If you work or volunteer in a non-profit organization, you certainly are familiar with the daily financial struggles and the mounting costs of marketing and PR activities. Worry not, we are here today to help you discover the best ways to promote your company without breaking the bank, and it’ll be fun too!
There are many useful and cheap, or even free, online tools that can be used in order to create content, advertise, grow, and fund according to your needs. The plethora of options and endless possibilities might seem confusing when you first start, and no one wants to dive headfirst into the deep murky waters of the Internet without proper equipment. The aim of this article is to prepare you for your first plunge into the sea of social media. Whether you are a complete newbie or an experienced social media shark these 10 concise tips will help you to make the most out of Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest in a professional environment. So without further ado, let’s get to work and post that selfie you took last night at the networking event (or maybe not, depending on how many mojitos you had…).
1.1. Be focused.
If you are short of money and people, you probably will not be able to keep several social media profiles across all the available platforms. It is best to choose two or three that suit best your needs and focus on maintaining them and feeding your followers with engaging content. Remember, quality over quantity!
1.2. Create a consistent image.
It is worth to spend some extra time and resources on getting professional imagery done for your company if you don’t have one already. Logo, font, colours, even a mascot; if you can, get them in various sizes and resolutions so that can be utilized on different platforms and occasions in the future.
1.3. Catchy slogan.
A catchy phrase or slogan that you can use consistently on your social media, and in real life too, will help you create a more coherent image. It ca be part of your logo or you could use it as your ‘own’ hashtag when posting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
1.4. Create events.
This might seem obvious but a lot of companies fail to attract the due attention and presence at their real life events because of lack of sufficient promotion on social media. You can create an event on Facebook, invite people, update its time and date, add pictures and share it in order to create online buzz. Other platforms such as Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat can serve as great reminders and can help build up tension in the last hours before the event.
1.5. Stories and more…
This relatively new feature came with the onset of Snapchat and the concept of temporary story which disappears after some time might seem feeble but it is in fact a great way to share snapshots of your organization’s daily office life, events or simply to share an inspiring quote or picture. Instagram stories are especially popular with social media users and could give you the much needed exposure.
1.6. Competitions and giveaways
We all love some freebies, right? So why not organise a contest or giveaway for your followers? It is a gain-gain situation if played the right way – you can grow your following and get exposure while the lucky winner(s) get their prize. It doesn’t have to be expensive, even a small thing can make someone happy. Don’t forget to make the rules clear, your followers should share, like, tag friends or repost in order to take part in the contest.
1.7. Upload videos
A picture is worth a thousand words. But a video could be worth a million likes! Don’t be shy to upload videos, even if they are short, if edited the right way they can draw attention or even go viral!
1.8. Keep it clean
As much as we all love kittens and all things sugar, posting irrelevant content can confuse your followers or even worse, you could lose them forever. People like to see and share funny or cute stuff but it is best kept in small doses and only on certain occasion. Unless your charity is an animal shelter, it is better to skip that video of cute puppies playing with a ball in favour of a more serious picture or post.
1.9. Celebrity collaboration
We doubt you will get Kim K to promote your organisation (but if you can, more power to you!) but trying to find and contact a local TV personality, an influencer or blogger can help you get attention and new followers. You could even try to give them a shout out on their social media profile if you cannot get in touch with them or their managers directly.
1.10. Games
The days of Farmville might be long over but getting someone to develop a short, fun and engaging game with a promotional scope could be a good idea to raise funds or advertise a cause. It might soun daunting but creating an online game is actually quite easy and can be done even by a laic. You could ask a software engineering student to help out if you don’t feel confident doing it on your own.
There are many more ways in which you can use social media to help grow your following and promote your organisation. Let your creative side come up to the surface and have fun with it. Just keep in mind to always be respectful of other people’s religious beliefs and steer away from politics if you can.