Savvy marketers and nonprofits today understand that what makes social media powerfully different is that it’s a medium built for 2-way communication. So success in social media is all about “engagement”. But what does that mean, exactly?
Let’s say you’ve built a Facebook page for your organization (hopefully using the special Tivix app to enhance it!), and now you’re ready to start posting to the page. You know that posting regularly is key to leveraging the value of your organization’s social media presence, because your organization’s fans will interact with your posts by commenting, liking, or writing on your Wall. And this engagement leads to “organic” posts being published in their friends’ News Feed, thus getting that elusive viral effect that every organization wants.
On your personal Facebook account, you may be used to status updates such as “working from home today”. But for your organization, that kind of status update won’t do anything to build engagement. If your organization’s posts seem meaningless and irrelevant then your fans get will bored, and (worse yet) will eventually remove you from their news feed. And then you’re not getting any value at all.
So, Tip #1 is to keep your posts relevant and compelling to your particular audience.
Tip #2 is to phrase posts in a way that invites interaction. Make them “conversation starters”, not just statements. The Environmental Defense Fund, a Tivix customer, is particularly good at this, with posts such as “Have you discovered what kind of eco-nerd you are yet? Take our quiz!” and “What do you think are the top environmental priorities today?” Posting questions – or posting content like a video or blog post and asking “What do you think?” – is what drives engagement.
Tip #3 is to find the right rhythm to your posts. If you post too infrequently, people forget about you (or view your organization as being inactive). But if you post too often you’ll get perceived as “spammy”.
As a general rule, post often (1x a week is a good rule of thumb), and remember that “spammy” has as much to do with the quality of the content as it does the frequency. If every post your organization makes is a plea for money, then that seems spammy regardless of the frequency. If, on the other hand, your posts are interesting, with high-quality content relevant to your cause, then you could be posting several times a week without annoying anyone.
When you do post for fundraising, do it judiciously, around a particular opportunity. “Give just $10 today and it will be matched by the Smith Foundation – only until the end of the week. Click to help us meet our goal!” is an example which instills a sense of urgency. But again, use fundraising pitches sparingly, so that people don’t just tune-out. Focus on providing quality content most of the time, and that will make your occasional fundraising pitches stand out and be even more effective.
Tip #4 is to use the great analytics which Facebook provides for free. Click on “Page Insights” on your organization’s FB page (you have to be an admin of the page to see this) and you’ll find great information on who’s been visiting your page, and how engaging your content has been. You’ll see “Post Quality” which is determined by the percentage of your fans that engage when you post content to your Page. The Post Quality compares your engagement level to Pages that have a similar number of fans. Check this data regularly, and make note of the types of content and posts that seem to be particularly engaging for your audience.
There’s an old axiom that “you can’t improve it until you can first find a way to measure it”, and Facebook gives you free tools to measure engagement, so take advantage of them!
We have found that posting relevant content regularly, and developing a 2-way conversation around that content, is what creates successful engagement in social media. What has worked well for you and your organization? We’d love to hear your own experiences!
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