As a nonprofit, B corporation or any other business for that matter, the initial image we portray will cause new, potential donors or clients to form an opinion of the organization within the first few seconds. It’s long been said that first impressions are everything. Your social presence is no different. You should always put on your “Sunday best” when engaging with your nonprofit’s audience on social media.
“Being effective at social media, whether for business or personal use, means capturing people who have short attention spans. They’re only a click away from a picture of a funny cat, so you have to make your thing more compelling than that cat. And that can be a high bar. Your Sunday best is the best recipe for success.
What Not To Do
Imagine for a moment that you just wrapped up writing an amazing new blog post for your nonprofit website. You’ve just announced an upcoming event and you’ve outlined some exciting new way for people who may not have already engaged with you in the past to get involved. Your final revision is now complete and you’ve posted it to your blog.
Being the savvy director of outreach that you are, you know you need to promote this on your nonprofit’s social channels. Suppose you log into the Twitter account for your nonprofit and begin to draft a catchy headline – “Paws For a Cause. Join us on February 13th as we bring awareness to animal abuse in Pittsburgh. Learn more at my-nonprofit-website.com”
While this headline may grab some attention, it most likely will get lost in the shuffle of all of the other tweets in your followers feed.
Putting on Your Best Sunday Dress for Social Media
We can do one better than just tweeting a catching headline. Every Facebook post, Twitter tweet or LinkedIn share should include a photo. It’s in our human nature to associate and recognize patterns and pictures. We’ve been doing it since the time we first gazed at the night stars and formed constellations a millennium ago.
You may be thinking you are not a graphic designer and you have no idea how to create a compelling graphic. However there is no need for alarm. I’d like to introduce you to a free/low-cost service called Canva – http://www.canva.com
Canva allows you get as creative as you’d like or you can choose from a pre-made layout and simply swap out the photos and text colors. While Canva is a free tool, they also offer some paid options. This includes premium photos and graphic elements starting at just $1
Let’s Clean it Up
Let’s revisit the tweet above – “Paws For a Cause. Join us on February 13th as we bring awareness to animal abuse in Pittsburgh. Learn more at my-nonprofit-website.com” After spending about 5 minutes in Canva, you could have created a quick graphic.
You can see how simply making one small tweak to your tweet can make a world of difference in making it stand out within your followers feed.
I think you’d agree the 5 minutes spent has made quite the improvement.
Before you post your next blurb on social head on over Canva and create your best Sunday Dress for Social Media.