Small to Medium Size Nonprofits Look Amazing on the Web Using this Process

As a web design and hosting company, productivity is critical as it is in many sectors including nonprofits. A couple of years ago, I realized that we had a limited amount of production we could provide without hiring more personnel. We faced the challenge of what many small businesses face with thresholds of production. To increase the efficiency of our company, we had to develop suitable processes to improve productivity (and reduce stress!).

Many nonprofits face that same challenge regarding limits on how much that can be produced in a single day, due to budgetary restrictions, and in some cases, regulatory requirements.

When working with online marketing, production is imperative, especially regarding social media. In some cases, companies have dropped or reduced their efforts in social media due to the lack of return on time invested. With nonprofits, reducing the time spent on things like social media can be critical. To reduce the time spent and make it more efficient, the first thing that we need to do is classify the types of communications that go through social media and online marketing.

1. News and information. The category Includes news about changes to the way that the organization operates.
2. Regulatory or bylaw changes. This includes information regarding changes to the way the organization runs or changes that may directly impact its members, subscribers, or clients.
3. Events with the organization. The category covers news about any events that are occurring within the organization or that the organization may be participating.
4. Personnel or staff changes. The people who are hired or promoted within the organization (e.g. Sandy Smith is the new Executive Director).
5. News from other organizations that are related to the mission of your organization. The category includes any news or events that another organization may provide that is directly related to your mission and the work you do in the community. I have noted over the years that some organizations lose focus on the news that they provide and may cause members and visitors to lose interest or even worse, navigate away from what your organization offers.
6. Ask for donations. The opportunity to ask your members and visitors for funding and should not be done too frequently because of annoying your audience.

Now that we have classified all the information that you will be distributing through your social media and your online marketing efforts, we can create a process for assigning days of the week for posting online with each of the categories.

What we are proposing is that a nonprofit (primarily a small to medium nonprofit) will use the worksheet and post a minimum of one time a day on social media like Facebook for example. Because the information is categorized to keep a laser focus on the mission statement of a nonprofit, it makes the social media and online marketing communications much more organized. It keeps things simple and maximizes productivity. The beauty of using this process is that it only takes a few minutes to setup and only a few seconds to complete.

can be downloaded here.