News

Social media top tips for the third sector

Social media can be a fantastic resource for charities in particular when communicating your cause and key messages. The world of communications has shifted quite dramatically over the last 2 years due to the pandemic and this is where the importance of social media comes in! We asked Amy part of Inspiring Scotland’s Communications team for her social media top tips for the third sector.

Social media can be a great tool to keep your key stakeholders up to date with your organisation’s news, but it may also seem daunting to have to integrate this into your charity’s communications arsenal – especially if you are tight on time and resource. As Communications Officer at Inspiring Scotland, I manage many accounts across different social networks everyday. So here are my top tips to make your social media communications shine and save you time!

1. Target your social approach. Find out what platform your audience is on and tailor your content to suit! For example if you are targeting donors or businesses LinkedIn might be best, whereas if you are speaking to the local community Facebook would be well suited. Targeting your social media communications to your audience is the first step to increasing engagement. Here’s a great blog to get you started identifying your target audience.
2. Try content batching! Content batching is a productivity technique where you create all your social media communications for the coming weeks in a set period of time. Establish two or four days out of the month (block them out in your calendar – it could even be a morning each week) to create content in batches for the upcoming weeks ahead. This will create boundaries and help you to focus – leading to more efficient and effective social media communications.
3. Schedule ahead. Scheduling social media ahead of time also helps maximise your time. Posts can be scheduled with tools like Hootsuite or directly on the social media platform itself. This works really well with the content batching approach.
4. Tap in to conversations to raise your profile. For example, you may want to engage in awareness days that align with your mission, such as Challenge Poverty week or Mental Health Awareness week. Be sure to use the hashtags from the event – this will index your content – allowing new users to see and engage with your posts. Using these awareness days hashtags is a fantastic way to increase your reach and grow your followers.
5. Utilise free resources and training. Third sector lab offer digital skills training for the third sector and often run some fantastic free social media workshops. The media trust also offer training for charities on anything from how to use social media analytics to creating a full social media strategy — sign up to their newsletter to be the first to know about any upcoming training. Our Specialist Volunteer Network may also be able to help, check out these top free digital tools or get in touch with the team to see how we can help.