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As we move into the second half of 2012, especially into planning for the fund-raising campaigns of the holiday season, nonprofits also should do a checkup on the face they are presenting on their social networks. Get yourself in the mood to question, re-align, edit… and then get into your Facebook account. The folks at Awareness, makers of social-marketing software for small businesses, have just released a white paper called “Five Killer Strategies to Dominate Social Media’s Big 3: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube”, which can be had by signing up and downloading the report. They also have released the infographic we post on the right here (which, to my eye, reads more like a strategic flowchart).
If you aren’t ready for a white paper on the topic, Jim Belosic has a five-step proposal to reconsider what you have on your organization’s page and what you might want to think about when monitoring it. Such as…
We all like the ‘Likes’. They are countable and give us the impression of engagement. Recently, a campaign by Energy Sheets and Wal-Mart to have a promotional visit by spokesman and rapper Pitbull to the Wal-Mart in the US that received the most ‘Likes’ became a comedy of social-media proportions. The Wal-Mart of Kodiak Alaska received over 60,000 ‘Likes’ for a store that serves some 6000 islanders and periodic waves of outdoorspeople. Any chance those 60K clicks on the button will turn into 60K new customers for Wal-Mart or for Energy Sheets? Certainly not in Kodiak.
So Jim’s first piece of advice is not to worry about engagement per se, but strive to find the social media that make sense for you and your audience. “The first questions that need to be asked are, ‘Do I know where my audience is?’ and ‘Is Facebook the best platform to be using?’ For niche businesses, their audience often has a greater presence elsewhere.” If your nonprofit works on environmental issues, for example, is it really worth investing much time on Facebook to convince people the environment ought to be saved? Or that all 900 million users of the platform ought to come to your local buy-a-plant fund drive?
Are you aware that Facebook allows geographical targeting of messages and content? Even Facebook admits trimming a few million off your target audience can make a big difference in engagement: “allows you to write ad text that is more personalized, making your ad more appealing to the users you are reaching. It also enables you to generate better insight into your advertising performance, and allow you to find the most effective ad.”
Finally, and perhaps not surprisingly, Jim stresses content and what he calls ‘infotainment’: “Facebook users have the choice to consume or ignore content. The content that’s consumed the most is the content that’s the most entertaining. Infotainment can be best described as presenting information in an entertaining way.” Think about what you tend to ignore on Facebook, and avoid that kind of stuff on your page.
It’s not that your social networking will take care of itself once you geo-target your great infotainment. You’ve got to keep up the conversation once initiated. What you want to do, though, is not worry about how big and broad social networks are. Don’t worry about getting 900 million ‘Likes’. Focus instead on reaching to a focused audience with interesting and engaging materials to get them involved in your nonprofit, not with your Facebook page.
Unless you want people to suggest you make a trip to Kodiak.
