Kate Meyers Emery, Ph.D.

Senior Digital Communications Manager @ Candid

What’s the backstory of how you got into social media?

I’ve always been interested in using digital tools to build community and reach people around niche topics.

When I was a teen, I taught myself HTML and CSS so I could build a Sailor Moon fansite (in the early days of Geocities, IYKYK).

During my masters, I ran the department’s online community for students

And when I did my PhD, I paid for the degree by doing random digital jobs from project managing a video game to building databases for archaeological sites to developing mobile applications.  

But the thing I did the most was run social media accounts.

This was back in the day when “young people who weren’t scared of tech” were asked to do social media for major organizations that we had no business running.

But I got great experience and developed my love for this type of communication.  

As I reached the end of my degree, I realized I loved the digital work more than what I was studying.

I found a job at a museum in my hometown, and did social media, email, website, and in-gallery digital engagement for six years there.  

I started working at Candid about 2.5 years ago, and it’s been a great chance to really focus on doing organic social media.

Candid is a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits find funding, helps funders and donors find nonprofits, and gets everyone the information and resources they need to do it more efficiently, effectively, and equitably.

I’ve had a lot of freedom at Candid to experiment and take the social media presence in a new direction.

It’s been an exciting challenge, and I love consistently finding ways to innovate.

What results were you able to achieve?

The data really shows just how effective Candid’s approach has been.

Over the last 2.5 years, here’s what we’ve achieved on organic social media: 

• Instagram 

  • 127% increase in followers 

  • 643% increase in engagement 

  • 217K video views (which is cool because two years ago there wasn’t a social media video program at all) 

• LinkedIn 

  • 90% increase in followers 

  • 240% increase in engagement 

  • 50K link clicks 

• Started our TikTok and YouTube Shorts, which have gotten 351K and 180K video views respectively 

What’s been most exciting to me is all the qualitative feedback.

We’ve had great responses from leaders in the field that what Candid is doing is great and that it’s really helping nonprofits.

But the best thing to hear is that other people want to steal our strategy.

That makes me so excited.   

What was your approach when you started?

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