Social Media Know its limits or it will limit you!
The aim here is to equip you to utilize social mediai, not as a substitute for the support raising process, but as a valuable supplement to raising partners with increased longevity. The question is not, should social media be a part of a fundraiser’s support strategy, but how will it be leveraged in their support repertoire. Nowadays social media exists mainly for entertainment purposes and subtly teaches people to short-‐cut relationship building instead of fostering deep face to face/heart to heart connections. However, if used properly, social media can strategically accelerate the support process, but when abused can have disastrous consequences–resulting in an unsupported and unused missionary. All I really needed to know I learned in Ministry When raising support I am often reminded of two important ministry values: relevance and relationships. The Apostle Paul modeled these by “becoming all things to all men.” In the support raising process, using social media should also reflect these core values because fundraising is not just a means to ministry, but ministry in and of itself. To determine your need for and/or the effectiveness of a social media strategy, ask these two questions: 1. Do you swim in the same social media streams as your donor base? A social media strategy is relevant insofar as the donor base has a social media presence that overlaps with the fundraiser’s. 2. Is your contact base and support team growing relationally and numerically? Your social media strategy is relational insofar as it’s connecting you more deeply to current donors as well as helping you cultivate potential new donor relationships. Three Questions to Leverage your Social Media Strategy Starting a Strategy 1) Where is most of your donor base? The place to begin is to locate your donors within the social media landscape. Start working now to find your potential and/or current donors social networking outlets and create a ministry presence (not just a personal presence) right in their social media backyard. (Note: More than likely your support base is pooling their presence in some places more than others. You cannot excellently maintain a ministry presence everywhere so go deep in one or two outlets rather than an inch deep in all of them.) Gaining new Supporters 2) Do you use social media to gain contacts or supporters? This is the key question to determine whether or not you are short-‐changing the relational process during fundraising. Social media should be used to increase your contact list, but not be counted on to deliver consistent support partners. Nothing can take the place of personal face-‐to-‐face support challenges, but it can be used as a medium to secure support appointments. Here are some ideas: • Peruse all your social media sites and search for new names and faces to increase your support pool. • Finding contact information for potential donors can be difficult. But many donors place contact information in social networking sites for public view. If not, just directly message them through that social media site. • Instead of asking supporters for referrals at the end of an appointment, ask them to scan through a social media site and connect you to them through the network. • If you feel out of touch with a potential supporter’s life or interests, do some research on them (via one of their social media sites) before calling or meeting with them. Growing your Support Base 3) Do you understand how to use social media for ongoing cultivation of your support team? Each social media outlet was created to be used for specific purposes, and not all will perform equally well on every front. Some are designed for photos, some for self-‐expression, some for communicating, others just for connecting. As you narrow your approach and strategy for utilizing social media make sure 11
you’re utilizing them the way they were designed to be and tailor them for fundraising use. FYI—here are the two broad categories: • Information-‐disseminating media outlets are designed to allow you to communicate yourself to others using creative, clear, and concise formats. These include blogs, texts, picture messaging, social site messaging, videos sites, email clients, and video or email chats. One of your main fundraising responsibilities will be to update your support team and keep them current and involved in your vision by disseminating information regularly and relevantly. • Information-‐gathering media outlets are designed to help keep you informed of other’s whereabouts, opinions, or comments. These include sound bites, posts, micro-‐blogging, and status updates. You cannot effectively shepherd your support team if you are uninformed about your team’s everyday life. Read, research, and follow the social media sites that can give you an inside look into your supporter’s life. This can inform your prayer, notes of encouragement, and counsel for them. Final Social Media Tips • Be available – Can your supporters find you and information about your ministry and mission at anytime from anywhere? 95% of donors want to be able to read up on you before they give. Make sure you have a site or blog where people can reach (or research!) you. • Be personal – Use social media networks to remember birthdays, anniversaries, children, important dates, and significant events that happen in their life. • Be unique – Find new and creative ways to inform, engage, and involve your supporters in your mission. Give them live updates through videos. Use pictures in nicely formatted emails. Ask their input through specific questions or get their opinions through an online survey. Have them sign-‐up online to pray for certain requests or pray for specific people. Also, consider using SMS text messages to ask them for urgent prayer in real time. • Be consistent – Social media has made it easier for missionaries in the field to keep their support teams updated. Even though they have no excuses, missionaries are losing supporters for lack of timely and consistent updates. Electronic newsletter formats and email templates allow us all to publish very attractive updates—from anywhere in the world! • Be grateful – Thank you’s goes a long way. While a note though the mail has a personal touch, a fundraiser in a time crunch can quickly offer thanks through a social media outlet. A text, email, post, social media message, picture, or a quick video taken from your smart phone and then emailed to your supporter are all ways you can thank God and His people for needs being met. May fundraisers “give thanks in all circumstances” and “do good to everyone, especially those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18).
By social media (used throughout this appendix) I am referring to: posts, social media messages, emails, videos, video-‐conferencing, blogging, micro-‐blogging, chats, texts, email clients and templates, social networking sites, status updates, photo sharing programs, online surveys, and digital sign-‐up sheets. ii I Corinthians 9:22 i