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By Evan Burrell
Maybe you spent much of last year banging away on social media to gain exposure for your club (because everyone says you should), but you felt like you were getting nowhere fast. It’s still early in the year. Why not take a step back, make an honest assessment of your approach, and determine what you could do better.
Here are six social media resolutions I think you should make this year to elevate your club’s social media exposure.
1. Be consistent – Post regularly and often. You won’t build a solid social media presence by posting every once and a while. If you are using Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, or Pinterest, post at least once a week. For Twitter, every one to two days is key.
2. Develop a social media schedule – Manage your time by planning your club social media activity in advance. Since you can schedule your Facebook posts days or weeks ahead of time, take advantage of this ability. You will quickly find managing your club Facebook page will become a lot easier and feel less ad hoc.
3. Mix it up – Look at how you can use new and different social media platforms, or different types of content, to engage your audience and promote the good things your club is doing. Why not shoot an enticing video for membership recruitment? Or pose a question, such as “What was one thing you found interesting about this week’s speaker?”
4. Develop a strategy – If your club is still using social media without a strategy, stop! A strategy will give your social media exposure purpose and identify the benefits to your club. Each social network has its own features, strengths, and best practices. But you want to make sure people are getting a cohesive message of what your club is about across all platforms. Start by defining goals and objectives. That will help you define your audience, choose the right platform, and determine your message.
Do you want increased event participation?
New members?
Increased traffic to your website?
To build an online community?
What will success look like? What can you measure?
5. Establish guidelines –Dealing with the do’s and don’t of social media can be a minefield, so chart a path through it by creating a social media policy. Decide who can and will share online, who has password and login information, and who can be a backup if the main person is on holiday. Set clear boundaries for what you are going to share. If in doubt, get ideas from social media policies of other organizations. And make a crisis plan: what happens in the event of a PR emergency?
6. Have FUN – This is the most important resolution and one you should try to stick to. Use your social media platforms to let a little bit of personality shine through and share with your audience a mix of interesting, entertaining, humorous, or helpful content relevant to your club and community.
While it can seem overwhelming, social media is the best Rotary promotional tool for building strong relationships and engaging with your community. If you set yourself some achievable goals this year, you and your club will reap the rewards.
About the author: Evan Burrell is a member of the Rotary Club of Turramurra, New South Wales, Australia, and a former member of Rotaract. He has been involved with Rotary since he was 18. He currently manages social media for Rotary Down Under, the Rotary regional magazine of Australia. Follow Evan on Facebook.
