The Top 55 Things Every Nonprofit Needs To Know

In honor of National Philanthropy Day, here are the top 55 things every nonprofit needs to know this holiday season…

Mobile is a must—half of your donors look for you on mobile
Social drives donor discovery
The “whether we should” conversation is pushing up daisies
“Living” communication dominates our society
Know your goals—awareness, engagement, fundraising
Know where your audience hangs out
Facebook is still #1 nonprofit platform—yes, even for those with no wrinkles
Meet audience expectations—3-4 profiles to be seen as relevant
Hashtags are important—Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
1-3 hashtags per post—#donatenow #volunteer #NationalPhilanthrophyDay
Don’t forget tweetchats—use Tweetchat
Watch your insights and adapt—Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram insights. Tweriod too!
Generally—Facebook: 3x-5x week; Twitter: 4x day; Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and others: 3x week
10:30, 12:30 & 3:00pm are great
Know and use the brand voice
Storytell and story make
Create an experience with every post
Use quality photos—Shutterstock, DollarPhotoClub, and free sites like Pixabay and Morguefile
Use photos/videos on Twitter
Video turns viewers into donors
Captions—keep them short and pithy
Add personality and two sentences max
Use CTA—what do you want them to do with your post? Spread the word? Share a thought?
Link to website for the details
Shorten links—Hootsuite or bitly
Don’t use internal language
Vary your types of story—nostalgia, mythbuster, question, quote
Militant can be a powerful instigator, but not the high road
Positive begets positive, especially in social sharing
Whoever has the best content wins—original content over curation
The point is always the share—DIYs, memes, inspirational articles
Use muse spreadsheet
Social is not your soapbox
5/1—5 posts for others to every 1 post about you
Be “home” to mitigate risk—spam
Respond with heart
Only truly “social” behavior succeeds
Seed your logo—comment on other pages
Like and follow only a few is old school
Outreach—15-30 minutes 2x day
Don’t strive for a donation, strive for a smile
Pin your ask-of-the-month to the top of the page
Apply for Facebook’s donate button
Campaigns—ask can only be as big as your prize
Connect your giveaway to your brand—Shortstack
Social is pay to play—be on the winning side of the algorithms
Social ads: avg $200-300 / mo
Use split testing for targeted ads
Boost: $10 1-2x week
No ad spend, no visibility—organic engagement is no longer enough
Use a content calendar—be clear who is in charge of posting what, where, and when
Metrics matter
Hire for results
Outsource gives you a toolbox of expertise, lifts the burden from staff
Outsource social media management *wink wink*

If your posts represent the heart and soul of your nonprofit, your responses are you walking the talk… and the point! So as we approach the holiday giving season, is it time to rethink your content strategy?

We’ll start it off with a gift of inspiration for you! Download our Nonprofit Muse Spreadsheet

Upcoming Class

If you want to learn more about the lure of social media and why campaigns go viral; how to succeed by showing up; the power of the “social” relationship; what constitutes a perfect post; storytelling over pitch; creating cool captions and positive spin; the do’s and don’ts of asking for money; organic vs paid visibility; and what metrics you should be watching and why, join me Saturday, March 14, 2014, for Social Media for Nonprofits at Pacific New Media, UH Manoa. See you there!