Nonprofit organizations are always looking for ways to reach new supporters, volunteers and donors. Social media is a great way to reach a broad audience and engage with them.
It’s also important to remember that nonprofits aren’t the only ones who use social media. Your nonprofit could have a competitor using social media to reach your supporters and donors. You need to be able to respond quickly and effectively in order to maintain your competitive advantage.
One of the best ways to manage your social media presence is by using tools that help you keep track of what’s happening on different platforms, as well as analyze what’s working and what isn’t working for others in your industry.
Social Media Tools For Nonprofits
1. Sprout Social
If you want to explore your social media analytics, schedule posts across platforms, and monitor engagement, Sprout Social is a great all-in-one social media management tool. The platform allows you to analyze your social media data beyond the built-in analytics offered by Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also track engagement on keywords and hashtags, identify influencers, build custom dashboards, and more. Sprout integrates with all major social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+), as well as other systems including Bitly and Google Analytics.
Pricing: Sprout Social starts at $99 per month, but they do offer a 30-day free trial period so you can give the platform a test run.
2. Hootsuite
If you’re looking to streamline post scheduling, content curation, and social listening, Hootsuite is a neat hat-trick for all three. The social media service is capable of multi-platform post scheduling, content cloud storage, tracking the digital impact of your social media campaigns, and monitoring social conversations by keyword, hashtag, and location — and in multiple languages. It’s compatible with all major social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+) and WordPress, along with a slew of other systems such as Salesforce and MailChimp.
Pricing: Hootsuite subscriptions start at $19 per month, and they offer a 30-day free trial plus discounts for nonprofits.
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3. Later
Formerly known as Latergram, Later is designed to help you organize your visuals for social campaigns. With Later, you can schedule posts for Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as bulk-upload photos and graphics, search and repost content, and track Instagram analytics.
Pricing: Later is free for basic use, which includes multi-platform posting and basic analytics. For access to more features, pricing ranges between $9 and $49 per month. They also provide a non-profit discount for 50% off an annual subscription to their Premium plan.
4. Buffer
Beyond its ability to schedule posts for all of your social media channels, Buffer boasts an in-platform image creator, video and gif uploader, analytics reports exporting, and a handy browser extension to make access to all of the above simple and quick. It supports all major social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest).
Pricing: Buffer has a free option with limited capabilities, and pricing begins at $10 per month. Buffer also offers a 50% discount for nonprofit organizations.
5. Canva
Canva is a graphic design program that makes creating professional graphics and presentations easy — no graphic designer experience required. With Canva, you can create a social media graphic (at any size or dimension) using your own images or any of the millions of themes, graphics, icons, and fonts in Canva’s arsenal. You can also save your creations if you want to make a recurring series using the same branding.
Pricing: While basic Canva is free to use, pricing for access to more features begins at $12.95 per user per month. Canva also offers nonprofit organizations free account subscriptions.
6. AgoraPulse
If you’re looking for a simple and easy-to-use scheduling tool, AgoraPulse may be for you. AgoraPulse is a social media management tool geared towards creating, editing, and scheduling posts, monitoring engagement, and tracking the success of your posts. It supports many of the major social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube).
Pricing: Monthly and annual pricing starts at $39, but AgoraPulse offers a free trial and discounts for nonprofits.
7. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a content and influencer identification tool for social media. It offers content performance insights, influencer identification, content alerts, and competitor analysis insights. This tool is great for A/B testing content to see what type of content performs best, who’s sharing and engaging with the content, and what’s working for other organizations.
Pricing: BuzzSumo starts at $79/month, but they also offer heavily discounted nonprofit subscriptions to BuzzSumo Pro.
Social media is an important aspect of growing a digital audience for your nonprofit. Take advantage of the free trials and test out these platforms to see what would work best for your nonprofit needs. These are tools we use and love at Whole Whale and we hope your nonprofit finds success with these as well!
buffer for nonprofits
Social media is an integral part of any successful marketing strategy, but the time it takes to maintain and grow a successful social following can be a challenge for organizations with limited resources such as nonprofits, charities and NGO’s.
If managing nonprofit accounts on multiple social networks makes you feel like you’re trapped in an ever-revolving door then this article is for you. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best and most affordable social media for nonprofits tools that will help you effectively maintain and grow your social marketing efforts.
Social Media for NonProfits Tools
Juicer: Website and Event Social Media Display
Juicer nonprofit social media feed
A website is the hub of any business, especially for nonprofits where donors can check out what your organization is about, discover fundraising events, and make donations. Giving them an insight into your nonprofit’s social media following can help paint an even clearer picture of the community and charities your organization supports.
Juicer is a social media aggregator that acts as a social media advocacy tool for nonprofits. Juicer works by curating all of your nonprofit’s social media accounts into one simple feed you can embed on your website or display publicly at an event. Your fans and donors comments can also be displayed on your feed which boost authenticity.
Juicer’s feed can be completely controlled with automatic filter and moderation features and new posts will be curated daily, hourly, or every 10 minutes depending upon your package.
Pricing for Juicer
Juicer offers a free plan which allows you to curate up to 3 social media sources and will pull in and display new posts daily. Paid packages offer more social account integrations and faster update frequencies starting at $19/month.
Buffer: Social Media Scheduling and Management
Buffer social media marketing for nonprofits
As we mentioned above, managing multiple social media platforms, engaging, posting, scheduling, and reporting can take up a lot of time and resources your organization may not have. Luckily there are many tools out there today that take a lot of the manual labor out of nonprofit social media management and automate it.
Buffer is one of the most popular social media marketing tools used by social media professionals across all industries. Because of its simplicity and efficiency, it’s great for social media marketing for nonprofits.
You can customize content for each social network and Buffer will suggest the best posting times to really maximize your content calendar. It schedules posts and analyzes performance as well as providing a variety of social engagement features and analytics across channels.
Pricing for Buffer:
Buffer offers a free package with management of up to three social media accounts, 10 posts, and 1 user per month. This is perfect for nonprofits who are just starting out and new to social media management.
For the larger, paid subscriptions, Buffer does offer a 50% discount to all registered nonprofit organizations.
Buzzsumo: Content Ideation and Management
Using social media for nonprofits with Buzzsumo
Constantly coming up with fresh social media content for nonprofits or keeping up with your competitors can be challenging. Buzzsumo is a content identifier tool which can assist in finding engaging content that drives support and donations for your nonprofit’s cause.
It allows you to uncover content ideas by scouring competitors, influencers, and the buzz happening around your industry and nonprofit. You can set up keyword alerts and offers many insights to perform a complete competitor analysis so you’re always one step ahead.
Pricing for Buzzsumo:
Buzzsumo’s pricing plans range from $79+/month with a 7-day free trial if you want to give it a test drive.
There is a heavily discounted social media plan for registered nonprofits using their BuzzSumo Pro Plan available by request.
Hashtagify: Social Hashtag Trends & Ideation
hashtagify social media for nonprofits
Hashtags allow you to search and group content under one unifying theme and have been instrumental in driving support for many nonprofit and charitable causes over the past few years.
Hashtagify is a fantastic hashtag search and reporting tool that allows you to discover the most popular hashtags related to a specific topic or cause your nonprofit supports. With the tool, you can track popularity, trends over time, related hashtags, and most active nonprofit organizations and social media influencers.
Pricing for Hashtagify:
Hashtagify basic hashtag search tool is free and each of their paid monthly or yearly plans comes with a 7-day free trial if you want to test it out. Their subscription plans vary in pricing anywhere starting at $19/month annually.
Canva: Social Media Design Needs
Canva social media marketing for nonprofits
A social media post accompanied with an image or graphic is 10 times more likely to attract engagement than a simple text only post. That can be a banner ad, infographic, meme, or a touched-up candid photo. But let’s face it, not everyone has the time to become a Photoshop whiz or graphic designer.
Canva is a fantastic tool for everyday social media marketers who just need to get some quality images formatted for social and websites. It is extremely easy to use and loaded with tons of pre-formatted templates designed for common social media sizes and images that allow for quick and flawless execution.
Pricing for Canva
Canva’s basic plan is free for everyone but if you want more features their Pro or Enterprise plan starts at $12.95/month. Though Canva Pro is free for nonprofits.
Benefits of Social Media for Nonprofits
The power of using social media for nonprofits and charities is invaluable. Raising awareness and garnering support around your cause can literally skyrocket your engagement and donations overnight through social sharing.
There are many examples of nonprofits who have used social media successfully. Just take a look at the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge back in 2014 that went viral on Facebook. The idea caught on like wildfire and in 4 weeks there were 1 million Facebook videos and $94 million dollars raised for the cause.
A Successful Nonprofit Social Media Strategy Can Reap the Following Benefits:
Social Media for Nonprofits Engages and Increase Supporters
Social media gives a charity or nonprofit organization the ability to directly connect and engage with their supporters and donors. People who are engaged are more likely to continue to be involved with your organization and share your information with their network.
Fundraising Awareness/ Donations
Many charity donors turn to social media to help them spread the word about fundraising for their favorite cause. Many rely on their social network to get involved and make donations. Having a presence on social media gives people another resource to discover what your organization is about and what their donation will support.
Encourages Community Involvement
Using location hashtags, Facebook events and joining local social groups can help you build a stronger presence within your community.
Connect with Local Heroes and Influencers
By identifying those within your social network who have a big social following can help you significantly expand the reach of your nonprofit organization. Start with your current donors and supporters to identify who you already know and start networking with them.
Conclusion
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