5 Ways Nonprofits Can Increase Social Media Engagement

Last week I attended the NYU-RCLA workshops on using social media to further your social justice mission. It was an amazing three days of learning about social media tools, context, and tips for implementation. Yet the big question of the week seemed to be: how do I get people engage with me?

Imagine, you’re hype about starting your twitter page and facebook thinking you have some awesome content and the masses will start clicking, following, asking lots of questions, and leaving fantastic comments.

Except this rarely happens. Unfortunately, social media is seen as a quick fix to an organization’s community building woes and when hundreds of folks aren’t following you on twitter within a week, you doubt whether or not you are really reaching people.

Before abandoning ship, consider the following tips for building engagement:

• Connect with others: The important part of social media is SOCIAL. Your goal shouldn’t just be to create something new but also to join and contribute to existing conversations. What discussions are taking place that relate to your mission? Once you find those discussions, link liberally, comment on other people’s blogs, retweet interesting postings, and reach out to others about sharing/collaborating on content creation.

• Focus on your content: At the end of the day, people won’t engage with you if you don’t have something interesting to say. In addition to providing updates about what your organization is doing, discuss general news/events related to your mission so people can see the importance of your work. Make your content easy to digest and useful so that people can share with others on their own (lists, how-tos, profiles of people, and specific advice on getting involved) and don’t be afraid of a little controversy.  Have an opinion and be human!
  

• Put yourself out there on and off line: I have always felt that social media does not and cannot replace face to face on the ground work for social change. Instead, social media can supplement your social change efforts by allowing you to engage people in a new way. Tell your supporters and constituents that you are online and ask them to help create content. Make it easy for online supporters to meet you offline by having events and get-togethers and empowering them to meet on their own to brainstorm ways to help you. Attend conferences and meet others interested in your mission and in social media.

• Don’t ignore the people who ARE engaging you: In your quest for engagement, ease up a bit from focusing on the numbers. You may want 1,500 followers on twitter or hundreds of unique hits a day, but in reality only a handful will really comment and share your info. So make sure your interactions are meaningful. Respond to comments and retweets; take note of what kinds of content people respond to and focus on developing it more; do something fun for your readers—have a contest, feature one of them, or just ask to meet them!

• Be patient: Community building doesn’t happen over night! Don’t give up and set realistic goals for your organization based on other people’s experiences and the time you have to commit to developing your online community.

Useful resources:

Tips:

Beth Kanter:  Non-Profits that Adopt Social Media Share One Charateristic: Vertigo Tolerance

Altitude Branding:  There is no Social Media Tool Kit

Allison Fine: Are You Ready to Tweet?

Trends:

Rootworks:  Social Change takes More than Social Media

Allison Fine:  The Digital Divide and Social Change