How to Drive Traffic to Your Donation Page: Use Social Media

We’ve talked about how you can optimize your website to increase visits to your donation page. While having an amazing site is really important, there are many other equally important ways to drive traffic to your donation page. Social media is a valuable tool for engaging your audience and can be a great way to get people to donate. Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re using social media for fundraising:

Making The Most of Social Media

If your organization isn’t active on social media, what are you waiting for? Today’s society is more connected than any other society in the past, and social media is a huge part of our connection to each other. If you’re not linked into different social media channels, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with people and build valuable relationships. Once you’re hooked into social media, make sure you:

1. Be personal.

Your organization shouldn’t be a faceless entity helping faceless people. Show your audience who you are, who you help, how you help, and how you’re changing the world. Donors don’t want to support charities if they don’t know what those charities do or how their donation will make a difference. Make them want to get involved! With the virtually limitless number of ways to share your story through photos, videos, and live updates, building a personal online presence isn’t hard! It might be a little time-consuming, but the payoff is definitely worth it in the end.

2. Don’t forget to include a “call to action.”

The phrase “call to action” gets on my nerves, but the concept itself is an important (and often overlooked!) thing to grasp. Pictures are great, videos are awesome, and compelling stories are wonderful. But if you use those elements to connect with your audience and don’t ask them to get involved, your efforts are not going to result in donations. Instead of using your social media to say “look at what we’re doing!” you should use it to say “look at what we’re doing — now come help us do it!” Use your posts and tweets to compel people to volunteer and to donate. Include appeals to get involved, to visit your webpage, or to make a donation.

3. Link to your website.

Do you know how many organizations out there have websites but never link to them on social media? There are lots. You could be as personal as possible, tell amazing stories, and post compelling calls to action, but if you don’t actually give people a link to your page they’re not going to visit it. It’s that simple. Once you get people to your awesome website, though, they should be able to find your donation page easily!

Take a look at our ultimate guide to donation pages!