Puppy eyes, lonely kittens, and less-than-loved farm animals. Sure, the nature of the Humane Society’s work lends itself well to evoking emotions in prospective donors, but they’ve stimulated donations even further by effectively using social media. And so can you – by effectively using storytelling, call-to-actions, donation choice, and content balance.
1. Tell Stories
Stories are what turn drab, marketing speak into a compelling reason to listen, to believe, and to act. And social media is certainly a platform that soaks up a good story.
The Humane Society has mastered the art of storytelling through many platforms, but their most compelling is YouTube. Which makes sense: video is an extremely effective storytelling medium as it ignites multiple senses and no doubt, triggers emotion. Just look at Billy’s story, for example:
2. Use Call-To-Actions
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With every piece of content created and shared on social media, you should be able to answer the question: what do we want the consumer of this content to do after? Is it to share the content with their friends? To join the cause? To donate financially? Whatever the answer, your call-to-action should follow suit.
The Humane Society never seems to miss an opportunity to encourage action in their followers and donors. You may have even noticed in the
video about Billy above that they offered a donation opportunity at the end.
And while it may seem redundant to you, remember to always spell out exactly what you want your followers and potential donors to do. Studies show that this level of specificity significantly helps in viewers taking action. Like in the Facebook post below, The Humane Society could have simply just used the URL, but their added incentive to “sign up now” will drive improved results.
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3. Offer Donation Choice
Not everyone likes to donate in the same way. And after telling a killer story, it would be a waste to miss donation opportunities just because you don’t offer a donor’s preferred donation method. So offer a choice. The Humane Society does this in two ways.
Firstly, they offer donation capabilities from right within their social platforms, which is a great way to minimize donor drop-off from linking to a separate web page. But they recognize that some people may not feel comfortable offering donations through social platforms, and so also make sure to offer the choice to donate through their website, instead.
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Secondly, the Humane Society always shares multiple campaigns around the same time so donors can contribute to the cause that lies closest to their heart. This requires a little more forethought, of course, and is more likely than not tied to your overall donation strategy.
4. Balance “Free” Content with Requests
At the end of the day, most nonprofits want their social media followers to join, engage, and keep checking back in. The key to a returning social follower is good content. More often than not, that means honest communication that’s not overly focused on ‘selling’ (or in the case of the philanthropic sector, ‘collecting funds’).
The Humane Society does a great job of balancing related, informational content with requests for donations (of course all their informational content still ties in and relates back to their cause). Just take a look at their Twitter stream or Pinterest boards as examples:
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A good rule of thumb for informational to donation request posting? 4:1.
So how do they do it all? Well, the Humane Society has a dedicated social media team of 5. They have a main strategist, a day-to-day manager, a community manager, a community specialist who focuses on the 100+ additional social media pages just for campaigns, and social communications specialist who focuses on analytics.
But their social media team wasn’t always this ‘big.’ They started with only one person, until they were able to raise enough money through social media to cover the salary and benefits of a second person. Realizing the possibilities of social media, they were an early adopter of this technology.
And it’s certainly paying off! With nearly 1.9 million fans on Facebook, 240,000 followers on Twitter, and many others on Google+, Pinterest, and You Tube, The Humane Society is well on their way to developing a thriving community and driving increased donations. In fact, in the last 5 years, they’ve raised $200,000 per year on Facebook alone.
The post Social Media for Nonprofits: 4 Things to Learn from the Humane Society appeared first on iNotForProfit.