Social Media is one of those areas that many non-profit organizations were slow to adopt into their marketing and communications plans when it first hit the marketing scene circa 2011. It was something that seemed so elusive, so inconsequential, so new, that perhaps these organizations just couldn’t wrap their figurative heads or literal budgets around such a foreign concept. While I could speculate the various reasons for this lethargic reaction to what I consider one of the most exciting, creative, and affordable methods for spreading the word about such organizations, I’d rather get right to the point – social media mistakes.
Having worked in social media strategy, content creation, and channel management for a variety of non-profits, I have seen the same few common mistakes over and over. These simple slights have become the first thing I look for when evaluating a company’s social channels and, time and again, I see the same issues crop up across the feeds of arts organizations, educational initiatives and everything in-between. The frequency and similarity of these errors led me to believe that these specific oversights are probably even more rampant in the non-profit space than I realize. Therefore, I’ve boiled down the list to these five common infractions.
1. Failing to use a social media management tool.
This is a pretty basic mistake, but one that, if rectified, could entirely change the way your organization approaches digital communication. When I see companies manually posting all of their social content on every channel, every day, I can’t help but cringe at the mere tedium and inefficiency of such work-methods. (That’s not to say that sometimes manual, real-time posting isn’t extremely valuable and necessary. But when it comes to the everyday, general content, it’s simply foolish.)
Social media management tools, like HootSuite, Sprout Social, or Buffer, allow a brand to organize, schedule, and monitor their social content across multiple platforms all in one place. Particularly when crafting posts for a fast-moving and high-volume channel like Twitter, this method for setting up, changing, and responding to activity allows greater ease and flexibility with your content, while simultaneously ensuring that you’re planning content ahead and being thoughtful about your social content strategy.
Many of these tools have a free, or low-cost version of the application for smaller brands and non-profits, so there is really no excuse for passing on this software.
2. Not investing in paid social advertising or “boosting” social posts.
This is another one of those things that I see so many organizations choosing not to do and I honestly can’t see any reason why not. Facebook’s algorithm has changed so many times over the last few years, and while there are some tricks to helping your content succeed without boosting, it’s increasingly harder to ensure that your content is getting a fair reach without a little monetary help. Yes, this sucks, I agree, but the good news is that a little bit of investment can actually go a long way.
Boosting a post, even one that maybe has already existed for a while, takes next to no time, and putting just $25 behind it can elevate the reach and engagement the post receives significantly. Setting up Facebook ads allows you to broaden the reach of your campaign further, and the Facebook ad interface allows you to set specific goals, test different creatives in one campaign, and even publish ads to Instagram all in one go. It’s just so easy.
Even more significantly, the transparency of how well these boosts or ads perform is crystal clear through Facebook Insights, so you can really get a clear picture of how your investment paid off. Given the trackability, the simplicity of execution, and relatively low-cost of social advertising, it’s a far more attractive way for non-profits to advertise than say traditional print advertising, which can cost a bundle and is difficult to track.
3. Thinking that “anyone can do it” and not hiring someone extremely capable to “own” the management of the company’s social channels.
I promise this mistake is not fueled by my own ego (well, perhaps it is slightly.) The truth is, I’ve seen plenty of organizations place their social channels into the hands of interns, students, or even the children of employees (true story.) While I think it is completely fabulous to get interns or students involved in your social media, and maybe even have them assist with some of the day-to-day drudgeries of scheduling posts and responding to comments, failing to have a manager at the helm of those channels is a missed opportunity, and could result in a communications disaster.
Think of it this way – Your social channels are your first and fastest methods of getting the word out. It’s often the way your audience “discovers” your brand. It’s how they, the customers, interact with your brand, and it’s very, very public. As such, while the content can be fun and playful, the outlets themselves should still be taken seriously. Communication needs to be curated, crafted, and looked after to ensure what you’re putting out to the public resonates with all the highest ambitions of your brand identity. It’s a real communications job.
4. Forgetting to factor social editorial into your communications strategy and not planning your content.
This point somewhat ties into the previous issue, and it goes back to an oversight of just what a powerful tool social media can be for shaping, maintaining, and elevating a brand. I’ve seen several companies view it as a sort of separate entity from their PR and marketing strategies, an afterthought, but in fact, all these elements are linked.
Brands should take a holistic, 360-degree view of their marketing or branding campaigns, and social media content and execution should play a big part in that plan. When you use it effectively to complement your traditional marketing methods, I guarantee you’ll see better results all around. and since the majority of us get our news, updates, and entertainment from our mobile devices, remember that your social media content needs to be just as robust (if not more so) than your traditional communications content.
5. Ignoring social and digital analytics.
It’s there, so why not use it? Nearly every social channel out there offers free, built-in analytics to give you a picture of how your content is performing – impressions, reach, engagements, views, and more. You can actually see who is interacting with your channels and when they are most likely to do it. Armed with this kind of information, you can make really informed decisions about your posting schedule, your creative, and your advertising choices. And you can justify those decisions with hard numbers (a bargaining chip creatives didn’t used to have to play.)
Going back to point number three, this is another reason to have a manager who can look at the analytical data regularly, understand and analyze the results, and maintain all the data so your brand can have legit benchmarks of your growth and performance on social.
Essentially, social media analytics can provide a roadmap for how to shape your social content – what to do more of, what to try, and what never to do again.
When corrected, these five social media mistakes can revolutionize your communications strategy and unlock a whole host of opportunities and creative freedoms you probably didn’t even realize you were missing.
Heather Toner 