Social media
Build and strengthen your social media activity and encourage deeper engagement.
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Integrate into wider recruitment strategy – social media needs to complement organisational goals.
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Complete your profile – social networks require you to set up a profile. Make sure this is complete and accurate. Often these can be indexed by search engines and can help improve your search ranking.
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Resource – make sure you have the resources to manage engagement. Social media by definition is not broadcasting; it’s social. Engagement takes time. You should be prepared to allocate a minimum of 5 hours a week. If you can’t afford to invest the time you should avoid social media until you can.
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Research – look at adoption agency Twitter and Facebook pages. Explore blogs and forums to find out topics of interest. Think about messages that will interest your audience. Follow other people and organisations interested in adoption.
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Plan – list the important issues and plan to address them using a content calendar.
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Integrate offline and online media – include your social media details in adverts (print, TV and radio). Give people the opportunity to make contact using the method of their choice.
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Link back to your website –your website should be a rich source of information for potential adopters. Regularly try to drive traffic to your site by linking to relevant content.
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Encourage people to call – invite people to pick up the phone and give you a call.
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Be personable –use the right tone of voice. Ask questions. Respond to followers posts and they will be more likely to respond to yours.
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Be active – consistent posting and engagement is fundamental to social media success, both in growing communities and maintaining them. Create a content calendar to ensure regular updates, continual engagement and ensure a strategic approach to messaging.
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Ask people to share content – sharing will extend the reach of your messages.
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Encourage conversations – ask questions and share tips to generate discussions that will connect other users and strengthen the community.
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Find out what people want –ask fans and followers what they would like to see and let that help shape your content planning.
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Share your content with First4Adoption – we can retweet and help amplify your messages.
The above has been collated from research and expertise in the adoption field. It is not an exhaustive list and we welcome a continued dialogue with our partners up and down the country so that we may evolve and share new ideas together. If you have any comments you’d like to add about this guide then please email them to helpdesk@first4adoption.org.uk