I've been asked to manage the social media presence of a non-profit that educates people who want to be entrepreneurs. What can I do to get results?

This is loaded question. Give anyone of us here with that expertise a call to help you out better and in more depth.

Humberto Valle
Unthink Strategy

There are tons of great ways to build the visibility for rising entrepreneurs. Being a non-profit, I would suggest using a combination of email marketing, and in person events along with social media. You must engage your audience. Focus social media strategies on LinkedIn and Facebook ads as well. If you'd like to discuss and gain a full strategy and get your questions answered in detail, please feel free to schedule some time to do so.

I believe I see what you're getting at but I think you're starting off with the wrong question. "Get results" is too vague. What you want to do is think "What is the chief aim of having this social presence and how does it fit into the larger plan of the organization?"

Once that question is answered, you'll have a goal in mind. When you have a goal you can paint a picture of what success looks like. And when you know how success looks you can work backwards to achieve that aim.

What does this nonprofit need to achieve that can be supported or attained through social media? Heightened awareness? The first touch that leads to a partnership with other organizations that already have the audience you want but would not be threatened by plugging you into their community?

You need to answer those questions first, then do an internal SWOT analysis. (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.) I say internal because in some organizations, there are people bottlenecking power, who have glorious titles but aren't able to actually help you, who want forward progress but only if it looks like they led the charge.

You need to know where your landmines are, who your allies are and how to navigate the space you're in.

You also need to see how you can use whatever leverage you have to inspire action offline- if the offer happens in person, how do you use social to get people to *gasp* go outside?

You may find out that there are, say, five key organizations where the leader is very involved in social, where you have a hope of connecting to a person who can actually make decisions like announcing your event in their newsletter or blog.

Or you may find that you need to create content that solves a pain your community has, and get it delivered them via email, using Twitter, Facebook or Google tech that allows them to sign up with those accounts, via the address they use for those accounts. Some people love that it gives them greater control over subscribing/unsubscribing.

Then there are issues like having a search, local or mobile ready blog. Do you have one? Do you need one for your purposes - some brands have enough traction without a blog but still need a home base. Though I suggest that you always operate social from the foundation of a blog (which is part of social media, an oft-forgotten fact), if you don't have content creators nor the budget to hire them, it may not be the time.

Think about those questions. Then come back and get really specific. Let me know when you've got a target and I'm happy to help.

Social media is all about engagement and discovering your audience. I'd always recommend against buying followers as this doesn't help you actually discover your audience and skews your social media analytics.

The other reason you need to be as truthful about your audience as possible is for advertising. Ads on social are quite effective if you narrowly target user segments. I feel as if their ROI is far better than search ads/Google Adwords (unless you were re-marketing people with your Adwords).

The true power of social media comes from spreading a message (virality) and gaining thought leadership. It is in building a following and having advocates. This simply takes time. There is no short cut. Automation can come off like spam and hurt you.

More than happy to chat further if you like. I do a lot of social media campaigns and analytics (though admittedly more for big brands who may have bigger budgets).

If you are starting only with social media, become the best resource on social media for entrepreneurs. Share amazing tools, links to articles and blogs. Links on being an entrepreneur from your own inhouse blog. Tips, tricks, resources, infographics. Become the brand to come to for any resource on being an entrepreneur. Establish an "ask us" service where any entrepreneur looking for help can ask your social media presence a question and get a killer well-researched answer. Become like an information concierge. Share the answers with all your feeds. Build a library of Q&As. Follow amazing entrepreneur resources and retweet their stuff. Become the brand people know to go to on social media to become better entrepreneurs. You will build a following and a killer content library on your own foundation blog and attract traffic. Ok that's day 1. ;-) No seriously that would be what is to do. If you get expanded responsibilities beyond social media, say in SEO, email marketing and content marketing then give me a call. And we can talk about an expanded strategy. As you it may start with social media, but there is so much more to do to become effective.

What sort of results are you seeking? I assume you mean that you want to amass followers, but I am not sure that really represents success unless they are within your target market. I hope that you don't mean to raise funding, because that can be enormously challenging for a small nonprofit to achieve in social media (compared to putting the same amount of energy and effort into other initiatives).

The first thing you need to do is define which of your target markets you seek to attract, because you need to realize that nonprofits have multiple customers. The recipient of services is one client, the individual donor is another, the institutional donor is a third, the volunteer is a fourth, etc. Each of them wants a different experience from your nonprofit; while there are synergies between them, marketing a nonprofit is fundamentally different than marketing a for-profit because the customers who provide the capital are typically different than the customers who receive the services.

In general, the best nonprofit social media channels that I have seen are those which use the social space to create a conversation, to share knowledge, to GIVE .... not to focus on raising money.

Best of luck.

To get the results in managing the social media presence of a non-profit that educates people who want to be entrepreneurs you must understand several things.
1. Too often business owners buy into the idea that ‘I have to be there. Do not think of social media as just a megaphone for your business but think about how it can help you reach your goals. John Jantsch, business marketing consultant, speaker, and author of Duct Tape Marketing.
2. Concentrating on growing audiences and engagement on LinkedIn can absolutely boost sales and conversion rates.
3. The key thing with Facebook is to remember that the algorithm they use rewards posts that have interaction. If a business posts something but no one responds, then Facebook will not show it to anyone. It is going to get more difficult, as Facebook announced they are going to be changing their algorithm. A car dealer could post a picture of someone buying their first car and, sure, it is interesting enough.
4. It is an opportunity for you to connect, in a meaningful way, with the people who have helped you and supported you in business. If you think about the 10 to 20 most important people in your business world, social media allows you to recognize and thank them for helping you along the way.
5. It is your personal brand first, and your job or business second.
6. You can create a strategy and get better results with less time and effort.
7. If you have a service-based business, consider a photo with words or a photo that complements your text.
8. Social media can feel overwhelming, especially to the already stretched-in-a-million-directions entrepreneur. Even business owners who hate social media can be successful if they are strategic in their approach.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath