Bye-bye Meta?

18 hours ago

4 min read

Updated: 2 hours ago

Are you feeling frustrated with Facebook? Irked with Instagram? You are not alone.

More and more, my clients are feeling overwhelmed with the changes to Meta and find managing their channels exhausting. The algorithm seems to change endlessly and the backend is confusing.

But what's the alternative? We know that for charities, social media is an important part of the marketing mix. It allows us to reach and build communities, leading not only to fundraising but also engagement. Plus it legitimises us - many major funders and potential partners will check your social media to verify you exist.

Completely stopping social media is not a great solution, but there are ways to use your resources better and limit the frustration.

Check your Return on Investment (ROI)

Social media is one of the most time-consuming, resource-heavy parts of the marketing mix. But you don't own any of the channels - you are 'renting' space on these social media platforms and you have to live by their rules when you use them.

Yet the irony is that email and website marketing drastically outperform social media on ROI - and you own these channels. And when it comes to storytelling and donor retention, the winner for ROI is actually print - a bigger cost upfront but a vastly better return.

So have a look at your whole marketing mix and see where you are spending the most and why - and include the cost of your time, not just actual spend.

Focus

If you have lots of social media channels, you know that tailoring your content to each channel is time-consuming, and not all of your channels may be performing well. So I would advise focusing on your best channel.

Consolidate your efforts and aim for deeper engagement on your primary platform.

Reduce frequency

Often I find that when organisations reduce the frequency of their posting, they may see slower growth in follower numbers, but the engagement levels rise. This is actually good - try not to worry about the 'vanity metrics' and focus instead on creating a genuine community of supporters that take action.

Create quality content

Your website is a channel you can cultivate and a place where you can share high-quality, engaging content. Plus content on your website will outlive the lifespan of a social media post and be indexed by Google indefinitely.

Get the Google Ad Grant

If you haven't already, I'd strongly recommend applying for the Google Ad grant. It gives charities $10,000 per month in free search advertising, directing people straight to your website (which you own). If you can manage the grant yourself, that's great, but even having to pay an agency to manage it is worth the money in my opinion.

What am I doing?

Moving on from Meta...

In all honesty, I am not a fan of Meta - I work with it on a daily basis on behalf of my clients and it feels like a never-ending battle! But I do see the benefits, especially for smaller charities that have limited marketing budgets. I also particularly love the power of small community groups and pages on Facebook - they are amazing at galvanising people at a local level in my experience.

So, I support organisations to use social media strategically - as part of a marketing mix, not in isolation. I advise my clients to focus on one or two channels where they know their audience is active, and I always urge my clients to spend the majority of their efforts (and their budget) on their website and email list.

I also regularly advise organisations not to use AI for content creation, especially on social media. If you are going to communicate, doing it in a human, authentic way is the least your supporters deserve. But again, I get it - life isn't that simple is it? Time runs away and many people think AI is a shortcut.

I believe, however, that there simply is no shortcut to building relationships and trust. I guess only time will tell if I am right or wrong on that one! You can read more about my thoughts on AI in my blog here.

On a personal note, I focus my own marketing efforts for Tiptoe on LinkedIn (which I have always found to be calmer and simpler). For me, LinkedIn gives me access to my primary audience and allows me to share thoughtful content about topics that matter to me. I also use good, old-fashioned print quite a lot. And as I mentioned earlier, not only does it look lovely, it also has the best return on investment.

I am planning on moving away from Meta altogether by the end of this year. I use Instagram for my personal writing, but find it a little exhausting to be honest. I did set up a Facebook page for Tiptoe, but it has never really taken off - and now I will sunset it. I think it's good to try different channels, but I'm a fan of moving on if they don't work.

However you choose to use social media (or not!) I wish you the best of luck. If you would like any advice or support, please do get in touch and we can have a cuppa!

Call me on 07568 398908 or email me any time at laura@tiptoetraining.com