June 4, 2012; Source: Razoo

Razoo has compiled a checklist of social media fundraising strategies for their upcoming online fundraising event Twive and Receive. These tips could help nonprofits utilize social media to drive giving and to empower their followers to take action.

With Twitter, take advantage of social media tools that will help you analyze if your tweets are effective, such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or Bitly. These platforms allow you to view how many clicks each tweet received, and will give you the capabilities to send several tweets throughout the day and view which message was most successful. Also, engage with and follow other Twitter users with similar missions to your organization. Make sure to follow them and RT (that’s re-tweet) some of their content; hey, they may even return the favor—perhaps with a donation.

Many organizations create Facebook pages simply because it’s what everyone is doing, without really taking the time to strategize or reflect on what Facebook can do for you. Clarify what your nonprofit is really asking of your online supporters. Is it donations? Getting Facebook users to sign an online petition? What can your supporters do for you beyond simply clicking “like?” A handy tip is to try to including images with all of your posts. Razoo recommends posting between 9 and 10 a.m. because many users are on during these times. That sounds good to us in terms of an initial post, but, as we have noted before, another study has found that there is a better time to post to Facebook in terms of generating click-throughs. Also, make sure to keep your Facebook posts short and sweet; adhering to tweet lengths will capture the attention of more users than writing several paragraphs of text. This goes for donation requests, too.

Meanwhile, Pinterest is all about the images, so make sure you are posting inspiring and captivating images that are worth repinning. Engage with other users; like, repin, and comment on other posts. Make sure you aren’t solely self-promoting on Pinterest, and know that pinning content from organizations similar to your own could help build relationships with others that might eventually turn into dollars.

With so many fundraising events being driven by social media and online engagement, ensure that your organization is successfully developing your networks. Do you have any good social media tips and tricks to add to this list for your comrades in the nonprofit sector? –Aine Creedon