Over the years, the Internet world has become a communication and a social channel. Social media platforms provide different social actions and communication globally, connecting a vast audience. They also offer powerful tools for NGOs to create social media awareness.
In this article, we focus on how NGOs can exploit social media monitoring as a service to enhance their impact and support their actions for the society.
Social media monitoring has proven to be a major success tool for businesses. Just like businesses, NGOs can also strategically benefit from social media monitoring. These organizations support various causes in society. To enhance their impact on the society, NGOs need to monitor the needs and identify where to focus. The technology has greatly penetrated globally and people use social media platforms to air their grievances. Sentiments are also shared through social media. Therefore, if your NGO has an effective social media monitoring strategy, you can effectively reach out and create an impact. So why is social media monitoring important to enhance NGO impact? Continue reading to find out.
#1 Monitor Social Media Mentions and Sentiment for NGOs and their Subsidiaries
Social media monitoring is a social listening strategy that is important for organizations. NGOs need to actively listen to and observe what is being posted on these platforms. There are different ways through which this can be achieved.
Monitoring Social Media for News Reports and Blog Posts Touching the NGO
To begin with, the NGO has a reputation to protect. Through monitoring what news reporters say on social media, NGOs can manage their reputation effectively. Newsrooms will share stories over social media and bloggers will promote their content through these platforms. The social media is the fastest channel for news to spread across the globe in very few seconds. How else will your NGO learn what is reported to the public through social media other than through monitoring? Bloggers too will sell their content through social media. Monitoring where your NGO is mentioned is important to guard your reputation and promote positive stories about your NGO.
If your NGO has an effective monitoring strategy, you can be aware of the mentions on social media. Negative mentions can be reacted to so as to make sure public trusts the NGO hence support their cause. Social media reputation is important for NGOs just as it is for businesses. Therefore, through social media monitoring, an NGO can respond to fake news to protect their public image.
Monitor Crucial Discussion Forums for Sentiments and Mentions
The discussion forums taking place via social media are resourceful to the NGOs. What is being discussed in these forums is a source of sentiments and therefore worthy monitoring. People are sharing what they think about NGOs and subsidiaries and proposing solutions to social problems via the forums. It is also important to monitor the mentions in these forums since they impact the NGO reputation too. NGOs and their subsidiaries should invest in social media monitoring and also focus on these forums to get insights. As people air their grievances and also discuss the NGOs initiatives, there are several sentiments to pick from the discussions. These sentiments can be factored by the NGO hence increasing their impact when delivering services.
Public Posts and Comments on Websites
The other focus when conducting social media monitoring should be on public posts and comments on the websites. The comments on subsidiaries websites should also be monitored. The public will comment on what is posted on the NGOs websites as well. Therefore, the website comments is a great source of sentiments and a strategy for reputation guarding. Public posts can be viewed as conversations going on since others respond by commenting on the post and sharing these stories. As the conversations go on, an NGO can be able to monitor and identify possible shortfalls.
Does your NGO have an effective social media monitoring strategy? You need one to be able to monitor mentions on social media to enhance your NGO impact. It is also important to monitor website comments for important sentiments as well.
#2 Monitor Mentions and Sentiments to Particular Individuals
Another reason why NGOs need to invest in social media monitoring is so as to be able to monitor individuals. There are different people within an NGO and outside that greatly contribute to the ability to achieve NGO impact. So, who are some of the individuals that NGOs need to monitor their mentions and sentiments?
Organizations Administrators
Organization administrators are the face of NGOs. In most cases, these administrators will have personal social media accounts, through which they interact with the society. The public will tend to use the administrator’s social media account even when addressing matters touching the organization.
To begin with, the public will follow these administrators on social media platforms. Therefore, they share, comment, like and dislike the topics these admins post on social media. Also, the members of the society will mention the administrators in different discussion forums. Monitoring, whenever these administrators are mentioned on social media, is crucial for the organization.
Monitoring Potential Social Media Influencers
Influencers are crucial to helping an NGO achieve their mission. Although influencer marketing majorly centers on consumer products, it is also a valuable venture for non-profits. The NGOs looking for influencers can easily achieve this through social media platforms. Social media monitoring can be a strategy, through which to identify the right influencer for a cause. NGOs that hire the right influencers have added advantage since they easily drive their awareness message to the society. Therefore, through social media monitoring, an NGO can identify influencers in their network.
A good example of an NGO that has achieved success through influencers is Best Friends Animal Society. The NGO runs a no-kill sanctuary for companion animals. The organization aims at engaging with the community and getting them to take action. The organization targets pet loving social media influencers to help them run their campaigns. One example of social media influencer approached by the NGO is Walter Cronkite. Walter threw a fundraiser for his birthday in 2016. Here is a screenshot of what Walter shared during his birthday on his Instagram account to help the organization achieve their goals.
Through social media monitoring, NGOs can identify influencers who fit their campaigns based on what they post. Further, they can estimate the expected response based on the number of followers and likes that these influencers get on their regular posts.
As illustrated earlier, through monitoring mentions and observing social media to identify positive sentiments, NGOs can be able to achieve their goals. To make sure this works, NGOs need to monitor mentions on their administrator’s social media accounts. Further, they can get insights on the right influencers to engage in their campaigns to make sure they achieve success.
#3 Monitor Mentions on Social Media Campaigns Currently Trending
The NGOs and their subsidiaries need to invest in social media monitoring so as to be able to monitor trending campaigns. Mostly, social welfare organizations will seek intervention on social problems from NGOs and share concerns through social media. Therefore, it is important for the NGOs to ensure they are keen on monitoring such mentions. This is also part of reputation guarding since the NGO can respond to negative mentions. Every NGO needs to ensure they have an effective monitoring tool.
#4 Social Media Monitoring as an NGOs Research Strategy
For marketers, social media platforms remain a major source of information when conducting market research. This also applies to the not-for-profit organizations. NGOs are constantly conducting research to find out possible solutions to social problems. For these NGOs, social media is a good channel, on which to conduct studies on various research topics. The high number of social media users makes it a good mean, through which an NGO can learn. Here are the ways, in which an NGO can perform research on specific topics.
Conducting a Survey through Social Media
An NGO can conduct a survey, by starting a conversation through social media. Twitter can be the best platform for conducting surveys. This is through the use of tools, like polls and Twitter hashtags. Once the NGO initiates the conversation, followers will air different views, depending on their beliefs. The advantage is that you can easily target specific region, or generalize the coverage. Social media monitoring covers these surveys. Therefore, if NGOs have a good social media monitoring strategy, they will be able to get sentiments from the public. Facebook disaster map is a good example since it aids organizations to discover where aid is needed. Therefore, Organizations like UNICEF can have access to information as at and where they need it. This eases aid distributions by these organizations.
Discover Social Problems
In modern society, people air their grievances mostly through social media. Therefore, social media monitoring by NGOs is an effective way through which they can discover social problems. First, the NGOs need to identify their specific goals. Then, they can use the social media monitoring tool to get insights on where best they can focus. As a result, the organization can then craft a solution to the social problem. The social welfare organizations and human rights organizations are a good example of where organizations can discover social problems. By following these organizations on social media, an NGO can be able to find out what is going on in different areas. NGOs can monitor activities of other NGOs with similar interest. This allows them to discover more social problems hence they can also help in eradicating the issues.
Social media monitoring is therefore important in achieving NGOs impact. It is important for the organizations to ensure they are aware of the right social media platforms to monitor.
#5 Social Media Monitoring is a vital Service for Measuring Effectiveness of NGOs Social Media Actions
To improve engagement, the NGO needs to monitor social media for topics that people want to talk about. This can be trending hashtags to improve engagements or general topics that earn more audience to the organization. When an NGO identifies the trending topics or hashtags, they can leverage them to earn more followers. Further, through social media monitoring, an NGO can know which specific days they earn more engagements. Therefore, the social media tools are a good investment to learn audience behavior. To succeed in social media, it is important for the organization to ensure they understand the audience well.
Just like profitable ventures, the NGOs will also run social media campaigns. Social media campaigns by NGOs aims mostly at creating awareness. Through the campaigns, the organization can educate the targeted society. Through these educative social media campaigns, the organization has higher chances of achieving impact in the society. However, it is necessary to ensure they have invested in monitoring these campaigns. Monitoring the campaigns offers NGOs a good indication of the number of people reached through the campaigns. If the campaign has not met the expected reach, they can look for alternatives to ensure the goal is reached.
To Sum Up
These are some of the reasons why NGOs should consider social media monitoring tools. There are different ways to monitor social media for mentions and sentiments. NGOs that have invested in social media monitoring are able to better connect with the communities they support. Without monitoring mentions and sentiments, service delivery by NGOs would be poor. Before putting substantial investment in social media monitoring, it is important to make sure you evaluate the effectiveness of the tool you intend to use.
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