On today’s podcast, Julia Campbell from J Campbell Social Marketing and Stephen Halasnik from Financing Solutions discuss the importance of digital marketing and social media for nonprofits. The advent of digital and social media has opened many opportunities for organizations. Today, no business or nonprofit can successfully operate without leveraging digital marketing and social media. Nonprofits that have adopted digital marketing and social media in their operation are setting milestones in their performances.
Summary
Leveraging Digital Marketing and Social Media for Your Nonprofits
There’s no denying that digital and social media have dramatically affected the ways people interact. The changes brought about by digital and social media can be likened to the industrial revolution and are pretty obvious in the ways marketing and advertising are being done in recent times. For instance, communication has become so instantaneous than ever, and businesses are seamlessly reaching out to customers more and more than previously. Social media is the icing on the digital marketing cake. Today, it’s hard to imagine a marketing strategy that fails to factor in digital marketing and social media. Digital and social media tools have made transborder communication fast and effective. 
The pandemic has largely altered how many organizations function. Some of the changes are noticeable in how most transactions are being carried out online, even as work from home is becoming more popular. Digital marketing and social media have come to stay. Any organization that wants to be still relevant must harness the many capabilities of social and digital media in its operation.
For nonprofits, it’s essential to leverage digital marketing and social media to promote fundraising campaigns and nonprofits causes effectively. We can no longer continue to sideline digital and social media in our nonprofit fundraising effort. Any nonprofit that craves success must put digital marketing and social media at the heart of its operation to acquire more donors and reach out to the diverse young generation.
With digital marketing and social media, nonprofits would be able to share their stories faster, connect with donors pretty quickly and reach new audiences across borders more effectively.
Using the Right Digital Media Platform for Your nonprofit
Nonprofit owners need to understand which social media platforms are used most by their target audiences and the type of content that’s being posted on those platforms. For example, graphics and photos are best for Instagram, videos for YouTube, etc. Using the right digital media platform with optimized content helps your nonprofit achieve its marketing objectives effortlessly.
Being Consistent
As owners of nonprofits, it’s imperative you know how to use digital marketing and social media to the greatest effect. You should consistently post quality content that resonates with your audiences. Consistency helps you to build trust on a specific digital platform. In other words, a consistent posting schedule demonstrates that you’re reliable and foster trust within your community, which in turn creates loyalty.
Using one or two platforms helps keep you on track in your digital marketing campaign. Plus, knowing your audience and the digital media platform they use most will help you focus on a particular platform to reach out to people easily and meet your target goals.
Building a Community
Social and digital are the vehicles that many people use as their communication tools. Every nonprofit owner should try to build goodwill among their social media followers. They should also try to understand their communities and relate with them so that they feel comfortable. For instance, the use of emojis and colloquial terms when necessary shows that you speak the language of the community.
Your content becomes more engaging when you speak the language of social media. GIFs, quote images, memes, and emojis make your content relatable and shareable, and you become more likable.
Measuring Results and Building on Successes
You must measure the result of your effort across digital and social media channels. Measuring your results on key performance indicators helps you accelerate what you’re doing well and fill the gap of what you’re not doing well. Constantly researching to figure out what works on a particular platform and what does not work will help you achieve tremendous results in your digital marketing campaign.
Conclusion
Digital marketing and social media offer a good user experience when we know the culture, best practices, and etiquette associated with each digital media platform. Put differently, there are varying ways of optimizing content that promotes digital marketing for nonprofits across social and digital media channels. Every nonprofit should always be on the lookout to find out the best practices of each social and digital media for an effective marketing function.
Learn About Our Guest
Julia Campbell has run her digital marketing consulting business for almost a decade, focused exclusively on mission-driven organizations. A mom of 2 and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, she is the author of Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits, a call-to-action for nonprofits to use stories to accomplish their missions.
Learn About the Host, Stephen Halasnik
Stephen Halasnik is the host of the popular, The Nonprofit MBA Podcast. The Nonprofit MBA podcast’s purpose is to help nonprofit leaders and their teams. Stephen is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Financing Solutions, a leading provider of Lines of Credit to nonprofits. Stephen is a best-selling Amazon author and is considered a leading authority on building great, purpose-driven businesses. Stephen lives in New Jersey and his top life mission is to raise his two sons, Michael and Maxwell, to be good men.
10% of profits from Financing Solutions is donated to charity.
