Nearly two-thirds of adults in the United States are on social media. If you’re running a school fundraiser, this means that many parents, students, community members and other potential donors are on social media. Managing social media profiles for school fundraisers is a great way to communicate with your audience, but it requires a unique approach. We share some of our top lessons on using social media for school fundraising.
Know Your Platforms
You may already know major social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, but it’s important to understand each one of these in the specific context of fundraising. Each platform is set up in a unique way and has a unique audience. Because of this, it is better to share certain types of content on specific platforms. For example, Instagram is ideal for sharing pictures of students working on a fundraiser, while LinkedIn is perfect for sharing an industry-specific article that relates to your fundraiser goal.
In our e-book, we put together a cheat sheet that outlines ideas for posts and the social media platforms for which each post is appropriate.
Post Great Content
Post a variety of content. Some content should inspire and tell your fundraiser’s story, while some should communicate matter-of-fact information regarding participation. To get more engagement on your fundraiser's social media posts, follow these three tips:
1. Create a hashtag for your fundraiser. Encourage students and donors to use this hashtag.
2. Include pictures with every post, as posts with images almost always receive higher engagement.
3. Share relevant content from outside sources. This includes articles, blog posts, pictures and videos.