It’s like this: You put your quarters into the snack vending machine. You carefully select the exact numbers and letters of your precise selection. The arm starts to move with promising deliberateness … and then … nothing happens. Your product is stuck, dangling helplessly, while you watch in futile anticipation.

If you’re using social media for your nonprofit organization, including Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, but you haven’t zeroed in on the precise strategies that make these tools return serious value to you, you may be stuck watching the promised rewards of social media from a state of frustrating stillness. Here’s a look at some of the errors nonprofit organizations make with social media tools, as highlighted from an article in Fundraising Success Magazine.

Using a Weird, Abstract Version of Your Logo

Are you using your nonprofit’s logo image in a space that’s too small on your Facebook profile? Can viewers only see the middle few letters of your organization’s name? This is damaging to your brand. Fix it. Provide instead a captivating image of your mission in action, and don’t be afraid to involve a current volunteer or enthusiastic client in your profile picture.

Overdoing It is Still Overdoing It

You certainly don’t want to get unfriended, not when it comes to valuable donors and decision-makers. Keep your loyal friends and encourage new ones by only posting to social media sites once daily, if you plan to post every day. We recommend posting twice per week as you begin a social media campaign. On another overdoing it note, don’t use your social media outlets only to make endless requests of your fans. They’ll tire of this quickly. Instead, use your social media resources to portray yourself as the “expert” on topics related to your mission. Comment on recent news related to who you help.

Don’t Bypass LinkedIn

Which social media page is easy to set up a page on, simple to update and has more than 100 million users? LinkedIn. Every organization is likely to have a page slot on LinkedIn. If yours is blank, so shall be your donors’ reactions to you.

Tweet and Be Tweeted

Twitter remains a powerful tool for spreading the word about your organization’s successes and portraying your stance on key issues related to your mission. However, the majority of nonprofit organizations don’t actually follow the people who are following them on Twitter. Get a follower? Follow them, if they have a Twitter account. Organize the Twitter accounts you follow into groups or lists for faster management. The benefit of this reciprocal tweeting is worth it.

Blogging. You Need It. You Really Need It.

If you’re involved in several social media outlets, you need blogging to knit your story into a cohesive, powerful brand. If you are involved in only one social media outlet, you need blogging to knit your story into a cohesive, powerful brand. Blogging gives your viewers and readers new material to comment on and share with friends. It’s also the portal through which your donors and followers can share their opinions and comments with you and their fellow fans. Want to have a huge e-newsletter subscription list and a giant group of fans on Facebook? Blogging is your ticket, and it can produce these results faster than you can update your status.

Learn more about how to fit social media tools into a targeted, effective marketing strategy from Susan J. Campbell Copywriting Solutions.