Quickstart Social Media Guide

Social media is a versatile tool that grantmaking organizations can utilize at low to no cost for building community and generating awareness of their mission and programs. It can directly engage targeted audiences to attract supporters and applicants, highlight grant opportunities, events, and activities, and communicate impact. Looking to begin? Our Quickstart Social Media Guide provides useful tips and insight to empower and enable your efforts with this popular external communications tool.

Before your organization begins sharing content online, it's a good idea to investigate the types of content that appeal to social media users, what their consumption habits are, and how they're using their time online. The graphics below from datareportal.com provide an overview of social media use and a look at the main reasons people use social media (July 2024).

There are dozens of options for social media platforms, and the list is continuously growing. If your organization is new to social media, consider starting with just one platform whose users closely align with your target audience. Once you become familiar with how to use that platform, create diverse and engaging content, and grow your community, outreach can be increased through more robust scheduling and/or additional platforms. Check out this list from explodingtopics.com that shows the top 35 most popular social media websites (September 2024) - a helpful starting point - then visit Beckman Foundation's Instagram, X, and LinkedIn pages for a look at the platforms we use to reach different audiences.

So, which platform should your organization use? That depends on the user you are trying to engage and how you want to engage them (i.e., photo or video sharing, microblogging, networking, interactive media, etc.). For example, one of the platforms we use is LinkedIn because of its focus on career-related networking. It lets us customize a page with our organization's details, and share content about career tips, opportunities, and the accomplishments of our grantees. We can also include multimedia attachments and review analytics related to our page posts and interactions.

Your organization's content should help tell your story. Every post is an opportunity to communicate a part of that story, reinforcing your mission and generating awareness for your programs. For grantmaking organizations, program promotion is a priority endeavor that can be supported effectively through social media. Following are just some of the opportunities for outreach your organization can use as content inspiration to promote programs to prospective applicants, donors, and others:

• Updates to application requirements
• Eligibility and/or funding details
• Open/close dates for LOIs, full applications, and/or reports
• Resources, webinars, and other support
• Press statements
• Awardee announcements
• Historical giving statistics
• Milestones
• Alumni highlights
• News coverage
• Events, meetings, and presentations
• Related campaigns and holidays (example: National Postdoc Appreciation Week)
• New hires, promotions, and staff recognition
• Tie-ins with current events and/or trending topics
• Partnerships and collaborations

Content graphics should be created using each platforms' specific size guidelines to optimize its appearance. Read this article from Hootsuite for a list of the most recent social media image sizes for different networks (September 2024) as a starting point.

Diversify your organization's social media content with prepared graphics, photo carousels, short video/reels, single image posts, and links to keep users interested. Browse profiles on your chosen platform to get a feel for the content users engage with the most. The tone of your posts should be friendly, casual and conversational. Avoid sarcasm, jargon and acronyms, and use of all caps.

Unsure about where to start? Consider following journals you and/or your applicants and supporters read, as well as membership organizations to which you belong. This will connect your organization with relevant news and developments, populate your feed, provide inspiration, and help you to grow your own community. Optimize your posts by tagging the institutions and individuals they relate to, and by adding subject/topic hashtags to make your content searchable.

A hashtag is a word, phrase, or number with a hash symbol (#) in front of it that enables content categorized by topic or theme to be cross-referenced by social media users. It is a metadata tag that, when Included in the captioning of your social media posts, can help optimize the reach of your content, increase its visibility, and lead to better engagement by making it searchable.

If your organization would like to use a custom hashtag, be sure check if it is already in use. If it is, you may still be able to apply it to your content but first review what content is already associated with it and the type of conversation surrounding it to ensure it is a fit for your goals. You can also use more ubiquitous hashtags that are relevant to your content. Here’s a look at popular hashtags related to grantmaking and philanthropy that you can use to grow your follower count:

The easiest way to connect online and get noticed? Follow other accounts, and like, comment, and share their content. Social media is a conversation. By participating in the conversation, perhaps by liking a post, the chances of making a connection increase. Many accounts will "follow back" those that follow them, which will increase your organization's visibility and help to grow your community.

Remember, it's okay to start slow. Do not feel pressured to create complicated content or adopt a posting schedule that is too aggressive. It's better to create and share quality content that's reflective of your organization's mission and messaging, and to build a community that is interested and engaged in your work. Visiting the social media profiles of organizations similar to your own, or journals that are familiar to those at your organization, is a good place to begin.