Branding is more than just a logo.
Branding embodies who the organization is, what it stands for and how it wants to be perceived. It’s about the thoughts and feelings that come to mind when someone sees your name or logo.
And social media plays a huge role in branding today.
Aligning branding and social media can strengthen the public perception of your organization and build trust between you and your target audience. But to achieve this, you must ensure brand values and messages are reflected in your social media content.
In this blog post, we’ll go over several ways nonprofit organizations can align their branding and organic social efforts—from voice and messaging to the use of hashtags, images and video.
Finding your brand voice
Your brand voice (or “brand personality”) should be consistent across all marketing channels, and especially across your social media channels. A strong brand voice can help foster connection and community, building credibility and trust.
Tone, style and consistency are all important factors to take into consideration when developing a strategic brand voice. How do you want your nonprofit organization to be seen?
- Informative and empowering?
- Playful and humorous?
- Friendly and inclusive?
- Dedicated and serious?
Creating a brand or style guide is a great way to distinguish preferred tone, language and visual elements to maintain consistency. This serves as a wonderful reference for everyone involved in marketing efforts and ensures alignment and cohesiveness.
Building your brand messaging
Developing “content pillars” is a great way to ensure you have consistent brand messaging reaching your target audience on a regular basis. Content pillars are the themes or values that your organization prioritizes most.
In the nonprofit space, you might see important content categorized into pillars like this:
- Staff & Volunteer Content: Highlight the people who make the organization what it is and foster a sense of community.
- Educational Content: Build credibility and trust as you teach your audience about the issues surrounding your work and your mission.
- Fundraising Support Content: Increase awareness about the importance of your cause and drive donations.
- Impact Content: Showcase success stories and inspiring moments, which help you appear credible and effective in your work.
- Short & Sweet Content: Share short, often lighthearted content that encourages engagement and balances the serious side of your mission.
Utilizing branded hashtags
Branded hashtags are specifically created by a brand, allowing them to easily identify and track content related to their organization. These also help in categorizing content, making it easier for your audience to digest and understand.
Children International, for example, uses #MultiplyGoodMonday every Monday to share a child success story from one of their communities across the world.
Philly House shares a #FacesOfPhilly post every week that highlights one of their guests. Every Friday, they also share a #PhillyHouseFriday post that highlights any sort of impact content that can showcase the good work they are doing.
The goal with branded hashtags is for your audience to become familiar with these “slogans,” increasing awareness not only of your organization but also what your organization stands for.
Taking branded hashtags a step further, you can utilize them to encourage your audience to share their own stories about your organization, posting their positive experiences and using your hashtag. This increases brand exposure, builds community and fosters a sense of loyalty to your organization.
Creating branded visuals
Having a cohesive look to your images and videos on social media also plays a crucial role in how your organization is perceived. This is commonly referred to as brand aesthetic, which is the visual representation of your brand’s personality.
The design style, brand colors, fonts and imagery used across all channels are important, especially for social media channels like Instagram where your content is perfectly aligned in a grid, showcased together. It can often be the hook in an online experience that encourages audiences to learn more about your organization, scroll further and educate themselves on who you are.
Once again, a streamlined style guide acts as an excellent resource to reference when creating graphics or video for social media. You’ll need it to answer questions like:
- Do we start or end every video with our brand logo?
- Do we include a logo in the corner of every social image we share?
- Do we have specific fonts, colors or icons that we use throughout all visuals?
These are all things you can take into consideration when wanting to build out an effective brand identity. Then, once you determine that, keep it consistent!
Strengthen your brand, strengthen your mission
Branding and social media are powerful tools that, when aligned, can amplify your nonprofit’s mission and deepen your connection with your audience.
Remember: Consistency is key. By finding and maintaining your unique brand voice, crafting impactful messaging through content pillars, utilizing branded hashtags and creating a cohesive visual identity, your organization can stand out in a crowded digital landscape.
By integrating branding into your organic social media strategy, you’re not just promoting your cause, you’re inviting your audience to become a part of it. Together, you can create a more meaningful impact and inspire change in the world.
Additional Resources
- Why you need a social media strategy for fundraising
- The beginner’s guide to short-form vertical video content for nonprofits
- Want to improve your organic social media content? Try these tips
- How local and regional nonprofits can invest in brand marketing
- More than a name: How to define your nonprofit’s brand
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