Social media is an excellent place for you to build more awareness for your organization, engage and start conversations. It can feel like you’re running on a hamster wheel trying to make content all the time! This becomes even more frustrating when you don’t get engagement on your posts.
Here are some tips for how you can craft content that you audience wants to engage with, share and start better conversations. Keep reading – I share examples of posts at the end.
Create Content Categories
Content categores give you buckets to help you plan your posts. Each day you know what content to create for your audience. Some examples include; an impact story, sponsor feature, information about your services, why your work is important/stats, volunteer spotlight, behind the scenes, etc.
Figure out what the main priorities are for you to share and use this as a framework to create your posts. Then when you create content you can batch your tasks. For example, write four posts about sponsors all at once for the whole month!
Know Your Audience
Understanding who you’re talking to will help you craft content they care about. Remember not to make the posts all about you. It is about their motivations and what they care about. It’s also important to remember that they don’t know as much about your organization or the cause as they do. Simplify your posts, repurpose content and share information you think is obvious.
Use Graphics and Videos
Images and videos definitely help the scroll. And if you’re talking to younger Millennials and Gen Z than video is a must. Images will also really help people connect to your content. With video and photos they don’t have to be hyper polished and professional. Be real and authentic and share your story. Let them feel who you are and that they are a part of your community.
Keep it Short and Sweet
Platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram can be great places for longer posts. Video like reels or TikTok have longer form options. Regardless of how long or short your content is remember you have three seconds to grab the viewers attention.
Start off with a hook and then go deeper into the information. Let them know what’s in it for them and make it about them!
Encourage Engagement and use Calls-to-Action
As with donations, you have to ask for what you want! For a social posts this includes asking for engagement. This can be asking a question for people to answer in the comments, sharing the post, or visiting your website for more information.
You’ll see more success if you can keep the engagement on the platform you’re on – then it’s up to you to follow up on the comments and create conversation.
Social Media Post Examples
Here are some examples of social media posts and some recommendations of how you could make them better! These are made up posts.
Instead of:
Thank you to Company for being a sponsor of our event.
Try:
Ending food insecurity in our county is just as important to Company as it is to us. Their support of our event means that we’ll be able to provide more than 150 meals to kids that wouldn’t otherwise have food during the summer when school isn’t in session!
Company has been a part of this event for more than 5 years. “Supporting families is a core value of our company and we have been so inspired by the leadership that this organization provides,” says John Doe, founder of Company. “Plus, this event is FUN!”
Tickets going fast so snag them today and join us in reaching our goal of feeding 1,000 kids in 2023.
Instead of:
Will you join our Campers Monthly giving campaign?
Our monthly donors provide camp scholarships for 10 campers each summer! We couldn’t do it without you.
Try:
What’s your favorite memory from summer camp?
🎣 fishing?
🏊♀️ swimming?
🔥 spending time around the campfire?
🐎 horseback riding?
⛺️ sleeping outside?
Maybe all of the above! 🤩
Your summer camp experience are probably some of your best summer memories but unfortunately are not something that everyone gets the opportunity to experience due to cost.
At our camp, we are proud to have amazing donors that allow us to offer more than 10 campers the experience of their summer! With every 3 people that join us at only $10/month, we can offer one more camper a free week. Will you join us?
Conclusion
It takes practice and testing to create social media posts your audience will want to engage with. Start with thinking about the content from the perspective of your audience and you’re off to a great start.