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Marketing Pro Bono Project Highlight: Social Media Strategy

June 30, 2021 Service Area: Marketing Tips from Taproot

Nonprofits around the world handle shifts in fundraising and fluctuating resources every day, all while playing a crucial role in meeting community needs. Marketing pro bono can help these organizations make a communications plan and share their missions with the world.

We’re breaking down our webinar ‘Everything You Need to Know About Marketing Pro Bono’ project by project to highlight how working with specialized volunteers could help your organization tackle your marketing goals. Check out our latest installment below: creating a social media strategy.

Request a social media strategy project now through Taproot Plus.

How could a social media strategy help your nonprofit?

Social media is a great opportunity for nonprofits to reach a wide, diverse audience online. Taproot Foundation is a nonprofit too, and we’ve found social media an invaluable way to make those personal, one-one-one connections. The people who see your posts may become a part of your community, go to you for support/services, choose to donate, or sign up to volunteer!

It’s a huge area of opportunity, but social “spaces” are crowded and can be challenging to navigate. A volunteer with social media experience can help you figure out your goals, identify good strategies to use, and set your plans in motion.

How long will take to complete this project?

A typical social media strategy project takes between 24-32 hours to complete—with your volunteer working on the project with your team for two to five hours each week. Pro tip: get more advice on project timeline by watching our pre-recorded Facebook live session.

51% of nonprofits reported a need for social media support
Source: Taproot Foundation’s 2020 nonprofit resiliency survey

Any other tips on how to make the most of this pro bono project?

Have a clear idea of why you want to use social media in the first place. Do you want to reach more supporters? Get more folks engaged in your program? Activate potential online advocates? Answer those questions with your volunteer so they can build a social media strategy to meet those goals.
Set clear boundaries for what is in scope and what is out of scope. It’s a good idea to keep your project simple and specific—if your team needs different kinds of support, we recommend posting multiple projects! For example: maybe you’ll start with a social media strategy project, and then discover you’ll want to get some social media copywriting or photography done too. There’s no limit on how many projects you can post on Taproot Plus, so feel free to create as many as you need (even at the same time).
Be realistic about your own team’s bandwidth for moving forward with the strategy . Bandwidth is nothing to be shy about—volunteers who work with nonprofits know that! If you’ve got a small or resourced-strapped team, be realistic about how much time and energy you’ll be able to spend on it. If you’re planning to hire a staff member, bring on a fellow, or recruit another volunteer to carry out some of the work, be sure to share that as you plan.