Ana Inestroza
11/9/15
DSC
How do organizations use storytelling, photography and text as a tool for marketing
and reaching out to the masses through Facebook?
One of the greatest impacts to society in this century has been technology
especially the social media and networking. The social networks are the newest
way to market a product because of the billions of people who connect on a daily
basis. For Non-profits organizations, using the social networks is the best way to
obtain followers and get donations because of its low-cost and huge amount of
possible followers. Each social network has numerous strategies that nonprofits can use in order to obtain followers and achieve their monetary and
action goals. Non-profit organizations use storytelling, word choice and
photography as a marketing tool in order to appeal to emotions and pathos
through the social media to reach the masses.
Social media has become one of the greatest platforms for marketing in the
21st century. In Social Media Benchmark Study’s 2015 report, they found the
following: Email list sizes grew 11% in the past year, Facebook and Twitter
followers grew 42% and 37%, respectively. With the great amounts of people
engaged in this social medias, non-profits have realized that it is a great source to
obtain donations. “Nearly half of non-profits (47%) find that the pinnacle of
engagement is a donation” (Survey performed by the Case Foundation). In a Hub
Spot survey of small-to-medium non-profits in the U.S. they found the specific
preferred social media networks for non-profits, Facebook being ranked top 1 and
twitter following it. For each of these social networks, there are specific strategies
that should be used in order to obtain more followers and maintain a good connection
with them. Kevan Lee, in his article "Social Media for Non-Profits: High-Impact Tips
and the Best Free Tools” suggests that non-profits get visual, announce events, get
conversational, and most importantly proposes the “Three A’s”. The “Three A’s” are
appreciation, advocacy and appeals. As for appreciation, non-profits in social media
must recognize their donors, supporter’s volunteers, and employees. By appreciating
their help, there is more possibility that they will continue to donate. Then, advocacy
must be used to engage and share with the content of others and finally a good tactic
of appeals in order to solicit donations or help. Another important aspect that nonprofits must do is to identify their target audience through demographics.
The number one social network for non-profits to use is Facebook. It
has over one billion active users which can potentially become followers to each nonprofit through different methods. Using the support of Facebook through ads is a
good way to obtain more followers thus gets more possible donations and support.
Custom Audiences is another way to reach the community were nonprofits can take
their data and match them to Facebook for targeting. The non-profit must also try to
get in the News Feed as much as possible in order to keep their followers updated and
active. Also, a very useful tool Facebook provides with is the ‘Donate Now’ button.
The button is integrated into a Facebook page and will appear besides the posts.
When clicking the button it will take the person to the desired payment page and the
donation will be processed. This is an easy and efficient tool for gathering money and
one of the reasons why Facebook remain the number one social network for nonprofits to achieve their goals. Finally, the most important strategy to captivate the
masses attention is to have a great storytelling technique with appealing photography
and text. “ Social media is far more than a publishing platform —it’s a place to
capture people’s attention, connect with supporters and build communities”
("Strategic Guide to Social Media for Nonprofits | Sprout Social).
“Storytelling is the language of emotion” (Mark Rovner, founder of Sea
Change Strategies). Storytelling is the most commonly and greatest technique a nonprofit will use in the world of social networking. Stories help people remember,
having a name a story and pictures connect the reader and engages them even more, it
moves people to share the story or take action. These stories are also linked to
people’s sense of generosity. “Studies also show that donors tend to give twice as
much when presented with a story about an affected individual as opposed to reading
huge abstract numbers of the overall scope of a problem” (90 Great Publicity Ideas
for Nonprofits."). Storytelling goes hand in hand with photography. Together, they
create the perfect imagery to the reader and instantly impacts them. “Our decisions
and actions are based more on emotional reactions than rational thought. Good
visuals make people feel first and think second” (90 Great Publicity Ideas for
Nonprofits.). This images are effective vehicles for evoking emotions and storytellers
must use them intentionally and strategically in order to capture attention. People will
always forget what they read but they will never forget how it made them feel, and
this is why a correct appeal to emotions is essential. The best place to share this
storytelling is through the social media because it is dynamic, easy to consume,
provides instant feedback, and most importantly its shareable. “The more vivid the
story – through narrative or through imagery – the more emotionally arousing. And
emotions are what triggers the impetus to help” (Why Vivid Storytelling Inspires
Giving).
Taking into consideration that storytelling is one of the most important tools
in the world of social media and non-profits, understanding the art of photography
is essential. “Photography is powerful because we can place ourselves into the
perspective of those we see in an image” (Photography and the Feelings of Others:
From Mirroring Emotions to the Theory of Mind). People use photography to
understand themselves in relation to the people who surround them. A simple
photograph is capable of arousing innumerable feelings and thoughts to a person
and appeal to emotions almost instantaneously. “Photography plays a unique role in
triggering the network of brain regions that underlie empathy” (Photography and the
Feelings of Others: From Mirroring Emotions to the Theory of Mind). It is
scientifically proven that photography is strongly linked to emotion arousal and
therefor non-profits best way to appeal to the masses is through active imagery with
photography. The “Human Mirror Neuron System” describes imitation as automatic
and whenever a person sees an expression on someone’s face there is an
unconscious activation of the same muscles. Therefor, people who see a photo of a
person or animal that shows emotions in their faces, an immediate connection and
appeal is created. “We have evolved to feel the emotions of other people and vision
can clearly drive much of our emotional response” (Photography and the Feelings
of Others: From Mirroring Emotions to the Theory of Mind). Photography is
extremely important to a non-profits success because it can influence the human’s
capacity to empathize and therefor effects their motivations to help others.
In Conclusion, the social networks has shaped the new way of marketing for
non-profit organizations and served as an essential medium to reach the masses and
obtain donations and ignite action especially in Facebook. These organizations use
storytelling, word choice and photography as a marketing tool in order to
appeal to emotions and pathos through the social media to reach the masses.
Reaching to the emotions of people is the greatest strategy used by these
organizations in order to create appeal and gain more followers and they do
this through their storytelling and photography. The more impacting their feed
is, the more chances to get people to donate or involve in the cause.
Works Cited
Lee, Kevan. "Social Media for Non-Profits: High-Impact Tips and the Best Free
Tools." Buffer Social. N.p., 16 June 2015. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.
Johnston, Alicia. "Strategic Guide to Social Media for Nonprofits | Sprout Social."
Sprout Social. N.p., 04 Aug. 2015. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
Virgilito, Dan. "Facebook Marketing Tips For NonProfit Organizations." Ad
Espresso. N.p., 2 June 2015. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
MacEntee, Sean. "Facebook for Nonprofits: Moving Your Marketing beyond the
'Like'" Bigduck. N.p., 25 Nov. 2013. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.
Ni, Perla. "Why Vivid Storytelling Inspires Giving (SSIR)." Why Vivid
Storytelling Inspires Giving. N.p., 5 Feb. 2008. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.
Ni, Perla. "Why Vivid Storytelling Inspires Giving (SSIR)." Why Vivid
Storytelling Inspires Giving. N.p., 5 Feb. 2008. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.
Ni, Perla. "Why Vivid Storytelling Inspires Giving (SSIR)." Why Vivid
Storytelling Inspires Giving. N.p., 5 Feb. 2008. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.
"90 Great Publicity Ideas for Nonprofits." Stevenson/90 Great 90 Great
Publicity Ideas for Nonprofits (2013): 4-48. Web.
"The Power of Visual Storytelling." The Power of Visual Storytelling.
N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.