Many non-profits are struggling with pivoting to online fundraising as their traditional events and methods of fundraising are cancelled. In this three part, “Outside the Box, Fundraising on Social Media” series, Kristi Fickert from 30 Lines Marketing and I share top fundraising and social media tools, as well as getting started with a content plan in order to ramp up your online fundraising.
In part two of our Fundraising on Social Media series, we discussed top scheduling, analytics, and design tools we recommend for creating and promoting online events.
Social Media Stats 2020
- 3.5 billion social media users worldwide.
- Facebook is the most popular social media platform.
- 90.4% of Millennials, 77.5% of Generation X, and 48.2% of Baby Boomers are active social media users.
- Users spend an average of 3 hours per day on social networks and messaging.
Top Social Media Management Tools
Facebook Creator Studio
Facebook’s Creator Studio allows users to organize and manage page content on all the pages they manage. Creator Studio offers functions such as scheduling posts, a content library, access to their sound collection, Instagram integration and more. Note that this is a desktop application only for now.
Facebook Business Manager
The Facebook Business Manager is also a tool native to Facebook, and allows you to create lines of business to integrate all your pages, users, ad accounts and more. In the business manager you have granular controls over user permissions, ad reporting, creating ad audiences and managing pages. Facebook provides both a desktop and app solution for its Business Manager.
Facebook Ad Manager
Part of the Business Manager, Facebook Ad Manager also allows you to set roles and permissions for users accessing your ad dashboard. Additionally it’s where you create your ad campaigns, monitor results and create custom reports for stakeholders. This tool is free and available on both desktop and app.
Buffer
Buffer is a free or paid service, both desktop and app, that allows you to manage Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter post scheduling all from one dashboard. It will recommend best posting times using the data it collects, and is extremely easy to use. The drag and drop platform makes scheduling quick and easy, and you will get some reporting on success metrics.
Tweetdeck
Owned by Twitter, Tweetdeck is a great way to manage multiple Twitter streams at once. You can configure your dashboard to show your own Tweet stream, direct messages, mentions, Twitter searches and more. It provides an easy way to see all that activity in one place. You can also connect multiple accounts. The tool is free and easy to use.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite has both a free and enterprise plan available, which charges a monthly fee based on user access. Hootsuite integrates with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest, and allows scheduling, offers robust analytics for its price point, and granular user access and permissions.
Bitly
Bitly is a free, link-shortening tool that allows users to shorten very long links for use on platforms like Twitter and text campaigns, both of which have a very short character limit. When you use Bitly to shorten your link, you get access to their analytic data on clicks on those links. Their paid plan offers branded links and mobile options.
Top Social Media Analytics Tools
It’s important to measure the results of your efforts, and to use that information to modify your strategy and change course when necessary. For example if you find that your user base is on social media more frequently on the weekends, you might use one of the recommended scheduling tools to create content that posts on the weekends. What follows are some of the analytics tools we recommend to help inform your strategy.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free but powerful tool to measure not just your social media activities, but your entire website and all the user activity generated by it. It does require a bit of code on your website, but once installed you’ll have access to website traffic data by demographic, device type, social media platform, referral and more. You can create customized conversion goals within the platform, allowing reporting on your own success metrics, whether that’s a purchase, email signup or something else. Since the tool is so robust, we recommend taking some classes at the Google Analytics Academy to familiarize yourself with all the options available.
Facebook Page Insights
Facebook Page Insights give you access to user data on your Facebook page, such as likes, page views, post data, demographics, best times to post and more. Now insights includes stories data as well as whether the user took an action on the page. It’s a good idea to check these often to make sure your posts are creating the desired actions from your users, whether that’s shares, likes (engagement) or clicks.
Twitter Analytics
Twitter Analytics, part of the native Twitter, allows you to see your link click data, your top tweets, your top follower, the number of profile visits and tweets sent, and offers impression data and conversion tracking, all for free on an easy to use dashboard.
Instagram Insights
Instagram Insights are available only on Instagram business accounts, so if you’re using Instagram for your small business or non-profit, make sure you’ve converted your personal profile to a business account. Insights are only available on the app, so you’ll be using your phone to check these. Once you have access you’ll be able to see user data, impression data, actions taken from each post and profile data. You’ll also get information on where your impressions come from, such as hashtags or your home and profile.
Graphic Design Tools
There are many tools and apps available to help you make graphics, edit photos and more, using your phone and desktop. Many of these are free and meant for people without much design experience.
Canva
Canva is a design tool available on both app and desktop. Their paid version allows access to more features, but if you’re just getting started the free version allows access to many of the options you will need. There are multiple templates available that can be enhanced with your own photos, brand colors and fonts. Canva’s extensive library of free elements allow you to add frames, objects, text and more to either a photo or a standard background. The recent addition of animation makes it even more powerful.
Retouch App
This app, available on both Iphone and Android, is an easy way to remove unwanted objects from photos including lines. It offers a cloning tool, multiple brush sizes and a handy eraser function.
Here’s Retouch in action!
Remove.bg
Remove.bg allows users to upload images, remove the background, and download a transparent version for use in any application. This tools is free and easy to use too.
What’s Next?
Next in our series: Outside the Box Session 3 – Content Strategy, covers ideas for your content, events, and what to post to keep your audience engaged and donating.
These certainly aren’t all the tools available, but they are easy to use, most are free, and help make your online events and promotions easier to create and measure. What digital tools do you recommend? Let me know in the comments.
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