Marketing & Social Media

Building your brand and reputation is essential for any organization, even nonprofits. But how do you get your name and mission out there to encourage people to connect with and remember you when you have few – if any – resources? Small museums, archives, and other nonprofit organizations especially often have little to no budget for an activity usually associated with for-profit businesses. 

But a little creativity, knowledge, good old-fashioned elbow grease, and the use of free platforms, such as social media, can level the playing field and help your mission to shine. Many tips and resources are available on the internet. A select few are below.

Marketing for Nonprofits & Museums

• Angela Cuadros, Nonprofit Hub: “Marketing Tools for Your Nonprofit and When They’re Effective”
• Eric Burger, NonProfit Pro: “10 Awesome Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits”
• Elizabeth Chung, Classy.org: “10 Marketing Lessons for All Nonprofits”
• James Heaton, Tronvig Group: “Museum Marketing for Non-Marketers”
• Hannah Hethmon: “3 Guerilla Marketing Tips for Small Museums”
• Laura Lake, LiveAbout: “8 Easy Steps to Marketing Your Nonprofit Organization”
• Nina Simon, Museum 2.0: “How I Learned to Think About Marketing/PR Differently…”

Social Media

• American Association for State and Local History:
  • “Same Skills, New Tech: Social Media Lessons from a 1967 AASLH Technical Leaflet”
  • “Social Media 101 for Museums and Historic Sites” Webinar ($) (Presenter: Hannah Hethmon)
• Connecting to Collections Care
  • “Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram, Oh My! Sharing Museum Collections Through Social Media” Webinar (Presenter: Molly Gleeson and Tom Stanley of the Penn Museum)
  • “Outreach Activities for Collections Care” Webinar Series
    • Webinar 3: “Telling Your Story to the Media”
    • Webinar 4: “Engaging Audiences with Social Media”
  • “Using Social Media to Tell Your Collections’ Stories” Webinar (Presenter: Nancy Ravenel, Shelburne Museum)
• Alicia Johnston, Sprout Social: “A Strategic Guide to Social Media for Nonprofits”
• Social Media Today
  • “7 Questions to Ask (and Answer) Before Building a Social Media Strategy”
  • “Social Media for Non-Profits: A Comprehensive Guide”
• Laura Lake, The Balance: “Social Media Marketing Benefits for Nonprofit Organizations”
• Lindsay Hrabik, Nonprofit Hub: “The 7 Steps to a Successful (and Agile) Social Media Strategy”
• Iain Gardiner, Media Cause: “Social Media Best Practices for Nonprofits – A Comprehensive Guide”