Tag: social media

Even if you have very little interest in social media, you will probably have seen the series of headlines generated around the world by Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter. If you do have a keen interest in social media, you have probably read countless articles about the ongoing fallout and regular dramas that keep unfolding from that situation. It raises important questions about the culturally dominant (in influence if not active users) microblogging platform and its future, particularly for nonprofits and their engagement on that platform.

Social media is hard to keep up with! There are changes and new features all the time. So that’s why we do all the hard work for you by publishing a monthly round-up. Welcome to our 21st social media round-up for charities.

The tenth episode of the Reclaim Social Podcast is now live! 🎉 We’ve talked to Matt Navarra, Social Media Consultant and Expert, about the social media trends for 2020 and how to make the most of our social media presence on each platform.

Whether you work in a large team or a small one, it’s important that your social media is consistent in tone of voice, brand and even how often you post. Think of your social media channels as a cake. The cake may be made up of many ingredients but you still only want one cook. So how do you ensure that your cake is a Great British Bake Off showstopper and not a crumbling mess? You need a watertight recipe.

Modern fundraising and marketing are so interlinked that it’s sometimes hard to know where one ends and the other begins. At its core, fundraising is about building relationships with individuals or groups who want to give – so it’s no surprise that social media has become an essential tool for charities.

World Social Media Day is celebrated every year on the 30th of June. Mashable started this day back in 2010 as a way to acknowledge the impact of social media in our daily lives. If you’ve managed social media channels at any point as part of your job, then you understand how they can help you amplify your message to a wider audience.

If I asked you what your charity’s tone of voice is, I bet most of you would say something like: friendly, warm and supportive. Or, informal but professional. These are all well and good but if every charity has the same tone of voice, how can you stand out in a sea of noise? One way is to have a distinctive tone of voice that’s consistent and instantly recognisable.

Last week Social Misfits Media published their latest guide Make It Social, which is proudly sponsored by Lightful and the Institute of Fundraising. I caught up with Carlos Miranda, CEO of Social Misfits Media and Chairman of Lightful, to find out a bit more about the guide and why all charities need to download it immediately!

Here at Lightful it’s been both a busy and rewarding year. We’ve run lots of user-testing sessions to improve the platform, launched #ReclaimSocial, spoken at conferences and events, built websites for clients, launched three training programmes (more on that in 2019) and we were even up for an award!

It’s not enough to just have a presence on social media. You need to be producing content that inspires, informs, engages and converts people to your cause. But how can you tell whether your posts are successful or not?

There’s an ancient proverb that says,

This is a guest post by Nikki Bell, winner of the Social CEOs Rising Star Award.

We’re delighted to be supporting NCVO, CharityComms, Small Charities Coalition, FSI, the Institute of Fundraising and ACEVO to celebrate the difference supporters make to charities with their #YouMadeItHappen campaign, which takes place on Monday, 19 November.

This is a guest post by Helena Hastings, Digital Officer at Sounddelivery.

This is a guest post by Nikki Bell, Fundraising Relationship Manager at British Heart Foundation. During my time at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), I’ve utilised social media as a relationship finding and building tool because – as the only fundraiser looking after a large corner of the UK – I need to be smart with how I work! It’s helped me find the doers in my community who are keen to support us, to communicate easily with volunteers (on a platform they’re already engaging with), and most importantly, it’s added an extra layer of supporter appreciation.

As someone who works in social media, you understand the importance of how it can help increase brand awareness, support for your cause, and even funds. More importantly, you understand how it can bring you closer to your supporters, volunteers and donors as well as help you find new ones. But now your manager, CEO or even your board want you to PROVE that all that time and resource is worth the investment.

Although World Social Media Day was at the end of June, it got us thinking about what it takes to be a social media manager. What skills and qualities do you need to be great at your job?

Welcome to our sixth social media round-up! Here’s the latest social media news and what it means for your charity.

Love is love is love. And who knows this better than the sector which is built on love – love of human rights, animals, the environment, finding cures, funding research, saving lives, helping people etc – and is run with love, by passionate people? This post is all about how the sector got involved in Pride 2018.

Welcome to our fifth social media round-up! Here’s the latest social media news and what it means for your charity.

To mark World Social Media Day on Saturday, we asked a few people in the sector what their standout moment or moments on social media have been. Some have chosen personal moments whilst others have chosen moments not related to them. One thing is for sure, social media has certainly proved to be a force for good.

This Saturday marks World Social Media Day. To celebrate, we thought we’d ask social media managers for their top tips. Enjoy!

Last week we attended Third Sector’s Fundraising Week. Our Director of Development, Haydn Thomas, and Kirsty Marrins, who works with us, were on the Advisory Board and helped put the two-day programme together. We had a stand over the two days and on the Wednesday both Kirsty and Haydn delivered sessions. It was a great two days, packed full of interesting and thought-provoking keynotes, workshops, sessions and conversations. Here’s what we learnt.

LinkedIn is a social network for professionals and has over 500 million users worldwide, with an estimated 22 million in the UK. It’s the perfect platform to reach corporate partners, high net worth individuals, CSR managers, leaders and decision makers. It’s also very different to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. So how can you make the most of it?

Twitter has around 330 million monthly active users, making it one of the most popular social media networks. It’s a micro-blogging site where tweets happen in real time. Unlike Facebook, most people on Twitter have public accounts, meaning it’s easy to engage with them directly. Twitter is all about conversations.

This blog post comes with a caveat. Whilst the heading implies that the charities below are ‘winning’ at Pinterest – meaning they are using it successfully – they are and they aren’t. Keep reading and I’ll explain why…

Welcome to our third social media roundup! Here’s the latest social media news and what it means for your charity.

Sunday 22nd April saw over 40,000 runners take part in the Virgin Money London Marathon with over 2,000 charities benefiting from their fundraising efforts. So far over £45 million has been raised for good causes. We take a look at some great London Marathon content from charities.

Twitter recently announced that they’re cracking down on automation and the use of multiple accounts to share the same message. They said in a statement, ‘Twitter prohibits any attempt to use automation for the purposes of posting or disseminating spam, and such behaviour may result in enforcement action.’

Welcome to our second social media roundup! Here’s the latest social media news and what it means for your charity.