It's been close to three months and this blog has covered a range of topics concerning nonprofits and their social media marketing usage. I have left the hardest topic for last: what social media network should your nonprofit organization be active on? There are hundreds of charts on hundreds of websites that will lead you to hundreds of different names of social media networks. It's overwhelming, I know. As a college student and a young professional in the field, I struggle to keep updated and fluent on all the new social media networks that seem to be released as soon as I master a new one.
So bare with me because there are a multitude of things we are going to cover today in order to get you thinking about which social media network is going to engage you with your followers and hopefully! prospective customers/fans/sponsors etc.
Step 1. First and foremost, the most important question to consider is what is going to benefit your customer base/target audience. This isn't about which social media you would prefer to use or which is going to be easier to update each week. The point in choosing the right social media network is to find which one will give you the most access to your target audience. Complete market research and look at the number of people per social media network and ask:
1. Do the demographics fit with my targeted audience?
2. Will this be the best social network to engage and communicate with my targeted audience?
3. Will this social media account achieve all my goals I want to with my targeted audience?
4. Do a large percentage of my target audience spend enough time on this social media network?
Below is an example of data based on Australian social media demographics. Before deciding on which social media your nonprofit will be most successful, organize a similar chart with research for your targeted audience demographics. If your targeted audience does not use Twitter, then it would be a waste of your nonprofit's time to try and reach your audience base on Twitter.
In addition to finding where your users are, it's important you don't solely pick a social media network because it has the highest number of active users in general. You also need to keep in mind what type of content you will be sharing and how you plan to share that content. Just because Facebook has almost 2 billion active users doesn't mean all of those users will see your posts and not all of those users will be your targeted audience or even interested in your brand at all. The social media with a high active user rate means more competition audience's attention from other brands. As a nonprofit or a company in general, you need to be 100% sure that investing your time and marketing into a specific social media will be worth your time and your reader's.
Next you have to line your research up with your target audience's demographics and their usage of social media sites with the type of content and social sharing strategy you plan to implement. As previously stated, this is based on your social media network and how your targeted audience uses social media sites. Let's say your audience is mainly males, ages 25-40, who like to share videos via social media. Your marketing strategy is not going to be created on sites such as LinkedIn, Google+, or Foursquare. You've already narrowed your social media search down by three.
It's important that when choosing which social media network to use, it fits with the type of content or advertising you plan to implement and it fits with your audience (meaning your audience spends a majority of their time on this social media site) in order to reach your targeted audience base and the content you plan to share fits with your brand.
More information on social media sites, their target audiences, budgets and estimated time constraints can be found at http://mediacause.org/social-media-networks-nonprofits/
For another great resource on social media sites and what type of content is shared and tips for how to compete for attention on a specific social media site, I found this great article:
http://www.smtusa.com/blog/posts/which-social-media-platform-should-i-use.html#.VGPb3_TF85A
If you have other great resources or tips, as always, please feel free to comment below!
