3 Social Media Ideas for Volunteer and Employee Engagement in 2018

With more social media plat­forms and for­mats than ever before, orga­ni­za­tions are hun­gry for con­tent to feed these chan­nels. And not just any con­tent. The bar has been raised for social media con­tent to be atten­tion-get­ting, engag­ing sto­ries that show­case the peo­ple behind the brand – con­tent that peo­ple will want to stop and take notice of amidst their dai­ly social media use.

Eas­i­er said than done, right? The good news is, cor­po­rate mar­ket­ing teams have a secret weapon to achiev­ing this goal, and often­times, it’s hid­ing in plain sight: the com­mu­ni­ty rela­tions team. Whether they’re coor­di­nat­ing employ­ee vol­un­teer days or work­ing on ini­tia­tives with com­mu­ni­ty part­ners, you can bet that they have some amaz­ing sto­ries to share that illus­trate the company’s heart and that demon­strate the dif­fer­ence your orga­ni­za­tion and its peo­ple are mak­ing in the com­mu­ni­ty and beyond. It’s a social media team’s dream!

I had the plea­sure of speak­ing about this very top­ic ear­li­er this week with Bell­mont Part­ners’ good friend and col­lab­o­ra­tor Arik Han­son when we pre­sent­ed to the Cor­po­rate Vol­un­teerism Coun­cil – Twin Cities (CVC-TC). The organization’s mem­bers are focused on work­place vol­un­teerism, pri­mar­i­ly at large cor­po­ra­tions, as well as some non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions. Our pre­sen­ta­tion focused on high­light­ing a vari­ety of social media trends and ideas – some that were “out there” and some that are eas­i­ly doable in the right set­ting. Here are just a few of the chal­lenges we put forth to the group:

Ask your mar­comm team what types of sto­ries they’re look­ing for.

If you’re over­see­ing vol­un­teer ini­tia­tives and com­mu­ni­ty rela­tions, you may not nec­es­sar­i­ly know what your mar­ket­ing department’s objec­tives are, espe­cial­ly when it comes to social media. At large cor­po­ra­tions, you may not even know who inside the com­pa­ny is man­ag­ing social media. But you can bet that they’d love to hear from you – grab lunch or a cof­fee with them, and find out what they’re look­ing for in sto­ries to use on social media and how they like to receive ideas. (And mar­keters, it’s a two-way street – reach out to your com­mu­ni­ty relations/volunteer team, too!) Remem­ber that even the sim­plest-look­ing social media posts take time to craft and get approved, so the more advance notice, the better.

Con­sid­er Snapchat fil­ters dur­ing events to engage vol­un­teers and employees.

Snapchat is all about in-the-moment fun. For events such as employ­ee vol­un­teer days or fundrais­ing galas, exper­i­ment­ing with Snapchat fil­ters is a great way to engage par­tic­i­pants and cel­e­brate the day. Because Snapchat fil­ters are geo-based, you can zero in on a very spe­cif­ic loca­tion that will see your fil­ter as an option.

Look for ways to use live-streamed video.

Anoth­er tac­tic that events lend them­selves well to is live social media video. Stream­ing on Face­book Live or Insta­gram Live is a great way to share the excite­ment and impact of an event with those who can’t make it there in per­son. Is there an announce­ment com­ing up? An unveil­ing of a new com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter your com­pa­ny spon­sored? A com­mu­ni­ty awards cer­e­mo­ny? Talk to your social media team about whether it might be a good fit for live video streaming.

These are just a few of the many ways mar­keters and com­mu­ni­ty rela­tions teams can work togeth­er to bring amaz­ing sto­ries and con­tent to life on com­pa­nies’ social media plat­forms. If you aren’t already brain­storm­ing ideas with one anoth­er, set up a meet­ing soon to talk about 2018 plans.