The Five Pieces of Advice We Keep Giving Over and Over Again
We talked to more than a dozen purpose-driven organizations about their messaging during COVID-19. Here are the five pieces of feedback we provided again and again.
by Patty Breech & Libby DeLana, The Purpose Collective
To contribute what we can to the current global pandemic, we here at The Purpose Collective decided to offer free office hours to any purpose-driven organization struggling with their marketing and messaging right now. Three weeks later, we’ve spoken to over a dozen different entities ranging from sole proprietors to well-established for-profit businesses to international nonprofits. Each conversation has been uniquely tailored to their particular struggles, but we found the same five pieces of advice coming up again and again in each of them. (Spoiler alert: very few of them have to do with COVID-19!)
And so, we thought we’d share them here with you. We hope this is helpful.
Tip #1: Social media is your new website.
When hearing about your organization for the first time, many people will search and never get further than your social media profile. Try it: google your organization. Does your social media profile show up in the top five results?
The best thing you can do is treat your Facebook business page and your Instagram profile like your homepage. Is it obvious, at a glance, what you do? Is it clear how to contact you? Is it easy to make a donation, or buy your product? Do you have Instagram highlights set up that mirror your website navigation bar? Are you making a good impression?
Yes, a link to your website should always be included too, but don’t assume everyone is going to click it (most won’t). This visit to your profile may be your one shot to turn someone into a supporter, so make it count!
Pro tip: thumbnail images for your Instagram highlights not only make you look sharp and professional, but help people find out more info about you. One of our favorites from She’s the First is pictured below!
Tip #2: Post at least 2–3 times per week.
The question of how often to post comes up a lot. In a perfect world, we’d all have talented marketing teams of 10 people devoted to telling our story online with a post (or three) every day. In the real world, we can’t always make that happen. That’s okay — shoot for posting 2 to 3 times per week on your social media platforms, or at the very least, once a week, and go for quality over quantity.
When we say “quality,” we don’t mean high production quality. There’s no need for anything other than a photo/video from your iPhone. We mean authenticity! Stay true to your organization’s values and tone. Make sure the posts have valuable information for the viewer, not simply a report on what you’re doing.
It’s totally fine to post the same content across all social media platforms. Again, if someone finds you via your social media pages and sees that you haven’t posted anything in three months, what are they going to think about your organization? They’ll probably assume you’re not in business anymore. Weekly content shows you’re still active and relevant.
Pro tip: Use a scheduling tool like Later or Hootsuite to line up content in advance, so you can set it and forget it. Both offer free plans!
Tip #3: Video is the most valuable content.
Video is hands down the single most effective form of content you can put out there. It’s engaging, it draws people in, it captures more than one of the senses, it has the power to transport you to another place, it’s impactful, and we quite literally can’t take our eyes off of it. When’s the last time you posted a video? If your answer was not: “in the last week,” then you’re probably not putting enough video content out there.
Videos do not need to be an expensive, professionally produced, highly polished product (although there is a time and place for those, too!), especially now, especially on social media. Have you seen Ellen DeGeneres filming videos on her iPhone with no makeup in her pajamas? Have you seen Trevor Noah filming the Today Show in a hooded sweatshirt from his living room? The bar for production quality is currently very, very low.
Pro tip: Lumen5 is our favorite free video-making tool. It’s designed to turn blog posts into videos by using stock photos and animated text across the screen — perfect for those of us who are camera shy! See below for an example from the BlinkNow Foundation.
Tip #4: Commit to a look and a voice so your social media feels “branded,” and not random.
Again, this is your chance to make a great first impression. What is the mood conveyed by your posts? What is the tone of your captions? Happy and upbeat? Calm and soothing? Warm and welcoming? Pick a style and stick with it. This will say a lot about who you are and what you stand for.
Don’t worry too much about whether your Instagram photos create an interesting grid, focus instead on the overall aesthetic. People will remember how you make them feel more than any of the details.
Pro tip: We’re loving the Adventure Project for their consistent style on social media!
Tip #5: COVID-19 requires updates.
Yes, you should be talking about it. Yes, even if that means repeating yourself. Yes, all the time. Have things been halted indefinitely? Say that over and over again. Are your programs continuing despite the crisis? Keep telling that to your viewers at least once a week, if not in every social media post. Do you need more funding right now to make up for a canceled event? Go ahead and ask for it, again and again. Put a COVID-19 update link on the homepage of your website.
In all honesty, it’s a bit weird not to talk about it right now. If people came across a “business as usual” type of post on your social media, they would probably be confused, and might even think you were a little tone deaf. And remember — they might not make it to your website for your official COVID-19 update! What is your social media saying?
Pro tip: If you can give people good news, do it! We’re all drowning in the bad right now. Is there some small ray of sunshine you can give us, or a way we can make a positive difference? Check out the example below from Under The Mango Tree.
“Increasing biodiversity through beekeeping! The HCL Grant Recipient in the Environment category — Under the Mango Tree Society, through the grant will be working on keeping Indigenous Bees Buzzing and Supporting Biodiversity Conservation in Tribal Communities. The project will impact smallholders in tribal communities and their neighbours in 115 villages in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. UTMTS’s commitment lies in conservation and biodiversity, but it has developed a model which allows economic benefits to humans too-proving that conservation and human progress can go hand-in-hand.”
During this global pandemic, we at The Purpose Collective are offering free office hours to purpose-driven organizations who are looking for help with their messaging and marketing. We’re here to listen, share, and be helpful any way we can. Schedule a time to speak with us directly online: https://www.the-purpose-collective.com/free-office-hours
