The biggest advantage online marketing has to offer to us marketers is the ability to engage with our end consumers and interact with them on a 1-on-1 basis. When it comes to nonprofit marketing, organizations are mostly on the lookout for ways to attract more donors, volunteers, and supporters to their cause. Including engagement strategies within the marketing plans might just be what organizations need to achieve a wider reach and establish a loyal base of donors, volunteers, and supporters.
Below are a few engagement ideas for nonprofits looking to interact with their audiences:
Create share-worthy content
This roots back to unleashing the power of storytelling. The world today stands up for what they believe in and expresses the same by sharing powerful stories that resonate with them. A great story has all the potential to go viral and this is your chance to move your audience by creating a powerful story that captures the problem, highlights engaging facts, forecasts the future, or whatever it is that you can associate with your NPO.
While you decide on the story you’re going to tell your audience, keep in mind all the platforms you’re going to distribute it on (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc) and be sure to plan for the most suitable video or text lengths for each of these platforms. For example, if you’re running your story on Insta stories, it is best to have a 15-second edit. So, keep these in mind during execution. With short, neatly packaged content available for sharing on your social media platforms, your content will be more engaging than ever.
Roll-out like and comment-worthy case studies
Another piece of content that can effectively attract people to your nonprofit is a case study. In addition to giving people a quick idea about what your NGO does, case studies also build credibility and boost people’s confidence in your nonprofit.
When you set out to build your case study, remember to give your audience a complete story. A typical nonprofit story could start with the problem, then show where your NPO’s contribution comes in and how, and end with the achievement. Your case study can be in the format of a pdf, video, Instagram carousel post, or anything else that allows you to narrate the story from the beginning till the end while still being sharable.
Give opportunities to allow your audience to voice their opinion
As a nonprofit, it is likely that you are dealing with hot-button issues that may elicit some emotional responses from your audience. Let your nonprofit organization be a platform where your audience can share their opinions and feelings.
You can accomplish this by explicitly asking for opinions and comments in your social media content. Ask a question at the end of a post or use the polling features on Facebook or Twitter to get your audience’s opinion on a certain topic. If your posts gain a lot of traction, you could even scale up this type of engagement by moderating regular group meet-ups where you can speak directly with your supporters about topics associated with your nonprofit. Making your audience feel heard and appreciated is a great way to make them feel involved and engaged with your work.
Build an online group of volunteers
A lot of people who wish to support the cause your NPO stands for won’t be able to monetarily or physically do it for varying reasons. Building an online community of volunteers may be a way to engage with them. Work on finding online ambassadors for your nonprofit to keep the communication about your nonprofit going.
These online volunteers become social media influencers that can help you reach new audiences and raise awareness. Sending a message out through your social media handles and newsletters can mobilize your online volunteers to start amplifying your message. If you’re a nonprofit that could benefit from donations from all geographies, this can be a great way to virtually establish your presence everywhere you wish to.
Run cause-related social media challenges
Social media challenges have the potential to spread like wildfire, so this may be your most successful strategy to improve engagement for your brand. This is also a great way to create user-generated content for your nonprofit.
Depending on your cause, pick a task people can do that favors that cause and launch a campaign. Let’s say you’re an NPO working towards sustainability; you can roll out a campaign like ‘1 million bamboo toothbrushes’ where all you ask followers to switch to a bamboo toothbrush and post a pic online. Once the campaign kicks off with initial costs, it will pick up participants as others see the pictures and hashtag and learn about the challenge. That’s the power of social media.
With so much you can do, especially on social media, don’t be scared to get creative. Which of these strategies are you going to try?
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