Social media is one of the best tools nonprofits have for promoting events and spreading the word about fundraising campaigns. By generating engaging content online, your organization can easily expand its reach, increase event registration numbers, and obtain more revenue for your cause. This is especially true when advertising auctions.
To boost attendance at your upcoming auction and ensure it’s a success, you must keep attendees engaged before and during the event. Social media enables your organization to create multiple guest touchpoints, where you can provide sneak peeks of your big-ticket items, encourage donations, and drive broader engagement with your supporters.
Use these social media tactics to become a successful social marketer and build excitement that fuels bids and auction fundraising success.
1. Take a multichannel marketing approach
To optimize your event marketing, use multiple social media channels in tandem. This way, you can connect with as many supporters as possible, create community and excitement, and convert followers into event registrants.
Be sure to focus your marketing efforts where your target audience will most likely see your content. As you begin posting about your event, actively track metrics to assess which platforms are getting the most engagement and shift your focus away from the platforms that aren’t producing results.
Start with the most popular social media platforms:
Instagram is a photo and video-sharing social media platform, making it an excellent place for your nonprofit to show off its visual marketing skills. To drum up excitement for your auction event, post photos from your last auction or share a picture of the beneficiaries who will benefit from this event. Level up your content strategy by creating educational or testimonial-style short videos to inform your audience of the purpose behind your event and create a strong emotional connection with supporters.
Additionally, leverage Instagram-specific features like IGTV, Instagram Live, and Instagram Reels to share your content and reach more people.
Facebook has over 3 billion monthly active users, making it the most used social media platform in the world. To promote your auction, update your nonprofit’s page’s cover image to a banner that highlights the details of your event. Post a variety of content, such as a combination of photos, videos, and longer text content. In these posts, provide key details (such as date, venue, and whether there are mobile bidding options), feature desirable auction items your audience won’t want to miss, and recognize major donors and sponsors who made the event possible.
Include a registration link for your auction in your posts so users can easily RSVP. With Facebook’s unique linking features, you can even upload an image that links directly to your registration page.
X
X, formerly Twitter, is the ideal platform for posting quick updates and reminders for your followers. Create posts leading up to your event to remind supporters of the registration deadline and countdown to the date of your auction. Make your posts more compelling by adding GIFs, emojis, and images to grab your audience’s attention amidst their busy feeds. You can also incorporate interactive content, such as polls and questions, to encourage engagement.
If you want to keep your supporters engaged throughout your event, try live posting! Formerly known as live tweeting, this involves making a series of posts throughout a particular event. Frequent posting keeps audience members engaged with your event while building brand awareness, increasing followers for your account, and generating traffic to your website.
TikTok
If your audience includes Gen Z and younger Millennials, TikTok is the social media platform to use. It has over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, and in the United States, 45% of users are between ages 18 and 34.
One of the standout characteristics of TikTok is that its content does not need to be as polished and professional as content on other platforms. Upload short-form video content that follows the most current trends for a chance to go viral, greatly increasing your nonprofit’s visibility and awareness of your event.
For example, a popular trend right now is having an older team member read a script written by a Gen Z marketing intern. Here’s an example of a TikTok by the University of Leeds that follows this trend. You could use this video format as a fun introduction to some of your featured auction items!
2. Add a social peer-to-peer element
If your nonprofit wants to maximize revenue and build strong donor relationships, consider running a peer-to-peer fundraiser leading up to your auction. Adding this to your event planning process is well worth the effort to have supporters solicit donations on your behalf and share your campaign far and wide among their personal networks.
One of the best ways your peer-to-peer fundraisers can bring attention to their campaigns is with social media. To kickstart your peer-to-peer campaign on these platforms, use these tips:
- Tap ambassadors to help. Ambassadors are well-connected individuals who are passionate about your mission and can easily spread the word about your nonprofit and its auction. Recruit ambassadors among your board members, volunteers, sponsor connections, loyal donors, and supporters with large social media followings.
- Train your peer-to-peer fundraisers. Once you’ve secured a line-up of peer-to-peer fundraisers and ambassadors to champion your cause, provide them with everything they need to be successful. Host an orientation, give clear instructions on how to create their personal fundraising pages, and organize optional training sessions to answer any lingering questions.
- Provide templates for social media posts. Marketing is difficult even for trained marketing professionals. Take some of the pressure off your peer-to-peer fundraisers and ambassadors by providing templates for messages and posts they will make on social media. This gives them a good foundation to build their own unique messages!
Remember to express appreciation for your peer-to-peer fundraisers and let them know how they made an impact. Send them a thank-you note and shout out your top ambassadors at your auction and on social media. This will help them feel valued by your organization and increase the likelihood they’ll help out again.
3. Create social media contests
Social media contests are great for boosting auction engagement and inspiring friendly competition. Plus, if you’re hosting an online or hybrid fundraiser, these contests can keep your remote supporters immersed in your event and eager to give.
Contests are also an opportunity to deepen supporters’ emotional connection to your nonprofit, so create a challenge that encourages community building or is relevant to your cause. For example, you could encourage people to share a picture on Instagram at your event with new friends they made. Or, you might ask them to share a post on Facebook detailing why they’re supporting your organization by attending your auction. The supporter with the most likes or comments wins a special prize or additional entries in your raffle!
Another way you can engage your supporters is by creating an engaging hashtag for your event, like #BiddingForChange2024. Be sure to promote it at the event and encourage supporters to use it when they create posts. That way, individuals in their personal networks can learn more about your nonprofit, providing you with new followers and potential future supporters.
By leveraging social media, your organization can effectively market its auction online, connect with existing and new supporters, and make fundraising a fun and social experience. Start posting about your auction before your registration deadline, so supporters have plenty of time to learn about your upcoming event, set aside the date in their schedules, and share it with their friends and family.