By Jenn Phan, TNB

Due to its cost-free nature, almost every organization participates in content sharing across social media platforms. In the past, you might not have placed emphasis on your social media strategy as you’ve thought, “What could possibly be so complex about sharing posts and interacting freely with my audience?” After all, even if your social media presence is not benefiting your organization as much as you wish it did, you’re not losing a physical penny.

What if we told you gaining a return doesn’t involve much more effort? Let us take this time to discuss a way to ensure your social media efforts are paying off.

While the preferred form of communication has drifted from in-person to online, we must not forget the fundamentals of human connection. The 80/20 rule incorporates human connection into your social media strategy so that you can build lasting relationships with your fans and followers. Social Media Manager of Honest Tea, Austin Graff, expounds that this stratagem is stemmed from the basis on creating connections off the web. When developing a healthy friendship, 80% of your time and energy is consumed of building each other up – being the source of encouragement and support to each other. The remainder of the time may involve doing favors for each other, but the prior establishment of companionship is vital to this step. As part of human nature, we take more pleasure in giving (and we give more and more) when we receive gratitude in return.

Similarly, to increase and maintain the engagement levels of your fans and followers, and to ultimately obtain more donors, you must invest greater amounts of time into giving. Adjust 80% of the content you share to become “gifts,” such as inspirational stories and videos, eye-opening graphics, or the latest breaking news – anything that fills their buckets and helps them resonate more with your brand. Also don’t deprive them of attention; like and comment on their posts/shares to remind them that your organization cares. Your consistency will earn you the relational collateral to ask them to an action. The remaining 20% of content may then include calls to action of your choice. However, you don’t want to drain and overwhelm your audience with requests, whether it be to donate, sign a petition, or share a piece of content. Your best bet would be to make these requests sporadically.

International Justice Mission, a leading global human rights agency that protects the poor from violence throughout the developing world, proves that living by the 80/20 rule creates external and internal success for its organization. Instead of constantly asking their social fans to perform an action, they began to ask them only once a week. This resulted in their fans becoming more engaged and more likely to take action since they felt invested in the relationship. This also helped IJM prioritize on one area of focus a week, and thus become more organized in their actions (Graff, 2016).

Refocusing your content can escalate your economic profits while gaining more leads; it’s like growing two plants with one seed!