How do you create a social media strategy for your nonprofit in 5 steps?

1 Define your objectives

Before you dive into creating content or choosing channels, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your social media efforts. Do you want to increase brand awareness, grow your email list, recruit volunteers, or raise funds? How will you measure your success and impact? Setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) objectives will help you focus your strategy and evaluate your progress.

2 Know your audience

The next step is to understand who you are trying to reach and what they care about. Who are your ideal supporters, donors, or beneficiaries? What are their demographics, interests, challenges, and motivations? How do they use social media and what kind of content do they prefer? Creating audience personas can help you tailor your message and tone to your target segments and connect with them on an emotional level.

3 Choose your platforms

Not all social media platforms are created equal. Some might be more suited for your objectives and audience than others. For example, if you want to showcase your impact through visuals, you might consider Instagram or Pinterest. If you want to start conversations and build relationships, you might opt for Facebook or Twitter. If you want to reach professionals and influencers, you might go for LinkedIn or Medium. Research the pros and cons of each platform and decide which ones fit your strategy and resources.

4 Create your content

Content is the core of your social media strategy; it's what draws people in, educates them, and motivates them to take action. Crafting content can be difficult and time-consuming, so a content plan is essential to outline what, when, where, and how you will share your content. This plan should include a content calendar that maps out posts in advance and ties them to your objectives and events, a content mix that combines different types of content such as stories, facts, tips, questions, and calls to action, a style guide that defines your voice and branding guidelines, and a content creation process that assigns roles and responsibilities, sets deadlines, and ensures quality and consistency.

5 Monitor and optimize

The final step is to track and analyze your social media performance and use the data to improve your strategy. You should monitor both quantitative and qualitative metrics, such as reach, engagement, conversions, sentiment, and feedback. You should also compare your results with your objectives and benchmarks and identify what works and what doesn't. Based on your findings, you should adjust your strategy and content accordingly and test new ideas and approaches.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?