How to promote your fundraiser with social media? Read on and learn critical skills to ignite your auction. Social media is a powerful promotional tool that is fairly easy to learn and incorporate into your marketing plan.
Social media, particularly Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn (in that order), are free tools to promote fundraisers successfully for your organization’s cause, as long as you create a plan and stick with it. or as we like to say, “Keep your foot on the gas.” Here are five key steps to help ensure your social networking successfully steers bidders to your online charity auction event. That’s how to promote your fundraiser with social media.
1. Keep your foot on the gas
One of the most critical aspects of how to promote fundraisers with social media is doing it daily, on a schedule. There are four social media platforms suggested for your fundraising success. Whoever manages social media for the event, ensure they do it daily. It’s easier to do if they create a content calendar to follow. Help keep them motivated and on track.
2. Be authentic
This image is a good example of how to promote yourself (and your fundraiser) on social media. Whoever handles social media strategy for your event posts, have them introduce themselves to potential bidders by posting their photo, name, and their role, in the first person. You don’t want to sound corporate. You want to be authentic and transparent. This is an important piece of how to promote your fundraiser with social media.
3. Plan, post, post, and post
Anyone you ask how many times a week you should post on Twitter or other social media platforms will give you a different answer, and they’re all correct.
What works for some may not work for others. So keep an eye on your social media analytics dashboard to understand the traffic and volume during your event’s promotional campaign. You will see a pattern that shows what times people visit the platform most often, giving you the cue to post at those times. It almost gives you directions on how to promote fundraisers with social media!
How to promote your fundraiser with social media: often and with a cadence.
Time is in high demand as you prepare and plan for your fundraiser event. You will thank us later by reserving time on your calendar to:
• Create posts
• Publish posts
• Analyze traffic
PRO TIP: Here are six free apps to help with scheduling and posting Later, TweetDeck, Canva, Hootsuite, Buffer, and Planable.
4. Send traffic to your organization’s website
We’re often asked how to have a successful fundraiser. Social media is a big player in your auction’s success. You’re going to post a lot on social media during your campaign. This is an opportunity to get more traffic to your website. How? Find a post or article on your website, post the link on social media, then readers will be taken back to your website to read the post, and hopefully, spend some time on the site.
Write this down: Always link to your own site when possible. When you get them on your site, ask them (CTA) to sign up for your newsletter, or download a lead gen paper, etc.—and now you have permission to email them in the future since they opted-in when signing up for a newsletter or lead gen pdf.
5. Where can i promote my fundraiser online?
Let’s take Facebook, for example. You can learn how to promote your fundraiser on social media, Facebook, to drive potential bidders to your auction. You will reach people you know as well as new ones. That said, focus on your organization’s expertise so the new people get to know you and your friends and learn what you’re doing. This is the best time ever to share your niche and your expertise. Be authentic, not corporate. Talk about your event with passion.
For example, if your organization teaches education to autistic children, let your audience know what you’re doing to make the children’s lives easier.
Use an image and a post representing your work. Let the reader inside your daily life, such as a mention of a warm moment with a student’s success.
If you have a field trip to the zoo with autistic children, show posts about what it means to the children. Posting about genuine interactions like the zoo trip helps connect with new people and ultimately positions your organization as an authority in your area of expertise.
If you see a conversation about autism on Facebook or any social media platform, jump into the conversation, and post a relevant link of interest. Ask for questions so that you can answer them and hopefully create a dialogue to illuminate your authority. If you’re asking for donations, DO IT SPARINGLY! Consider a posting strategy where you put photos of those who donated (with permission) on social media—no amounts, simply a tagline like “I helped,” “I donated,” or “I helped a child today.” This will spark others to donate without asking for a donation.
How often should you post on Facebook? Given you’re promoting your organization and an event, at least 3-5 times per week. That’s how to promote your fundraiser with social media.
How to promote your fundraiser with social media, Instagram: remember that Instagram is a visual social media platform. First of all, you’ll want to learn how to post fundraisers on Instagram. You’ll want to post images and videos about your cause and event to show your value and how people can participate in your charity auction.
If you ask for donations on Instagram, you can add a button to your profile, post on Instagram stories, or go live with your donation request. You can also involve your community by having them start an Instagram fundraiser for your cause as a post or 24-hour story.
Use Hashtags!
(What’s a hashtag?)
Twitter is about creating a two-way channel of communication with your audience. It’s important to create content that encourages your audience to engage with your Tweets.
Twitter is a great way to create engagement with followers by asking questions. Try creating a survey or just asking questions and retweeting people’s responses.
Tweets with hashtags get almost double the engagement of those without hashtags.
Marketing guru Neil Patel says tweets with more than two hashtags receive a drop in engagement by 17%.
When you add images to your tweets, you’ll get more shares and clicks than the tweets without images.
Posting tips:
- Limit to 1-2 hashtags per Tweet
- Be conversational
- Keep your copy short and sweet
- Use images, GIFs, and or videos whenever possible
A tweet’s lifespan is about 15 minutes, so you need to tweet or retweet 2-10 times daily from early morning to late evening.
LinkedIn is a great way to leverage your contacts by posting articles about your event. Feel free to use curated articles as well. A good idea is to write about your organization’s event — without making it seem like you’re asking for money. Post 2-3 times a week and consider this a complementary medium to your more focused social media strategies. Encourage staff to follow your lead and post the same information to their LinkedIn page.
One caveat to consider: if any member of your organization has an incomplete LinkedIn profile, do not let them post for your organization’s event. At the bare minimum, your cover image, photo, and bio must be professional-looking and complete before representing your organization.
To recap: have a plan, post often, send users to your own website when you can, and be authentic. That’s how to promote a fundraiser with social media!
Final thoughts
There are dozens of social media platforms to use and knowing how to promote your fundraiser with social media will boost you to a greater success. The biggest consideration is bandwidth, for sure. Do you have the time to post on a dozen different platforms? The next most important consideration when selecting a social media platform to promote your fundraiser is the audience. Research to ensure the audience is relative to your fundraiser. Age, sex, occupation, etc., are important when selecting a suitable audience.
Whichever social media platforms you select use once you learn how to promote your fundraiser, ensure you have the time to manage them properly.
How to take auction donation photos and write descriptions
If your team needs some direction on how to take photos of donated items using their smartphones, we got a terrific guide.
Also, if you’re struggling with writing good descriptions that sell for donated items, read our post to learn how to do it to attract more bidders.
