Tell Me Something Meaningful
Purpose and Positioning of Website and Social Media
Browse through nonprofits' website and their social media, it is not uncommon in spotting organization after organization which utilize theirs for nothing more than promoting events that they have organized. What do you think about such a stance from a prospect's perspective One has to understand the underlying purpose of existence of a nonprofit or their mission, in particular charities? In short, it is to tackle an unaddressed social issue, may it be education, health, elderly, justice, environmental, animal's right and the list like this goes on. Agree? If so, what is the reason for an organization to organize events? I would say they are indeed the vehicle in supporting the delivery organization's mission and the mean in presenting of its answer to the unanswered issue. In this sense, should the organization put their emphasis on the issue rather than events? Have a look at the screenshot of the website of two charities. The first one is a Hong Kong-based medium sized organization. Approximately five-sixths of the most eye-catching area on its landing page was allotted to promote activities they organized and products they are selling. No mentioning of their mission. Nowhere to find the positive social impact they brought whereas beneficiary's story can only be found at the bottom one-sixth of the homepage.
Remember, the primary purpose people participating in such charitable events are not joining for the sake of joining an event but to support a cause that is close to their heart. So again the organization has to think thoroughly of what's the principal and crucial message to be presented on their primary tool in reaching out to the prospects and supporters. The second one is a Seattle, WA-based foundation. This is a static site with nothing on it but merely its mission statement, nothing to click on except the few buttons at the bottom connecting viewers to their social media.
Why hosting a website without anything meaningful?
On social media, in addition to applying the similar event promote approach, it worth to note there is another pretty common misapplication where organizations post identical items across all of its platforms without even the slightest adjustment. If one argues that it is because it helps to reach out to larger and different groups of people, then is it necessary to think again of the different profile, preference and online pattern of these groups and feed them accordingly? Differentiating the positions of various social media to achieve each of their decisive influence is the buzzword. I have come across one grassroots organization which is doing a better job on this front. Teen's Key is a Hong Kong organization in supporting and empowering girls at risk. It pins their Instagram account nicely and squarely on girls of whom they would like to reach out to as it is the leading platform these girls use for doing business and seeking information where their website and Facebook are more on advocacy and soliciting support.
One other frequent issue on social media usage is they tend to be overwhelmingly self-centered. The following screenshots illustrating two other fairly common practices of how organization post on their social media.
The one on the left keeps bombarding its Twitter followers with links directing them to the Facebook page. Worse, not a single description provided. Why one has to follow them on Twitter in the first place but not their Facebook page instead? The right-hand side one provides an extremely plain caption of what they do. No emotional hook or attachment, no impact demonstration. Essentially, every outbound communications from a charity should be either emotional driven or illustrate the societal impact they brought along.
On top of sharing of an organization’s updates, stories, impact, activities and alike, social media can also be positioned as an information platform in feeding followers with relevant material, may it be news, facts and figures, reports and etc. Such information is not necessary to be originated from the organization itself but from other sources, i.e. news, academic and professional researches, governments and other similar organizations. Because followers will soon find out and be amazed by the organization and its social media that it is such a resourceful mine for getting insights into the subject that they are interested in and is close to their heart. Consequently, followers will keep coming back or subscribe to the updates in hope for satisfying their hunger for info/knowledge. Apparently, it is one additional tool for supporters engagement which is absolutely low cost and easy to maintain, among all other engagement tactics. As a higher strategic application, social media can be leveraged as an engagement tool which not only charm and connecting with supporters and prospects but as an instant feedback device as well. To learn in real time the feedback that could make all the difference to their organizations. Some organizations still spend tens of thousands of dollars doing surveys hardly anybody bothers filling in, in hope of finding out what their teams and supports really think. If using strategically and to its full potential social media can provide such information on your fingertips. If they just logged online, they could find out a whole lot faster and have an instant platform to reply, sympathise, share and as importantly, say thank you.