Do you wish you had a larger audience? Does your organization have a story to tell? As nonprofit leaders, you know about advocacy and policy, assessment and evaluation, and volunteer recruitment and management. Social media is the best forum to practice all of these things as well as to reach new audiences, gather feedback, share your latest projects, and build relationships. Read on for five tips on how to utilize social media at your organization.

1. Have a voice. Know your audience and address them accordingly. If your organization focuses on youth, don’t post mature articles or videos and speak in a playful, engaging manner. If your organization focuses on serving the military community, you might speak in a more structured and direct manner.

2. Post frequently. It is important to post at least a couple days every week. Readers expect to see interesting and relevant information when they follow a page, and don’t want to wait weeks in between posts.

3. Respond to people’s questions and comments. Even though you’re not speaking face-to-face, or corresponding through e-mail, you still need to use etiquette in your social media interactions. Respond to people’s questions and comments with polite and helpful answers. If you do not have an answer for their question, let them know that you will find out and get back to them or refer them to a knowledgeable person. Just as you should post frequently, you also should not wait more than a day to respond to each post.

4. Delegate the responsibility to one person or team. To make sure you are using a consistent voice that is posting on a regular schedule from a branded page, delegate the social media responsibility to one person. You may even need to create a full time position to manage all of the social media i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Blogspot.

5. Don’t be modest. Keep your followers in the know by sharing your organization’s most important projects, campaigns, and accomplishments. Sharing these will keep your followers tuned in and keep your organization on people’s minds.

Promising Practices: Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the hashtags on Twitter? Here are a few examples for nonprofits to use:

#volunteer

#philanthropy

#cause

#sm4p

#nptech

Does your organization utilize social media? Let us know how in the comments below.