4 Ways to Use Social Media for Your Organization

Picture by fredcavazza

Coming back from staff conference, I am appreciative of my colleagues in embracing social media. In particular, Twitter was used effectively in sharing thoughts, getting information out and answering questions stemming from main sessions and breakout working groups.

To help those new to social media we put on a social media scavenger hunt. It was simple and consisted of tasks to be finished by day and an honour system submission form saying you finished to put your name for prizes at the end of the conference. The tasks focused on using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.

What was the end goal? It was to help those in non-profit organizations to use social media effectively in engaging people with their message. For us, it was to help people discover Jesus. Here are some suggestions on using social media for your organization.

1. Engage with your constituents on Facebook by creating a Facebook Page for your organization. In this space, post in such away to garner responses. Check out these 6 helpful suggestions. My favourite ones are make a caption for a photo and fill in the blanks. Another great idea is to ask how you or your team can pray for your followers.
2. Use Twitter to listen in on what people are saying. Michael Hyatt's helpful social media framework lists one way to use social media as an outpost. Search keywords that help you understand what your target audience is thinking.  
3. Share photos of events on Instagram to raise awareness of what your organization is doing.  Pictures link your purpose and vision to reality. Have a central staff manage your Instagram account and have the rest send him/her pictures to post. Use creative captions and common hashtags to help spread your cause. 
4. Create quality videos to post to Youtube and share on Facebook and Twitter. Pictures are worth a thousand words, how much more are they on video? Whether it is an update on events or a documentary related to your cause, video is powerful and can be reshared using other tools. Youtube's recommended viewing tools will also help to spread the video around within Youtube. 

How are you using social media for your organization? What are some best practices that have worked for your organization?