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Today’s episode features social media expert, small business owner, and nonprofit executive director, Lauren Davis.
Lauren lives close to Chicago in Rockford, Illinois, but works with people around the world to overcome their personal branding discontent and grow their presence so that they can focus on sales, exposure, leadership and community impact.
She was named one of the 20 People You Should Know in 2013 by the Rockford Illinois Chamber of Commerce, one of the Register Star (Gatehouse Media’s) “People to Watch” in 2018, a “Face of Tourism” by her city in 2017, an “Up Next” future leader in 2019 by the Register Star (Gatehouse Media) and has received Senate recognition for her passionate dedication to her local business community.
Lauren is the executive director of Winnebago Buy Local, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect local businesses together to collaborate and bring the community closer to them, creating raving fans.
Learning Points From This Episode:
What’s Working?
Lauren shares that Instagram is up to 1 billion users and 60% of those users make 6-figures and 83% share they are discovering new brands, products, organizations on Instagram. She shares the importance of participating with your audience on every social media platform you choose to use. Think of comments like a digital handshake – comments show you are an actual human being.
For Instagram, consider posting 4 times a week and 6 to 8 stories a day; for Facebook, post 6 days a week, stories every day.
Share with your audience – What is your organization doing? Why is it important? What is your mission? Do you have any personal stories about how your work is affecting others? What can you do to create a FOMO (fear of missing out) experience?
Lauren recommends having your hashtag readily available so that when people post they can tag your organization. A hashtag is literally a search tool to see what people are saying about you and your cause. Your hashtag needs to be easy to remember, short if possible, and unique to you.
What’s NOT Working (Social Media Misses):
- The marketing team/intern will schedule a bunch of posts with CTAs (calls to action) and then never touch it again. Lauren recommends spending at least 30 minutes a day responding and liking other people’s pages/posts. Perpetual motion is key. Find a volunteer who is already on social media who can help keep up with it – they also need to understand and value the importance of cultivating relationships. A marketing person who understands the basic level of relationships is worth paying for.
- It doesn’t matter how many times you are posting if people don’t care about the content. The purpose of having an online presence is to build your community and make new connections. This is how you get more contacts. Post stories that inspire as well as highlight what your organization is doing, meaning you’re doing the work you say you’re doing, which translates into using donor dollars wisely.
- Recognize the businesses that support your cause by going above and beyond on social media to recognize people/organizations who have donated. This is a missed opportunity if you don’t use social media to recognize your donors.
For more information about Lauren Davis, follow her on instagram at @ldaviscreative or visit laurendaviscreative.com.
For more information about Mary Valloni, visit maryvalloni.com and to download our free Fundraising Freedom Roadmap, go to maryvalloni.com/roadmap.