Peter Jacobs, head of digital engagement, Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. Get involved!
• Go to sli.do
• Enter the code #6111
• Ask questions for the end
• Take the poll

2. Cheat Sheet
Creating great digital
content on a budget

3. hello
• If you work with social media you’ll have a process
along the lines of
Source > Create > Plan > Publish > Promote
• This is a list of tools I’ve used that are free or cheap
and make life easier / improve the content you’re
putting out
• It’s not a definitive list – if there are platforms you
think should be on here please let me know and I’ll
add them in
• I thoroughly recommend you read and refer to the
Charity Social Media Toolkit developed by Skills
Platform (co-written by the amazing Zoe Amar and
Dave Evans) for more in depth how to info!

4. Source
Finding content | Getting
inspiration | Sourcing
Images

5. Source
finding content
• Google alerts – everyone has these I’m guessing? If not
go to https://www.google.co.uk/alerts and enter your
keywords, google will then email alert you a summary
of mentions
• BuzzSumo – find out relevant content from around the
web, see what works for competitors. Free for limited
access
• Feedly – search for content, integrate with Twitter,
Facebook, Pinterest. Free tier
• Scoop.it (7 days free trial but only $11 per year for pro)
– integrates with social media feeds
• Twitter and social media – use them as aggregators.
Look at Medium for longer form, expert articles

6. Don’t miss a thing
automate it
• “If this then that” is a brilliant
tool which gives tools (applets)
which will take an action (the
that) if something happens (the
this)
• For example if there is a key
influencer(s) in your area then
there is one which will notify
you when they tweet so you
never miss a thing!

7. Deliver
types of post
It can be hard to keep a fresh flow of your own
content so here are a few ideas!
• Top 5 / Top 10 facts
• Fun facts – the team is 4 people,
and a daschund named Nudel
• Impact stats – how many people
helped, how much money raised
etc
• Quotes over images –
inspirational quotes, beneficiary
quotes
• Branded images
• History – on this day….
• Jokes
• Competitions
• User Generated Content –
content your users have shared
• Guides – write a guide to the
area you’re experts in and share!
• Team / Staff testimonials – why
do they support?
• Events & calendar days
• Polls

8. Nudel
I wasn’t joking

9. Inspiration
writers block?
• There are fun tools out there, which can help you if
you’re struggling to think of what to create!
• Portent – give it a keyword and it’ll give you a title
of a blog/article to write – although (and this is true
example) the screenshot on the next slide doesn’t
bode well for your day today….

10. Inspiration
awkward
(if you can’t read this – I entered “charity comms” and it came up with “10 ways charity
comms could leave you needing a lawyer”)

11. Different angles
seriously though
(if you can’t read this – I entered “Poverty” and it came up with “How Hollywood got
Poverty all wrong”)

12. Text
writers block?
• Or try this blog generator from HubSpot

13. Images
getting the right image
• You can’t just grab any image from a Google images
search due to rights issues
• Some rights free images can be used for any
purpose without payment (although credit may be
required)
• There are lots of ways to find them…
• If in doubt on rights, check Creative commons or
GNU Free documentation sites
• Finding good images to use can be a pain…the
following are available for use

14. Images
avoid this…

15. Images
filter your google search

16. Better
free image libraries
startupstockphotos.com
unsplash.com
pexels.com
gratisography.com

17. Create
Quotes | GIFs | Memes
Branded content | Text
Infographics

18. Images
creating quotes
Quotecover.com
for desktop
instaquote.com –
for instagram
wordswag – iOs and
Android
£4.99

19. Images
everyone loves a GIF
Especially
when live on
BBC news ☺

20. Images
Creating animated GIFs
• You can use GIFs from sites like Giphy.com or create
your own
• MakeaGIF
• GIFs.com
• Allow you to create your own GIFs from YouTube,
Vimeo, Instagram URLs or upload your own file –
then add text and effects over
• This means you can create a GIF from
on YouTube. That’s a great resource

21. Images
Memes
• Memes are content that
takes images and overlays
with text that, generally
changes the context of the
image to make it shareable
• You can create them for free
at Imgflip.com

22. Images
branded content
• There are lots of free online
design tools you can use
• Canva has a not for profit
programme giving free access
to “business” level
• Pixlr – I tend to use this to
resize images, free to use and
you can add logos etc easily

23. Images
infographics
• Piktochart – offer discounted
NfP rate of $39.99 for 12
months
• https://piktochart.com/pricin
g/nonprofit/
• Infogram
• Easel.ly

24. Images
infographics
• Creating infographics in template packages can be
tricky as they need to be bespoke, but there are tools
that you can use
• Canva – free business account for NfPs
• Piktochart – offer discounted ‘pro’ NfP rate of $39.99
for 12 months
• Infogram – has free tier, but you can apply for NfP
pricing, which gives a discount of 25%
• Easel.ly – has free tier, not NfP discount

25. Text
spelling
• Spell check on word is great,
but if you’re working across
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
& email then it can be
limited
• Nothing more annoying than
a typo in great content
• Grammarly offers a free
chrome extension that is
very handy for live text
checking across platforms

26. Publish
Storify | Presentations |
Landing Page | Quizzes
Channels

27. Publish
tell a story
• Storify - Has free tier and
covers Twitter, facebook and
Instagram
• Allows you to pull together
tweets into a chronology –
showing your content, experts,
beneficiairies, media etc in one
place
• Presents a frozen moment in
time of an event which can be
hosted on website
• Has an option to inform users
whose content that you feature
increasing shareability

28. Publish
other types of content
• Prezi - Free, create
dynamic presentations
including annual report
templates
• Slideshare - Upload
presentations ( part of
Linkedin)
• Appears in google search
results
• I uploaded a version of
this presentation and it’s
had over 3,000 views!

29. Publish
get a quick web presence
• Launchrock
• Free account level - create a
landing page
• Its main goal is to facilitate
early customer acquisition,
allowing you to collect
signups, subscribers and
even pre-orders
• Instapage
• Free account level
• To fulfill the promise of
allowing you to “create a
landing page in 3 minutes”,
Instapage provides over 80
templates.

30. Publish
kindlink
• Free for charities
• KindLink provides
charities with solutions
for fundraising & donor,
donation management
• Payment portal, impact
reporting and donor
management
• Fundraising at lowest
bank fees (1.3%)

31. Publish
quizzes
• If you’re a member of
Buzzfeed community
you can create quizzes
• Create Trivia,
Personality, Poll, and
Checklist quizzes
• It’s all done in BuzzFeed
http://bzfd.it/2nwJmfk
• Also check out Qzzr to
create quizzes to embed
on your site and share
on social to drive traffic

32. Publish
channels that get missed
• Reddit -Sub Reddits
(reddits on specific
topics) have large
numbers of followers
• If you can engage in
credible way, can drive a
lot of interest
• Quora
• Strong in Google SERPs
• Answer questions for
users to get
engagement from them

33. Support
who’s doing what?
Media Trust: Media matching service matching industry
people to NfPs, paid physical training courses
Do it Digital: Not for profit signposting digital training
and events around the UK.
The Digital Garage: Googles effort, more general than
instructional “how to” guides.
Good things Foundation: Building digitally included
society, Learn my Way is basic “get online” content
NCVO: Offer certificate in campaigning with a day on
digital campaigning but no online training
The Technology Trust: Help for your charity to access
the donated software, email marketing and other digital
services that are right for you.

34. Support
free resources
• Look at training courses on Udemy,
Teachable, Coursera – there’s lots of
free courses
• Contact me – happy to help!
• Twitter: @peterjacobs100
• Email: peterajacobs@yahoo.com
• Send me your tips! I’d love to hear
from you on what tools you’re finding
helpful
78% of charities
are investing no
money at all in
digitally
upskilling their
employees
49% of UK
Charities lack
basic digital
skills
Source:
http://bit.ly/2nZIfkU

35. Questions!
• Go to sli.do
• Enter the code #6111
• Take the poll, ask or
vote up questions

36. Thanks for listening
Any questions then give me
shout
Twitter: peterjacobs100

37. Visit the CharityComms website
to view slides from past events,
see what events we have
coming up and to check out
what else we do:
www.charitycomms.org.uk

38. 12 July 2017
London
#CCsmallcharity
Small charities
communications
conference