7 Tips For Promoting Charities & Social Issues on Social Media
We previously highlighted the truly incredible impact Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford had to help feed hungry children across the UK. The principal tool he used to achieve this was social media.
These online platforms offer a cost-effective way for any player to make a difference and promote issues or charities close to their heart. Social media can be equally used by global stars like Rashford to bring about widespread change but also by less high-profile players to positively impact their local communities.
To find out how to be effective in generating interest and support on social media Player 4 Player have asked our trusted charity & campaigns partner All Heart to give us their top tips.
All Heart have a wealth of experience and expertise in this field. Their bespoke service is suited to all budgets. It ranges from the complete management of setting up and running an athlete’s charity to just raising funds for a cause or supporting a social media strategy to increase awareness.
Here are All Heart’s 7 key tips for players wanting to use their social media platforms to have a positive impact.
7. Choose one meaningful cause!
Dig deep inside yourself and find a cause that is close to your heart and is really important to you personally. This may be related to your upbringing, struggles your family and friends have faced or a local issue in a neighbourhood near where you live or originate from.
6. Be Authentic.
Explain clearly why this cause is meaningful to you so that people can make the connection and see that it is genuine. As an example, you may have a family member affected by cancer and want to support research into this to help other families facing similar circumstances.
5. Be Focused.
Consistently promote content about this cause and this cause only. Ensure that the content you post on social media is laser focused. It won't be as effective to promote information on feeding the homeless one day and raising money for cancer charities the next as no-one will remember which cause you are supporting and the momentum will be lost.
4. Verify.
Only promote, share content from, and represent reputable sources - i.e. if you are going to become an ambassador or patron for a charity do your research, or get an expert to do it for you, to ensure that what they are doing is watertight and will not draw any criticism or negative publicity towards you.
3. Be consistent.
Don’t share content about the cause every day for a week and then forget about it. Make a schedule - for example you may want to tweet/post every Tuesday, #charitytuesday is an existing initiative, and then consistently share the posts of others that you support on the same cause as and when they arise.
2. Review.
Get someone to proof-read or sense-check all of your content before you post it to make sure that it reads well and doesn’t contain any words or language that could unintentionally offend or alienate any of the communities you are trying to reach.
1.Be innovative.
Find different ways to give your charity work that personal touch - record videos, visit projects, share content and post quotes from people who have been supported. It’s important that you make this human and relatable. People want to see the faces of those affected, hear about your personal thoughts and stories, and understand the issues being addressed.
Our founder Stiliyan Petrov set up his own foundation in 2013 to improve the treatment of leukaemia and cancer after recovering from the former himself. Speaking from his own experience, the former Premier League player said
“I have found social media to be really useful for growing awareness of the foundation and to help promote fundraising events. All Heart’s tips are really important if you want to be effective. I am now working with them in several areas to help me increase the impact of my own foundation and to strengthen its message.”
All Heart have set up and run charities and projects for players such as Michael Carrick and David Cotterill and their Founder, Leanne Ayin, told us
“Many players believe that they have to invest huge sums and run highly complex projects to make an impact in the community. But the biggest platform they have is their social presence and leveraging this in the right way can help and inspire millions of people who they wouldn’t be able to reach in person. Some players just need a little support to make sure they have the confidence, tools and processes in place to do this effectively which is where we come in.”
Player 4 Player and All Heart are here to support any current or former player wanting help to have a positive impact on the issues that are most important to them and to make a difference to the people around them.
We encourage you to get in touch with us, and we can arrange a free consultation with All Heart, so you can find out how to start making effective change and build a positive legacy as soon as possible.