image courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net
“There are many good reasons to try fundraising with social media. And there’s one important reason not to: Most of the time, it doesn’t work.” So says Cathy Qori, director of digital strategy at Catholic Charities of Baltimore in a recent post on Web Marketing Today. (Link to this important post for non-profits below.)
She goes on to say, “A Google search reveals that while there are more than 20 million stories about fundraising with social media, there are few reports of actual campaign success.”
But there are instances where social media marketing does work. An online publication for nonprofits reported a 40% increase in fundraising for nonprofits using social media in 2014.
Another nonprofit blog concluded that “Social media platforms aren’t necessarily fundraising engines. It’s the people using them that are.” People will donate to charities when other people ask them to, not when the institution itself does the soliciting.
And this gets at the heart of effective social media marketing. Nonprofits and businesses must realize that it isn’t their “list” of Likes or Followers that fuels successful social media, it’s the explosive power of people who share your content with THEIR lists.
You may have 400 Likes on Facebook, but when just 10 of those Likes share your content with their lists, it could reach thousands.
Our local Toastmasters Group, CNY Biztalkers, was typically reaching around 35 people or so with our brief and breezy Facebook posts describing that week’s meeting. After cajoling just two members to share the posts, that figure increased to 384 for one recent post and 230 and 274 reaches for two others. These are admittedly small numbers, but they’re recent and a prospective member got in touch to find out how to join just this weekend (July 4).
So, if you’re a nonprofit, read Cathy Qori’s post here. But no matter what your business, remember, it’s the sharing of your content that so powerfully gets the word out about your business on social media. And person to person fund raising works where institution to person really doesn't.
Of course, that means you’ve got to create content worth sharing…more to come on that important topic in upcoming posts.
Until then,
Nick
Nick Burns is a Web writer specializing in persuasive copywriting and content marketing. Nick’s services include SEO Web writing, website information architecture, content marketing, consulting, and publishing. He provides clients a winning online strategy plus the content writing to make it work. You can contact Nick here.
