Recommended Digital Media Tools

Courage Connection

Aggregators

The purpose of an aggregator or social media dashboard is to centralize, schedule, and

effectively manage all of your social media accounts in one place.

Service Price Free Trial Analytics Profiles Special Features

Buffer Free Free N/A No 3 (No Pablo Image Creator
Pinterest)

Hootsuite Free N/A Basic 3 Free Social Media

Free Classes

Coschedule $40/mo 14 days Social 8 ReQueue,1

Individual Super Smart Best Time
Scheduling2

Hootsuite $19/mo 30 days Real Time 10 RSS Feed

Professional Social Campaigns and
Sweepstakes
(Plus Free Benefits)

Buffer $10/mo 7 days Social 10 RSS Feed

Awesome (Plus Free Benefits)

1​
​Requeue takes your best posts and promotes them at the optimal time to automatically fill gaps in
media scheduling
2​
SSBTS tracks when your followers and suggests the best time to publish content based on that
information.
 Twitter

Twitter can reach younger audiences. The more compact nature of content allows for
easier audience interaction.

● 36% of Twitter users are ages 18-29

● Share valuable content
○ Links to educational information
○ Inspirational quotes and pictures
○ Resources that may help audience
● Post frequently and consistently
○ Post an average of 6 times a day
■ Can include both original content and retweeted or reused content
○ Repetitious posting is not effective (i.e. same post daily)
○ Repetition is good every few weeks (i.e. 2-3 weeks)
● Keep posts short
○ Twitter has a 280 character limit and a 2 minute 20 second video limit
■ Video uploads get twice as many interactions (on average) as typed
messages
○ Posts with fewer characters receive more interaction
■ Tweets should be 71-100 characters
● This boosts engagement 17%
○ Users are most active from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
■ The most retweets are seen from 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.
● Rule of hashtags
○ Do not use more than 3 hashtags
○ 1 or 2 hashtags are the most effective
● Talk publicly and get involved with members of the community
○ Ask questions from the audience
■ Use Twitter polls
● Polls are a great way to gain feedback about events or
opinions about content
○ Be sure to respond to tweets, comments, and questions quickly
■ Tag the original poster in the tweet to ensure that they are aware
their voice was heard
■ Retweet other people's tweets
 ■ Retweeting is important because it provides your audience an
insight into your values and message and keeps them updated
■ Another way to interact with tweets is to like tweets by followers

Instagram

Instagram is a great way to target a younger audience. The vast majority (90%) of
Instagram users are under 35. Most users are 18-29.

● Ensure that your Instagram is set up as a business profile

● Post to Instagram around 5-7 times a week
○ Posting often is important to keep audience engaged, but posting too
often can overwhelm followers
○ If you have multiple images to post from one event, include all in one post
■ Use a collage or the slideshow function
○ Post during times when you think your audience will be viewing content
(early morning, lunch time, and evening)
● Engage with your audience
○ Follow other nonprofit profiles and profiles that promote nonprofits, and
engage with them
○ Like or comment on posts from your followers
● Use a variety of high quality images
○ The optimal width for images is 1080 px.
○ Vary the types of images
■ Inspirational quotes, promotional graphics, people, etc.
● Images with faces do particularly well
● Use captions effectively
○ When the image is the focal point, limit caption to around 150 characters
○ When the image illustrates a larger idea, use the caption to tell the story
○ Include questions in the caption to encourage audience engagement.
● Utilize hashtags
○ 5 hashtags per post is optimal; 11 is average; 30 is the limit
○ Take advantage of autocomplete to see the most used hashtags
● Give incentives for following
○ Use Instagram posts to announce flash sales in Connections Store
○ Offer gift cards to the Connections Store for first person to answer a
question correctly in the comments
■ Possibly require users to tag a friend in order to win, or to follow
both Courage Connection and the Connections Store on Instagram
● Regram posts from other profiles
○ Obtain permission from original poster through a private message or a
comment
■ Open with a positive comment to show your interest
■ Let them know what you are using the image for and why
■ If they do not reply, or do not give permission, do not use the image
○ Credit the original poster with an “@” in the caption, and tag their
username on the image
■ Provide proper attribution, “Photo credit: @username,” “Credit:
@username,” “Captured by: @username”
■ Any other image editing should be avoided unless you obtain
permission from the original poster
○ Use Hootsuite to regram
■ Find the image you wish to share
■ Click the re-share button
■ When compose box opens, it will attach the photo, the original
caption, and a photo credit
■ Add your own commentary to the post in addition to theirs to add a
personal touch
■ Choose the social media the post will appear on
● The credit handle attached will be Instagram; if posting to
another social media site, manually change the credit to
reflect their handle on that site
■ Save, send, or schedule as usual
 Facebook

Facebook gives you access to a huge audience that isn’t limited to a certain age range. It
also helps you reach people in your area so you can engage your community more
easily.

● The average age of Facebook users is 41

○ 65% of Facebook users are above the age of 35
● Post 3 times a week
○ Users are most active on their lunch breaks and after dinner
■ 11am to 1pm and 6pm to 8 or 9pm
● Respond to comments in a timely manner
○ This lets them know that you hear them and care
● Audience Insight
○ Insight is a free tool offered by Facebook to see who’s on Facebook and
how active they are
○ Narrow down your results by demographic or language used on Facebook
■ https://www.facebook.com/ads/audience-insights
● 3 Components of a Successful Facebook Ad
○ Visually appealing
○ Relevant to audience
■ Audience Insights can help with this
■ Facebook offers a relevance score
■ Relevance score helps determine who will see your ad on their feed
● https://www.facebook.com/business/news/relevance-score
○ Call to action
■ Add some sense of urgency
● Boosted posts
○ Use this for big news or highly engaging content

Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace enables Facebook users to buy and sell in their area. Potential
customers can look through listings or use search functions to find items.
 ● Find through the shop icon at the bottom of the Facebook app, or in the left hand
column on a browser
● Sell an item
○ Note: Pages cannot post listings - it must be done through a profile
○ Take a photo
○ Enter product name
○ Give a short description of the item including condition
○ Enter a price and location
○ Select category
● Keep track of transactions
○ Visit “Your Items” section of the Marketplace main screen
■ Current and past transactions
■ Saved items
■ Items currently for sale
■ All of your messages through marketplace
● Share your items on the Connections Facebook page
○ Use the share function to post these items onto your store Facebook

Craigslist

Craigslist is a website that facilitates local sales. Posting items on Craigslist can also
encourage new customers to visit a retail store.

● Post to Classifieds
○ Choose for sale by owner
○ Choose relevant category
■ Do not post same item repeatedly
○ Create a descriptive title
○ Specify Connections Store as location
○ Include any imperfections in body
○ Include dimensions in body
 Pinterest

Pinterest is a great way to spread awareness about your organization; create and repin
ideas, quotes, and other material.

● 67% of Pinterest users are under the age of 40

● 81% of Pinterest users are female
○ 40% of new users are men
● 87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest
● Set up a business profile
○ For type of business, either a Retailer or NonProfit would fit best
○ Set your logo as the profile picture
■ People typically remember logos more than names
○ Set up Boards to organize your topics
■ Ex: “Education,” “Outfits,” “Quotes”
○ Pins can be either engaging images or graphics
■ Images should have some kind of story to them
○ Things to consider
■ Where will this pin link to?
● All pins have to have a link
■ What should the caption say?
● Captions should finish the story, or at least have a teaser for
the whole story
○ This directs traffic to the real story
○ Check out ​https://www.pinterest.com/nnedv/
■ Great example of domestic violence awareness on Pinterest
○ Check out ​https://www.pinterest.com/crippledchcken/
■ Great example of a thrift shop on Pinterest
● Pinterest offers free analytics for business accounts
○ https://analytics.pinterest.com/
● “Shop the Look” and “Buyable Pins”
○ Allows people to buy exactly what they’re seeing
○ Have to have an online store set up
● Promoted Pins
 ○ Ads on Pinterest
○ Works very similarly to Facebook Boosted posts
○ Promoted Pins receive an average of 20% more clicks
● Hashtags on Pinterest
○ Hashtags were introduced in August 2017
○ Use hashtags on Pinterest sparingly, as they haven’t totally caught on yet
■ About 3 hashtags are ideal

Canva

Canva is an easy way to create customized visuals for print, social media, and web
publications.

● Makes designing print and digital materials easier

○ Templates for presentations, flyers, posters, social media content, etc.
○ Basic photo editing software (adjust, crop, resize, etc.)
○ Tutorials to guide users through the design process
● Offers printing services
○ Orders ship in four days
○ Different finish options available
○ 24/7 support center
Canva Plans
● Canva for Nonprofits (recommended)
○ Premium version for nonprofits
○ More than 4,500 nonprofits use canva
○ To apply, go to canva.com, then Products, then Nonprofits
■ Eligibility Guidelines
● Organizations must be recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt
501(c)(3) organizations
● https://support.canva.com/account-basics/nonprofit-progra
m/required-documentation-nonprofit-program/
● Free version
○ Two folders to organize designs
○ Up to ten team members can use
○ 1 GB storage for photos and assets
○ Access to over 8,000 templates or create your own
 ○ Access to millions of photos, patterns, and templates for $1 each
● Canva for Work version (all the same features as Free plus)
○ 30 day free trial; can cancel at anytime
○ $12.95 per user / month (paid monthly or yearly)
○ Invite up to 30 team members
○ Unlimited storage for photos and assets
○ Exclusive access to 300,000 free photos, illustrations, and templates
○ “Magically” resize your designs
○ Upload custom fonts for your brand
○ Set color palettes for your brand
○ Save templates for you and your team
○ Organize your photos with folders
○ Easily find your designs with search
○ Priority support
■ https://about.canva.com/pricing/

Email Subscriptions

Allowing people to subscribe and receive periodic emails is a great way to stay top of
mind

● Quarterly emails would be frequent enough to keep your audience up to date,

but not so frequent that content would be difficult to find
● Include the statistics from the previous quarter to show what the organization is
accomplishing
● Include a client story if possible to showcase the power of donations

Price Free Trial Size Special Features

Mail Free N/A Up to 2000 12,000 emails/mo,
Chimp Automation3

Constant $14/mo 60 days Up to 500 Unlimited Emails,

Contact (1 year plan) Expert support,
Learning resources

Automation allows you to set up triggered emails, for example a “Thanks for
3​

Subscribing” email