5 Great Reasons To Use Social Media to Engage with Volunteers

With all the hype about social media and its potential, it’s easy to lose sight of why using social media is a good tactic. Sure, young people are on it all the time – but does this fact alone make it a great tool? Email remains the preferred method of communication among many adults – and snail mail with seniors – but over 30% of adults between the ages of 18 and 34 prefer social media above all other forms of contact.

 

Being ahead of the curve in the most quickly-growing marketing landscape is reason #1 that using social media to engage volunteers is a great idea.

 

Here are four more that will encourage you to diversify your social media strategy to attract and retain the best-suited volunteers for your organization.

2. Targeting
Need 4 volunteers in Bismarck, North Dakota who have a moderate interest in kickboxing, 5 years of experience working with Photoshop, and a passion for beekeeping? Fear not – Facebook will get you there. With its extremely specific ad targeting, you can select interests, hobbies, preferences, education, location and more in order to advertise to just the right people.

If you have great visuals, you can find your beekeeping dreamboat using image sharing platforms like Instagram. A compelling picture with the right hashtags will attract loads of attention. Why bombard your network with requests when you can find the exact people you need in less time? Read more about these “mini campaigns” here.

3. Accessibility
Advertising on social media can be extremely cheap, or even free (if you play your cards right). In the past, volunteer recruitment campaigns could take many months of brainstorming and huge investments in print media and on-the-ground recruitment. But now, you can test out the messaging of your campaign on a select group for as little as $5. If it doesn’t resonate with your targeted audience, just delete and try again.

4. Connect with Freelancers

Sometimes you don’t need to connect with people in your physical community to get work done. Your kickboxing Photoshop specialist might be enthusiastic about doing pro bono work for your organization even if she lives in Hong Kong. Folks who freelance are already on social media and freelancing sites all the time looking for opportunities, it’s just a matter of finding them.

 

5. Measure Metrics

Social media recruitment has the distinct advantage of being able to measure – up to the second and cent – how effective your engagement strategies are and how they’ve improved over time. Most platforms have analytics built in to their advertising systems, but there are third-party organizations and pieces of software that can compile reports for you if you’re not up to it yourself.

There’s no reason not to develop your organization’s social media presence. Even if your volunteer community largely consists of seniors, starting now will be a distinct advantage in your future. Take advantage of the vast social media volunteer engagement resources available to find your ideal volunteers!

Once your social media is up and running, make sure you have a great website to match by using an easy website builder!

 

Jordan Maze

Jordan Maze is a staff writer for VolunteerLocal. She enjoys going on walks with her dog, reading, and biking.