Should you create a separate Facebook page for major (and/or planned) gifts?

nonprofit social media marketing tipsIn most cases I don’t recommend doing so.
Instead, I think you should piggyback on your organization’s existing social media. They’ve already got the “likes”. Why try to start something from scratch? It’s too hard, and you’ll be competing with your pals in the Social Media Department who can spend all day working on building their Facebook community.
By the way, I think the real underdog for complementing your personal, face-to-face relationships in major gifts, is really LinkedIn. Check out this blog post to learn more about how to use that. There’s a link to a cheat-sheet I created (all the way at the bottom).
Also, don’t forget that you can actually advertise to your Facebook supporters while zeroing in on certain demographics. You can do the same on LinkedIn and Twitter… Instagram too!
And, finally, you should check out your profile on Glassdoor. Major donors might do that these days. If your reviews are bad, your leadership ought to seriously consider making changes. Here’s MarketSmart’s Glassdoor page.
In the end, if you really want serious results, the key is to step back and develop a really smart strategy. Otherwise, you’ll just be spraying stuff around, and that’s usually pretty ineffective, as well as, time-consuming.

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David B. Moore
8 years ago

I agree with you, however, the social media team at Chapman University sees the university’s Facebook page as an admission recruitment tool. I was told that my legacy planning (planned giving) posts were audience inappropriate since their target audience is largely high school age. As such, I did create a separate Facebook page (www.facebook.com/heritage-society). We have a little more than 500 followers and make a point to post at least 3 times per week. I don’t anticipate that a social media post will ever result in a gift, but it is a tool for delivering a consistent message about legacy giving — and the separate page is useful in identifying people interested in that message. Although we don’t post to the university’s overall Facebook page, we do utilize our campus partner pages (Alumni Association, Church Relations, etc.) as a way to reach additional people via social media. Here is an interesting link you might appreciate checking out: https://social.chapman.edu — it’s a compilation of all of Chapman University’s social media feeds. Fortunately, our posts are allowed to appear on the site.
(Note: The link to your Glassdoor page isn’t working / needs correction. I found it at https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-MarketSmart-Maryland-EI_IE790535.11,31.htm)

engagementfundraising
8 years ago
Reply to  David B. Moore

Hi David- Thank you so much for these wise contributions. You are very correct!
Most organizations will use the social media to communicate with supporters. But it’s very different for Colleges and Universities. I’m really glad you brought that forward. And, thank you for sharing your examples.

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