Kickstart Your Campaign with Social Media
Here are 10 best practices for kickstarting your fundraising campaign (and leveraging social media):
Always include the pledge site link in any promotions, including social media. Include the link to pledge in your social media profile.
Use non-social media channels to promote your social media handle and encourage employees and the community to follow and engage.
Ask employees to share why they give or volunteer on social media, to post photos and videos, or give shout-outs to their favorite nonprofits to drive awareness and engagement. Employee champions are your best supporters.
Ask participating nonprofits to post on social media and tag the official campaign handle, sharing their impact and encouraging employees to visit the pledge site link. Consider creating a toolkit comprised of social media posts for easy sharing.
Engage leadership, like C-Suite executives, department heads, or elected officials to post on social media, plus send emails and other communications to encourage participation.
Pick a single day(s) to promote together on social media, such as campaign kickoff and closing, #GivingTuesday, special holidays or observances, or other selected days. Ask all stakeholders to post on that day with a prewritten message, visual, and campaign hashtag like #TexasStrong #CaliforniaCares, etc.
Example: By bringing partners together on the same day for CFC #Thanks8billion in 2019, CHC earned more than 1M impressions and more than 850 engagements on social media in just a few days.
Use personalized marketing and storytelling. Sharing stories (especially with visuals) from participating employees or those impacted in your community will outperform stock photos (or no visual) and generic messages.
Recognize departments, agencies, or teams with top participation rates or highest giving publicly on social media. Post any kind of positive recognition — awards, public service, good news, etc. — which can encourage employees to follow and engage with social media.
Say thank you to those who already participate, lead, give and volunteer as they can help you spread the word. Tag those individuals.
Always start with your key supporters, like campaign volunteers, your planning team, and significant stakeholders.