By Gregory Kolen II.

When measuring the effectiveness of your social media messaging, engagement through actions such as liking, sharing, and responding indicate a potential for growth and continued interaction. This growth doesn’t just stop at the number as a vanity metric, but can be converted into effective action takers and loyal contributors. There are a number of strategies that a nonprofit organization can use to increase social media engagement. Here are a few ideas:

1. Create valuable and relevant content: Make sure the content you are sharing on social media is interesting, informative, and relevant to your audience. Share stories and updates about your organization’s mission and the people you serve, as well as tips and resources that your audience might find useful.
2. Use visuals: Social media is a visual medium, and posts that include images or videos tend to perform better than text-only posts. Consider using photos and videos to showcase the work of your organization and the impact you’re making in the community.
3. Engage with your audience: Respond to comments and messages, and encourage your followers to share their own stories and experiences. When people feel like they are part of a community, they are more likely to engage with your organization’s social media content.
4. Be consistent: Consistency is key when it comes to social media engagement. By posting regularly, your followers will come to expect new content from you, and they’ll be more likely to engage with your posts.
5. Use social media advertising: Use social media ads to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your organization’s mission. Target your ads to people in your area, or people who have shown an interest in similar organizations or causes.
6. Collaborate with other non-profit organizations or influencers for cross promotion, this way you can expose your organization to new audiences and vice versa.
7. Create a sense of urgency and scarcity on some of your posts, by promoting upcoming events, deadlines, or limited-time opportunities.
8. Consider hosting or sponsoring events that can be promoted on social media, that way you can create buzz and attract new followers.

Keep in mind that social media engagement is not always about the number of followers or likes, but also about the quality of the interactions and the impact that you are able to generate from those interactions. Time to create value for your audience!

By Gregory Kolen II.

Content is an essential component for non-profit organizations, providing them with the ability to share their story and mission with the world. It allows them to connect with potential supporters and build relationships, creating greater understanding of their cause. Here are ten tips for effective content creation:

1. Share stories about the people you help: By letting people know what you do in story format, you’re not only spreading awareness of various issues, but you’re allow others to understand how you can help them.
2. Share your story: Although the people that you help are one of the most important parts of your story. Your origin and continuing motivation can be a powerful inspiration for helping your audience envision the journey from problem to resolve for a solution.
3. Hold events and workshops: This may be something you are already doing, imparting knowledge and sharing strategy with attendees. But not everyone is able to join in the moment. You’ll have hours of valuable content to share based on your existing hard work.
4. Keep It Fresh: Stale content is a surefire way to drive away readers – so keep things fresh by frequently updating your content or mixing things up on regular intervals. Try different types of content (e.g. videos, infographics etc.), look for data-driven stories which are relevant to your audience or create customer stories that will resonate with them emotionally.
5. Leverage Your Network: Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help from your board, volunteers or even other non-profits who may have expertise you lack. Working together to share content can create a much more powerful connection with your audience.
6. Have a plan and stick to it: A content calendar is essential for staying organized and making sure your message remains consistent across all channels. Set specific goals, create deadlines, and assign tasks so everyone on your team knows what they are responsible for.
7. Make use of visuals: Content with visuals has been proven to be much more effective than just text alone; people are twice as likely to remember something if it’s accompanied by a picture or video! Whether you want to include infographics, charts, videos or even memes – make sure your content stands out with some eye-catching images.
8. Get creative with storytelling techniques: Non-profits can benefit greatly from weaving stories into their content marketing efforts; stories help to build relationships and engage audiences. Use personal accounts, interviews, or anecdotes to bring your message to life and make it more relatable.
9. Measure your results: Your content strategy should always be evaluated in order to see what works best for you and what can be improved on for the future. Track key metrics such as website traffic, social media engagement, leads generated, etc., so you can get a better understanding of how effective your content is at achieving its goals.
10. Utilize influencers: If you have some budget available for your marketing efforts, consider partnering with influential individuals who are already well-known within the non-profit sector or even beyond it – this will boost visibility and credibility for your organization. Reach out to influencers and see if they would be interested in helping you promote your cause.

By following these content creation tips, you can have a successful content creation strategy that will help you reach more people and make a bigger impact on your cause. Good luck!

By Gregory Kolen.

Are you struggling to come up with content ideas for your non-profit’s social media accounts? You’re not alone! Creating engaging, interesting content can be a challenge, but it’s essential for building relationships with your followers and driving traffic to your website. In this blog post, we will share 10 tips for creating social media content that engages your audience and helps you achieve your goals.

We hope you find these tips helpful and that they inspire you to create content that is impactful and engaging. If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to contact us. We’re always happy to help!

Here are our top ten tips for social media content creation:

Plan ahead: One of the best ways to avoid the stress of coming up with content ideas on the fly is to plan ahead. Set aside some time each week or month to brainstorm ideas and schedule them into a content calendar. This will give you a roadmap to follow and help you stay on track.

Know your audience: It’s important to know who your target audience is before you start creating content. What are their interests? What type of language do they use? What kind of information are they looking for? Knowing these things will help you create content that resonates with them.

Be consistent: Once you’ve identified your target audience and what type of content they respond to, it’s important to be consistent in your approach. Posting irregularly or switching up your style too frequently can confuse your followers and make it difficult to build a relationship with them.

Keep it fresh: While consistency is important, you also don’t want your content to become stale. Be sure to mix things up from time to time and keep your audience guessing. Try new formats, experiment with different types of content, and find new ways to engage with your followers.

Make it visual: People are more likely to engage with content that is visually appealing. In addition to traditional text-based posts, try incorporating images, videos, infographics, or other visuals into your content strategy.

Tell a story: People love a good story, so try to incorporate them into your content whenever possible. Share stories about your work, the people you help, or the impact you’re making in your community. These types of stories will help your followers connect with your mission and feel invested in your work.

Ask questions: Engage your followers by asking them questions in your posts. This is a great way to encourage two-way communication and get feedback from your audience.

Use calls to action: Make it easy for your followers to take action by including calls to action in your posts. Whether you’re asking them to donate, volunteer, or simply learn more about what you do, clear and concise calls to action will help you achieve your goals.

Post at the right time: Timing is everything when it comes to social media. Be sure to post during times when your audience is most active and likely to see your content. Experiment with different days and times to find what works best for you.

Monitor your activity: Keep an eye on your social media metrics to see what’s working and what isn’t. Track things like engagement, reach, clicks, shares, and comments to get a better understanding of what type of content performs well with your audience. Then, you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

We hope these tips help you create social media content that engages your audience and drives results. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us.

By Gregory Kolen II.

Online fundraising and advocacy are two important aspects of any nonprofit’s digital strategy. However, without user experience expertise, these can often be ineffective and frustrating for donors and supporters. In this post, we will discuss how to use ux knowledge to improve online fundraising and advocacy efforts. We will also provide tips on how to create a positive user experience for your supporters!

User experience (UX) refers to the way users interact with and perceive a website, application, or product. Creating a positive UX is essential for any organization that wants to be successful online. Why? Because if your users are unhappy with their experience on your site, they are likely to leave and never come back. And we all know that acquiring new customers is much more expensive than retaining existing ones!

You want to make sure the experience is:

• Usable
• Equitable
• Enjoyable
• Useful

By ensuring the experience is usable, you want to make sure to reduce the cognitive load required to help your audience acheive their goals.

To keep the experience equitable means to take into account audiences of different abilities and backgrounds. Keeping in mind additonal options and accessibility tools to help support diverse needs and those in often disenfranchised groups.

The experience should be enjoyable, does it bring satisfaction to the audience user? Does it feel good or rewarding? Can the user connect with the experience in a way that makes them feel like you understand them. It’s helpful to run through any experience you create, and imagine it from the perspectives of any of the audience personas you plan to serve.

And of course, the experience should be useful, in addition to being usable. Ask yourself if the process and design (of donating, taking action, learning more…etc) is presented in a way that adds value to the experience of the user as they seek to acheive their goals.

So how can you use UX expertise to improve your online advocacy and fundraising efforts? Let’s take a look at some tips:

– Make sure your website is easy to navigate and understand. Users should be able to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. If your website is confusing or difficult to use, potential donors will likely give up and go to another site.

– Use strong calls to action. Your website should have clear and concise calls to action (CTAs) that tell users what you want them to do. For example, if you’re raising money for a new playground, your CTA might be “Donate Now.”

– Create engaging content. In order for users to donate or take action, they need to be engaged with your content. This means creating compelling and interesting blog posts, infographics, videos, etc. that will inspire people to support your cause.

– Make it easy to donate. The donation process should be quick and easy; otherwise, potential donors may get frustrated and abandon their donation altogether. Be sure to include multiple payment options and make sure the donation form is short and simple.

By following these tips, you can create a positive user experience for your supporters and enhance your online advocacy and fundraising efforts. If you’re not sure where to start, consider working with a UX expert who can help you assess your current website and digital strategy, and make recommendations for improvement.

Several of these things may seem like common conventions once you’ve gone through the process and patterns a few times. But challenge yourself to think further and empoly a deep level of empathy as you examine each step of the process. For example think of the classic ketchup bottle, typical glass container that held ketchup and was good enough. But by observing people’s pain points you’ll see; the inability to sqeeze extra ketchup out, or having to leave the container upside down to get the last bit of ketchup to the cap. At the end of the day, the user of the classic ketchup bottle is able get ketchup from the bottle, but the friction of the experience could be reduced. After a few iterations, we’ve arrived at a sqeezable bottle with a large cap at the bottom of the bottle that aims to make the experience of retreiving the last bit of ketchup so much easier.

Don’t forget that ux isn’t only about websites! Creating a great user experience extends to all aspects of your digital strategy, from social media to email marketing. By keeping ux in mind, you can create an overall better experience for your supporters – which will lead to more donations and engagement!