We’ll release the 2021 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report next week, but I thought I’d start sharing some of the results with you a little early.
If you’ve been at this awhile, the two lists I am sharing won’t be a surprise . . .
Top Channels in Order of Importance for Nonprofits
We’ve seen very little change in the top six channels over the decade we’ve been doing the Trends Reports. The Big Six are email, website/blog, social media, events, PR/media relations, and direct mail. Email and Website/Blog sometimes flip-flop in the number one and two slots, but overall this list is very solid. If you do nonprofit communications, you do these things, end of story.
Top Social Media Sites in Order of Importance for Nonprofits
This year, we decided to break both Facebook and Instagram into two different items, Facebook Pages versus Groups and Instagram Newsfeed versus Stories. That’s because we know Groups and Stories tend to be especially engaging places on those platforms as opposed to the more standard Newsfeed.
You can see that Facebook Groups and Instagram Stories fall to the bottom of the list, even though they are often the more engaging parts of those platforms. Many nonprofits don’t have Groups or haven’t figured out a compelling reason to have one or simply don’t have the time to moderate one.
Stories also present challenges from the nonprofit point of view: they disappear (so is it worth the time?) and there’s no public conversations like the Newsfeed (so, again, is it worth the time?).
My take is that a lot of nonprofit communicators are so busy that just doing Newsfeed content is all they can handle right now. However, that’s not really a good enough reason in my mind to skip over the more engaging part of the platform, which is Stories. I think what’s needed is both a content repurposing strategy and a willingness to share more unplanned, authentic content.
We’ll share the full report with much more data next week. Stay tuned!
