HomeThe advent of social media has given NGOs and civil society organizations the opportunity to interact with a global audience. Social media revolutionized communication radically. This is because you can now monitor conversations by doing social media listening and know what the public is saying about your company or the field you specialized in.
Secondly, social media has given organizations insight into how people think and what they’re interested in. One of the benefits of social media to an organization is that you control the message you put out there. Not only that but you also influence conversations and observe what people are saying in real-time.
The thing about social media though is that it’s very vast and diverse. It all started with Facebook and Twitter. Today we have LinkedIn, Tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and others.
This leaves organizations in a catch 22 situation because they don’t know how to leverage all platforms so that they can have maximum impact. You need to remember that all these platforms have very different audiences. That’s why an organization should have a communications team dedicated to social media alone.
Why do you need social media?
Your organization needs to tap into this gold mine because it eases the process of reaching donors. In fact, it opens you up to identifying donors who are in other countries and different domains that you would never have identified without this new technology.
Secondly, it helps you identify your target area and the audience you intend to reach. Social media gives you the opportunity to see people’s pains and the gap that you can fill desperately. For example, if you see how young people are increasingly becoming sexually active through social media, you can conduct research on key interventions. Moreover, you’ll be able to look for areas where you can invest in research so that the data you get will help you craft strong cases when asking donors to fund your undertakings.
Social media also helps your organization maintain a human face. People love interacting with humans and not entities. When you post photos and videos of the programmes/projects that your organization is engaged in, it draws the interest of people. As a result, people share and even tag your organization when they witness the impact. This is called the User Generated Content (UGC). UGC helps your NGO gain more credibility and slowly increases your influence if you’re consistent.
How do we use social media as an organization?
Realistically, targeting to be on all social media platforms will be stretching too much especially if you’re a fairly young organization. Your marketing and communications team need to research the audience you’re targeting and know which platform would most effectively reach them.
Additionally, you need to know how to communicate with this particular audience and also donors. LinkedIn is a formal seemingly official meeting site for professionals. Therefore the message you send through that platform needs to be excellent, well-edited and adopt a formal tone.
On the other extreme, Instagram or Tik Tok mainly connect with young audiences. Give it the age bracket of 18-40 roughly. That your message should be creative, visual and youthful is a no brainer.
When it comes to a long term strategy, sustainability is key. Think about how you’re going to start and maintain your social media presence. That’s why you need a team of social media experts who will consistently post and be in charge of your social accounts. If you don’t have the budget for hiring a team, you can engage different public relations firms that offer digital marketing as a service.
The way you need to engage with the public on these particular platforms needs to be handled with the veracity it deserves. Why? You ask. If one user is not happy about something that your organization did, it could ruin your reputation fast and devastatingly so. Word on social spreads faster than a forest fire in a dry season. As such you need to have contingent measures in case things go south and have professionals who can manage the crisis before it damages your organization further.
Conclusion
All you need to do is take your time formulating a strategy and policy which will inform how your organization engages on social media. A report by NGO Connect says that you’d rather use one platform and stick with it consistently than be on multiple platforms and give up in the middle.
