Social media can be a powerful tool for non-profit organisations to connect with supporters, raise awareness, and drive action.

But it needs to be used properly. If you’re just posting in a random, ad-hoc way, you can get some engagement, but you’re unlikely to make the kind of long-term impact you’re hoping for.

The most successful social media accounts are those which have a plan. Of course, developing a social media strategy is often not a high priority for small to medium-sized non-profits, especially if they struggle with limited resources and don’t have specialist help.
But if you did want to benefit – and you will benefit – from a more structured approach to your social media, where do you start?

The key is to treat it like any other large project: break it up into smaller projects, then break down these smaller projects into a clear sequence of easily achievable steps.

This guide will take you through the process from start to finish. We’ll explain what kind of preparation will make your job easier, then show you how you can break the strategy down into manageable chunks, as well as what those steps might look like.

Why Do I Need a Social Media Strategy?

First, let’s outline some reasons for developing a social media strategy. When done well, the process and outcomes can offer numerous benefits for non-profits:

• Increased Reach: Connect with a broader audience, including potential donors, volunteers, and supporters.
• Enhanced Engagement: Foster a community around your cause through interactive and meaningful content.
• Brand Awareness: Strengthen your brand identity and communicate your mission effectively through structured consistency and authentic storytelling.
• Resource Efficiency: Maximise the impact of your limited resources by focusing efforts on the most effective channels and content.
• Measurable Impact: Track your performance and adjust strategies based on data to continuously improve your outreach efforts.

Preparation

Before you dive headfirst into creating a strategy, there a couple of points of preparation that you should consider first. These may take a little time to implement and get right, but they’ll lay a solid foundation and make your path just a little bit smoother.

Visual Branding

You may see the terms “brand” and “branding” thrown around interchangeably, but they’re actually considered two different things. You can think of your brand as the external representation of your organisation as a whole: i.e., what people think of when they hear your name. This is a complex topic to go into, and won’t be covered here. Just remember that what you create on social media will be part of how you build this brand.

Branding, on the other hand, is all the elements that represent you in the world: logos, colours, text, slogans, and the like. It’s therefore incredibly important to have at least those visual elements locked in before you embark on a social media strategy, as a consistent and striking visual design is key to capturing and keeping a loyal audience.

Internal Communications

Consistency in messaging is also crucial for effective social media outreach. Clear internal communication ensures everyone in your team is aligned with your goals, core values, and the unique aspects of your organisation.

This makes two important things possible: it makes it much easier to explain yourself to the outside world, and it also allows for a seamless transition if someone else needs to manage your social media.

Imagine a new person joining your non-profit. How quickly could they grasp your values and goals? Would they feel included and able to describe your organisation’s work to others? Consistent internal communication helps in achieving this clarity.

Stakeholders

Engaging stakeholders early in the process is essential. Stakeholders can include beneficiaries, partner companies, employees, and current supporters. Collect feedback from these groups to understand their needs and perspectives. Their input will be invaluable when deciding on which audience you want to reach, and tailoring your social media content to ensure that it resonates.

High-Level Strategy and Content Strategy

Now that you have the preparation complete, formulating a strategy is really just a matter of following a series of steps. We find it useful to separate these steps into two parts, which we call “high-level strategy” and “content strategy.”

In short, high-level strategy is where you’re defining the overarching aims and direction of your social media efforts. In other words, why do we want to be on social media in the first place? What do we want to achieve? Who do we want to reach, and why?

Developing your content strategy is where you’ll get into the nuts and bolts of what your social media posts are going to look like. Not necessarily on a post-by-post level, but more what kind of themes and messages you want to address, narrative structure and storytelling, visuals, scheduling, and types of content.

Of course, there’s no universally correct way to create a social media strategy. But if you’re not exactly sure what to do and where to start, try following these recommended steps.

High-Level Strategy

1. Understand Your Mission

Your mission statement is the foundation of your high-level strategy. Clearly define the social challenges your organisation addresses, the people you serve, your reasons for doing this work, your partners, and the specific programs or activities you undertake. This clarity will inform every aspect of your social media strategy.

2. Identify Your Audience

Determine who your target audience is by considering all stakeholders involved with your organisation. Create detailed personas for these audiences, describing their responsibilities, challenges, goals, and preferences. This understanding will help you craft content that speaks directly to their needs and interests.

3. Choose Your Channel(s)

Select the social media channels that best reach your target audience. It’s often more effective to focus on one or two channels rather than spreading yourself too thin. For example, Facebook is great for engaging with beneficiaries and community members, while LinkedIn is better suited for reaching grant givers and corporate partners.

4. Create Social Media Objectives

Define concrete objectives for your social media activity. These objectives could range from increasing follower numbers to engaging with influencers or raising online donations. Ensure these objectives are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to provide clear benchmarks for success.

Content Strategy

1. Decide on Content Pillars

Content pillars are themes that guide your social media posts. These might include educating supporters, raising awareness, celebrating successes, or promoting fundraising opportunities. Choose themes that align with your objectives and resonate with your audience.

2. Develop Authentic Stories

Builds trust, forms deeper connections with your audience, and humanises your non-profit. You want to share genuine stories of the people you help, challenges faced, and successes achieved, and you want to start planning these narrative arcs now.

3. Select Content Types

Variety in content types keeps your audience engaged. This could include statistics, quizzes, personal stories, appeals, and feedback. Use a mix of content types to maintain interest and ensure your messaging remains fresh and engaging.

4. Organise Visuals

Getting the visuals right is often one of the most time-consuming parts of posting. While you don’t have to come up with every single image for every single post now, it is a good idea to start thinking about what visuals you’re going to use, as well as developing one or more templates with your non-profit’s logo and colours that you can quickly reuse later.

5. Create a Schedule

This is a culmination of everything you’ve done so far with your content strategy. It’s time to reduce your future mental workload and create a schedule for what you’re going to post, and when!

This is also the point where you mark down important dates for your non-profit (like fundraising launches or project milestones) as well as relevant general dates (like Earth Day, Black History Month, or Giving Tuesday, for example) that you might want to build a post around.

Download the E-Book

For a comprehensive guide on developing a winning social media strategy, download our e-book. This resource provides clear, step-by-step instructions to help you create an effective social media strategy tailored to your non-profit’s needs. With detailed templates and examples, this e-book is an invaluable tool for expanding your reach and achieving your mission through social media.

By following these guidelines, your non-profit can harness the power of social media to connect with supporters, raise awareness, and drive meaningful impact. Start building your strategy today and watch your organisation’s social media presence thrive.