10 current social media best practices
Social media is a core part of how, as a non-profit, you engage supporters to discover and understand your mission, see your impact in action, and build trust.
And while likes, comments, and shares matter, the end goal isn’t always to translate them into donations. Instead, the most successful non-profits on social media use the platforms as a bridge to build relationships. The goal is building credibility and guiding supporters toward clear next steps.
Which can be hard to do when it feels like the social media rules are always changing. Actually, it doesn’t feel like they’re always changing, they are always changing!
With that in mind, here are today’s 10 social media best practices to help you reach your social media goals.
Ensure that every post has a strong, eye-catching photo or video, and a hook. Attention is currency so the aim is to stop the scroll and keep someone watching or reading. This is what the algorithm rewards. Remember, your posts will regularly be seen by non-followers and followers alike, so they need to be instantly understood by all.
Focus on quality, not quantity. Social media algorithms favour posts that keep people’s attention so your content needs to be strong, relevant, and true to your values. The best posting frequency is one you can keep up because the algorithm also favours consistent posting.
Always include concise, context-providing copy. All posts, including your story shares, should include a short bit of text to engage your audience and promote your thoughts. This also helps create the sense of a real person behind your accounts/organization.
Use keywords in your posts and bio. People are increasingly using social media platforms to search instead of Google, so the keywords you use will affect whether people find you. Choose relevant keywords and branded hashtags to include in posts, and use them consistently. Also add alt-text to images and videos as this makes your content more accessible and discoverable.
Include a Call to Action (CTA) in your posts. Most content is consumed passively and overall engagement is down. To bring people back to an active state, be direct in asking users to share, like, or interact with you. Social media companies want people to spend more time on their apps, so keeping people engaged is rewarded.
Use emojis (as your brand allows). Add emojis as you would when communicating with friends to create a conversational style. You can also use emojis to structure and break up your posts — for example, choosing a different one to introduce each bullet point. Just keep to no more than five in total.
Tag relevant pages. One of the easiest ways to build connections and followers is to tag connections in your posts.
Engage with any responses and with the wider community. Making time to engage with like-minded organizations and individuals will help you build a community on social media. This could be commenting on relevant posts, directly messaging organizations to collaborate or sharing others’ content when it aligns with your mission.
Create a series and prioritize familiar formats. Not only do the algorithms reward familiar formats over time, but this approach helps to ensure your content is recognized. As it’s now unlikely your followers will see everything you post, episodic content encourages people to actively seek out the next bit of content. Stats show that serial content leads to higher retention, longer watch times, and stronger engagement.
Repeat what matters and re-purpose your strongest content. As the person creating the content, it’s easy to feel that your social media is repetitive. However, since feeds are not chronological, there’s a high chance users will only see a fraction of what you post. When you say the same thing in different ways, you reinforce your message and build clarity around your brand.