Before you embark on your social media journey it is good practice to set some guidance in line with your organisation’s standards, as in effect your social media is an extension and representation of you. Most organisations have a dedicated social media policy and some house rules.
Social media platforms
There are many social media platforms available and choosing which one is best for your organisation can be tricky. Your choice should be based on the audience you are trying to reach and the content you will be putting out. Using a variety of platforms is great to reach a wider audience but it is best to start with one and grow from there.
Cost: free
Facebook has almost three billion monthly users and is mostly used by 25–35-year-olds although is does attract people over 65 as well. A lot of local areas have local community groups set up that you can share and advertise posts and events.
Facebook for business gives you the latest news, advertising tips, best practices, and case studies for using Facebook to meet your business goals and it is completely free of charge to use.
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| What is it? | How it works | Things to know | Module/tutorial |
| Facebook allows users, who sign-up for free profiles, to connect with friends, work colleagues and family online. It’s also often used as a tool to meet new people. It allows users to share pictures, music, videos, and articles, as well as their own thoughts and opinions with anyone who they have as a ‘Facebook friend’. | A user has a singular newsfeed that shows posts from people they follow or are friends with as well as some suggested content. Users can post original content or share content from other people to appear in their newsfeed for others to see.
As an organisation: Facebook allows you to update your followers through written posts. These posts can include pictures, videos, and polls. Events can also be created and shared. |
Facebook is free to use and once you have created a personal account you can create a business page for your charity/ community organisation.
User can like, comment, and share the content you post to your page. Other features that are available on the platform: Stories, Messenger, Facebook Groups, Facebook Marketplace, and Events.
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Facebook help |
X (formerly Twitter)
Cost: free
X (rebranded from Twitter in July 2023) has 229 million active daily users and is most popular among people aged 25-34. Its users post messages, photos, and videos that are known as “tweets”. It is another free-to-use service. Many businesses create their own X accounts and use a thing called a hashtag (#) to help with visibility of their posts within the account. They may hashtag a keyword or place to where they are located.
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| Description | How it works | Things to know | Module/tutorial |
| X is an online social media service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People post tweets, which may contain photos, videos, links, and text. | Individuals or organisations post messages (tweets) to their profile, which other users can see in their ‘home feed’ if they are following the account. Tweets are also searchable on the platform. The aim is to gain more followers through engaging content and hashtags. | Users can like, share, comment and retweet the content you post to your account.
There is a character limit of 280 per tweet. |
Using X |
Cost: free
Instagram has one billion monthly active users and is most popular with 25–34-year-olds although this is closely followed by 18–24-year-olds. Different to Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), Instagram is image and video led and users update their ‘grid’. Instagram was really the world’s introduction to influencers – people who are paid for/ gifted items in exchange for advert-like content to influence the user’s behaviour (often purchasing a product).
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| Description | How it works | Things to know | Module/tutorial |
| Instagram is a popular social networking app with a focus on sharing photos and videos. It has been around since 2010 and users have grown year on year. Many businesses use this tool for sharing creative content. | As a user:
A users main newsfeed will show a mixture of content from accounts they are following and suggested accounts. This can be split and the user can switch to a ‘following’ newsfeed or ‘favourites’ newsfeed anytime. ‘Following’ will show content from any accounts they follow. ‘Favourites’ will show content from any account they have favourited. As an organisation: Instagram allows businesses to share images, reels and stories that will appear on users' newsfeeds and on the ‘explore’ page. Hash tags (#) used in the caption of an image can help accounts be found on the explore page and search function on the platform. |
Users can like, comment, and share your posts.
Many users only view stories in Instagram rather than browsing the newsfeed so it’s important to utilise this function as well as posting to your ‘grid’. Other features that are available on the platform: Stories, Reels, Direct Message, Explore Page.
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Instagram help centre |
Tik-Tok
Cost: free
Tik Tok has one billion active monthly users which makes it the fastest growing social media app since its start in 2016. Its audience is younger than X (formally Twitter) and Facebook with the majority of their users being 29 and under.
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| Description | How it works | Things to know | Module/tutorial |
| Tik Tok is one of the newer social media apps allowing users to create, watch and share videos. It features stickers, filters and music and was the world’s fourth most downloaded app in 2018.
It has content on everything from life hacks to dancing animals. |
As a user:
A user has 2 newsfeeds: ‘Following’ and ‘For You Page’ (FYP). The following newsfeed shows content from the accounts the user follows whereas the FYP shows content the user may like based off their interactions on the app, this newsfeed can sometimes include videos from who they follow too. As an organisation: Tik Tok allows you to create video content up to 3 minutes long. You can add effects and sounds to the videos. You can increase the chance of growing your business by using popular or ‘trending’ sounds on the app as this will make the video appear on more people’s FYP. |
The app is free, but you must create an account to watch and share content.
The app includes additional features including filming videos live, stories, the explore page and the TikTok shop. |
TikTok |
Cost: free
LinkedIn has over 675 million users worldwide with 303 million of those active on the network monthly. Different from the other social media mentioned, LinkedIn is aimed at professionals who want to connect, share and learn.
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| Description | How it works | Things to know | Module/tutorial |
| LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network on the internet. Individuals use LinkedIn to find the right job, connect and strengthen professional relationships, and learn skills to help them succeed in their career. Essentially, it is like an online CV that people can access. | As a user:
Individuals set up their profile which includes skills, qualifications, and job history. You can join networks, follow organisations and link with colleagues and peers. As an organisation: You can set up a page that holds information about your company, jobs you have available, your staff make-up and contact information. You can then put posts out which people can like, comment on, and repost. |
You can also use LinkedIn to organise offline events, join groups, write articles, post photos and videos, and more. | LinkedIn help |
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