Build a social media presence through beginner’s automation

The struggle is real – nonprofit organizations need to do more with less. From attracting and retaining donors to finding new sources of unrestricted funding, the priority list is long and endless. As many organizations in the charitable sector scramble to keep the lights on, the idea of developing a social media presence can seem like an impossible task. But thankfully, advancements in technology have opened the door for nonprofits to engage in social media in effective and efficient ways. Automation can be a nonprofit organization’s best friend and it requires a small investment of time to lay the groundwork for a potential large return.

Here are two practical and easy-to-use web applications to get you started.

Feedly
Feedly’s motto is organize, read and share what matters to you. It is a content aggregator website, which means that it will curate content from a variety of sources in a single place. Creating an account is free and simply requires an email address. Once signed in, you can start to organize your sources of content by “feed” (topic) through inputting key words or subject matter ideas into the search field. For example, you may want to post information about the charitable sector, so you could use the words “nonprofit” or “philanthropy”. If you wanted to share content related to management or general corporate trends, you could use the words “leadership” or “business”.

Feedly will automatically provide you with suggested content sources to follow and you can preview them to make sure that they are relevant to your needs. It also has a mobile app so you can read your content from anywhere. The feeds are synchronized across all of your devices so you won’t have to remember whether or not you have already read a specific article.

Using Feedly can help nonprofits curate high-quality, diversified, and pertinent information and articles. It is a one-stop shop to help build and grow a social media presence while maximizing your organization’s time and resources.

Tip: A little goes a long way, and after creating a couple of feeds, you will see that there will be lots of articles to choose from!

Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a multi-purpose social media management system that allows you to: track your social media networks, schedule your posts, and monitor engagement in a single place. There is a free version (note: there is a limit of 3 social media channels for the free version) and to get started, you need to create an account with an email address. Once you have registered and connected your networks to Hootsuite, you can then start to source your content by creating “streams”.

Streams are targeted types of content that can be topic and network specific. For example, once you have connected your nonprofit organization’s Twitter page to Hootsuite, you can create a stream based on the subject matter you are interested in. For example, if you are looking for information related to philanthropy, you can type the word “charity” or “nonprofit” into the search field, and Hootsuite will automatically filter and display content on these topics directly from multiple Twitter feeds into your stream.

In addition to sourcing content, Hootsuite allows you to automatically schedule your social media posts to each of your respective networks (note: your social media channels must already be connected to Hootsuite to do this!). After scheduling your posts, you can also monitor the response and engagement that your content is generating, and you can reply directly to your audience from Hootsuite.

Tip: When you are scheduling your posts, be sure to vary the days and times at which you are posting, so it doesn’t look like it is fully automated.

Feedly and Hootsuite are just two of the many social media automation tools that currently exist in the marketplace. Depending on your nonprofit organization’s budget and human resources, you may also want to consider additional web applications such as Co-Schedule and MeetEdgar, just to name a few.

Developing a social media presence may seem daunting, but using these basic automation tools can help nonprofit organizations make the most of their time and human resources to engage with wider audiences and increase the potential of raising more funds. Let S. Sutton & Associates Inc. help you make the biggest impact possible. Contact us today so we can be your guides and provide you with the right roadmap and the right experts!