Every year, Social Media Breakfast extends a noble gesture to two local non-profits by auditing their social media efforts. The audit insights, however, extend beyond the non-profits, ultimately benefiting all in attendance.

Social Media Breakfast President Josh Klemons noted that the audit is the most popular event every year. Once again, the November 20th event drew a packed house.

The audit format is simple. Two local non-profits allow three social media experts to critique their efforts. Conducting the audit and presenting the findings were:

Sarah Best, CEO + Chief Strategist of Sarah Best Strategy
Sara Finger, Founder & Executive Director, Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health
Jocelyn Fish, Director of Marketing & Development; Racine Theater Guild

Klemons noted that it’s not easy subjecting yourself to a public audit like this, and he commended participants Maydm and Art Lib Lab for opening themselves up to the feedback.

We’ve consolidated some of the comments in this post, and you can download the deck to see the rest of the feedback:

Website: https://maydm.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maydmtech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/maydmtech
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maydmtech/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/maydm/

Maydm provides girls and youth of color in grades 6-12 with skill-based training for the technology sector. Maydm’s holistic approach prepares students from traditionally underrepresented populations to engage in and revolutionize the tech industry.

Notes from Maydm’s application:

Strengths: Compelling mission, incredible students
Challenges: Small team, lack of social media plan, no budget
Goals: Maintaining a consistent presence, encouraging engagement by the students we serve

Recommendations:

Move more toward thinking about strategy, and focus on topics not posts.

Come up with a master checklist of what you want to talk about. Think about events, calls to action, and profiles. You don’t want to get stuck on just conveying events.

Look at other organizations in this space and see what they’re doing — such as Girl Scouts of America.

Keep up the great visual images. Feature people using their own words.

Shorten your posts to 1-2 lines. If you have more to say than that, drive your visitors to the website.

You have 4-5 different audiences — find out which social accounts they’re on. Avoid using the same content on different social media outlets. For example, you might have a little more fun on Instagram then you might on Twitter.

Ask questions to get people engaged, such as, “What are you excited about with this upcoming event?”

Put up a Google Business profile.

Build on your brand. How are you different from similar non-profits?

The “Why it Matters” section on your website is great. Reflect on that in your social media accounts.

Personalize your call-to-actions on the website. Salsa CRM is a great tool for non-profits that lets you personalize your message.

For your photos, watch out for blurry photos. Get stuff out of the background when you’re taking photos, and get as close to the subjects as possible. Use a lot of light.

Website: https://artlitlab.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtLitLab/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/artlitlab
Instagram: https://instagram.com/artlitlab/

Arts + Literature Laboratory (ALL) is a volunteer-run, community-based contemporary arts center located in south-central Wisconsin. We seek to nurture innovation and the artistic growth of contemporary visual, literary, and performing artists; to connect artists, resources and community; and to fuel a passion for arts and literature through inclusive programming that breaks down socio-economic and cultural barriers.

Notes from ALL’s Application

Strengths: Inclusive community, new space = excitement, programs lend themselves to social media. Staff have visual + writing talents.
Challenges: All volunteer org, promoting many programs effectively, helping audiences understand the breadth of our programming. New space = more work!
Goals: Sustainable and effective social media strategy, build our org capacity as we move into new space. Improve content and structure of our website.

Recommendations:

If you have a lot of content on your hard drive, get in a DropBox folder where everyone can access it. Organize photos in terms of types of photos, how they can be used, etc.

You have 5 people posting a month. Once a month, everyone needs to get together and talk about who is doing what. Create a schedule, and explore ideas for cross-promotion.

Explore the use of Canva, and create some templates that you can use — especially for poetry!

Reserve one day a week to talk about the organization as a whole.

Your community is not coming through. Show more people engaging. If there is an issue with including children on your feed, organize a special location at the event for kids and parents who have opted in for photos.

Get more info on the arts, artists and processes. Share the story behind the artists.

Be sure to respond to comments and reviews on your social feeds. Make sure you’re encouraging conversations.

Think about social media as a newspaper, and perhaps approach the platforms in the following way:
Facebook – Breaking news
Instagram – Feature stories
Twitter – Live reporting from the event

Keep promoting an event once it’s over. Are you sharing photos? Are you letting people know when the next event is?

Use Salsa CRM to bring your personality to your call to actions. Also use it to set up a Welcome letter and a response when someone subscribes.

Focus on your newsletter. Social media is a crapshoot, but a newsletter is something where people are opting in. It’s important to keep it going.

On the Support Us page, don’t just limit it to a “donation.” Make sure all the people know about different ways they can support your organization.

A reminder: Download the deck featuring all the experts’ comments.

Thanks to Sarah, Sara and Jocelyn for their insights, and Madym and for Art Lit Lab for participating in the audit.

Next month:
Let’s get social! An #SMBMad holiday networking extravaganza!

Happy holidays from SMBMad! In keeping with the spirit of the season, SMBMad is sweetening the deal. Instead of our traditional morning social media breakfast, we invite you to join us at the Old Sugar Distillery, on December 18th, from 5:30-8 p.m.

Learn more

This post was written by Greg Mischio, the Owner and Strategic Director of Winbound, a manufacturing marketing agency specializing in content marketing. Twitter: @gregmischio