How to Pick Best Social-Media Outlets for Reaching a Charity’s Goals

February 10, 2014 | Read Time: 2 minutes

Raising money: Facebook

“It’s great for reaching baby boomers who are considering charitable gifts, and it’s probably one of the only platforms where you can raise any money,” says Melanie Mathos, co-author of 101 Social Media Tactics for Nonprofits.

Spurring advocacy: Twitter, Google+

“If a human-rights nonprofit is looking to find activists to change policies or react to real-time events, using Twitter and hosting hangouts on Google+ may be their golden ticket,” says Farra Trompeter, vice president of Big Duck, a marketing consultancy in New York that serves nonprofit clients.

Reaching men: Google+

“Google+ is really dominated by men,” says Ms. Mathos. “Young, techy men hang out there.”

Reaching women: Pinterest

Eighty percent of Pinterest’s users are female. “If your nonprofit has a lot of women supporters, it might make sense to be there,” says Frank Barry, director of digital marketing at Blackbaud, a fundraising technology and consulting company. “If you have great imagery to share, you should probably go give it a shot.”

Luring college alumni: Facebook, LinkedIn

These platforms, says Ms. Trompeter, are essential for colleges and universities if their “No. 1 goal is to use social media as part of their efforts to engage alumni.”

Telling a charity’s story with visuals: Instagram, Pinterest, Vine

With a 15-second video on Instagram, Ms. Mathos says, “basically it’s like your elevator pitch. You have to tell a story in a very succinct, short, visual way. I think it fits in really well with communicating your mission really simply.”

But charities without a lot of pictures and video to share should avoid these networks, says Jenessa Connor, marketing director of the Trevor Project, a charity that serves gay youths. Says Ms. Connor, “It’s not going to be sustainable to keep generating that kind of visual content to keep those platforms current.”