MY EXPERTISE

5 years back, during my summer vacation, I was inducted into a fellowship organized by Yes Foundation Fellowship. The fellowship was to provide young people exposure to the development sector. A batch of 80 of us from mixed backgrounds was placed in different NGOs for a period of two months where we would work on projects related to communications and social media. This was in Delhi in 2016. I was in the third year of my college and had limited to no understanding of both the sector- the development sector as well as the communications sector. What I brought with me during the fellowship was some of my skills which I had worked on during the 3 years in my college. I was an avid photographer, traveler, blogger, and social media enthusiast. 2016 was not a time when everybody was focussing on their Instagram, but I was there, and I was working towards my profile then.

During the induction, we met a bunch of social leaders. Some of these people have left deep impressions on my career and life. I remember meeting people from Ogliviy and Matter and how they impressed each one of us by showing commercials that had shaped the commercial space of India. Some of them were Fevicol, Happident White, etc. I was impressed by the creativity and I am sure every one of us was. Many of their ads subtly led to a social message as well. Among the other people, we listened to was a social filmmaker, a manager from Yes Bank, NGO founders among many others. Through these discussions, I was impressed firstly by the work that people were doing in the development sector, secondly by the sheer ingenuity among people to find creative ways to portray these stories. 

During the next two months of my fellowship, I wanted to be a storyteller on social media for my organization. I was excited, pumped and I was really looking forward to being a part of this interesting space. 

THE DISAPPOINTMENT

However what followed was disappointment for me, not fully, but definitely, it did dishearten me. I worked for an organization during the fellowship, I interned in another, I was a part of another fellowship in 2018, this time it was for a year. Today on my resumes I write an experience of 3.5 to 4 years working in this sector. During these not so many years, I have tried my heart’s best to really do something meaningful in this space. I do not mean in the development sector alone or at communications, but in the space of trying to be a bridge in between them. I have tried to be a storyteller for several of these organizations I have worked in but it has never been a success. I have personally seen several organizations that have mastered this art but unfortunately, they haven’t hired me yet.

I have so many thoughts about how everything went by. The Non Profit space has several struggles when it comes to putting itself out on social media. Some of these concerns are very genuine, for example how to portray yourselves genuinely to people, how to make them trust them, how to build a network of people and how to fundraise. However, these struggles are often overshadowed by some really dumb ideas that a lot of people have regarding this. A number of nonprofits that are in their early years on social media have developed this habit of portraying this bleak sad story on their social media. The idea is also sometimes that they want to put content very specific for a certain privileged, educated group of people. Something which I personally feel would never work and is very misleading. 

THE PURPOSE

I have always been in conflict with the people whom I have worked for regarding the simplest of things, and that is the whole purpose of social media. I have argued, fought for no solution. The purpose of anyone on social media is not to gather more likes or be famous. Of course, that can be one of your purposes, but you can be popular/famous on social media only if you have something to share with the world. It can be the stupidest of the things as well but it needs to be something that you yourself believe that your viewers would want to see/engage with. It is common in any business or any other sector. Nonprofit sector isn’t any different.

Non Profits should sit and answer some very basic questions on what do they want to achieve with their social media. Do you want volunteers, do you want to fundraise, do you want to be a knowledge source, share some data with the people, etc etc. It could be either one of it or all of it. But it is essential to identify what is it and who are you targeting. Also, another essential thing in this is if you want to target a specific group of people, say funders, doctors, or people in Mumbai, they would only constitute some percent of your total audience. You cannot make a post that is tone-deaf for other audiences. This is where I feel nonprofits go wrong. 

CONTENT AND AUDIENCE

Nonprofits tend to make content for only people who know about them. The content becomes specific, monotonous, and often specific to a very specific set of people. What they also forget is social media is an ever-changing platform and it has an ever-changing audience. A new audience comes to social media every second. The platform also pushes for content that is new and is something that can hook your user on. I know what your reply is to that if you are a nonprofit that does that – It can be either of two things – 1. We do not want that much engagement 2. We cant work for content like that. I feel both the points are invalid

1. If you do not want engagement then why are you on social media? The only answer that can negate this question is if you are doing this because your funder wants it. I can accept that. Apart from that, I do not really accept any answers. If you do not want people interacting on your social media I am not sure why you are here or reading this article till this point. If you are here then we need to work on the fact that it is very normal to put your content out there and expect engagement.
2. If you cannot work on content like that and if you want to then hire an expert.

MASTERS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

I feel we are in this generation where all of us feel we are masters on social media, and we definitely are, we all are. There is nothing that distinct usual people from experts on social media, nothing except one small thing. That for a social media expert it is his/her job. They are there to make a difference, experiment, analyze and make better content. I have always felt weird about providing suggestions for things that I myself cannot do, and I feel the same way in reverse for someone else. I have seen nonprofits deteriorate on social media because their ideas are generated by people who have limited expertise on social media. An Instagram account cannot run on pictures of activities conducted at an NGO, or content that is so incomprehensible that 90% of the audience would just skim through it. 

I am making bold assumptions here based on my own knowledge. I just feel social media should be run by social media experts if you are a brand. Any brand – if it is a corporate, media, or nonprofit. Isn’t it like the basic thing. I have seen communications people in nonprofits struggling with the kind of content they are expected to put and the restrictions they have on them. It is sad and disheartening because I feel nonprofit space is the one space that should really value story-telling. 

CONCLUSION

Story Telling is how I would describe a perfect social media for a non-profit. Every great non-profit social media page has that human connection to them. This connection is made by social media experts and unfortunately not by people who run the non-profit because it is not their job. 

My idea of Non-Profit Social Media Marketing is to build content for the audience. The audience may not know of the nitty-gritty of nonprofit organizations but want to know. The audience is here for us to gain their trust and help us in working together for a cause. This is the kind of nonprofit marketing I want to work on.