With all the attention that social media is getting in the news, you may have fallen victim to a myth, that your nonprofit no longer needs to invest the time and energy into blogging. While it’s true that channels like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram are an increasingly popular way for folks to communicate with one another, blogs remain a key way to get the word out about your cause and drum up support.

The following is a list of the five ways that your blog supports your nonprofit by increasing the reach of your messaging and encouraging its sustainable growth and development.

Raise Awareness

Even if your organisation is seeking to meet a social need that is well-known, that doesn’t mean that the public knows that supporting your nonprofit is one way that they can make a difference. Blogging about your organisation, and the work that you are doing to create an impact, lets the public know that you are a place that they can turn to when they want to learn more about this specific need, as well as what steps they can take to support your mission.

Increase Visibility

Known as Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, blogging is the top way to let search engines know about your organisation and what it stands for. The more that you use SEO best practices, the more that your rank will increase in the results for search terms, or keywords, that relate to your organisation and its mission. Unless your organisation ranks high in these results, your content is difficult, if not impossible, to find online.

Establish Credibility

A blog is a great way to share the expertise of your founders, board members, and other key influencers in your organisation. It’s a place where you report the results of your efforts as well as share information and tips, and also showcase the talents of others connected with you.

It’s a place to share your stories and illustrate the impact your work makes. It provides you with a forum to let others know about your work, establishing your reputation, and credibility, and helping you to build a strong brand image for your nonprofit.

Support Fundraising Efforts

Blogs support all your other fundraising efforts. For example, you can offer visitors the option to sign up for your newsletters and other communications, growing your email list and potentially adding donors as many will likely respond with a gift if you ask them to contribute. Your blog should also include a call to action, directly above the fold, where visitors can support your nonprofit with just one click and either donate, volunteer or advocate for your cause.

Posting articles on your blog about your work and using buttons to make it easy for supporters to share these posts on their own social media channels also increases the reach of your fundraising and other messaging efforts. Rather than replacing blogging, social media can work with it to augment the results from each platform and campaign.

Highlight Your Events

Blogging is also the perfect way to share news about your nonprofit’s upcoming events. What better way to publicise your next gathering and invite the public to attend upcoming festivals, galas, conferences, awards ceremonies and other special occasions. Keep the spotlight on your cause and the work that you are doing to make your community a better place to live by sharing live coverage on your blog, as well as sharing candid photos and other stories about what you learned and the fun that everyone had once the event has passed! The more stories that you can share with others, the more likely that the public will be to support your work!