Social Monkey

Social Media (the likes of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+) are on-line communication channels that allow individuals and organisations to engage with each other.

With their popularity, and numbers, growing (Facebook currently has over 800 million users worldwide) they are a real alternative to spreading your message on the, often very expensive, traditional media channels.
Charities, more than any other organisations, normally have very little budget for advertising. One of the reasons being that, even though they need to compete for the donors’ pound, they don’t feel comfortable using other donors’ pounds to do this.

Traditional media channels, such as television, radio and newspaper, are often put out of the reach of charities because of this reason. However, setting up and using social media to communicate only costs time. Even if charities employ the use of a social media agency they are unlikely to be charged the full rate and it would be a lot less than paying for advertising in traditional media.

The main reason that social media works well for charities though is that it is all about engagement, and those who support charities want to feel they are engaged and part of that charity. So setting your charity up on Facebook, Twitter and maybe even putting some short films on YouTube will invite your supporters in and once they have connected with you, talk to them, tag them and keep them up-to-date with what you are doing – they will feel included, valued and keep on supporting you.