How can you fundraise successfully with social media? Use these 11 steps to find social media success:
- Have faith in yourself. Even if you don't consider yourself a social media guru, remember this is all just another form of personal networking and you can do it.
- Have faith in your audience. Give them respect, control and visibility.
- Define your desired outcome. Ask who and why before how.
- Decide if social media will help get you there. Facebook and Twitter are great tools, but it doesn't mean they're always the right tools for every piece of outreach.
- Borrow, don’t build, your tools. Leverage existing platforms and best practices for best results.
- Social media is about “social,” not “media,” so put people first.
- Find your wired fundraisers. These digital leaders are plugged in and understand how to rally their networks.
- Think like the Marine Corps: the few, the proud. Having a large social network can be a great benefit, but it doesn't help your cause if there's no depth of quality.
- Help your supporters crank your word of mouth buzz up to 11.
- Provide a sense of urgency – think competitions and deadlines.
- Plug your wired fundraiser into great resources:
- Help them create a good badge/widget
- Create an area of your site with starter text, images, video just for sharing
- Keep them aware and updated about matching grant campaigns and contests
- Make it easy to share and tell stories; making it personal is important
- Have a 1:1 relationship with them
- Thank people!
