Social media engagement trends are becoming pivotal for marketing success, whether your organization is for a profit or not. Marketing principles for social media can apply to nonprofits and those selling products or services. As a bonus, it is highly cost-effective (Forbes).
And worth it! According to Nonprofits Source:
- 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media take some sort of action.
- 59% of those people donate money.
- 40% subsequently purchase a product that benefits that charity.
So, what does this mean for nonprofits crowdfunding online?
Whether you are one person looking to make a small change or a large nonprofit benefitting multiple regions worldwide, your success will come from the community rallying behind you.
Let’s look at some of the top trends propelling social media engagement forward and the tools ConnectionPoint offers to work alongside them.
Trend #1 – Building communities via social media
According to nearly every social media expert and resource, a strong focus should be on communities. Success in crowdfunding comes from trust, and trust comes from community.
If you’ve spent time on social media, you’ve seen these communities and may even be part of them. Subreddits, Facebook groups, and Instagram and TikTok influencers focus on a niche interest and stick to that interest.
The key is to build your community wherever your target audience spends their time. Generally, nonprofits say Facebook is their most important platform, with X (Twitter) and YouTube coming in second and third (Nonprofits Source).
It’s part of our Crowdfunding Promotion Toolkit to identify this audience and where you can find them. Do this exercise and start on the platforms that will help you get the most engagement.
Trend #2 – Vary the type of content you post
Short-form videos (less than one minute) are the most engaging content (Forbes). However, long-form videos (two to five minutes) are apparently making a comeback (Hootsuite). Not only that, text-only posts are still popular, as are ‘photo-dumps’ (what we older ones would call carousels; Hootsuite).
Based on this, we recommend varying the content type you post. Be strategic – don’t post 30-minute-long videos every day while occasionally throwing in some pictures and short-form videos – but don’t stick to one thing, either.
Snippets of your fundraising campaign video, pictures, milestones, updates, and comments are all great, shareable content. We know we boast about our platform’s direct sharing capabilities, but you cannot simply post your campaign every day and expect the internet to drop everything and click the link. So, just as you need to vary your general social media posts, change how you promote and share your crowdfunding campaign.
Trend #3 – Be authentic
Again, crowdfunding success comes with trust from your community. And the driver behind this trust is authenticity (Forbes, Hootsuite, and every other article on social media trends). Your goal is for followers to support your organization rather than just your campaign (Social Media Examiner).
Each post should be carefully curated to showcase your nonprofit’s values and motives, as well as both wins and losses.
This does not mean you must spill your deepest, darkest secrets to the internet. But you do want to be honest and real. If you’re struggling with a project or campaign aspect, say so! Not only will supporters appreciate you more, but they might also have helpful suggestions to get you through.
And when you ‘win,’ get excited and share that too! Your supporters are part of that win, and it’s also in our crowdfunding storytelling guidelines to ensure they know they’ve made a difference.
Trend #4 – Build your bio up with keywords
Google beware!
Particularly as Gen Z comes of age, people now use social media rather than search engines to search for information and products more often (Hootsuite). And platforms like Instagram and TikTok respond by targeting relevant keywords in posts and bios.
So, there are two things you can do:
- Find the optimal keywords to target for your nonprofit’s focus. Plenty of free resources exist to help you discover the most used words, phrases, and questions users tend to input when searching for content. Write your social media bio around these keywords and insert them into your posts.
Link to your organization profile as a free space to post all other links you want supporters to know about.
Trend #5 – Shift focus from ‘vanity metrics’ to shareable content
Vanity metrics refer to aspects that don’t necessarily mean too much, like number of followers or likes. Considering bots now exist that will like and follow random posts, we’re moving away from that being a metric of a strong profile.
Shareable content is where it’s at.
There are two things my Instagram social feeds are inundated with:
- Contest posts that urge you to share them on your stories, and
- Posts with funny or loving messages meant for sending to other users. For example, (my favourite): Send this to someone, and if they don’t respond in an hour, they owe you a puppy.
As you can tell, these posts are designed to be shared. Sharing content suggests to the platforms’ algorithms that it contains something valuable and is a way to get your profile in front of new users. But posts like the above don’t suggest authenticity. And they don’t provide YOU with much value because those with whom the posts are shared are likely not your target audience.
Shareable content is the non-salesy kind, like educational content, which is more likely to also appear in searches (Hootsuite). You have information and skills to share: beneficiary stories, background information on your nonprofit and staff, lessons, statistics… the list is indefinite.
The Social Media Examiner interviewed renowned social media marketing expert Katie Brinkley, and I love her ‘4-post method.’ Here is the link – have a look for inspiration!
Trend #6 – Analytics are crucial and will just keep getting better
Every social media platform has its own analytics, but consider purchasing more advanced apps. Like our campaign referral links, these analytics will help you determine which social media platform results in the most engagement.
From there, you can determine which types of posts are viewed, shared, and commented on the most and keep creating more of them. But you must always be looking because social media users and algorithms alike are mysterious and constantly changing their behaviours.
Our new Community tool will be gold for your campaign analytics, but AAAAH I CAN’T SAY MORE YET 🙊
Now go forth and socialize!
No matter the size of your campaign – whether you’re aiming for $500 for an urgent need or $500,000 for a massive project – building a social media community will be imperative to long-term success.
And we have the perfect (and FREE!) kit to help you get started:
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