Community Action Suffolk IT Services

Latest...Social Media

Sharing information via social media channels can be a very useful tool in any small business or charities armoury. It is widely accepted that over half the global population use some form of social media channel, with the average user often spending up to 2 hours scrolling through them! The social media space can seem very daunting but below are some handy tips for you to cut through all the noise.

How can you use social media?

Promote Values

As a charity or small business, try and clearly outline your ethos and way of working. Share your values to both new and old followers.

Build Better Relationships

Get to know the people who you are sharing information with. Remember it’s a 2 way conversation, so try and interact with other people’s information and forge new relationships.

Highlight Impact

Share your acomplishments with your followers. If other organisations can see what you are doing they may see you as an organisation that they could work with.

Share comment

Don’t be afraid to comment on other people’s work and also re-post items that are already on the social media platform. Re-posting like minded organisations updates or news is a valuable way of getting across your own ethos.

Create Shareable Content

Almost as important as anything is, whatever you do, try and create shareable content where you can. If you are promoting information then surely you want your followers to share it with their followers? Be social, add value, express yourself in whatever you post.

What do you post?

Promote Success Stories

Content that shares real success stories with your followers can be invaluable in backing up your values and ethos and may show that you are a serious and successful organisation. Don’t be frightened to share the smallest of “wins”!

Upcoming campaigns

Do you have a sales campaign or another campaign you are working on? Share it with your followers and ask your followers to share it too.

Upcoming Events

Do you have a big event coming up? Why not use social media to spread the word. Ensure you get across the key information in the restrictions you may have with the social media platform.

Get across your personality as an organisation

Have fun! Yes, posting on social media is a serious business which needs to be taken seriously but you can also have fun with it. Try and get your own personality as an individual and as an organisation across and try not to be too corporate! It’s about finding the right balance between serious and fun – but lets face it – who doesn’t love to see a cat gif first thing in the morning!

What is the best platform – The Key Players

Facebook

Facebook continues to be the most widely used platform in 2023 with nearly 3 billion monthly active users. It’s one for the slightly older user but it can be a very effective method of storytelling as there aren’t any significant limits and text, images and videos can all be used.

Instagram

Instagram is the third largest social media platform (if you class Youtube as a social media platform) with nearly 2 billion monthly active users. It focuses on image and video content and is particularly popular with millennials.

Twitter/X

Twitter continues to change but with over 500 million monthly active users, it can be a valuable way of diseminating information about what your organisation does. Used by younger and older people alike it provides a good platform to get your message across.

Tik Tok

One for the kids! (primarily). Tik Tok has taken off with the younger generation as it allows you to upload 15-60 second videos on your phone that can be customised with effects, sounds, graphics, captions and filters. If you want to reach a younger audience by having fun – this might be the one for you.

Linked in

LinkedIn is predominantly for business to business professionals who are looking to connect with others. It offers a similar format to Facebook in many ways so if you are looking to generate those business to business relationships then this may be a good starting point.

Youtube

If you class Youtube as a social media platform then it is the second largest in the world in 2023. It’s essentially a video search engine with social media elements to it. You could share interviews, footage of an event or indeed anything you want.

What to be aware of/Top Tips

Despite what some people say, social media platforms don’t have to be minefield that some people say they are.

Ultimately it is each of our own responsibility to behave appropriately on these platforms – just as we do in the outside world.

Below are a few handy tips however, which may help.

• Try not share or post mis-information – only deal in facts
• Be kind to people who you might get in discussion with. Respect the fact that different opinions exist.
• Be inclusive to all genders, sexualities, communities and faiths
• Respect the fact that when posting items, your message will exist in the outside world. Once posted – you can’t take it back!
• Keep your social media platforms regularly updated! Monthly as a bare minimum but ideally daily or even weekly. This can be in the form of re-posts – not just your own unique posts.
• Have an internal social media policy for your organisation. Ensure this is built in to any acceptable use IT policy internally so staff posting on an organisations behalf are clear on what is expected from them.
• Provide training to staff if possible and budget permits. There are social media experts out there who can provide really excellent sessions on how to market yourselves.
• Try and use visuals (images or videos) where possible. Images and videos can have a massive positive impact on the success of your post.
• Engage with supporters. Don’t be afraid to engage and even set up polls with your followers.
• Use analytics to decipher what is working and what isn’t. Data can be extremely useful in knowing what your followers like and what they don’t.

Contact Us

Please contact me at matthew.morling@communityactionsuffolk.org.uk or on 01473 345321 and i’d be happy to have a discussion about anything in this area.