A New Day for MLK
Chris Rucker
In 2026, having a social media presence and plan is critical and even expected of non-profit organizations in order to promote their mission to their audience. Their branding should showcase their purpose consistently across all platforms to secure sponsors and fundraising. Being active on their pages can be just as important as being active in the community.
Recently accomplishing over 100 years of service in 2022, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center is a central service source for under-privileged children, families, and seniors. Commonly referred to as the MLK center by locals in Newport, Rhode Island, the non-profit organization has a steady presence on all major social media apps including Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube. The MLK center’s largest following comes from Facebook, with just over five thousand followers on the app. Unsurprisingly, Facebook is where they are most active with a touch beyond four thousand posts on their page. This is an impressive following they have amassed for a local organization. Their level of consistency and interaction surprised me as well. They are effective at keeping their audience informed on any and all updates throughout the community. Although their following is at a respectable number, their level of engagement on posts varies. Most of their posts received minimal attention, often garnering anywhere from three to eight likes with a few standouts occasionally reaching 20, 50, or sometimes 80 likes. The more successful posts featured young children or partnerships with other local businesses, reaching the interests of a broader audience. On the more mundane posts there seems to be less effort put into them. Fewer descriptions, tags, and photos. Increasing the consistency of content and providing more of what gets them clicks is what I recommend for their Facebook page. Short-form videos such as a day-in-the-life at the center or community stories can drive local engagement and boost their content in the algorithm. Facebook actively pushes “reels” to compete with other social platforms. This would give the MLK center a greater “reach” which is more valuable than followers because they’re expanding into a larger audience. Giving people an experience to watch rather than a graphic with information on it will increase engagement. According to Sproutsocial, 48% of users on Facebook engage the most with reels.
The MLK center’s Instagram account currently has its second biggest following compared to their other accounts with 3,364 followers. However, their level of engagement on their posts in the last month has been underwhelming. The most liked post had 114 likes but with zero comments, which is consistent with the majority of their content on the app. The MLK center needs to drive more interaction on the app. InfluenceFlow states that saves, shares, and comments are all weighted more than likes are on the app because it is a low-effort interaction. Even if they aren’t increasing the likes, by simply getting more people to interact with the post or even save it will boost their engagement. By taking on a livelier presence in their captions, they can hook people’s attention and create conversation and engagement.
For the MLK center’s Instagram, I reccomend tracking their conversion rate (advanced metric). They have a link tree posted in their bio that they should be utilizing more often with calls to action. Tracking how many people are visiting their website as well as donation centers and partnerships is key information for growth. This would give the team valuable insight into what events and businesses attract most people. Instagram makes this easy for accounts to track by allowing accounts to also post links on their story and making those insights quickly attainable. Profile visits (channel metric) is another key area the center needs to be monitoring on Instagram. It is critical to know how many eyes are visiting your base of operations. An appealing profile picture, consistent story posts, and engaging in comment sections can lead people to your profile. Influencer impact, a behavioral metric, is another important metric on an app such as Instagram. This can be a shortcut to boosting brand awareness and trustworthiness compared to a formal ad. Being a local establishment like the MLK center, partnering or interacting with well-known local figures and businesses can increase likeability the more those accounts share or engage with content from the MLK center’s page.
The MLK center has just 75 subscribers on YouTube. One key advanced metric I would be tracking is time spent and content retention. Knowing how long users are viewing the videos and where they are skipping or exiting is crucial. A majority of their videos are under ten minutes, meaning they need to hold viewer attention for a majority of the runtime. Clever editing and fast-paced videos may keep viewers engaged longer, even if the subject of the video is less interesting. Along similar lines, video views as a channel metric are another key area to focus on. On YouTube, a view typically counts when the video has played for 30+ seconds. Having an engaging hook to the video is vital in securing these numbers as well as a proper thumbnail and title to get clicks in the first place. Finally, click-through links, which measure the percentage of users clicking on a link. This is a good indication on how effective the video is at capturing the audience’s interest or motivation to volunteer or donate. You will need a well designed thumbnail, title, and hook to capture your audience's interest. Here is a good breakdown video on the basics of CTR and how your audience, video design, and consistency matters. Based on the results, increasing or decreasing the number of videos that try to inspire their audience may be required.
