5 Signs Your Non-Profit Isn’t Ready For Social Media
Since high school, I’ve always made it a priority to be involved with a charity or non-profit every year. I’ve always found the experience rewarding on multiple levels.
As everyone knows, non-profits are always strapped for cash. The growth of social media opens up many opportunities for non-profits to spread the word, build and support their community, and increase donations in a way that’s never been seen before. The best part is that all of this can be done at little or no monetary cost. It’s primarily a time and talent tactic.
Unfortunately, not many non-profits are using social media and of those that are, very few are using it effectively. Fewer still are ready for it.
Last month, Kipp Bodnar did a great post titled, “10 Signs Your B2B Business Isn’t Ready For Social Media”. In the spirit of his post, here are my five signs your non-profit isn’t ready for social media.
1. Non-Profit Web Site Stinks
The vast majority of non-profit websites are little more then online brochures. Most of the time, they’re hosted and created by a board member’s company and the non-profit is afraid or too technically intimidated to change it. Spending any time on social media to take users back to a poor website with no calls to action is a waste of time. Make sure you have a website that has specific calls to ask people to join, donate, attend an event, or anything else important to your charity.
2. Under Staffed For Current Efforts
Creating and maintaining a community using social media takes a lot of time. More then you would expect, especially when you’re first starting out. This is one area that a non-profit can’t ask someone from an associate board or a volunteer to do for them. It needs to be done by someone that’s a part of the charity every day and in a position to share daily happenings.
3. Leadership Doesn’t Support Social Media
Probably the most frustrating part about non-profits is that the CEO is stretched very thin and while they’re passionate about the cause, they know nothing about social media and don’t really want to other then letting a volunteer “try it” and see what happens. However, they’ll continue to spend multiple meetings asking people to send donation forms and emails out and wonder why it’s not as effective any more. You need to convince the non-profit leadership to pursue social media correctly or don’t bother.
4. Haven’t Done Any Basic SEO
This ties closely with not having a good website. For most non-profits, unless someone types the exact name of the charity into a search engine, they don’t come up. However, most of the time people looking for support your charity can provide are searching on terms like “cancer support Chicago”. Building content around key words that your donators or people that need your help look for is critical to being found and making a difference.
5. Don’t Have Any Web site Metrics In Place
Most non-profits don’t truly look at their website as the business and community development portal that it can be. It’s something that everyone does and has all of the info from their brochures. On top of that, they never measure the traffic or other key metrics that let them know if it’s making an impact or where people are leaving the site.
In today’s age where everyone has a cause they are passionate about, non-profits are competing more then ever for donations and volunteers. Non-profits need to be able to make their website and social media strategy work for them and turn them into a productive growing asset instead of looking to use them to promote a few one time events every year.
In my next post, I’ll provide tips and strategies on what non-profits can do to resolve these issues and build a social media strategy.
