Social Media for Beginners Workshop
In the morning, ACO welcomed Nick Wyatt, Growth Marketing Executive at Charity Digital, to speak with members and share his expertise in a Beginner’s Guide to Social Media for Charities workshop.
Nick started off the workshop by running through why it was vital charities should consider being on social media to reach their key audiences (if they were not already) and what the key social media platforms were, their uses and what audiences are typically found on each platform.
Nick then ran through some of the key areas charities should consider when getting started on social media, from creating a strategy, how to create effective social media campaigns and how to make use of paid advertising on social media, answering any questions from attendees as he went. In the second part of the workshop, Nick then delivered a practical session taking attendees through how to create the “perfect post” on each of the main social media platforms (including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram), inviting attendees to share their examples to get feedback.
Nick did a fantastic job giving a detailed overview of each of the main social media platforms and where charities can get started using each one – and we are hoping to invite Charity Digital back in the near future to do a follow up workshop all around creating a social media strategy.
This workshop is available on demand to view for those that could not attend.
MarComms Group
In the afternoon, ACO held the first meeting of its new MarComms Group, inviting PR, Marketing and Communications staff from across the ACO to join and discuss common issues and upcoming campaigns with their colleagues.
In this meeting, we invited Sarah Clarke, Head of Membership at CharityComms, to discuss with the group some of the key findings from the CharityComms/Media Trust survey they conducted earlier this year, which asked those working in the Third Sector what their biggest comms challenges were. Sarah also ran through how CharityComms can support communications professionals within the charity sector.
We also heard from Michael, Sara and Dave at Turn2us who led the group through Turn2us new Benefits Calculator launched earlier this year and answered questions around how they went about launching the new services for those in need of support, and how they plan to approach the challenges of now getting the service to reach those who still might need it.
If you wish to join ACO’s MarComms Group and its mailing list, or have any suggestions for future ACO events or speakers, please email hannah@aco.uk.net