The Power of Social Media

Did you know…

  • Facebook currently has over 2 billion daily active users.
  • YouTube has almost 2 billion active users.
  • Instagram has 1 billion.
  • Twitter has approximately 330 million,
  • LinkedIn has 303 million, and
  • Pinterest has 250 million.

Your current audience and potential audience members are DEFINITELY on at least one, if not more of these social media platforms. With such a staggering number of people using social media every single day, it is one of the most POWERFUL tools for growth.

Social media platforms allow you to attract new members and connect with audiences that you never would otherwise. And if your organization isn’t location-dependent, you can reach customers thousands of miles away through social media.

Many organizations think that if they simply start posting on social media, they’ll be successful and attract new audience members. But it doesn’t work this way. In order to build your organization through social media, it’s essential to have a strategy for engaging with your audience.

It’s not enough to post across a variety of social media networks. Without a definitive plan for how you’re going to use social media, you probably won’t get the results that you want.

Choose Your Platforms

Instead of trying to post on every social media platform out there, focus on the one or two that will have the most impact on your organization.

In order to do this, you need to know your audience. Consider the following:

  • Where do they spend most of their time when it comes to social media?
  • Where do they like to interact with others?
  • What sites influence them to interact?
  • Who are the biggest influencers in your space and what platforms do they use?

Be where your audience is. Publish most of your content on the social media site where your audience hangs out the most. After all, you want your audience to interact with your content.

If you don’t know where your audience spends most of their social media time, simply ask them! Send out an email to your list and ask them to tell you what social media platforms they use the most. Create a poll on several different social media sites and ask your followers to respond.

Another great way to determine where your audience spends their time is to look at the content you’ve already posted on social media and see what has gotten the biggest response.

One other thing to consider when choosing your social media platform is what you’re selling. Depending on your organizations’ services, one platform may be more effective than another.

As you consider which platform(s) to use, it’s essential that you think smaller rather than bigger. In other words, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin across multiple social media platforms.

It would be better to focus on and master one or two platforms than to try to constantly post on ten different ones. You will get better results if you give 100% of your energy to a few platforms instead of 25% of your energies to a bunch of different platforms.

At the end of the day, what matters most is not the particular platform you choose but rather that you choose one and stick with it. When it comes to social media, consistency is almost always the most effective way to win an audience. So in conclusion, post where they interact and be consistent in the posts.

🔥 HOT TIP: Even if your organization does NOT have a website, it should have a Facebook page. Why? Announcements, directions, events, call-out for volunteers, updates… so many things. GET A FACEBOOK PAGE!

Coming next week: How To Optimize Your Social Media Profile

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