More than Publicity: Promoting NGOs in Social Media
How Other Companies can Benefit from Successful NGO Campaigns
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and charity groups may be different from businesses in their core level, but the two groups are the same when it comes to social media. Their social media goals are no different from each other. Both of them seek to connect with their target audience through social networking pages in Facebook and Twitter.
It is more important, though, for NGOs to engage more with their followers. This is because they have limited resources which could not be touched often to finance publicity campaigns like other profitable groups do. They can use the viral potential of social media to accelerate sharing of information and reduce the costs of participation. NGOs also need to function as ‘social businesses’ as well, which emphasizes the need to engage their followers in a socially intimate manner.
More and more people are now going online and joining social networks. This creates an impending need for NGOs to drive more interest to their noble causes. In fact, the top 200 in Forbes’ non-profit companies are utilizing social media campaigns faster than Fortune 500 companies do. For NGOs, social networking is a low-cost alternative that provides various opportunities for conversations and complementary methods to messages shared through other channels.
How do NGOs catch the attention of the online world and get support for their causes? Here are five methods that successful not-for-profit groups in social media use:
1. Post more photos and videos.
There are many types of content that circulates around the web: status videos, photos, videos and links. The likeliest content to be liked, commented upon and shared is photos. NGOs share more photos and videos than they do status updates. This is because people engage more with images rather than text splashed across the text. When we see heart-rending images, we don’t have to think; we immediately react. Text needs to be read, then processed by the brain to be understood. Videos, on the other hand, can disinterest viewers, especially if they run more than 3 minutes. Short attention span is the enemy of long videos.
This impresses upon the need for NGOs to post more photos and videos, as both get the highest engagement rates. They need to be artfully presented to catch attention and make viewers more interested in spreading the message of the organization. Photos need to be taken by professionals who know how to frame shots that would make viewers stop, stare and share.
2. Fitting Captions
A caption defines and emphasizes the message you want to people to hear when they see a picture. Without captions, a picture will be understood in a thousand different ways. Take for example, this picture:
What do you think when you first saw this? You may have thought that this is (1) a wildlife photo taken by Animal Planet, (2) maybe a picture circulated around by PETA or (3) an image from a forest conservation group.
Without a caption, this picture can even be turned into a meme. Imagine the elasticity of the image? That’s why a picture should have a caption, especially when you post it on the social media page of your not-for-profit environmentalist group. Here’s the same picture with a caption:
Captions should not just be a short passage that explains an image. It should be striking enough to cut to the heart of your message. This would resonate more to your readers and stick in their minds, which would encourage them to share your post.
Play with words to make a catchy caption. You can use idiomatic expressions, puns, alliterative phrases and other figures of speech to convey your message. Surfrider Foundation, a water conservation organization makes use of puns and popular sayings to motivate support for their ocean protection campaign:
See how effective a caption can be? That, and the quality of the photo, caught the interest of more than a thousand viewers. Put your message across with a well-captioned, first-rate image and you’ll take hold the crowd’s attention.
3. Post varied content at the right time.
Posting a batch of NGO content can overwhelm followers. Make sure to post one piece at a time, instead of many articles, photos and videos at once. This would increase your opportunity to engage with your readers. Communicate with your fans and reply to their messages and comments. This would boost and strengthen your relationship with them, which will make them more receptive to your messages.
Make sure to post content during the time and days when most of your followers are online. Weekdays are slow days when it comes to content. People are more active web browsers on the weekend, so schedule your posts on those days. Friday afternoon up to Sunday night are peak days, so make time to post during those days, rather than on Mondays to Wednesdays.
4. Make use of links.
Links are a good way to boost website traffic. Most NGO social media posts come from their own website. Too much of it though can be harmful. Take a leaf out of the book of top-performing NGO groups. Use links coming from your own website sparingly. Link instead to other NGO websites who can provide other resources for your chosen topic. Paste links of news articles, blog posts and other articles about your causes. This will increase back-links and pull up your search rankings.
5. Emulate the example of your betters.
If you’re having difficulties setting up your NGO page or encouraging follower engagement, study the strategy of NGOs that have succeeded in social media. Adopting their strategy to your own organization might help you attract more likes on your page. Pay close attention to how they created their page and framed their content. This would help you learn what works for your NGO page.
What Businesses can Learn from NGOs
NGOs generally post more engaging content than their counterparts in the corporate world. Not-for-profit organizations are more in touch with the concerns of the community, while companies can be a bit more concerned with profit. Entrepreneurs can learn to pay more attention to the needs of their customers instead of driving more marketing campaigns that promote their merchandise. Customer relations should be upheld more than advertising products and services. This would make your clients more amenable to read your copy instead of ignoring your messages.
Analyze and study whether NGO social media techniques will fit your marketing campaigns better. Try them out for your business. They might just get more customers for you.
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