If your organization is not speaking to donors, especially on social media, without a face, a personality, and a distinctive voice – then you’re in trouble.

There is certainly a need for updates that come in a single organizational voice, or account. This would be the account with your logo as the profile picture, and a link to your website in the bio. The messages here can – and should – hum along sharing ways to get involved, your latest news, etc.

The personal accounts of your willing constituents can be something very different. Each can be like slipstreams that audience segments can shoot off into, or out of, to deepen their personal experience with the charity and its work. These advocates and influencers can draw content from your organizational account, and add their personal take or spin that is most relevant to their friends and family.

If your strategy is to keep all outgoing communications as uniform and branded as possible, you’re executing on a strategy that the best marketers in our industry have moved on from.

To encourage staff and volunteers to engage the public on your behalf through social media is, believe it or not, a radical idea.

Here are three pieces of advice I have for fundraisers that want to try this:

1. Never stop asking “what’s next?”
   Tomorrow’s innovations owe thanks to today’s possibilities. In practical terms, this piece of your radical social media engagement strategy means adopting a pragmatic approach to learning, applying, and measuring, and so on. Innovation is often romanticized as a brilliant jump forward, when in fact it is almost always a series of incremental, un-remarkable of changes over time. Scientists know this, but fundraisers and marketers often forget this simple truth.
   
   
2. Think in terms of systems, not paths or journeys.
   Even a cursory understanding of how the elements of a system interact can be incredibly powerful. We know this to be true for nutrition, politics, nature, economics and more.

Where a small shop can have a tremendous competitive advantage is that the person at the helm of the social media account likely also has a firm grasp on how the organization is structured, where information lives, who can best answer what questions, and more.

To talk about a path or a journey, is to suggest there is an end that we’re working toward. For fundraisers, there’s some truth in that because each donor will die. But within a social media strategy, I prefer to think we’re building environments, or ecosystems. People can enter in a variety of ways, make themselves comfortable, explore. To be immersed, and immerse others.

3. Identify and abhor bulls*#t.
Open and honest conversation is extremely powerful and impactful on social media. Ideally, this comes from one person to another. These conversations don’t go viral. Rarely, are they even seen by more than a handful of onlookers outside the conversation. But if done well, and done consistently, these conversations add up.

This might mean having tough conversations in a public thread that, to be honest, would be a lot easier to just ignore or delete altogether.

 

If you’re wondering how to improve your bullsh*#t detection skills, my advice is to never shy away from asking “why”,” how”, and “can you explain that again for me one time?” Because, bullsh*#*@%rs are hoping you won’t.

 

For small and mid-sized charities, elbowing for space in a crowded marketplace won’t cut it. If you can’t outspend, you have to outsmart.

Your larger peers in the sector are investing resources in social that may never be in the picture for your charity. Your best shot at success is not in trying to replicate what those big players are doing, but to sneak out ahead of them.

Be the mouse that scurries between the elephants legs. Burrow under a fence, while they’re still looking for the gate.

If you’re interested in examples, I recommend Kailey Morin’s article “5 Reasons Why All Your Staff Should Be On Social Media (And Why It Shouldn’t Scare You)”. Also, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or Linkedin.

Brock Warner, CFRE

Brock is Manager of Development at War Child, and professor of ePhilanthropy at Humber College. He is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and has attained Professional level Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge certification (bCRE-Pro). He has presented on ePhilanthropy at past AFP Congress and Fundraising Days, Digital Leap, MyCharityConnects and others. He has been published in Fundraising101, Hilborn Charity eNews, and Gift Planning in Canada. Follow him on twitter @brockwarner, and feel free to connect on Linkedin.