Social media strategy for NGOs: a step-by-step plan

Many organisations post every day without a social media strategy. The result is a feed of event photos and logos that few people outside the organisation read. A strategy answers four questions before anyone opens an app: who are we trying to reach, what do we want them to do, where are they, and how much time can we invest?

Those are the four keys in the CDC's toolkit for health communicators: identify your target audiences, determine your objectives, know your outlets and decide how much time and effort you can invest.¹ The rest of this guide follows that order, with the steps we use with development organisations.

The UK Government Communication Service's OASIS model asks for SMART objectives: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.² It also says objectives should be expressed numerically where possible and focused on outcomes, not outputs.² "Post five times a week" is an output. "Increase sign-ups for the vaccination reminder service in two districts by the end of the quarter" is an outcome.

Link each social media objective to a goal in your wider communication strategy or programme results framework. Most organisations need only two or three objectives at a time, such as building trust with a specific audience, driving people to a service or supporting an advocacy ask. If a platform does not help with any objective, you have found something you can stop doing.

OASIS treats audience understanding as critical and advises planning for accessibility and inclusion from the start.² For social media for development organisations, audiences usually include communities you serve, partners and donors, journalists, and policy-makers. Each group uses different platforms and expects different content.

In M+R's Benchmarks study for 2026, which reports on 2025 data from nonprofits, almost all participants were on Facebook and Instagram, 74% maintained a YouTube presence and 43% were on TikTok, while use of X had fallen to 54%.³ The study also notes that follower counts depend heavily on the strategic choices organisations make and the content they prioritise on each platform.³ Those figures describe its participants, not East African audiences, so check your own analytics and ask your audiences where they are.

The CDC toolkit advises starting with low-risk projects that use fewer resources, and assessing the time and commitment each channel needs.¹ Two platforms done well usually beat five done badly. Remember that every account you open also needs someone to answer messages and comments, including at weekends and during busy programme periods.

Content pillars are the three or four themes you return to, for example programme results, the people behind the work, practical advice and calls to action. They keep the feed recognisable, make planning faster and help you notice when one theme, often the organisation's own events, is crowding out the stories your audience actually came for.

A content calendar turns pillars into dates. The CDC notes that a regular posting schedule helps engage followers.¹ In our own practice, we plan a month at a time: international days and programme milestones first, then one or two strong stories a week, then the smaller posts that fill the gaps. Leave space for the unexpected, and agree who can approve a post when the communications lead is away.

• Date, platform and pillar
• Objective the post supports
• Format: photo, carousel, short video or text
• Caption, alt text and link
• Consent confirmed for every identifiable person
• Owner and approver

Agree a tone of voice and write it down. Nielsen Norman Group's research found that tone of voice has measurable effects on users, that trustworthiness was the strongest predictor of how desirable an organisation seemed, and that casual, conversational and moderately enthusiastic tones performed best.⁴ It also warns that humour is extremely risky.⁴ For most NGOs and public bodies, warm and clear beats clever.

Video needs captions for people who are Deaf or cannot hear the audio. The W3C notes that automatically generated captions do not meet accessibility requirements unless they are confirmed to be fully accurate, and that they usually need significant editing.⁵ Add short alt text to images and keep important words out of small graphics.

Social media gives a photograph or story a long, public life. Bond's guidelines on the ethical use of images and stories suggest asking contributors whether they understand that their story may be online and viewable for a long time, and warn that published content cannot always be removed.⁶ They state that contributors' wellbeing takes precedence over communications needs.⁶

The same guidelines recommend switching off location settings on cameras, never making children traceable by anyone who intends to harm them, and always making it clear when an image is AI-generated.⁶ Build these checks into the calendar so no post goes out without them.

Social media is two-way. The CDC toolkit describes two-way conversations as a way to build meaningful communication with audiences, and recommends a policy for handling inappropriate, derogatory or off-topic comments.¹ Decide who replies, how fast, and which questions are passed to programme staff.

Review monthly and evaluate fully each quarter. OASIS asks teams to monitor outputs, outtakes and outcomes throughout a campaign and to evaluate them at the end.² The CDC suggests measures such as traffic driven to your website, reach, and user interactions and engagement.¹ Keep what serves your objectives, and drop what does not.

• Two or three SMART objectives linked to organisational goals
• Priority audiences named for each platform
• Platforms chosen to match staff time
• Three or four content pillars agreed
• Monthly content calendar with owners and approvers
• Written tone of voice and a comment policy
• Consent, captions and alt text checked before posting
• Monthly review and quarterly evaluation booked