Social media marketing can help nonprofits achieve their goals of helping millions of people, animals or improving our environment with limited, or no, budgets.

Many nonprofits, charities and NGOs have one big challenge:

Shortage of funds.

Most charities work on small budgets and limited resources. They need to perform multiple activities including planning, educating, organizing and marketing with the available funds. Marketing requires special attention as it covers a number of subtasks which are essential to growing your organization, like promotions, membership campaigns, sponsorship inquiries and the creation of marketing materials. It can consume a good amount of your funds. Larger charities can easily handle the situation. But what about smaller ones?

Small and medium-sized nonprofits should have proper strategies to reduce marketing costs. Social media is a great option to reach the maximum number of audience at a nominal cost.

Create a social page on your preferred social media platforms, build a strong network of followers and encourage your fans to join and contribute.

In this post, I’ll show you how nonprofits can become more effective at digital marketing. Learn how you can become more effective in promoting services and expanding your network.

1. Instagram

Instagram is one of the best places to share your event-related photos and social services. As you know, pictures get more shares and traffic than text posts. Upload designs and photographs of your charity work, upcoming events, brochures, boards and share them on Instagram. Connect your Instagram account to other social networks either directly or through IFTTT third-party tools to increase your social media reach.

2. Pinterest

Pinterest is a popular social media platform for companies and bloggers. Pin your photographs to a pinboard and give it a descriptive name like “Nonprofits” or the domain you’re in so people who are interested in charity work can follow the board to get the latest information. Create a group pinboard, invite similar nonprofits in other areas to join and contribute. It is a great method to get to know each other and to promote each other’s messages.

3. Facebook pages and groups

Facebook is the largest social media platform. People of various interests, business and charities spend time on Facebook for creating public awareness about their products and services.

Make frequent updates on your Facebook pages, monitor the post reach and respond to the comments and messages you receive on time. If you have funds, make use of Facebook ads to promote your events or updates.

There are several Facebook groups that you can join and interact with members. They work on a give and take policy, like all social media channels. Share posts from others and you will often get the same in return. Members will share your posts on their social accounts and thus give you a helping hand in reaching a broader audience.

4. Twitter

Twitter is known for more serious discussions. Create a Twitter profile, follow similar accounts and start relationships with people. Retweet their tweets, respond to messages, send messages and as I mentioned earlier, they will probably do the same for you.

Join leading microsocial, microblogging sites and connect your Twitter account to automatically share your tweets. Build a strong profile, improve your following and boost the engagement rate on your networks. Otherwise, Twitter will give fewer results.

5. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is not just a career-oriented social network. Many nonprofits are using LinkedIn for growing, marketing and discovering suitable sponsorship opportunities. Create a LinkedIn page, post updates and use best practices of other social media platforms on LinkedIn as well.

6. Hashtags, Meta tags and O.G. Tags

While creating social media posts, use relevant hashtags to categorize and track your content. Keywords preceded by the # symbol let users easily discover Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts on a particular topic. In the same way, add suitable meta tags and o.g. tags for the articles and media galleries on your website but without the hashtag symbol. Tags organize similar posts under a common head and on a mouse click, divert visitors to the archives page.

7. Video

YouTube has become the fastest growing platform for reaching a big audience. Websites and companies create attractive tutorial videos, monetize and bring traffic to the parent website. It has been proven that videos can reach the public faster than text content. Upload your events, public awareness videos and spread the value of your nonprofit on YouTube.

8. Create banner images

Several photo editing and designing software are available on the web. Create a beautiful banner image with your logo, message, other charity details and upload it to your social media accounts. All major social networks allow you to use custom header images for your user profile and business page. It is a great option to showcase your products and services. Use a customized timeline image to market yourself without spending any extra penny.

9. Email marketing

Email marketing can be very powerful. Add a beautiful subscription form to your website, collect the email address of interested people and send them updates regarding your new blog posts, campaigns, membership etc.

10. Social media marketing

We shared some individual promotional strategies earlier for each network. But a dedicated tool will do beyond just that. Social media marketing services automate your campaigns and will send them at the peak time or according to your schedule to get maximum clicks and engagements.

Last words

Digital marketing has unlimited possibilities in achieving your goals. Nonprofits should be able to use techniques and opportunities for a smooth workflow of their activities. Efficient marketing strategies will help you work on a tight budget and reap extreme benefits from small resources.

Author bio

Manoj is a writer & founder of Blogging Triggers, a leading blog on blogging tips, social media, technology, and WordPress. He also writes stories, political satires, and articles on various other subjects.

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