I had an interesting conversation with a business associate this week. The person was telling me that social media is a waste of time because he’s never “gotten anything” from it. I asked him to elaborate. He volunteers for a nonprofit and as far as he knows, no one has made a donation because of something they’ve seen on the organization’s Facebook Page.
This is a fairly active Page—they post at least once a day, sometimes more often. They provide great information about the services the organization provides as well as ways that someone could get involved. However, they’ve never actually asked their followers to donate…as well as providing an easy way for them to donate.
This isn’t an uncommon phenomenon among social media users. What some don’t understand is that in order to get someone to do something you want, you have to tell them what to do and how to do it! In advertising terms, this is a call to action. “Call now,” “Click here,” “Don’t wait,” “Sign up today” and so on are the messages we see. We see them because they work!
It’s funny that we assume people know what we want them to do. Businesses talk about a product or service that they provide and they assume that people will know that they should either buy the product or service or tell their friends to buy the product or service. I’ve personally fallen into this trap. Nonprofits assume people will know that they should sign up to volunteer or make a donation…and know how to do it quickly and easily.
I don’t know why we don’t make the intuitive leap to take action without being told to, but it exists. On my own Facebook Page, the number of people “liking” my Page increased when I added a Welcome screen that states “Click the Like Button” with a big blue arrow pointing to the Like button. I started getting more comments on my blog posts when I added a statement at the end of each post actually requesting that people comment.
So, if you’re feeling that your social media efforts aren’t as successful as you’d like, review your posts. Do you talk about what you do, provide great resource information, are generally helpful…but never actually tell people to consider buying your product or service? Do you remind people that your organization is great…but never tell them directly how they could help out or become involved?
Without become the “used car salesman,” start incorporating the “ask” into some of your posts and see what happens. Don’t do it every time…just often enough to gently remind people what to do. I think your success rate will improve.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Feel free to comment below! 😉
How true! Many folks get the “social media” part but don’t understand the sales aspect of the “marketing” word. Deb, your insights about the big picture are so valuable to business owners – thanks for all you do.
Thank you!
You are correct, like always. Additionally this person needs to realize that although donations might have not come directly from the fb fan page, somebody may have done a referral based on what they read on such page. Maybe the organization needs to do a quick follow up once they receive a donation and ask how they learned about the organization. I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody mentions social media.
From my perspective (disclaimer: I’m not a non-profit and don’t even have a fan page but do have a blog and fb page) the majority of my gigs come from referrals that view my information in some social media outlet.
This individual needs to realize that a fb page is like a tv ad. Yes, you can have the call for action or simply provide information. In any case, I feel that your awareness level increases allowing for future referrals. My humble opinion. 🙂
As always, a great comment! As with all marketing efforts, we need to remember that it (usually) takes multiple times before someone sees a message before they’ll take action. Seeing great posts on a FB Page about what a nonprofit is doing is a good reinforcement for other marketing efforts. It works the same way for businesses – if I see my social media connections commenting positively about a business and/or I see great posts from that business, I am more likely to do business with them or refer them to others. But, we also gentle reminders on occasion just “what” it is that we need to do!