Social media round-up for charities – #3

Welcome to our third social media roundup! Here’s the latest social media news and what it means for your charity.

1. Facebook rolls out its downvote button to more users

Facebook started testing Reddit-style voting buttons to comments on public posts at the beginning of the year in their bid to improve the quality of content on the platform by letting users upvote or downvote.

This feature could really help those charities who attract negative comments (by nature of their cause), such as Amnesty International, Oxfam, Refugee Action etc as their supporters can downvote negative comments and help with moderation.

2. Instagram now allows multiple uploads to stories

Hurrah! The news we’ve all been waiting for… Instagram has announced a new feature that will allow users to upload up to 10 photos and videos to their stories at once. Note though that they will upload in the order that you select and they’ll also still be editable.

3. Instagram is testing a regram feature

Instagram is testing a feature that will allow a regram of a public post to your stories. This would be hugely useful for charities during events such as the London Marathon or any of their own fundraising events. It will allow them to share user-generated Instagram content more easily with their own followers.

4. Social media benchmarking for the charity sector

Although it’s a U.S report, it makes for very interesting reading. Download the report for free, here.

Here are the interesting stats we’ve picked out:

• For every 1,000 email addresses, nonprofits had an average of 474 Facebook fans, 186 Twitter followers, and 41 Instagram followers.
• Instagram was the fastest-growing of the three social media platforms tracked, with a 44% increase in the number of followers.
• Nonprofits saw a 13% increase in the number of Facebook likes and a 15% increase in the number of Twitter followers.

Interesting reads

If you want to read more social media and digital updates, here are some useful posts we recommend:

10 Simple Ways to Get More People to Your Nonprofit Event Using Social Media
Decoding the Social Media Algorithms. A Guide for Communicators
Three Ways Social Media Usage Has Evolved 
Not a ‘read’ as such but if you’re looking for an amazing female speaker in the sector, Mandy Johnson has put this website together of great charity speakers
Personalising marketing and content to audience needs
What can we learn from recent user-generated viral content?

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