How to know if your organization should be on a new social media

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the most popular social media today. It is likely that your organization has accounts on all three of them. Maybe also on Pinterest and Google+, even if you may have left them unattended. We bring you some tips to take into account when assessing if you should be present on a social media or not.

What makes this different from other social media?

Non-profit organizations aren’t usually the first to try out new tools. Most will wait to see if it becomes popular and then decide to join. With this cautious attitude, when they go for it, those in charge of communication already have experience using their personal accounts. In doing so, they have a previous learning and it is therefore easier and more effective. They know the specificities of the community and have had time to value is this tool can be useful for their organization, in terms of the type of content shared and the people and organizations with presence on these social media.

Today, a lot is being said of an application called Vero. It has been around since 2015, but has only recently achieved fame after an advertising campaign. Its creators say it is more social than the others; it doesn’t depend on algorithms and shows content by chronological order. You can share photos, links and videos…and you can also recommend music, films, websites… You can also interact with other users publicly and privately, and so can segment your audience by creating groups. The App is available for Android and iOS and now it is free, although it will be for payment as it promises not to have advertisement. Therefore, some of its features are very similar to those of other more popular social media and some that make it different. Are these strong enough to sideline the others?

What contributions can your organization make?

If you decide to join a social network you must first think how you are going to communicate, what audience you can target, how often you wish to post…You will need to adapt your contents to the specificities of the network and maybe learn new skills, as well as study the platform in depth so as to detect its full potential for your organization and thing what contributions you can make.

Consider the resources you can dedicate

Although a social network may seem interesting, you must consider if you will have sufficient human and material resources to dedicate time to communicate on a new social network. You simply cannot be present everywhere without a budget and a team of dedicated people. Therefore, you should make sure the network adapts to your organization’s communication plan and set priorities.

How will your data be used?

When you sign up to a digital community you accept a set of terms and conditions that you must read carefully. It is not the most entertaining reading, but you need to know what you are committing to. With Vero, for instance, this point has raised controversies and the digital media Gizmondo reminds us that the “terms and conditions state that all contents posted will become the property of the social network and that your name or image may be used without your consent or knowledge”.

What companies are behind?

As soon as a social network becomes popular, large Internet companies become interested. So, many small initiatives end up in the hands of large corporations such as Google or Facebook. There are free and secure platforms that may be an alternative to exclusive social media; however, they are not as popular at this time.