Effective, custom web design and development for nonprofits.
Effective, custom web design and development for nonprofits.
You’re probably well aware of the effect that social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Google Plus and others can have on your nonprofit, so you probably have accounts on many of them. Smart decision. But are you using social media to enhance your Web presence, or are you just spreading yourself thin?
Social media platforms provide features that can really help your organization: Facebook lets you organize an event. Twitter lets you tap into a popular hashtag. LinkedIn lets you connect with other businesses. You can certainly leverage those features to meet your Nonprofit's objectives, but social networks should be considered satellite sites. Thinking of them as multiple versions of your primary website can make content management unruly. If you're experiencing this problem, the solution is to continually remind to your audience where your nonprofit really lives on line: your website. That's where your core content should be, and your social media posts should reference it, not replace it.
Social networks also allow you to embed parts of your social media profiles into your website. You can include your Twitter feed or Facebook posts right there on your homepage if you want. Sometimes, however, nonprofits pepper their main website with embeddable social media feeds as if that is their website content. Avoid this mistake - don’t let your website turn into a dumping ground for social media widgets.
Having a vibrant Facebook community is important, but at the end of the day, your Facebook page is not much different from the next nonprofit's. Your website, on the other hand, is the one online property that gives you 100% control. You don't have to make any compromises in terms of brand identity, content, or character limit. Use your social media content to drive people back to your website, which is where you should deliver your full message.
Promoting your latest campaign? Instead of duplicating your campaign content on your social media profiles, post an introduction about it along with a link back to the full campaign on your website. There, you can include vibrant imagery, calls-to-action that align with your goals, and copy that's been planned by a professional content planner.
If you need a strategy for reining in all your social media profiles so that they're promoting your website instead of cannibalizing it, get in touch with me. I can help.
Have I made you consider a viewpoint you hadn't before? Or do you and I think alike? Either way, maybe we should work together?