How to promote my nonprofit on social media

Recent research from Hootsuite puts numbers to an insight that you probably already knew intuitively: a third of social media audiences have a negative view of organizations that “promote themselves too much.” Maybe you feel that way, too.

But uhm…isn’t it literally your job to promote your nonprofit? If you work in nonprofit communications, isn’t promotion literally your job? How can you be expected to promote your nonprofits brand if people have negative views of that sort of thing?

Here’s the trick:

Don’t promote your nonprofit directly (at least, not much); promote your nonprofit indirectly.

Instead of a post that says “ACME Community Center: Serving Our Community since 1975,” write posts of a different variety. 

Here are a few examples, and categories to jumpstart your thinking. Please note, this content also helps achieve another basic target: create shareable content.

Write informative content: “The ACME Community has the highest population density in Florida.” Or “Did You Know? Since 2015, the town of ACME has only invested $3 per year per unhoused person?” Infographics are another great way to do this. 

When you post informative content, you don’t have to say “AND BY THE WAY THIS CONTENT CAME FROM ACME COMMUNITY CENTER WE’RE SO GREAT!” You barely have to acknowledge your nonprofit at all. After all, it’s being posted to your social media account. Anyone who cares knows who you are. Just post good content, appropriately branded. 

Post Inspirational Content:  This can vary dramatically. The best inspirational content comes from your nonprofit’s work. Instead of posting “ACME COMMUNITY CENTER HELPS PEOPLE IN ACME COMMUNITY,” share an inspirational story of one of your clients. Inevitably, that story will tell the story of your role in the client’s life. But the more you genuinely tell the client’s story, the better the content is. 

Focus On The Donor:  This can vary dramatically. Focusing on the donor can be tricky. Done in certain ways, this seems like self-promotion. For example, If you posted “JOHN JIMENEZ DONATED $100 TO ACME COMMUNITY CENTER,” that’s getting close to self-promotion. Perhaps those types of posts are occasionally helpful, but you don’t want a lot of them. Instead, tell the stories of donors, similar to the way you tell the stories of clients (or staff!). What difference has your nonprofit made in the life of your donor? Tell that story, and it’s inspirational.

There are more categories of content that promote your nonprofit without overtly promoting your nonprofit. In fact, a great gallery of ideas, with examples, is on our page featuring video content.

One last point: avoiding self-promotion does not mean avoiding good graphic design. You should still use your branding. You should still often put your logo on social media content. That’s not what frustrates people, and leads them to reject “self-promotion.” Keep that up!

One more last point: Avoiding self-promotion in general doesn’t mean “never talk about yourself.” It’s a question of ratios. Do less self-promotion, not zero self-promotion. Your organization is great, and you should be proud of it.

At Capital Hope Media, we help nonprofits communicate more effectively by focusing on Three Areas: Branding & Identity, Communications Planning, and Content Creation. If your nonprofit is struggling in one of those three areas, schedule a meeting with us, and let’s see if CHM can help your nonprofit improve.