8 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Social Media to Drive Traffic

September 08, 2011

Social media is the new Mad Men. If you haven’t seen the hit television show on AMC, it basically depicts the American advertising boom of the 1960’s, although it’s safe to say that social media isn’t quite as theatrical. It’s much more effective, however – so effective, in fact, that most real life ad agencies even want you to add them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. Go figure!

What does this all mean? Nowadays, the mighty Google considers social media sharing as one of its most important factors in determining how useful and relevant a website is. Needless to say, it’s very important for your nonprofit organization in more ways than one as you will see.

Not only will your website receive direct traffic from social sharing, but it will climb in the search engine results. When it comes to web traffic nothing beats ranking on the first page in search engines. That’s what you’re here for, right – to make your website look like Interstate 95 on 4th of July Weekend.

First Thing's First

Every great idea/movement/cause has a plan. The social media landscape is vast, so you need to devise a strategy before you take off on this adventure. It will pay dividends in the long run. Here’s what you do:

Different social media serve different purposes – Know what each platform does best. Research.
Create a social media plan – This is the same thing as a marketing plan, but for social media. Strategize.
Your efforts are rewarded by the work you put into it – No work means, No gain. Be Relentless.

Take a minute to consider these Facebook statistics:

Facebook has more than 750 million active users
50% of users log on to Facebook in any given day
The average user has 130 friends
People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

That is an awful lot of potential traffic for you to drive to your website from Facebook alone. Even if you received one tenth of one percent of the total daily users from Facebook, the potential is 375,000 visitors a day to your website! It sounds absurd, but it’s true.

It’s like going on a fishing trip when everything is biting and you just have to bait the hook. Do it wrong, the bait becomes free lunch, but do it right and you have yourself a keeper! So here we go…

Tell Your Story

You should be using social media to tell your story. Why do you exist? What is your message? Who is involved? Tell the world as much as you can about your organization. Be interesting, resonant, and dynamic in your origins. In today’s tech-savvy world, a Facebook page and Twitter handle is a must have.

Make it Visual

The common saying is out of sight, out of mind. Give people something to see and think about. Nothing has a stronger impact than the use of visual imagery.Whether your nonprofit organization is a local food bank or a global reach effort, illustrating your cause goes a long way in peaking people’s interest.

The hunger crisis in Africa would be an afterthought if not for haunting images and video of starving children. This is not an overstatement. There are thousands of causes that people just do not resonate with because it’s not affecting them.

Post, Post, Post & Post Some More

Keep your social network as active as possible. Most of us are followers by nature and in the realm of social networking; you are the leader of your cause. Posting regularly allows your followers to stay up to date on current events within your movement. Allow them to respond to posts. Comments, suggestions, and questions will further the community aspect of your organization’s social network.

Engage the Audience

Involving your audience is a key point in having your social media efforts succeed. Make them feel that their interest, participation, and efforts are making way for change. Talk with your community, ask for their help, not just their money (although never turn it down)! Give them something to do. The closer people work with organizations, the more attached they feel towards the cause.

You should also take a look at Change.org. This website exists to build an international network of people empowered to fight locally, nationally, and globally. More importantly, Change.org helps nonprofits grow their membership by connecting them with people passionate about their cause. They exist to help your nonprofit succeed. It’s a no brainer really!

Follow & Work Together With Similar Organizations

Power in numbers says it all. Reap the rewards of their others’ networks. Working together with related organizations will not only boost your credibility on social networks, but will also give your website more authority within the scope of the World Wide Web. The opportunity to gain powerful inbound links from trusted sources and a broader range of PR for your website exists if you are involved with similar reputable groups.

There's An App for That

By now, you’ve probably seen the Causes app on Facebook, but if you haven’t, it’s impressive. Creating a page for your organization through Causes connects it to an extensive network of non-profit and cause related organizations.

The true value of this Web App is that community supporters can create their own causes within your cause and directly link back to your parent cause. The visibility of your website increases tenfold (or more) with use of this application.

The Facebook Causes application is a must for any organization looking to social media for driving traffic to its website.

Feed Your Blog to Your Social Media Accounts

Blogging is essential for nonprofits. A blog is considered social media and connects with your readers on a more personal level. It’s written to your audience rather than for a specific audience. This will not only keep the content fresh for your website, but you can feed it into the rest of your social media accounts, to which it can then spread like a virus.

You can Tweet a link to your Facebook page, which has a blog entry that was imported from your website. Do you get the big picture? There are so many combinations to make this work to your advantage. Find a system and stick with it.

Create the Social Media Machine

Combine your efforts. Take all of your social media accounts and link them together. Take advantage of the time efficient status updates that makes Twitter so useful. Include YouTube videos or Flickr images on your blog entries and set up your Facebook page so that all of your tweets become Facebook posts.

There are so many possibilities in building a strong social media presence. Most importantly, a strong social media rep increases authority within search engines. Interlinking your social media accounts serves to strengthen your appeal and allows for maximum flexibility for your outreach efforts.

All of these measures are not foolproof, but with the proper social media strategy in place, you can drive a significant amount of traffic to your website.

Albert Schweitzer once said, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing”. Once you become the leader of your cause on the social network, others will follow.