to implement them, and commit time and resources, and attention to doing it well.

Next, you have to set some goals. Have clarity of goals, and have the goal setting conversation with all the members in your organization that play a key role in communication about the organization.

Then, you must understand what you want to convey, both content and voice. You must clearly understand who your audience is, and who you’re hoping to communicate with and engage with as you use the various tactics. You must know what is being said, how it will be said, and where. Finally, important is knowing who in the organization is responsible for what piece. Their must be a workflow and a policy guide in place to guarantee that the work will flow smoothly.

Creating good content is also important!!

A component of your goal must always be to add value to the lives of those taking in your content. Create content that’s brief, informative, original, creative, catchy, and fun. When you publish your content, make sure to reply to those that engage with your content. Also, comment and participate with others on the platforms you’ve already chosen. Don’t let a communication opportunity, or a response fall by the wayside. Ultimate success, is creating engagement and buzz, not just ticket sales, and dollars raised.

You must listen. Meaning that you must be in the know about what is being said about you. You must routinely search on each platform for your organization’s name, keywords in your mission, names of individuals speaking for you. You learn things said about you that are great, and others that may not be so great. But you will be aware, and able to develop the necessary response. Content items are generated by you. And although these are many tools in a toolbox, your creativity is the limit.

Encourage participatory communities in each of your platforms. And always start with the free resources, and free tactics. Maximize your efforts. If you spend the time to create it, then it’s worthwhile. Always integrate the content that you generate with all of your platforms. Put your videos in your blog posts, share your blog posts in your social media channels, include these social media posts, or blogs, in a response in your email blasts. If these principles cause you to hesitate before enacting them, make sure you check with organization beforehand.

If you and your organization are okay with the principles, then it’s time to get started!