If you want your organization to look “legit,” it’s necessary to have a presence online. It could be through a website, social media, or a combination of the two.
Nonprofit organizations seem to be on board with this. Almost every nonprofit organization we’ve encountered—even tiny ones in remote parts of the world—seems to have at least a Facebook page, if not multiple social media accounts and a website. At the same time, we’ve also noticed that many of the Facebook pages and other social media accounts appear to be inactive.
Creating an online presence can begin with signing up for a Wordpress.org site and social media accounts, but it’s not enough to open the accounts and reserve a domain name. An online presence develops as the accounts are regularly populated with updated information. Of course, this is easier said than done. Consistent posting is not easy. However, if you want to use your website and social media accounts to attract donors and volunteer support, it’s essential to keep your website updated and your social accounts current.
If your organization does not regularly post on its social media accounts or website, one outcome is that no one will know about the good work your organization is doing. A second outcome, perhaps more problematic from a fundraising perspective, is that potential donors may wonder whether your organization is still active.
If your organization struggles to maintain its presence on social media, a social media scheduling tool may be the solution to help you post more regularly and with less effort. Social media scheduling tools allow users to plan their posts and publish them on multiple social accounts. That’s their primary offering. Every scheduling tool also offers additional functionality. Depending on the tool, you also might have the ability to collaborate with others, upload media, view mockups of posts, receive detailed analytics, and engage with followers, among other features.
WHEN IS A SOCIAL MEDIA SCHEDULING TOOL HELPFUL? A social media scheduler is convenient if one of the following applies to you:
1. Manage Multiple Accounts. If you manage multiple social media accounts—personal, professional, or a combination of the two—a social media scheduler will be very helpful. The advantage of using a social media scheduler is that you can manage all your accounts from a single platform, which is far more efficient than having to log in to each account separately to post updates.
2. Share Responsibility. If you share the responsibility of posting to social media with coworkers, a social media scheduler makes collaborating much easier. With many social media scheduling tools, such as Hootsuite and Loomly, you can invite others to comment on and edit draft posts. You can also create a workflow that allows everyone to see which posts are in development, pending approval, or are approved and ready for publishing. If you and your colleagues are often unclear about the status of a planned social media post or campaign, a social media scheduler will end the confusion.
3. Use Dashboards. If you like the idea of having a central hub where you can see all of your social media activity at a glance, scheduling tools are for you. Scheduling tools have dashboards that enable you to view your posting activity (published and planned posts) across all social media accounts. Depending on the tool you use, you can see your activity in a list or calendar view. Another advantage of using a scheduler is that many services, such as Loomly, allow you to open a post from your dashboard, copy it, reformat it, and publish it to a different social media account (e.g., from your dashboard, you can open a Facebook post, duplicate it, and reformat it for publishing on Pinterest).
4. Archive Past Posts. If you like to store past posts so you can periodically review them and bring older posts back into circulation, a scheduling tool is one of the easiest ways to do this. All of the popular scheduling tools allow you access to your posting history and give you an easy way to republish an older post, either to the same social account or to a different one.
Social media schedulers are ideal if you’re a member of a team or have multiple social accounts. However, they can also be useful if you intend to scale your operations. If you plan to increase your social media presence by adding accounts or increasing your posting frequency—or if you want volunteer staff to help you post to your accounts—then a social media scheduling tool is worth considering. Increasing users, increasing posting frequency, increasing the number of social accounts—any expansion of your current use of social media is a reason to invest in a scheduling tool.
UPDATE YOUR COMMUNICATION PLAN
A scheduling tool will make it easier for you to manage more accounts and post more frequently. If you decide to incorporate a scheduling tool into your workflows, you may need to update your communication plan to reflect your expanded social media use and new goals. If you don’t already have a communication plan, subscribing to a social media scheduler creates the perfect opportunity to develop one.
If you want more information on social media tools or tips on developing a communication strategy, check out the post Improve Your Chances of Getting Grant Funding: Create a Communications Strategy and the resources listed below.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
• Which Social Media Scheduling Tool Should You be Using In 2018?, Lilach Bullock • The 25 Top Social Media Management Tools for Businesses of All Sizes, Alfred Luna (Buffer Blog) • **How Often to Post on Social Media,** Louise Myers Visual Social Media