Volunteer Explores Social Media Strategies for Not-for-Profits and Groups

Our volunteer, Samantha Whillas, as part of her tertiary studies, has created a blog dedicated to providing social media tips and strategies for not-for-profits and community groups, combining her passion for community and volunteering with her university degree.  

Samantha shared her experience below: 

I joined Connecting Up and the SAcommunity team in March 2020, while studying at Flinders University. Currently, I am in my last semester of Screen and Media and Creative Writing studies. As part of these studies I have created a blog that looks at basic social media marketing techniques and strategies that are useful for community groups and not-for-profits, influenced through my time volunteering with this organisation.

Connecting Up Inc. supports not-for-profits by providing discounted technology, support and training opportunities, while SAcommunity provides a directory of information about South Australian groups and organisations, networking, and media opportunities. Focusing my blog around the not-for-profit and community sector has allowed me to pursue this interest, and my learning from SAcommunity and Connecting Up, in relation to my studies. Furthermore, it has also allowed me to apply learning from my degree to a cause I am passionate about.   

While many groups and organisations have social media, it can be difficult, especially for small groups, to think about the strategic applications of social media presence, and create a plan that reflects this. The goal of my blog was therefore to take some simple social media marketing techniques and strategies, and make them both digestible and relevant to the smaller not-for-profits and community groups.  

My blog currently contains articles on building profiles and organisation personas, choosing the right social media platforms, and easy models for thinking about and strategising posts, with more still to come.  

I have very much enjoyed exploring my learning on social media marketing at university through my role at SAcommunity, and re-contextualising it to apply it to the not-for-profit sector.   

I am thankful for the opportunities and experience that volunteering with SAcommunity and Connecting Up has provided me with to enrich my learning experience and apply it in a practical, workplace environment.  

My social media marketing blog SamatFlinders can be found here.