Social media is a valuable tool for marketing non-profits and spread the word about your brand, function and cause. With the right social media plan and commitment, social media can prove powerful to increasing involvement in your organization and raising awareness overall for your NPO.

Basic social media marketing is a popular option that is also budget friendly. The free business tools through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media networks allow you to expand your audience, track engagement and solidify what it is about your organization that most interests your supporters. This is done by timing, tracking and testing your campaigns.

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Timing, Tracking and Testing Your Social Media Plan

Timing. Timing is important both in the strategy and implementation stage. When choosing a social media plan, go over your NPO calendar and check what events are coming up. Consider what issues you want to focus on and how you can use special days to create social posts you can use to reach a broad audience.

After creating your social media plan and content calendar for the month(s) ahead, be strategic about the timing of your posts. You’ll reach a much larger audience at noon rather than at midnight, so schedule posts to go out sporadically throughout the day. Management tools that pre-schedule posts can definitely be a time saver!

Tracking. After you post to your social media channels, track the progress. Each profile has its own set of built-in analytics that will show which posts are performing best. Review these reports once a month and make tweaks to your social media plan as necessary.

Make sure to also interact with others online. If someone comments on your post, respond. Social media is more than just posting status updates. It’s creating engagement, a community and a chance for you to promote your NPO in an informative and fun way.

Testing. Test which posts are reaching a bigger audience and which perform better on a monthly basis. Typically, posts with images perform best overall, but that doesn’t mean posting a question to generate engagement or an event announcement will not perform just as well. Test what your particular audience is responding to best because, even with a social media plan, you want to remain authentic.

Landing Pages and Social Media Plan Go Hand-in-Hand

Landing pages are a great way to increase visitor interaction and generate more leads. When you post creative content on your social media, make sure to include a call-to-action. It can be subtle or direct. When people click on the provided link, they’re taken to a campaign-specific page on your website, called a landing page.

For example, if you want to sign up new email subscribers or invite people to register for your next NPO event, create a simple landing page people can be directed to from your social networks. Your post could read:

We are hosting a event to celebrate all of our fantastic volunteers. Join us and learn how you can become involved too!

At the end of this post, include a link to a specially-created landing page where people can register.

Keeping these best practices in mind as you put together a social media plan for your nonprofit will help the process run more smoothly and effectively. Remember though, it’s not all business, social media should also be fun!