You can use social media to interact with your audience, engage them in your activities and grow your NGO into a global movement. Indeed, social media for NGOs is absolutely essential. Before we explain what the top three social networking platforms can offer your organisation, here are the key benefits of expanding your social media presence. You can:
- present your work to a global audience;
- grow interest in your cause;
- get into contact with supporters; and
- generate a global conversation!
In this post, we’ll explain why it’s essential that your NGO takes advantage of social media and some of the key features you should use to benefit from digital platforms.
Why Should NGOs Be Using Social Media?
Social media gives you the power to share pictures, videos and text that can reach a global audience. This will give people the opportunity to:
- gain insight into your work;
- become involved in your cause;
- volunteer;
- donate; and
- give you feedback.
This is a great opportunity for you to get into contact with other organisations in your area and potential donors. Although it can be difficult to constantly come up with social media post ideas, it’s definitely worth it in the long-term.
Social media has grown to accommodate all the needs of social causes, meaning that it’s perfectly adapted to help your NGO. Most digital platforms now have functions to help you:
- organise fundraisers;
- plan events;
- coordinate volunteers;
- encourage donations; and
- share ideas!
This helps people get involved from the comfort of their own home! So, here are the three most popular social media platforms available today and some of the benefits they can offer you.
Why Should I Promote My NGO on Facebook?
Facebook is currently the largest social media site in the world with 2.32 billion monthly active users! This makes it the perfect place to establish your NGO and reach new audiences.
Your Audience in Your Inbox!
Facebook provides an easy way for your audience to directly message you. This means they can:
- inquire about volunteer opportunities;
- offer feedback on your work;
- ask questions; and
- send you ideas.
You can learn what aspects of your NGO creates a buzz and what you can do differently.
Online Fundraising
You can use Facebook to fundraise from your followers. The platform offers a feature that allows people to donate directly through your Facebook page. You can also:
- post links to your donation website;
- promote fundraising events; and
- ask people to donate at local collection points.
Polls and Feedback
Make your audience feel included in your work by conducting polls on Facebook! This feature is especially useful for collecting the public’s opinion, developing a strategy and gaining feedback.
Share your work
Facebook allows you to share pictures, videos and texts with your audience. You can keep everyone up to date with:
- the progress of your projects;
- new developments on your websites; and
- new opportunities to get involved.
One way that Facebook helps you communicate is by allowing you to share links! You can direct an audience to your website, relevant news or posts on other platforms.
Plan Events
Another brilliant feature on Facebook is that you can plan and invite people to your events. If you are planning a fundraiser or celebration for your NGO, you can share all details the details on Facebook. This is really valuable because:
- people can easily find your event and the relevant details;
- you can keep tabs on who is planning to come; and
- you can quickly communicate with everyone interested in the event by posting in the event page.
Why Should I Market My NGO on Instagram?
Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social networking platforms. It’s a highly visual platform, where users share videos and images on their “Newsfeed” or to appear temporarily as “Stories”. It is very popular among younger users.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Share snaps of your work and the people your NGO helps. This will add a personal touch and keep the audience involved in your movement. Visual content is especially useful as you can easily convey emotions and concepts without needing to use words. It’s also really engaging for your audience!
Get Discovered!
The special feature of hashtags on Instagram allows for people to search and find your NGO based on their areas of interest. For example, you can #education and #globalliteracy to help individuals who are interested in education-based causes to find your organisation. This can be helpful to attract people who may want to volunteer or donate to your cause!
Stories and Highlights
Instagram allows you to share “Stories” with your followers, which are posts that last for just 24 hours. This is particularly useful to send out live updates regarding your organisation, as you carry out daily tasks, prepare for events or celebrate accomplishments. Because it only lasts for 24 hours, you don’t need to worry about how professional or high quality the photos and videos are!
Why Should My NGO Use YouTube?
YouTube is one of the fastest growing networks worldwide, allowing users to share videos. It’s also the world’s second biggest search engine (behind Google, obviously) which means it’s a great opportunity for new people to discover your work!
Almost everybody uses YouTube to watch funny videos, listen to music or to learn new things. But does it also make sense for NGOs to have a YouTube channel? There are a couple of pros and cons that you should consider before setting up an account.
Story Telling
Videos provide detailed insight into your projects and allow for more artistic creativity. They are more captivating, give life to your message and make the project more real. This is a really engaging way to communicate your NGO’s story to a wide audience.
Stats and Feedback
YouTube provides a detailed analysis of your audience, giving you insights into the:
- time they spend watching your videos;
- videos that are most popular and appealing; and
- age and location demographics of your audience.
This is a really useful way to learn more about the kinds of people that your organisation appeals to, as well as the kind of content that is most appropriate to reach certain demographics!
Video Production
Although YouTube is a great platform to share videos, you should consider whether you have the time and resources to regularly create and share high quality content. You can easily create videos using your mobile phone camera or low-cost digital cameras, but this stuff still takes time!
Social media for NGOs is about trading off time and resources against audience reach and donations. YouTube won’t be worth it unless you’re willing to commit to creating videos regularly. Otherwise, it’ll be difficult to build up an audience and the few videos that you do upload will struggle to gain traction.
How Can I Use Social Media to Build Team Culture?
Social media is not only a fantastic tool to promote your cause to the outside world, but also a means of building team culture within your NGO. Organisations are large and impersonal. Focusing only on your work makes it difficult for your colleagues to connect on a personal nature.
Importantly, your people will work better as a team when they know each other. If you can facilitate strong interpersonal relationships, your team will be more cohesive and productive. It’ll help them become acquainted and build trust with each other. So, set up a Facebook or WhatsApp group to keep your team connected!
If this is the first time you’re bringing your team together in a social situation, it may be difficult to get the ball rolling. We’d suggest using some ice breaker questions to grease the conversation!
Wrap Up
It’s essential that your NGO leverage social media to reach a wider audience and make it easier for your supporters to get involved. The different tips on social media for NGOs outlined in this post are a good starting point but there’s lots more you can do to be successful online!
Also keep in mind that you’ll need to create interesting photos, videos and animations to share on your social media accounts. People respond to visual content, so this is the best way to engage an audience.
Do you want help creating content to tell your organisation’s story? Get in contact with We are World Change to discuss how our talented student volunteers can produce your next visual media project.
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