Some of the questions I get about drafting an annual comms plan or drafting social media content creating social media content is well we actually, I actually don’t have access to a budget but we really don’t even have a budget

I understand that particularly for newer community groups we actually don’t even have any funding at the moment. My answer to that is to dedicate if you can two hours, two hours of brainstorming some content. 

So get out that draft annual comms plan handout. Brainstorm some content for the year. Really think about the things that are coming up but just dedicate two hours to that and then your weekly content and then your daily content. You may not have the budget right now but just create the content any way it will really start getting you to think about the conversations and the stories that you already have on hand so when you do get the funding, when you do have a budget you’ll know what kind of content you can start to share and distribute straight away.

 But also to that I’d say that you must still be able to create a little bit of content even if it is on Facebook and you’re not paying for your posts to be boosted they can still be organic Facebook posts and some people will still see that and the point is even if people you know not as many people as you like aren’t seeing it, the point is you’re a publisher now you this information everything you put on Facebook across socials on your website they all tell a story they all highlight and show who you are as an organisation. 

So you may not have the funds or the budget but you must still tell the story, you must still put things up on social media, you must still put things up on your website because funders will look at that anyway, your community members will look at that anyway donors will look at what you the presence that you have online anyway.