Partner Article

Manchester-based PushON help Citizens Advice Bureau

Social media has become one of the most successful ways of marketing a company and many businesses now adopt a social media strategy in order to maximise their public profile. Charities and non-profit organisations are now following in the footsteps of these companies and using social media to expand their reach, increase interaction or perhaps even help raise more money. With this in mind, Simon Wharton, managing director of Manchester-based PushON, advises charities on how to create a successful social media strategy.

In recent years social media use has become increasingly important for non-profit organisations and charities. A successful social media campaign can lead to a significant rise in interaction on an organisation’s social media accounts, resulting in an increase in awareness and expanded outreach.

We at PushON know first-hand the benefits of creating an effective social media strategy after recently helping national charity Citizens Advice to increase interaction on Twitter and Facebook. The charity experienced a 25% interaction increase on its Twitter account and a 43% increase on Facebook.

The new strategy helped first-time users of the service discover Citizens Advice’s unique legal, money and problem resolution services. As part of the project key members of staff were trained on how to effectively use Twitter, Facebook and social media analytical tools helping them to respond to many more enquires and help thousands more people.

The system was initially implemented in Bolton’s Citizens Advice Bureau, working with bureaus across Greater Manchester, and has since been rolled out further to ten more Citizens Advice Bureau’s throughout the UK.

In order to create a successful social media strategy and achieve these kinds of results, organisations need to understand how to use the various platforms out there. Here are ten top tips for charity organisations to consider when creating a social media strategy.

1. Ensure you are engaging with local authorities and communities in order to build and develop important relationships. Take a look at the communities that will be interested in your organisation and benefit from what you’re doing as a charity. Then reach out to these individuals and groups through different social media outlets. Facebook and Twitter are the best platforms to use if you want to get involved with other people’s discussions or even start your own. However, remember not to get too carried away with your postings.

2. Don’t spam. Although it’s important to engage with your audience on social media it’s just as important not to overdo it. Make sure what you’re saying is worthwhile and relevant and is targeted to your audience. Maintain an active presence and post things on a regular basis, but make sure it’s original content.

3. Adopt a friendly tone. Ensuring that your social media voice is welcoming and encouraging will increase activity to and from your accounts. Having good content is one thing, but it needs to come across in a friendly way. People are more likely to engage in conversations and ask questions if they feel your online presence is approachable and friendly.

4. Be creative. Use original content in order to captivate your audience, engage new users and retain established followers. Be careful not to overstep the mark by being too extreme and controversial. Just remember that there is a lot of content on social media, so try and make yours as unique and interesting as possible.

5. Be visual. The most engaging posts are now images or videos that stand out on a newsfeed or timeline. Try posting pictures or videos along with a link to the content in order to entice people to engage. If you do opt for words over pictures, make sure it’s short and to the point. In today’s fast-paced culture, social media users want their news and information to be quick and concise.

6. Timing is key to a successful social media campaign. Find out when your audience is most active and on which social media platforms. By doing some online research you can find out peak activity times on different types of social media. For example, it has been found that lunchtime in the UK is one of the best times to post on Twitter as this is when people are most active. Remember, each social media platform will be different so each one needs to be researched.

7. Most charity organisations do not use social media to its full capacity as employees are not fully aware of how it works. Make sure you understand all social platforms you plan to use before venturing online. You can sign up for external training and tutorials which give you an extensive guide on how to use social media to its full potential.

8. Have a procedure in place within your organisation to simplify social enquiries. Make sure all team members know how to answer certain questions or enquiries so that there’s no confusion between you and your audience. This will also mean that responses are quick and accurate. This is particularly important for charities that have to deal with large numbers of enquiries on a daily basis.

9. In order to make running a social media account a lot easier you will need to be able to analyse your audience and market effectively. There are a number of tools out there to help you do this. For example, social media management dashboards, such as TweetDeck and Hootsuite, are a great way to help you manage the organisation’s Twitter account. You can sort between tweets, mentions and the accounts it follows, making it easier for you to keep up-to-date with specific accounts, relevant news and discussions.

10. Paid social media is worth investing in. Individual organic updates and posts on social media platforms are receiving very low reach nowadays. In comparison to organic social media engagement, paid social offers many advantages including exposure, targeting, analysis and scale. Most social networks today have paid options that allow you to market to targeted individuals, optimise your reach and increase conversions.

For more information, please visit www.PushON.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by PR Agency One .