This past month I was invited by Kneehill Regional Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) Program in Three Hills, Alberta to present on recruiting, retaining and rewarding volunteers by using social media marketing.
With over 20 attendees representing nonprofit organizations in Alberta, I spent the hour discussing the importance of a social media strategy (and how to create one), content best practices, how to incorporate video into content as well as social media management tools to make the job easier.
Below is a breakdown with key takeaways from my presentation, note that this is only a quick summary, the original presentation contains many examples, tactics and strategies.
Recruiting Volunteers With Social Media
Look at your existing social media content
Whether you’re only on Facebook or on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc., look at the last >90 days of posts.
Do they showcase your nonprofit’s values, vision, missions and goals?
Do they communicate effectively how your organization makes an impact in the community?
Do they communicate effectively how your volunteers makes an impact in the community?
If someone interested in volunteering with your nonprofit came across your social media account, what would they think?
Create volunteer personas
Knowing who your ideal volunteers are is critical. The way you market your organization to seniors vs teenagers would be different and the channels you’d use to grab their attention would differ.
You can think about past volunteers you’ve worked with:
- When were they free/what was their schedule like?
- What type of position were they filling? Office/clerical? Event staff?
- What were their goals when it came to volunteering? (Basically, their WHY.)
- What challenges do they bring with them? Physical? Tech?
- What social media platforms did they use on a regular basis? Who do they follow? How do they consume information (reading, video, listening, etc.)?
TIP: You can learn about motivations by asking certain key questions when you do volunteer screening.
Social media content for recruiting volunteers
Your content needs to do three things:
- Demonstrate the need – Why do you need volunteers exactly? Spell it out.
- Show behind the scenes – What can volunteers expect?
- Highlight experiences – Testimonials, videos of volunteers in action, etc.
Side note: Make it as easy as possible for volunteers to sign up
Think about it, when you say “Email us at x@x.com or call is us at 123-456-7890”, there’s going to be a back and forth and this creates hurdles:
They email you, you email them back with questions, they email you back with answers, but maybe they missed answering a question, so you email them back….
OR they call the number, but your office is closed, or nobody is available to answer the phone, so they leave a voicemail, you call them back, but miss them and leave them a voicemail…
*eye roll* This is taking WAY too much time out of your day and theirs just to speak with someone about volunteering.
Whether you create a custom page on your website with a form for volunteers to sign up (or indicate their interest), or a custom Google Form (free!), you want to make it as easy as possible for recruits to contact you.
Retaining Volunteers With Social Media
Celebrate volunteers regularly. There are even key national days you can take advantage of:
National Volunteer Week (in April)
Volunteer Appreciation Month (April)
International Volunteer Day (December 5th yearly)
Giving Tuesday (in December)
National Nonprofit Day (in August)
Social media content for retaining volunteers
Ideas for your content:
- Feature individuals (and tag them)
- Share individual volunteer’s “Why”, what’s their personal story on why they decided to volunteer with your nonprofit?
- Thank them (group photos, video of them at work, etc.)
Rewarding Volunteers With Social Media
This section is a little iffy, if you look at stats from Volunteer Canada’s report (yes, it’s 2013 so it’s a dated, but still this report provides significant value):
Close to 50% of organizations are recognizing volunteers using public methods – placing thank you ads, speaking or writing about their volunteers in the media, nominating volunteers for awards- but less than 20% of volunteers want to be recognized in this manner.
Social media content for rewarding volunteers
Regardless, if you want to use social media to make your volunteers feel rewarded and recognized, one big thing you can do is add their individual or collective overall impact. See this simple example from Volunteer New York:
So, throughout the duration of an individual volunteering with you, keep track of hours and any measurements of impact to include in a post… AND send a thank you card including this information too!
Next Steps for Nonprofits on Social Media
Social media can play a huge part in a nonprofit’s volunteer strategy. Knowing how to smartly do it is important though because the last thing you want to do is throw out posts and hope one will stick.
Want a similar workshop presented to your organization virtually or in person? Contact me!
Want 1:1 help with your nonprofit’s social media? I provide done with you social media services such as training, consulting and more. Click here to find out how I can help.