SPURspectives

If you’re following ground rule 4 from the last SPURspectives post - which is to get your entire team involved - your organization’s virtual voice will actually be an amalgam of voices.

While this may sound like a recipe for schizophrenia, part of the beauty of social media is that you can (and should) make it a team effort. With proper oversight and a clearly articulated strategy, all your social media efforts will be streams that feed into a single river. Many voices will become one, working together to provide a 360° view of who you are and what you do.

Here are three things your nonprofit can do to cultivate an engaging virtual voice:

• Be authentic. Every nonprofit already has a unique “personality” that reflects its purpose and its people. The trick is to tap into that organizational personality and let it shine. If everything you share though social media channels sounds like it came straight from a brochure or grant application, you aren’t doing it right.
• Unleash your “natural born bloggers.” You probably have staff and volunteers (typically younger folk, but not always) who already have an affinity for social media. You need to seek them out, wherever they may be in your organization, and add them to your social media team. Tap into their know-how. Let them to coach others on how to use specific tools. Ask them for input on your social media strategy, as well as which tools and services you should consider using.
• Fine-tune your voice. You want to monitor your virtual voice to identify what’s working (and doing more of that!) and where you need to make adjustments. Your social media point person (see ground rule 3) should be in charge of this process, always ensuring that your virtual voice reflects your organization’s identity and is in sync with your communications strategy.

Why does your virtual voice matter so much? Because social media is a two-way street. If you want people to join the conversation and actively support your mission (as donors, volunteers, and advocates), they need to feel a genuine connection to your organization and the people who work there.

–Amy Southerland

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