Social Media--Is It Worth It?
Does your Friends Group have a Facebook page? How about an Instagram account? Do you post and interact with followers regularly? Hopefully, the answer to these questions is yes. Social media, when used properly, can be a valuable and cost-effective tool for supporting and advancing the goals of your organization.
Whether you are just getting started or have established accounts, Parks & Trails New York’s Best Practices manual is a resource to build Friends groups' capacity, expand outreach and communications, and enhance advocacy. A section specifically focused on marketing and social media can help groups dip their toes into these networking channels or boost their voice.
Following are just some of the many benefits to using your social media platforms more frequently and consciously.
Share News
Social media allows you to keep your community up to date on happenings at your facility, including events, programs, hours of operation, construction, announcements, etc. Maintaining relevant and accurate information online will make you a reliable source of information for the general public and help increase your visibility in the community.
Increase Visibility and Relevance
You can use social media to tell your organization’s story. Social media allows small groups with low budgets to reach a wide audience at a low cost. The more people see your posts, the more people will know about your group and your mission. Followers can translate into potential partners, members, and donors.
Promote Events and Creative Programming
Social media can be used to gauge community interest in specific events, promote activities, send invites, manage RSVPs, and share pictures and highlights after your events. Maintaining a social media presence can help you be prepared for hosting events in creative ways. The pandemic has created a necessary shift in programming from a traditional in-person style to virtual content during the last few months. Groups with a consistent social media presence were more adept at handling this transition than groups without such a presence.
Fundraising and Membership Acquisition
Social media can be used to aid fundraising and membership acquisition efforts. Facebook and Instagram have their own fundraising mechanisms that are user-friendly and may prove useful during your next campaign. Also, establishing online relationships with organizations whose work is relevant to your mission could help you secure your next partner or event sponsor.
Community Engagement
Frequent posts and interactions increase the likelihood that your followers will share your events with their friends and followers. Also, the more you are engaged on these platforms, the more you will see events and programming from partner organizations that might interest or inspire you.
Challenges to Anticipate
If you commit to investing more time and energy into social media, you will see an increase in the number of people interacting with your posts and there is a chance that not all those interactions will be positive.
Keep in mind that what your group posts on social media not only reflects on your organization but also on the state park system. It also may impact your standing in the broader community. Be mindful of what you share on your social media platforms. Posting or amplifying negative comments tends to foster an adverse culture.
It is also important to know how to respond to negative social media comments. Your response can negatively impact your group’s image if done incorrectly. Respond respectfully and promptly to all comments, positive and negative. Direct negative conversations offline and outside of the public eye as much as possible. Stay poised, professional, and respectful in all exchanges. An appropriate response can shift a negative conversation to a positive one, while an inappropriate response can make things worse.
Check out these do’s and don’ts for responding to negative comments and also these essential social media etiquette rules.
Is maintaining an active social media presence worth the time and effort?
When the pandemic hit New York in March, the staff at Parks & Trails New York started working from home and it became necessary to find creative ways to engage with our community. During this time, we decided to dedicate more time and effort to curating our social media platforms and have since seen significant results. Investing more time on social media has allowed us to amplify the voices and share the efforts of the communities we serve.
We successfully created three virtual campaigns--#ParksPledge, I Love My Park Month, and a Virtual Cycle the Erie Canal week-long event. During I Love My Park Month we engaged over 100 grassroots partners by promoting their virtual events and programming and our #ShowParksLove challenges, which encouraged participants to give back to state parks and historic sites in a myriad of ways, engaged many followers. Currently we are highlighting sites that received a Park and Trail Partnership Grant across all our social media platforms.
We are constantly looking for more partner content to to share and promote so send your events our way and we will do our best to get the word out!
If you have any questions or concerns about using social media as a tool to further your organizational goals, please feel free to reach out to us at ptny@ptny.org and we would be happy to help you in any way we can.