How to talk to all your non profit stakeholders at the same time on social media

If you're a non profit you're undoubtedly trying to talk to all different kinds of people all the time. People who would benefit from your support, people who are potentially interesting in supporting you, people who already support you, people in charge of funding decisions. It's A LOT. 

Add to that trying to talk to all those people on one social channel and including all the information that would be relevant to each group and you get a big ol' mess. In trying to be interesting to everyone, you become interesting to no-one.

If this is you, and you're pulling your hair out and the powers that be don't understand why your engagement is stagnant even though you keep posting, it's time to pause, step back and regroup. And think about how you can talk to each group individually based on where they spend their time. Because it's hugely unlikely that all your different groups are predominantly on the one channel you're trying to talk to them on, which you might even have chosen arbitrarily because you knew your team just had to get started somewhere. 

Break your audience down into groups.

For instance - let's say you're a non profit working with young adults. 

Your funders are professionals working for funding bodies. They may be on Tiktok for dance inspiration or the hot chip challenge, but when they have their work-heads on, is it not more likely that they are on LinkedIn? Look at your contacts' profiles, their activity and the activity of the funding body itself - if they are active on the channel then you should be too. Focus your content on the areas that matter the most to your existing and potential funders - how you are using your funds, what you're achieving, how you are making a difference, who you are partnering with and to what end etc

Your beneficiaries are young adults. Of course there are exceptions, but they are more likely to be on Tiktok as their channel of choice. Some may be on older or more professionally-focused channels too, but you're not talking to them as professionals, you are talking to them as people in their free time, so you need to be where they choose to hang out in that time. Focus your content on how your beneficiaries feel during and after receiving your support for maximum engagement.

Your existing and prospective supporters. It's so important to get to grips with who these people are and what they have in common. Unless they are extremely young, Facebook and Instagram are most likely your target channels for this group because again, you are talking to them in their spare time, not as professionals. Focus on storytelling here - who are you helping, the difference you are making and why people should support you. Testing the same content across both channels and comparing the data will help you gauge where you get the most engagement (by that I mean likes, comments, shares and page follows) and what content works best for you. From there you can either focus on one, or if engagement is similar, continue with both.

The great news? Once you understand where your people are and break down your subject matter into what's relevant to each group, it becomes significantly easier to create content. And you don't need to reinvent the wheel each time you sit down to create content - the same piece of information can be tweaked to make it relevant to each group. Finally, when it comes to paid ads, you're already clear on what works for which group and where, which saves you time and money in the long-run. Win win!