I have to start by telling you this story – a few days ago, I decided I was going to make banana ice cream from scratch. Not just blending up bananas as flavoring into vanilla ice cream, but actually making frozen bananas into ice cream. I’ve heard of people doing this on the internet, but I didn’t have a recipe, so naturally, I turned to the mecca of ideas – Pinterest. I searched one time for “banana ice cream recipes,” saved two of the recipes that looked good and went to my kitchen to cut up bananas for my ice cream. I made the ice cream, it was delicious – like CRAZY delicious.  A few days later, I got on Pinterest for the first time since the banana ice cream search, and suddenly, all of the things showing up in my feed – all of the pins that Pinterest thought I would be interested in seeing – were about banana ice cream recipes. Has this ever happened to you? I’m sure it has – because if you use social media at all, whether it be Pinterest, Facebook, or Instagram, they all work the same way. They show you what they think you would like to see.  Then you want to keep scrolling and for that to happen they need to show you things that you want to see.  This is how social media works. They show you things related to what you’ve searched for already. So, what does this mean for you and your nonprofit organization?  Here’s an example: It means if you tell all the people from your church to like your nonprofit’s Facebook page and they do, Facebook is going to show the church people your nonprofit’s posts again and again – even if they’re not the people you want to reach.  If you want to reach people who need what you provide through the services you offer or through an outreach group, or meetings, or classes, or moms’ day out but who don’t go to your church, those people aren’t as likely to see your nonprofit’s Facebook or Instagram posts because they are outside of the circle of your church members.  If you are trying to reach your church members, then having them like your post is the right thing to do - but if you’re not trying to reach church members, you’re missing the people you want to serve. Wait, WHAT?! Yes – if your church, or your personal friends, or your volunteers and staff make up the majority of people who support your nonprofit on social media, they are going to be the audience that Facebook and Instagram shows your posts to. They are the ones who appear to be interested in your posts (because they’re “liking” and commenting on your posts) – so Facebook and Instagram are going to give them more of what they are interested in: your posts – which is good, but they aren’t the people who need your services. So how do you get your nonprofit’s posts SEEN by people outside of your inner circle? Outside of your core group of supporters?  It is great to encourage your donors and supporters, your staff, and volunteers to support your nonprofit on Facebook and Instagram. Likes and Shares no matter who they’re from really do help, BUT if those are the only or the majority of the people liking and sharing your posts, those people and people who have similar patterns and behaviors are going to be the only crowd that organically see your nonprofit’s social media posts.  Note: Seeing a post “organically” on Facebook means seeing a post without paying for Facebook to show your ad to new people. Let’s say your nonprofit is hosting an outreach group for young single moms, or parenting classes, or a Bible study, or a Mothers’ Day Out group, or an arts and crafts group, or a young singles group, or any type of meeting, group or class for people that don’t typically go to your church. How are you going to reach those people?  You can’t just post about it once and expect the word to spread like wildfire because if you’ve only been getting likes and shares from your supporters, guess what? Those are going to be the only people who see your nonprofit’s posts. And then what? Nobody shows up to your group, or your meeting or your class.