How to create a nonprofit social media plan that sticks

Around 246 million Americans actively use social media. That’s a solid majority of the population — 72.5% to be exact! So how does your nonprofit actively engage these social media perusers?

Are you on TikTok or Snapchat? Facebook and Instagram? Or are you coming up with clever quips on Twitter, oops, I mean X?

In the modern marketing landscape, having a nonprofit social media plan that’s consistent and targeted is a key ingredient for success. And that’s why we’re going to talk through the three steps in building a social media plan that sticks!

1. Picking your platforms
2. Planning your posts
3. Prioritizing your people

0. Teaching an old dog a new trick

Before we get into the more tactical elements around building a successful nonprofit social media marketing plan, we wanted to encourage you to approach this as something new and exciting — not something scary or burdensome.

With everything changing so fast, we know how it can often feel like it’s too late. But our senior content marketing manager Isa brought up a good point on our recent webinar around nonprofit social media strategy when she said: “If you never try new things, you’re going to fall behind.”

That’s true in life, but it’s especially true in the world of nonprofit social media marketing.

We believe that age (whether that’s a person or an organization) is only a number — nothing more. So don’t fall behind simply because you’re worried things might not go perfectly at first. The unknown is exciting, and you’ll learn as you go! 

1. Picking your platforms (or, Is it time to break up with X?)

It’s important to pick the right platforms, but it’s just as important to pick what platforms to drop. If you say yes to every opportunity out there, you’re likely engaging audiences on zero platforms.

We don’t have a strong preference on what platforms you choose to engage with your community. That being said, your community likely cares about how and where you show up. So cater your platform choices around where your people are and where they’re most engaging with you (or where they’d like to see you more).

And one important thing to remember: the average person who’s active on social media has 6.7 different accounts. So your audiences may not only be on one platform, which means there may not only be one answer. 

Should you play catch up and manage 6.7 platforms? Probably not. We think it’s better to do one thing well rather than eight poorly. But if you’re already doing great on one, maybe it is time to branch out to two. 

The single most important factor when deciding what platforms to pick is to use your own first-party data. You know better than anyone else what’s currently working for your organization and what isn’t. 

Sometimes when the going gets tough, the smart marketers simply try something different. There’s a time to persevere through difficulty, and there’s also a time to decide you aren’t getting a good enough return for the time or budget.

To gain that valuable data that will help your organization make these important decisions, you’ll need to try new things. If you’re wanting to reach people in their 50s and 60s, maybe focus on Facebook. If you want to reach Gen Z, try TikTok or Instagram. 

But remember, your community is different from a statistic — because it’s built by unique individuals. Instead of planning on getting everything exactly right the first time, get out there and try something. Then bring the results back and run it again — just a little bit better.

It may feel like there are so many platforms out there, but start with the basics: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Twitter (or if you really want to call it X). Stick with the ones where people are engaging with you, drop the one that isn’t doing anything for you, and try one new platform that you think may have the people you’re looking for. 

It isn’t linear algebra. It’s about being comfortable with the unknown, which is exactly what we’re dealing with when we talk to another person!

2. Planning your posts

There are plenty of posts online about exactly when you should be posting on each platform. And these can be a good place to start. But we want to take one step back from the exact minute you should post and focus on something even more essential: consistency.

It won’t be worth your effort to try a new platform for three months, posting once a week — even if it’s the exact right second. After you’ve picked your platform, post a few times a week or if you can every day, and keep doing that for six to nine months before you measure if it’s working.

Relationships take time, and that’s true for social media friendships as well as those in real life.

Every platform is different in terms of why people are engaging, and that means that they’ll be logging on at different times, so there’s certainly some truth about when to post. But at the end of the day, the thing that matters even more is that you prioritize sharing great content with your loyal audience on a consistent basis.

It may not be as exciting as saying that posting on Wednesdays at 4:23 pm EST is the ultimate key to success, but hard work pays off in the long run. And again, that’s true for real life relationships as well as serving, engaging, and expanding your nonprofit’s social media community.

3. Prioritizing your people

There are two big ways that you show your community that they’re at the heart of your social media plan: building content based on your community’s needs, and understanding and serving all your stakeholders, not just donors.

If you’re looking for new ideas around building social media content, Isa also shared some excellent ideas during that webinar we mentioned above.

But a core principle when creating social media posts is the 80/20 rule. Around 80% of your posts should be entertaining, inspirational, or educational and about 20% should be promotional. There’s a time to connect with your community, and there’s a time to sell them on your vision.

People intuitively understand that your organization needs to raise support, sign up new volunteers, and find new major donors. But they need to hear success stories and learn about the need before they’re going to feel compelled to partner with you in the work. So please sell people on your vision, but start by connecting with their hearts.

The second point is as important as the 80/20 rule, and that’s the reality that many of the people who engage with you on social media may never become donors. Some of these people may not have the discretionary income to do so, or others may have already committed to other meaningful projects (just not as meaningful, obviously).

Empathize with your audience and know how hard it is to decide where to invest your time and energy. This empathy will go a long way in encouraging potential supporters in joining the cause — no matter what that looks like for them.

It’s just social media

I’m going to be really honest with you right now; I’m not all that active on social media myself. It’s just one of many ways I can connect as an individual person.

But as a nonprofit that wants to change the world, it’s a part of your mission to grow your community — because the work you do doesn’t happen alone. And your community is certainly on social media — all 72.5% of them — so it’s all of our jobs to do the work of meeting people precisely where they are.

So remember: a nonprofit social media strategy doesn't require any quantum physics. All that’s required is that you jump in head first and start telling the world about your incredible work. Share real stories about impact, show up consistently, pay attention to what the data is telling you – and you’ll start to see change happen!