Extending your marketing reach
Social media have done an excellent marketing job convincing people that is where they must establish a presence. Facebook In particular is very clever at gaining accounts for companies and organisations and then once these entities have a large enough following, require payment for messages to be provided to more than 2% of the followers.
For not-for-profit organisations investing in various social media platforms, it is a bit daunting that Facebook has frequently updated its algorithm to reduce the amount of followers who will see a brand’s post, unless those posts are paid advertisements (1). This has become so prevalent that 98% of followers will never see the posts in their News Feeds. Similarly, Twitter seems to be moving in a similar direction with the announcement it will introduce an algorithm-controlled feed as well (2).
So what is the best way to reach people?
Research show 72% people prefer to receive promotional content through email(3). Should your organisation not be selling product, you are still trying to sell the organisation to gain credibility and importantly, donations.
You will reach people via email because it is an open platform and no longer limited to computers and workstations. Email is more configurable by the user than newsfeeds on Social Media.
Actions for better return on effort
Use your website to build a mailing list.
Add content to your website first
- Content pages
- Blog
- News updates
- Media releases
- Events – your own and industry
Then leverage from that content for
- Regular email newsletters
- Once newsletter has gone out post on
Facebook, Twitter other
References
- Why use email
https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/why-email/ - What a Twitter algorithm could mean for brands, publishers
http://digiday.com/platforms/dont-fear-algorithm-twitters-new-feed-will-mean-brands/ - Marketing Sherpa Benchmarking Report
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/data/public/reports/benchmark-reports/EXCERPT-BMR-2013-Email-Marketing.pdf