There are a lot of nonprofits using Facebook and Twitter just to post to press releases or event announcements. And if that's how your nonprofit, NGO or government agency is using social media, then your organization is missing out on most of the benefits you could gain from such.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media are all about engagement. Social media is NOT one-way communication; you want people and organizations to read your information, but you also want them to respond to it. And they want YOU to respond to what THEY are saying.

Let me be blunt: if your organization or program's Facebook page and Twitter account posts are pretty much just announcements of new items for sale through your organization, requests for donations, and the usual, boring press releases or event announcements, your social media activities are NOT worth following!

There are certain things that a nonprofit, NGO, government agency or other mission-based organization should be doing every day on social media to make using such worthwhile: to attract more volunteers and financial donors, to keep your current volunteers and financial donors, to attract media attention, and to ensure your organization is seen as relevant and credible by elected officials and the general public.

Note: the term "every day" used here means every week day; it excludes weekends and holidays.

I broke these must-do tasks down into the most simple, basic list as possible - these tasks take minutes, not hours, a day.

• Tag any person mentioned in a Facebook status update you create if that person is on Facebook, especially if that person is an employee, a volunteer, an elected official, or some other person you want to be aware of what you have written. You do that by putting an @ symbol at the start of a person's name and, once you've spelled out their name completely, Facebook should automatically show if he or she is on Facebook. Make sure you are tagging the right person - a lot of people on Facebook have the same name.
   
• Tag any organization (nonprofit, university, NGO, CSO, government agency, etc.) mentioned in a Facebook status update you create if such is on Facebook. Put a @ symbol at the start of the organization's name and, usually, once you finish typing out the name, it will show if that organization is on Facebook or not. Make sure you are tagging the right organization (many organizations and programs have the same name - many towns and cities in the USA have the same names).
   
• Tag any person shown in a Facebook photo shared by your organization (and if it is a volunteer, make sure that volunteer knows you will be posting the photo; you should already have a photo-release permission agreement signed by each volunteer on file, so that you don't have to ask for prior permission before publishing).
   
• Tag any organization (nonprofit, university, NGO, CSO, government agency, etc.) shown in a Facebook photo shared by your organization.
   
• Put a description on EVERY photo you share on Facebook (not just the album; EACH photo should have a description. It can be the same description, over and over.) This is so that if someone clicks on just one photo, rather than the album, they will know what they are looking at. It also gives you an opportunity to tag more people (if different people are in different photos).
   
• Every day, take 10 full minutes to look at the pages of your partner organizations, organizations you really want to partner with, the page of your national headquarters or other state affiliates, etc., and like their status updates. This will lets those organizations know you are reading their information, and it encourages them to look at, and like, your status updates.
   
• Every day, like every comment made on your organization's Facebook status update unless it is hateful (that includes liking statements that might be slightly critical – liking a critical comment does not mean you are agreeing with them, merely showing you are reading/listening).
   
• Reply to any question made on your organization's Facebook status update, unless it is rhetorical criticism.
   
• Post a "thank you" comment to comments made on your Facebook status updates.
   
• Delete completely off-topic comments promptly.
   
• Never have Facebook status updates automatically post to Twitter. NEVER. That's because Twitter will cut off the message after about 100 characters, often rendering your Facebook message incoherent on Twitter.

TWITTER

• Check the "Notifications" link EVERY day and (1) post a tweet that tags and thanks those who retreated any of your tweets recently (2) favorite any tweet that mentions your organization and is positive and (3) answer any questions promptly (reply to the tweet – your reply will be public).
   
• Tag any person, organization or government or company you are mentioning in a tweet status update if they are on Twitter. For instance, for UNDP Ukraine, this is a recommendation I made for a tweet for a photo that featured the Deputy Resident Representative:

UNDP Ukraine Dep. Res Rep @InitaGE makes a presentation re: gender equality ---linktophoto---

• Manually create a tweet and link from Twitter to any photos shared on Facebook by you, with appropriate descriptions (never just say, "I uploaded 22 photos to Facebook" but, rather, "Photos from our #inno4dev Social Good event today in #Ukraine ---linktoalbum---)
   
• Once a week, do a search on your organization's name - not the Twitter handle, but the full name of your organization - on Twitter. Then (1) favorite any tweet that mentions your organization and (2) answer any question someone has posed (as long as it's not a rhetorical question meant as criticism)
   
• Once a day or once a week, do a search on the name of your national organization, if you are an affiliate of such, and (1) favorite any tweet that mentions the org positively and (2) answer any question someone has posed (as long as it's not a rhetorical question meant as criticism). For instance, for UNDP Ukraine, I recommended that they do a search on United Nations Ukraine in the search field and (1) retweet anything from an official UN account that mentions Ukraine, (2) favorite any tweet that mentions UNDP Ukraine positively and (3) answer any question someone has posed (as long as it's not a rhetorical question meant as criticism). You can adapt this recommendation for your own organization, as appropriate (perhaps the name of your state and a keyword that reflects your mission: Kentucky theater or Oregon forests or Tennessee recycle).
   
• Make a list of Twitter accounts that you should read every day: your national office, that of your Executive Director, certain partner organizations, certain elected officials, etc. Favorite tweets regularly, retweet as appropriate.
   
• Tweets using hashtags reach people who do NOT follow your organization on Twitter, so that they can find your tweets. Look at what hashtags similarly-focused organizations, partner organizations and headquarters are using. For instance, for @UNDPUkraine, I recommended they use these tags regularly, as appropriate: 

  #Ukraine #UNDP #uatech4good #mdgs #innovation

  #comm4dev #urbanplanning #poverty #humanitarian #health

  For a government program regarding water and sanitation in Afghanistan, I recommended: 

  #Afghanistan #UNICEF #water #watsan #sanitation

  #wateris #food #health #toilets #equality

  #industry #energy #poverty #humanitarian

• when staff members are particularly moved or challenged by their work that day
• when staff are working well past official working hours
• when volunteers have done something particularly outstanding, or just been a lot of fun
• when staff or volunteers have had to dig out from mounds of snow so your office can be open that day
• your IT staff surrounded (overwhelmed?) by newly-arrived IT equipment
• staff or volunteers at a training workshop
• staff or volunteers eating at their desks because they don't have time to go out
• staff or volunteers arriving or leaving work by bicycle

• For Schools: You Should Be Using Social Media. Here's How
  There are a lot of web sites saying what the benefits are for schools to use social media. But there's few that give specifics on what a public school should be sharing via Facebook, Twitter, etc. This advice talks not only about exactly what your school should be posting to social media, but the consequences of not doing so, as well how to handle tough questions and criticism. It also links to legal advice. 
  
  
• For Local City & County Governments: You Should Be Using Social Media. Here's How
  To not be using social media to deliver information and to engage means you are denying critical information to much of your community and promoting an image of secrecy and lack of transparency. In fact, the lack of use of social media can be seen as your city council or county government trying to hide something, and even lead to rumors that are much harder to dispel than they would have been to prevent. This advice talks not only about exactly what your school should be posting to social media, but also how to handle tough questions and criticism. 
  
  
• The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using Reddit
  As of July 2019, Reddit ranked as the No. 5 most visited website in the USA and No. 13 in the world. Reddit is a community of communities, and its communities are called subreddits. A subreddit can have a focus on a geographic area, a book, a celebrity, a particular time in history, a specific hobby - anything. Statistics suggest that 74% of Reddit users are male. Users tend to be significantly younger than other online communities like Facebook with less than 1% of users being 65 or over. If you want to reach a younger demographic regarding your volunteering opportunities, your awareness messages, your data that shows your value to the community and more, you need to build posts to Reddit into your marketing strategy, no matter what your nonprofit's size or focus. This resource tells you how to do it. 
  
  
• The Difference in Email, Social Media & Online Communities: A Graphic Explanation.
  It can be difficult for people to understand the difference in email, in social media and in online communities, especially since email can be used to create an online community, or social media can be used to create an online community (Facebook Groups, for instance). And they all are people sending messages to people - so what, really, is the difference? This is my attempt to graphically show the difference, but I'll still have to use words to more fully explain what I mean. All three of these avenues for online communication can intersect. But one online avenue of online communication may be a better avenue for a communication goal than another - this resource examines that as well.  
  
  
• Evaluating Online Activities: Online Action Should Create & Support Offline Action
  Hundreds of "friends" on an online social networking site. Thousands of subscribers to an email newsletter. Dozens of attendees to a virtual event. Those are impressive numbers on the surface, but if they don't translate into more volunteers, repeat volunteers, new donors, repeat donors, more clients, repeat clients, legislation, or public pressure, they are just that: numbers. For online activities to translate into something tangible, online action must create and support action. What could this look like? This resource can help organizations plan strategically about online activities so that they lead to something tangible - not just numbers.

• How to handle online criticism of your organization.

• Getting More Viewers for Your Organization's Online Videos
  Videos are a great way to represent your organization's work, to show you make a difference, to promote a message or action that relates to your mission, etc. But just uploading a video isn't enough to attract an audience. This new page on my site offers specific steps that will get more views for your organization's videos on YouTube. Note that many of these tasks would be great for an online volunteer to undertake, with guidance from an appropriate staff member.

• The importance of Twitter lists

• The awesome power of tweet tags

• Why I won’t follow you on Twitter

• 14 (was 13) things you do to annoy me on social media
  A tongue-in-cheek effort to encourage mission-based organizations to do a better job with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social networking sites.

• Facebook use to organize Women’s Marches: lessons learned
  Facebook was an essential tool in organizing women’s marches all over the USA in January 2017. They may have been the largest single day of marches in US history. This blog is a list of things I learned observing the online organizing first hand.

• The dark side of the Internet for mission-based organizations

• Measuring social media success? You’re probably doing it wrong.

• Volunteers can help you reach more people on Facebook

• How to handle online criticism of your organization.

• Snapchat’s Potential Power for Social Good – with REAL examples.

• Stages of Maturity in Nonprofit Orgs Using Online Services.

• How Not-for-Profit and Public Sector Agencies REALLY Use Online Technologies

• Could a Twitter exchange lead to change in a Kentucky nonprofit law?

• Police: use social media to invite community participation, show compassion

• How do international NGOs use Twitter?

• What nonprofit & government agencies “get” FaceBook?

• Addressing criticism, misinformation & hate speech online

• Nonprofit Organizations and Online Social Networking (OSN): Advice and Commentary.

• Basic Press Outreach for Mission-Based Organizations
  Like fund-raising, press relations is an ongoing cultivation process. Your agency strategy for press coverage needs to go beyond trying to land one big story -- you want the press to know that you are THE agency to contact whenever they are doing a story on a subject that relates to your mission. These are basic, low-cost/no cost things you can do to generate positive attention from the media.

• What are good blog topics for mission-based organizations?
  The word "blog" is short for "web log", and means keeping a journal or diary online. Blogging is NOT a new concept -- people have been doing it long before it had a snazzy media label. The appeal of blogging for an online audience is that it's more personal and less formal than other information on a web site. Readers who want to connect with an organization on a more personal level, or who are more intensely interested in an organization than the perhaps general public as a whole, love blogs. Blogs can come from your Executive Director, other staff members, volunteers, and even those you serve. Content options are many, and this list reviews some of your options

• For Nonprofits Considering Their Own Podcasts: Why It's Worth Exploring, and Content Considerations
  (includes my own podcast)

• How folklore, rumors and urban myths interfere with development and aid/relief efforts and how to prevent or address such.

• THE CLUETRAIN MANIFESTO
  "We appreciate your efforts in spreading this important sedition." A project from 1999 that is still completely relevant today (and shows why the Internet has ALWAYS been "online social networking" and there's nothing at all really all that new about sites like FaceBook). It's a challenge to companies to quit thinking that they can control the Internet and online culture and shape it to fit their outdated PR and marketing dreams, and to quit fearing its "open" nature and, instead, realize that this open system can actually be a good thing in the quest to meet customer needs and move products and messages.

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