Social media is an increasingly powerful fundraising tool, considering that 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media end up taking some sort of action. Your nonprofit may already use social media to spread awareness of its cause or share its work—but did you know that you could also use these platforms to acquire donors and cultivate strong relationships with them?
You can accomplish this through social listening, which involves monitoring and joining online conversations about your organization or related topics. Let’s review the basics of this process, its benefits for your organization, and how you can get started.
What Is Social Listening?
Social listening is the practice of monitoring online conversations about your industry for stakeholder feedback, industry trends, and other relevant insights into the public’s opinion of your nonprofit. With this perspective, nonprofits can better identify opportunities to tailor marketing and fundraising campaigns to stakeholders’ preferences.
Be careful not to confuse this concept with social media monitoring, which tracks specific mentions of your organization across social media platforms. Social media monitoring tracks engagement on specific platforms, while social listening focuses on the context, tone, and sentiment behind online conversations related to your nonprofit.
Why Social Listening Matters for Fundraising
1. Identifies Potential Donors
Social listening can play a key role in your nonprofit’s prospect research strategy by helping to identify potential supporters. When you monitor online conversations, you may discover people already engaged with causes similar to yours. Potential donors could include:
- Individuals with existing connections to your organization. People who have encountered your organization in other ways may be more responsive to your marketing efforts. For example, people who know your board members or executives have likely heard of your organization and may share similar values.
- Influencers or thought leaders in cause-related topics. Prominent individuals who advocate for causes similar to yours can be powerful potential donors. This could include bloggers, social media personalities, or other well-known online entrepreneurs.
- Prospects who show emotional investment. Individuals with personal motivations to support your cause may talk about their experiences and opinions online. For example, someone who shares their story of getting meals at a local soup kitchen when they were young might be willing to engage with your food bank organization.
Although it’s a valuable practice, social listening shouldn’t replace your prospect research efforts. Instead, combining the two strategies ensures a well-rounded approach to learning about potential supporters.
2. Reveals Donor Sentiment
Once you’ve identified supporters, your nonprofit must also steward donors to build meaningful relationships with them. To do that, craft marketing messages that resonate with your audience.
Social listening lets you tap into your audience’s perceptions of your nonprofit. With these insights, you can tailor your content to match the emotional tone and context surrounding trending topics about your cause. Here’s how it works:
- Identify key themes and issues. Social listening uncovers recurring topics or concerns expressed by your audience. For example, an animal welfare nonprofit might find that people online are confused about the organization’s no-kill policy.
- Adjust language based on your audience’s understanding. Using social listening, your nonprofit can gauge its audience’s understanding of cause-related topics or industry-specific terminology. Using the example above, the animal welfare organization might clarify that it’s a no-kill shelter and explain what that means.
- Tailor messaging to emotional triggers. With the context of your audience’s emotional feelings toward your mission, you can craft messages in a way that most compel your audience to take action. For example, Getting Attention calls storytelling the best way to make an emotional connection with your audience. The animal welfare organization from our earlier example might share the story of a dog who has been living in their shelter for more than a year to tug on heartstrings and inspire more support.
Understanding these perspectives also allows your organization to join the conversation directly. For example, someone who posted a picture of themselves on social media with their newly adopted pet might feel excited to see their post shared on the shelter’s official social media page.
3. Deepens Donor Relationships
Social listening yields informed outreach, meaning your nonprofit can cultivate donor relationships by applying the insights you gain. You can use information from social listening to:
- Understand prospects’ priorities and concerns. Why are these individuals passionate about your cause? What motivates them to participate in these conversations online?
- Find connections. Perhaps those talking about your cause online know one or more of your existing supporters. Or, they might be connected to an organization or community initiative that shares similar values and could present a valuable partnership for your cause.
- Invite them to get involved. Knowing how prospects feel about mission-related topics, your nonprofit can make a more targeted appeal to get them involved in your work.
Ultimately, these insights enable nonprofits to get to know their donors and prospects more personally. As a result, your organization can foster a sense of authenticity in its online communications, resulting in genuine, long-lasting relationships between your nonprofit and its supporters.
How to Implement Social Listening for Fundraising
If you’re ready to tap into the power of social listening so you can develop an informed communications calendar, there are a few steps you can take to get started:
- Choose the right social listening tools. Decide which platforms you need to monitor and secure the tools necessary to monitor them. Think outside of just your social media channels and website. For example, tracking major donors or prospects in the news can alert your nonprofit when a significant life event occurs that could impact the individual’s decision to give.
- Define key topics, keywords, and people to track. Whether you’re tracking mission-related topics or specific individuals, it’s essential to clearly define what you’re looking for. Monitor conversations highly relevant to your organization—for example, instead of monitoring the keyword “food bank,” a local nonprofit could track keywords like “Cleveland support for food insecurity” or even a campaign-specific hashtag.
- Monitor and respond strategically. Respond to social media comments, acknowledge supporters’ posts, and invite your audience to get involved with your cause. Attach important resources, like a link to your donation page or a volunteer registration form, directly to your online communications. This way, your audience can easily take action as soon as they feel compelled to.
When setting up social listening, be cautious of generic tools or keywords that won’t yield results relevant to your nonprofit. For example, although many recommend using Google Alerts to learn more about prospects, Insightful Philanthropy points out that this platform never leaves the purview of the keywords you track. Instead, Google Alerts alternatives, like donor news alerts, can be used to track key information for cultivating meaningful relationships with individual prospects.
Integrate social listening into your nonprofit’s fundraising strategies today. If you’re unsure where to begin, consider contacting an expert in the channels you’re monitoring for guidance. For example, a social media consultant can help your nonprofit embrace current trends and respond to specific activities.