Social Media: The Best Tool of Propogation for an NGO

One of the principals of marketing is to provide the goods or services at the right place and at the right time to fulfill the needs of the consumer. But the most important aspect is creating awareness for the products available, so that the consumer is able to go to the market to purchase the goods or services when the need arises. Off late, the social media has become an important tool in the creation of awareness or marketing which is a direct result of the increase in the usage of social media which has become a medium to connect with different people and also gather information about events happening across the globe.

Social media has become a medium of communication for global and vast audience coverage. The medium is also being used by different organizations to spread awareness about an issue or to educate the people. Apart from corporates or marketing organizations, people working in the space of social welfare are also finding it useful to spread awareness among the people.

How Social Welfare Organizations Can Use Social Media

Most importantly social welfare organizations can use social media wherein they can facilitate effective communication. A communication channel which is low in terms of cost but much higher in terms of reach. Many non-profit organizations create social media presence because they know that “they” should be doing something in the digital space but do not know what that something should be. Organizations will test the waters a bit, sign up for an account here and there, and post occasionally. Before too long they're asking engaging questions, gaining followers, and producing more content.

However, as social media marketing takes off, so does the need to increase engagement and management, create new and exciting content, and keep up with trends to engage the audience which has connected with the organization. To do all of that requires a plan. While most organizations are right in that they should be doing something, many miss one crucial step: planning.

Low Budgets, a Boon!

Social Media requires no or very minimal cost for promotion which is a boon for many non-profit organizations and social welfare centres to increase their reach. But other than just cost saving, one major factor to increase the reach is the number of people who are connected to the social media. To define the work any organization is doing is crucial as an informed audience will play an important role in the passing on the word.

At ‘Sparsh for Children’, it has been our experience that many people are still not aware about the newer forms of disabilities like Autism & Dyslexia and very limited information was available till few years back in India. This resulted in a lot of people wasting time and energy to find the correct place to get the diagnosis for these disabilities. Since time is an important factor to start the intervention in Autism, the role of social media has helped a lot to spread the awareness about these disabilities and also about the help available at various places. Even parents look out for the possible help on the social media and internet before visiting one of these centres.

Apart from the information availability, the social platforms are helping the parents to get in touch with people around the world and share and learn from their experiences. Various video links and stories from across the world are available for parents to help them work towards the betterment of the child with disabilities.

These self help platforms also help in passing the information about organizations which are making a difference and are able to provide quality intervention to the child. This platform also helps the non-profit organizations to interact and obtain feedback & suggestions from the parents immediately which goes a long way in achieving the results which you want to obtain through your work.