How To Leverage TikTok for Nonprofit Marketing and Fundraising
Nonprofit organizations use social media to raise awareness and gain donors. Any social media platform can help you achieve these goals. However, if you struggle to engage with a younger audience, TikTok presents a new and exciting way to showcase your cause to this next generation of donors. Below, we explain how to leverage the untapped potential of TikTok for nonprofit marketing.
What Is TikTok for Good?
TikTok for Good is a program that TikTok offers to nonprofit organizations. It has three main components: account management, advanced analytics, and promoted hashtags (more on these capabilities later).
How To Join TikTok for Good
To join TikTok for Good, visit TikTok’s contact page. After you input your organization’s information, a representative from TikTok will reach out to you with the next steps.
Features of TikTok for Good
As mentioned above, TikTok gives nonprofits three ways to raise awareness and funding through its platform.
1. Account Management
Through its account management services, TikTok connects you with content creators. Your account manager manages your relationships with these creators and gives you best practices for working with them.
2. Advanced Analytics (Beta)
With this feature, TikTok gives you data about your account so that you can track your videos’ performance. Keep in mind that this feature is currently in beta testing, so it may still be a little buggy.
3. Promoted Hashtags
The promoted hashtags feature helps you increase awareness for your cause. You create the hashtag, and TikTok promotes it to its users. These users can then make videos using your hashtag to spread the word even further.
Some popular examples of this include #EduTalk for sharing knowledge and education content, #ForClimate environmental content partnered with International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and #DanceForChange, where the videos shared with the hashtag were used by the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development as a virtual petition to increase investment in sustainable agriculture.
Best Practices for TikTok Content
Creating a successful TikTok page takes time and commitment. But here are some TikTok tips for your nonprofit marketing to make it all a little easier.
Create Short Videos
Although TikTok allows longer videos (of up to 10 minutes), bite-size videos are usually better at grabbing and keeping viewers’ attention. You can use these short videos as an elevator pitch for your nonprofit. Since it is difficult to cover everything that your organization does in one short video, consider creating multiple videos that each highlight a different activity, program, value, etc.
Check out some great examples of Tiktok for Good here.
Engage With Your Target Audience
Unsurprisingly, the best way to keep your TikTok page growing is to create content that engages with your target audience. On top of creating attention-grabbing short videos, you can also:
- Respond to comments on your videos
- Like videos that align with your mission
- Tag your donors, volunteers, employees, + other supporters in your TikTok videos
Repurpose Your Videos
While videos take a lot of effort to create, they are reusable. You can cross-post your TikTok videos on other social media channels, such as Instagram Reels, Facebook Stories, and YouTube Shorts. You can also take the full-length promotional videos you have on your website and shorten them for social media.
Ideas for TikTok Content
TikTok has unique features that you cannot find on other platforms. To optimize your presence on the app, you need to make full use of these features. Below, we explain how you can do just that.
Donation Stickers
TikTok for Good lets you add what are called “donation stickers” to your videos and live sessions. If someone clicks on a donation sticker, TikTok redirects them to a pop-up window where they can quickly and easily submit a donation to your organization without leaving the app.
TikTok uses Tiltify, a charitable fundraising platform, to process donations on the app. If you decide to use TikTok for fundraising, you will also need to create a Tiltify account.
Trends
Researching and emulating trending content is an easy way to get more views, likes, and comments on your videos. Keep an eye on the following:
- Hashtags
- Challenges
- Songs
- Dances
- Filters
The best way to find out what is trending is — you guessed it — to scroll TikTok and note what people are posting. We recommend spending some time on the app every day.
Duet Videos
Duet on TikTok allows you to post your video alongside another creator’s video. Essentially, a duet video contains two videos on a split screen that play at the same time. You can use this feature to:
- React to industry news
- Debunk industry myths
- And more
Final Thoughts
Adding another platform to your social media strategy might initially seem overwhelming. However, TikTok’s newest program, TikTok for Good, gives your organization a way to reach a younger audience. Use the tips in this guide to start your journey as a TikTok for Good creator.
Guest Blog written by Springly.
Springly is an all-in-one nonprofit software that helps nonprofits spend less time on admin, more time on their mission.