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COM 310 (Campus) - Social Media

This guide is a companion to Professor Boroshok's COM 310 course to guide students through the social media marketing plan project for their selected nonprofit organization.

Social Media Audit Templates

Hootsuite and Sprout offer free templates to help you conduct a social media audit for your client or on their competitors. 

SWOT Analysis/Social Media Audit

FAQ: What is a SWOT analysis?

SWOT Definition

SWOT stands for:

  • Strengths - factors that make an organization more effective than its competitors, and the capabilities and resources that the company can use effectively to achieve its objectives. (Strengths of a social media presence might involve high engagement for example, or a diverse pool of followers, etc.)
  • Weaknesses - limitations in resources, culture or capacity within the organization that can prevent it from achieving its objectives. (Weaknesses of a social media presence might include lack of current posts/engagement/photos or it links to a out-of-date, visually unappealing website, etc.)
  • Opportunities - favorable current or future external trends, changes, etc. that permit the organization to enhance its efficacy and position. (Opportunities for a social media presence might be the hiring of a PR person, linking to other popular social media accounts, upcoming high-profile events for the organization, etc.)
  • Threats - unfavorable situation, trend or impending change in the external environment that currently or potentially threatens the organization’s ability to function effectively. (Threats to a social media presence might include a high profile social media account from a similarly named organization leading to confusion, understaffing or lack of knowledge by person/volunteer running the social media accounts, etc.)

A SWOT analysis is used to evaluate the relationship between an organization’s internal resources (strengths and weaknesses) and external possibilities (opportunities and threats) to aid in making informed choices about which actions to take to increase an organization's ability to achieve its goals and objectives.

  • See if you can find an Annual Report for your organization as they often will include a SWOT analysis or at least reference to the organizations analysis of their strengths, weaknesses, potential opportunities, and environmental threats. Strategic plans or major campaigns can also supply information to evaluate your organizations using the SWOT format to guide your social media program for them. Some examples:
    • The NH Navigator program is maintained by the Foundation for Healthy Communities. Their Annual Reports are a good place to look to find their financial statements and descriptions of the successes they've achieved and challenges they have faced. Looking at their goals can help direct the social media campaign you design for them. Looking at specific county-based annual reports from NH Navigator like this one from Merrimack County can help you see the specific challenges facing navigators and help you think about the ways they might use social media to alleviate those challenges.
    • HealthForce NH has a published strategic plan Giving Care: A Strategic Plan to Expand and Support New Hampshire’s Healthcare Workforce that would be good to view to identify ways their social media accounts might move them toward achieving their goals.
    • Creative Haverhill is well along in their fundraising campaign to renovate an old school building into a community arts center. Be sure to read that to understand what they've accomplished, and where they're headed, and how social media might help them.

Social Media Audit

  • Try using the Social Media Audit templates in the left margin to analyze your client's and their competitors' social media efforts
  • Be sure to find out the same information about your client that you do about their competitors so that you can compare what each does well as well as what your client could improve upon

Identify competitors

A key element to your SWOT and Social Media Audit will be to identify your client's competitors and compare their social media strategy and performance with your client's existing plan. With non-profits, "competitors" might be other organizations that seek funding from the same sources. Searching the web using Google or another search engine involves finding the right search terms, much like searching in library databases. Try one term, read the results you find and take note of other search terms you see. 

Search Terms:

For example: You might look up "health care worker" and find out they are also called "health care professionals" or "patient navigators" or "outreach workers" or they might be merged with "community healthcare."  Be sure to try a variety of search terms when looking for "competitors" or others engaged in similar activity to your client's organization.

New Hampshire Navigator Program - Foundation for Healthy Communities

Look at other helplines or sources of public information about finding health insurance. Health insurance companies might have programs to help people sign up for insurance with their company. Expand the area to "New England" or individual states, etc. All of these potential examples offer call lines and online assistance.

Possible examples:

HealthForce NH

Look at other organizations in New Hampshire that are promoting the expansion of health care workers. These might be colleges and universities offering nursing, healthcare management, or mental health counseling programs. Look at organizations trying to encourage workers to stay in NH or move here. Check out the professional associations for various health care occupations like NH Nurse Practitioners Association or National Association of Social Workers, NH Chapter or many others. You might expand your search to regional (New England) or national affiliates that operate in NH as well.

Possible examples:

Creative Haverhill

Creative Haverhill is a non-profit arts organization with a major fundraising campaign to finance the renovation of an old school into a community arts center. Use a variety of search terms: not just "arts" but "community programs" and various types of art or words such as  "culture" or "arts fest" or "ceramics" or "art classes" for the different activities associated with the arts. 

Possible examples:

The Granite State News Collaborative & InDepthNH.org

The Granite State News Collaborative is a collection of media, education, and community partners dedicated to pursuing inclusive and responsive coverage building public trust and holding government accountable to the citizens of New Hampshire. Likewise, InDepthNH.org is a nonprofit watchdog news website published by the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism dedicated to fostering civil discourse and spurring citizens to action in a way that will make government more responsive to its citizens. These could be considered "competitors" as they have similar goals, however Granite State is a partnership of over 20 different organizations whereas InDepthNH is a single organization conducting investigative reporting. "Competitors" of these groups might include other news sites, regional collaboratives, or alternate news media formats such as radio stations (which might also be potential partners).

Possible examples: