Did you know that 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media end up taking some sort of action? Of these, 59% donate and 53% volunteer. These numbers highlight the importance of social media to organizations, particularly nonprofits.

Yet, have you found that your social media campaigns aren’t delivering the desired results? It's likely not because people lack interest in your cause, but rather because there is a need to refine your strategy.

This one-size-fits-all approach does not work for social media which demands a more targeted and strategic approach. Fortunately, this guide will walk you through a step-by-step process to strategically plan and implement your social media campaigns, ensuring that you make the most of your social media presence.

One common mistake I have observed is that organizations tend to invest considerable time and resources into developing awesome communication strategies for TV, radio and print. Only to then simply copy and paste those same campaigns onto social media without taking into account how different these platforms are.

1. Integrating social media into your communication strategy

Begin by understanding how social media fits into your overall communication objectives. Instead of treating social media as an isolated communication channel, the way you would use Television or the Radio for example, consider it as a platform that complements and enhances the efforts you are already making across your other channels.

If your objective is to raise awareness, recognize that while informative social media posts are crucial, traditional platforms like television and radio may be more impactful in sharing this kind of content, especially in regions with less internet connectivity. So instead of overwhelming your online audience with information, prioritize interactive content optimized for engagement instead.

Launch polls, partake in challenges and turn your social media into a Story telling platform. Anything to transform your cause from something people merely know about to something they want to actively support and participate in.

2. Set goals and KPI’s

When setting goals for your social media campaigns, take a moment to think on what specific role you want social media to play in achieving your broader goals. Then make that your goal. Make sure that these are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Suppose your broader goal is to increase donations for a children's education program.  Determine what role you want social media to play here. Would you like to use it for awareness, engagement, lead generation, or conversions? 

Your final goal for your social media campaign could then be: ‘Raise awareness about our children's education program on Instagram and Facebook, aiming to reach 5,000 people and achieve a 20% increase in donations within the next three months.

Make sure to also set your key perfomance indicators. Specifically for the social media goals you have set. 

These are extremely essential in tracking the success of your campaign and in pointing out what needs tweaking when it is time to re-strategize.  Remember to also make them SMART.

3. Know your audience  

Identify your Target audience. You need to understand the people you are trying to reach with your social media campaign. Knowing their Demographics, Topics of interest, Content preferences and online behaviors will help you craft your communication messages in a way that will resonate with them most.

This does not necessarily mean that you need to carry out surveys. A simple task of social listening will do. On the platforms you use, what are the people like? What age group is most active there? What do they engage with the most? What content forms do they like?

I admit you have to be a person who is chronically online to have a firm understanding of this, but hey! That is part of the job.

Once you have figured this out set up what is known in Marketing as a customer persona(s). Develop profiles of your ideal audience in terms of their demographics, interests, hobbies, Goals, pain points, topics they would engage with online, anything that seems relevant.

I would encourage that you set up two or three personas, one for your donors or whoever you need to report to, another for the people you are directly targeting, and another for the general public. 

This approach ensures that every piece of content you put out will get some kind of response from the people you are trying to reach. Not to mention that your content will be well rounded.

4. Select the right social media platforms

You do not need to be on every social media platform. Doing so will quickly drain your resources and time resulting in mediocre performance across all platforms. The key is to understand that each platform serves different goals, demographics and content formats.

By carefully considering these factors, you can then selectively invest in the platforms that are most likely to deliver the best results for your campaign. Attempting to engage stakeholders on TikTok, posting long informative posts on Instagram or Trying to reach out to adolescents via LinkedIn are all prime examples of misaligned strategies.

To avoid such pitfalls here is a useful breakdown:

Additionally, you should check for social media reports specific to your area. These reports can provide valuable insights into popular platforms, active demographics, device preferences and other relevant information.

If the reports show that Facebook is popular locally, it’s best you prioritize it even if it is not your personal favorite.  

5. Create a detailed Content strategy

If your organization carries out a quick social media audit and it reveals problems like inconsistent posting, random or irrelevant posts, a lack of variation in content types, no alignment between posts and your brand, absence of calls to action, and limited engagement — do I need to go on?

This means that you probably have no content strategy in place and that's definitely stunting your growth and results. Here are some questions that can help you create a content strategy for your socials as an organization: 

These are just a few questions you need to tackle but addressing these questions in detail will save you time and prevent some of the aforementioned issues.

If you find yourselves overwhelmed, the least you can do is adhere to the Golden rule of content creation–Consistently create relevant, compelling, valuable and shareable content that will meet your audience’s needs and interests.

6. Effectively distribute your Content

If you have a great content strategy and awesome content, your posts will soar and get you the results you want…right?

Wrong!

The truth is we underestimate the value of properly distributing your content. Simply posting content on your chosen social media platforms and calling it a day will not get you the results you are looking for.

Some ways to ensure that you effectively distribute your content is to accompanying it with relevant keywords and hashtags so platforms can push your content to the right people. You can either use tools specializing in hashtag and keyword research or brainstorm ways you can intersect your audience's scrolling.

Continuing the conversation your content has already started is key, provide more information about the issue, address questions, draw personal experiences out of your audience, facilitate debates and encourage discussions in your comment sections.

To successfully do this you will need to loosen up a little. Based on the kind of audience you are targeting and your organization’s brand tone assign yourself a personality. Refrain from engaging like a Bot, there should be some appropriate level of emotion behind your engagement.

If you find that this is not enough to achieve your goals, consider using Paid advertising. Sacrifice a few bucks to boost and promote your posts. Trust me it is not cheating, sometimes it is more than necessary.

7. Analytics

While this step isn’t the most exciting, it is definitely one of the most important during your social media journey. Not only will this paint a vivid picture of your campaigns performance, the insights you gather have the power to successfully shape your future social media activities.

Different social media platforms have their own analytics and tracking tools designed to assist you in measuring and monitoring your performance against the KPI’s you set earlier. Your social media pages gather different data in the form of metrics that you can then use to draw conclusion on what you are doing right/wrong and what needs changing.

After getting these, you MUST compare this collected data against your KPI’s then draw meaningful interpretations from that comparison.

These interpretations will become your guide to learning what is successful, what is not, what needs tweaking and re-strategizing in terms of content or timing and what works with your audience.

So although this is the less glamourous side of running a social media campaign, it ultimately determines your success or failure in your social media journey. This step is undeniably crucial.

Best practices for running a Social media campaign

• Consistency – Your worst fear should be the phrase ‘out of sight, out of mind.’  Keep your audience engaged and the conversation flowing by posting regularly. Use a content calendar to seclude posts ahead of time.

• Be relatable – Establish a genuine connection between you and your followers. To effectively do this you need to have some kind of relatable personality that will grab the attention of the people you are trying to appeal to. Try showing some interest and care towards them and make them feel as though they are part of the team.

•  Encourage engagement – Be a facilitator not just a communicator, do not keep the conversation between you and your audience. Rather spark and guide conversation amongst your followers. Start interactions by using polls, challenges and give your audience an opportunity to gain awards or recognition for doing something in line with your work.

• Stay focused and true to your purpose – Do not sacrifice your organizations social cause for internet fame. Put advancing your organizations agenda before anything else. Getting lost in the social media noise might get you a large number of followers, likes and other forms of engagement but these may not translate into the kind of offline action you were aiming for.

• Follow Through – Do not ghost your followers. Always offer available updates on your efforts. Regularly check-in especially if you are getting offline support from your followers. This is how you build trust and credibility which inspires loyalty to your brand and your cause. So do not leave them hanging.