4 things for nonprofits to focus on in your 2024 organic social media strategy

1. Understanding the role social plays for you

Defining the role organic social plays in your organisation takes more than just identifying your objectives for each platform.

Think of each social media channel as a digital storefront on an endless high street of organisations, all competing for attention.

What are you putting in the store’s window? When audiences see your content, what will they think and feel? And more importantly, what action will they take?

Returning to the high street metaphor…

You wouldn’t run 5 stores with one staff member, so in 2024, there’s no longer a need to be on every. single. social. media. platform.

A 2022 survey of over 500 nonprofit marketing and comms professionals by the Nonprofit Marketing Guide (NPMG) highlighted that 77% of communications teams had less than 2.5 FTE members of staff.

It’s more impactful for your organisation’s reputation (and better for the well-being of your team!) to do a few channels really well than to be panic posting on as many channels as possible.

So, how do you decide where to put your resources?

Each social media platform has a unique set of behaviours, features and content types that will be suitable, or not suitable, for your organisation’s objectives. What does this mean for your team? You no longer need to spread your time and resources across the entire World Wide Web.

Say goodbye to the days of crossposting the same content to every social media platform and hello to a more curated and considered channel strategy. 👋

📸 Founder and Managing Director Kerry Watkins leading a ‘social media strategy’ workshop

2. Understanding the role social plays for your audiences

Once you’ve established the role social has in your organisation, you need to understand the role it plays in your audience’s lives.

People are not businesses, so their priorities on social media differ from an organisation. From Gen Z to Boomers, every generation says staying in touch with friends and family is the main reason they use social media (Source: GWI).

When it comes to following brands and organisations, audiences crave authenticity and transparency. They want less self-promotional content and more information about their mission, values and goals (Source: Sprout Social, Inc.). But, as more brands jump on the relatable marketing train, followers have become much more savvy at recognising when brands are trying too hard to be authentic.

80% of brands believe that their social media content is authentic, but less than 40% of their customers agree (Source: Brandwatch).

So, what impact does this have on your social media strategy? 🧐

For many charities and nonprofits, social media is an essential tool for sharing information, campaigning and fundraising - but it isn’t a broadcasting platform. It’s important to remember that to build real connections with your audience, there needs to be some give and take.

For every four pieces of content you share, three should provide value to your audience (whether that’s educational, entertainment or otherwise) and just one post should be purely promotional. Known as the 80/20 rule, this content framework shows audiences that you aren’t solely interested in being transactional, but in forming real connections and communities online - putting the social back in social media.

📸 Taking part in a ‘video for social media’ training day

3. Prioritising community

Having an audience isn't the same as having a community. If you want your social presence to thrive, you can no longer post and ghost.

Across multiple generations and platforms, audiences are experiencing content burnout and are reprioritising social media as a tool for connection - not just the place to find the next big trend.

For nonprofits in particular, community is everything. In an age of ever-changing algorithms, having a loyal and passionate community who engage with your content plays a vital role in getting your message to the masses. For charities, calls to action are often much less about providing a benefit to your followers and more about asking them to do something (sign and share a petition, take part in a fundraiser, donate their time or money etc) without the tangible benefit of a product/service.

Without a community of advocates who believe in your mission and feel part of your mission, your social channels will struggle to reach their potential and be a valuable tool in creating lasting change.

4. Employee-generated content

There’s a new group of content creators emerging in 2024, and they’re right under your nose.

As the demand for honest and authentic content grows, organisations are looking to their teams to play a key role in building online communities. After all, who better to share your organisation’s story than the people who are helping to write it?

So what is employee advocacy?

In short, it’s supporting members of your team to create company content for their own social media channels. Yes, it’s a far cry from the social media policies of the early 2010s, but the benefits are clear! On LinkedIn, nonprofits that utilise employee advocacy see a 14% increase in web traffic (Source: Hootsuite) and the click-through rate on content by employees is doubled compared to content shared by an organisation (Source: LinkedIn).

Employee advocacy is critical for platforms like LinkedIn that favour content that comes from individuals over business pages - with posts from employees seeing 8x more engagement than those shared by an organisation’s channel. It also plays a huge role in building trust between an organisation and its audience (remember that authenticity buzzword we’ve mentioned so many times?).

But it isn’t just professional platforms where employee-generated content thrives.

On TikTok, the hashtag #ComeToWorkWithMe has over 870 million views, and #WorkLife has a mind-blowing 31 billion (yes, billion!).

It comes down to one of our most basic human natures - people are nosey. By sharing insights into the seemingly mundane day-to-day of your organisation you can build communities that are much more engaged and invested in your mission than if you’re sharing corporate, promotional content alone.

📸 The Social for Good team taking part in our own strategy development workshop!

So, there you have it. Make 2024 the year you build an impactful (and manageable!) social media strategy, and if you need someone to help facilitate those conversations with your team, we’re just an email away. ✉️