Budgeting for Social Media Marketing and Your Nonprofit
Considering the statistics for digital engagement and donation patterns associated with social media, it seems obvious that a social media marketing strategy should be a top priority for nonprofit organizations and marketing dollar investment. When your social media strategy aligns with your organization’s goals, it is definitely a worthwhile initiative to place budget. But how much? And what should be considered?
In an earlier blog, Social Media Marketing and Nonprofits: Getting Started, we discussed what you should consider when getting started, such as how to identify where your audience is, why that is important, and where you should dedicate your resources. As a reminder, as it certainly can impact your budget planning, it is important not to feel like you need to be everywhere. Remember, you only need to be where your audience is, however you need to perform well in that channel or channels. Not being somewhere just means you are not there. Having a poor performing account can do more damage than not being represented.
In order to make sure that you perform well, there are many attributes that come into play, but one of them is certainly your budget. When considering your budget ensure that you do the following:
- Set goals that directly support broader organizational goals. This will enable you to gain higher level support but will also help to ensure that your campaigns result in visible ROI.
- Identify software and tools needs. Collaborating on visual brand communications are much easier, and cost efficient, when done through a tool that enables your teams to quickly produce brand-sure materials from anywhere.
- Consider your team needs. Are you remote? All in one location? Do you need a designer or agency? What will your team require to perform well on the channels that you have determined mandatory for success?
- Set aside a portion of your budget for experimentation and emerging trends. Social media changes fast. Very fast. You will want to keep up, so you will always need to have some room to experiment.
Lastly, this short video below provides a few additional thoughts that nonprofits should also consider to ensure good performance when planning out your social media marketing budget for each channel.
Happy budgeting.