Individuals in the communications industry see social media channels as the new radio. It provides an amazing reach that nearly every person uses at some time during the day or week. Placing your messages on social media provides the ability to further organizational goals and missions.
Here are a few ways you can use social media to help people in your LA community.
Inform, Engage, and Influence
Social media lets you do three important things:
- Inform: You can use social media to share information with the public about an organization’s issues and goals. Provide your followers with valuable information that they need so they have a reason to post comments, retweet, and engage with your social media posts.
- Engage: Social media platforms provide a way for you to ask questions and obtain public opinion.
- Influence: You can exert influence through social media.
Communicate
Social media makes it really simple to communicate. It makes it simple for anyone to keep in touch with an organization or movement. You can pass along information about a brand you’re passionate about, as 57% of consumers remain loyal to a brand that focuses on human communication. This can help you reach others in your LA community.
Reach a Wider Audience
Social media platforms can help you widen your reach by using both public posts and responding to private messages. The most underused platforms include Facebook and Instagram, which might seem strange, but most organizations don’t use them in an appropriate way. Whether you’re helping run an organization’s social media platforms or you’d like to volunteer to help an organization develop its social media plan, here are a few tips:
- Facebook Messenger: Pin a post to your timeline that defines your community and provides your Facebook Messenger contact. Use Facebook Click-to-Messenger advertisements.
- Maintain a Facebook Group: Gather your brand’s community using a Facebook group so you can contact your entire community efficiently. You can also help others feel connected and part of a community by creating and actively maintaining a Facebook Group.
- Twitter: Interact with your community. Your followers can lead to your account growth, but you must interact with them for this to happen. Like the positive comments people make and respond to them in a likewise positive manner.
- Instagram Stories: Your Instagram Story will also typically post to your linked Facebook stories, so this provides a terrific way to educate and inform people all at once.
Besides using the platforms to their fullest, you can also use them to conduct giveaways or give away free samples. You should create a promotion with clear participation guidelines, a relevant prize or sample, and make it simple to enter.
Political Action
Social media platforms can also help move political action and inform people in your community about recent events that they should be aware of. Keep in mind that posting both positive and negative content is okay!
Using social media, share ideas about political action that you believe should be taken to further a cause. With more than 300 bills waiting for Senate action, one probably interests you and others in your community. If you band together and use your voices, you may inspire your local government to help people in need by pushing the passing of local laws and bills. Getting your community involved in these issues or organizations turns you and them into influencers and brand advocates. Build your social network by helping an organization you like and care about.
Help People Who Don’t Have Power
LA is full of people with different backgrounds, ethnicities, races, socioeconomic statuses, and more. This is why people who have power should use it to help those who don’t have a voice. Some causes you may want to help with are:
- Domestic violence survivors. Domestic violence is an assault that allegedly occurred between two people in a domestic relationship. These survivors need help exiting their abusive relationships.
- The homeless.
- Individuals who are trying to successfully reenter society after leaving prison.
- Other minority groups in your community.
Using social media in the proper manner can help those in your community get the help they need. Plus, it can help spread the word about current issues in LA. Use these tips to better manage your social media and make your voice heard!