Content Metrics You Should Track

Every nonprofit knows that good content is king. If you think your website is filled with outdated and boring content, you may be questioning how well you are engaging your activists and donors. Heck, even if you think you have awesome content, you are probably asking yourself the same the question. Here’s some great content metrics that strategist Jay Baer highlighted on his blog (thanks for the recommendation Beth Kanter) which nonprofits can utilize. 

How are people consuming your content?

This one is pretty basic but nonetheless it’s a good reminder to make sure you are at consistently looking at website analytics through Google Analytics, Ominture, etc. Besides looking at the unique website visits (month over month and year to year), you should also review what content gets the most traffic. Do the same articles, blog posts, fact sheets, generate the most traffic every month? What video’s get the most views? What white papers are downloaded the most?

Are people sharing your content?

Some call social media shares vanity metrics because they have turned into such a popularity contest. However, it’s still worth looking at these metrics to see how people are sharing your content. Is the content you are focusing on pushing out to your constituents the very same content being socially shared the most? Is it other content you did not expect to have a lot of traction?

Be sure and also take a look at the Social Analytics report in Google Analytics.

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Power to the Online People

Our desire to reach people wherever they are any time of day has radically changed the way we communicate with constituents, colleagues, and friends in the last decade. The infographic Power to the Online People, shows how effective online organizing can be if you have the right strategies in place. For example, when Congress was considering to support the SOPA bill earlier in 2012, nonprofits and businesses organized over 10,000,000 people to sign online petitions and send over 3,000,000 emails to Congress. Users on Reddit also crowdsourced ideas to draft new Internet legislation in place of SOPA.

And when the Egyptian people protested against President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule, over 90,000 Egyptians on Facebook said they were planning to join to the demonstrations on January 25th. On January 27th, Facebook saw six times more traffic than Google as the world watched these protests unfold online.

As you ring in the new year, and begin planning your campaign strategies for 2013, how will you be leveraging online organizing to make an impact on the ground?

Will Nonprofits Raise Money on Social Media in 2013?

As you have probably experienced yourself, raising money for your nonprofit campaign on social media is like pulling teeth. According to the 2012 Nonprofit benchmark Social Network Benchmarking Report, 98% of nonprofits didn’t raise a dime on Facebook, which is the second most trafficked site on the web in the U.S. About 2% of nonprofits raised between $1 and $1,000. Nonprofits appear to have had slightly more success raising money on Twitter with an estimated 14% of nonprofits raising between $1 and $1,000. These numbers are dismal and nonprofits should not expect these figures to change drastically heading into 2013. As nonprofits gear up for their campaigns in the coming year, don’t look to social media as a fundraising funnel. Instead focus on social networks as they were always intended – communities to build relationships with people and engage in discussion around the core issues you are working on.

In the book Social Change Anytime Everywhere that I co-wrote with Amy Sample Ward (being published by Wiley and coming out in February 2013), we discuss how social media won’t bring in buckets of money in the short term, yet it’s one of several touch points that should be used in your communications plans to connect with constituents who you can cultivate over time. It can also be used to introduce new people to your organization or campaign and get them excited enough to join your movement and share it with their friends, family, and colleagues. If you build a strong relationship with constituents on social media (or any channel) and move them up the engagement ladder, you can convert a percentage of them to donors during the course of your relationship with them. That is the value of social networks. It takes a lot of work and time to nurture those relationships and convert them to donors so be prepared to make that investment if you want to see results in the long term.

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Sign the Petition: Instagram, Don't Sell Us Out

Instagram caused a fire storm on Monday after they pulled a bait-and-switch in their Privacy Policy and Terms and Service that claims "a business or other entity may pay" Instagram for users images without any compensation or notification. It's not just individual users that are upset over the announcement, nonprofits raised many questions about how this impacts their content posted on Instagram. For example, with Instagrams new Terms of Service, a nonprofits photo could be used by an opposing lobbying group to misrepresent them in an ad they purchased.

After more then 24 hours of silence, Instagram's founder Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram responded to the communities outrage and apologized for the confusion around the legal jargon. Systrom said, "legal documents are easy to misinterpret..... "To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear."

Here's the issue though. Instagram's new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service were clear about their intentions. I suspect Instagram senior leadership and Facebook who know owns them, thought the community would not revolt about the sale of their personal data. (Won't FB ever learn what ticks off their community of users?)

While Instagram made a commitment to update their Terms of Service, we've seen this type of backtracking before and with Facebook at the helm, it's more important than ever to keep the pressure on Instagram to make sure they stick to their promise of protecting your photo rights and not sell them without your permission and with no compensation. Sign the petition I started on Care2's Petitions Site.

Study: More People Donated to Charity in 2012 Than 2011

People donated more money to charity in 2012 than in 2011, according to a Blackbaud survey, where over 4200 donors from the US, the UK, and Australia responded to a variety of questions about their donation habits to nonprofits. They survey results showed that US donors contributed the most to charity overall, 3x as much as UK and Australian donors. Older donors gave the most amount of money in each of the countries.

In addition, the net percentage of donors increasing contributions year over year was highest in Australia at 11.5%, followed by the US at 7.8%, and the UK at 5.2%. The results also illustrate mobile’s growth and how it’s becoming an even more important channel for younger donors. Check out the some of interesting data below.

 

One-Time Donations

In the U.S. one-time donations increased from 2011 to 2012.

Recurring Gifts

In the past year, about two-thirds of respondents in each country reported making regular donations, which are typically scheduled as recurring direct debit gifts. Of those, approximately 40% made regular donations to one charity and another 30% regularly contributed to two organizations.

What Motivates Donors to Give to Charity?

US respondents were more motivated by a change in their financial situation. 21% said they were motivated by a personal circumstance with either themselves or a loved one having been affected by the cause the organization supported. 16% said they were inspired to sponsor a friend or colleague participating in an event. UK and Australian respondents were more likely to be driven by an innate desire to help.

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Core Values in Your Fundraising Campaigns

Frogloop readers interested in how nonprofit fundraisers approach the challenge of raising money in ways that strengthen, rather than weaken, the trust of their donors and supporters, should tune in to today’s “Nonprofit Coach” radio show at 12 noon Eastern Time, hosted by fundraising author and consultant Ted Hart.

**Update: the full audio recording of this episode is available below**

Ted’s guest will be Care2 VP of Nonprofit Services Clint O’Brien, and their topic will be “Staying True to Core Values in Fundraising Campaigns.” Inspired partly by the Susan G. Komen – Planned Parenthood controversy earlier this year, the show will explore the pitfalls and opportunities for nonprofits that bring in revenue by (among other things): 1) accepting advertising and sponsorships; 2) teaming up for cause marketing campaigns with corporate partners; and 3) using advocacy campaigns partly as fundraising vehicles.

The discussion also will touch on the rise of for-profit social enterprises like Care2 -- the host of this Frogloop blog you are reading -- and how these self-styled “do-gooder” companies try to strike a balance between earning a profit while taking their social missions seriously.  

By the way, to watch possibly the best-ever commentary on nonprofits’ teaming up with corporate partners, check out this clip from Stephen Colbert…

Is Social Media Making Organizations Lazy?

My Facebook stream has been filled with nonprofits and businesses asking me to “like” photos, political statements, new products, petitions, etc. You name it, they have asked me to “like” it.  And it’s not just nonprofits or small business with limited resources relying on this lame strategy, it’s big organizations and major corporations who have invested significant money, resources, and staff in social media. Check out this update from Walmart who thought the best way to engage their 25 million Facebook likers was to say “We know you like to be the first to comment. Now, we want to see who can be the LAST to comment. Ready, set, GO!”

Walmart received over 28K comments such as:

What a mind-blowing discussion around their brand, don’t you think?

When I look at other organizations that are using the “like this” or RT tactic with their community, the comments by the community are often along the lines of: Thanks for sharing this. Agreed. Yeah. Nice work.

You maybe asking what’s wrong with asking people to “like” something on Facebook or retweet on Twitter? The issue is when you ask people to passively “like” or RT content, it’s the equivalent of them saying “hey, thumbs up dude,” and then they move onto to the next item in their stream.

Sometimes I see constituents ask questions on organizations Facebook pages, which is a great opportunity for real engagement, but sadly many organizations don’t bother to respond within 24 hours. And often they don’t respond at all. #Fail.

Social media, which started out with the best intentions and as a way to foster community transparently, has evolved into a space of laziness among marketers and social media campaigners. Constantly asking your constituents to “like” a photo, political statement or commenting just for the heck of it and to increase your organization’s EdgeRank is not real engagement and certainly not making any sort of real impact on any social issues or businesses bottom line.

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