Frogloop

Tweetlytics: Monitor Your Organization's Impact on Twitter

2010-03-17T22:34:27Z

Has your nonprofit been frustrated with the lack of comprehensive analytic tools for Twitter? How can organizations on a budget be expected to truly measure their impact and engagement using social media, if they don’t have the tools to properly analyze it? Thanks to Shana Glickfield of the BeeKeeper Group, I discovered a great new tool called tweetlytics that provides detailed analytics and slick graphical renderings of data then many of the other budget oriented Twitter analytic tools don’t have. Here’s how it works.

Organizations can sign-up to monitor between five and fifteen campaigns at a time that they are promoting on Twitter. Campaign Managers tag multiple keywords for each of the campaigns that they want to analyze. For example, if I were setting Tweetlytics up for a group like Planned Parenthood, a campaign would be Save Roe. Some keywords I would tag and track for the Save Roe campaign within Tweetlytics would be prochoice, Roe Vs Wade, Planned Parenthood, as well as opposition keywords like anti-choice, prolife, etc.

Once the campaign is up and running, Campaign Managers login and generate reports. Reports can also be delivered to your inbox daily and include:

Total tweets and links about campaigns.
Top Twitter users who mention your campaigns. Campaign Managers can also click on the link and see the actual tweets.
Top hashtags

SXSW Nonprofit Picks

2010-03-10T15:47:19Z

SXSW is just around the corner. For five days nonprofit campaigners, techies, and social media enthusiasts will gather for one of the largest and most anticipated conferences of the year. But with over 3K+ attendees and hundreds of panels, core conversations, workshops and parties, it can be overwhelming to get the most out of SXSW. No worries though. Frogloop has put together a short list of the best nonprofit and political campaign related panels as well as parties and gatherings for the nonprofit community. Read on!

Panels

Debunking the Myth of Social Media Fundraising
March 13 at 12:30 PM

This panel will discuss several case studies showing successful fundraising strategies that incorporate Social Media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The panel will review results from a recently completed research project investigating social media fundraising strategies specifically supporting events.

PRESENTERS
Brooke McMillan, Stacey Monk, Frank Barry, Donna Wilkins and Jodie Kolkowski

2009 Iran Election: Women's Revolution? Twitter Revolution?
March 14 at 11:00 AM

By campaigning and protesting Iranian women surprised onlookers through their sociopolitical participation during the 2009 Iranian election. What led to the sudden appearance of an invisible part of Iranian society, and what role did emerging media play? This panel will discuss online political activity during and prior to the election.

PRESENTERS
Roja Bandari, Mona Kasra, Shireen Mitchell and Dr. David Parry

Not Just for Obama: New Media Gets Local
March 14 at 12:30 PM

Local political campaigns have adopted many of the tools of national campaigns but with varied success. This panel will examine the tools now being used in local races and by local activists (Facebook, Wordpress, Drupal, Twitter, SMS, etc) and give specific examples of success and failures.

PRESENTERS
Julie Blitzer and David Parmet

Crowd Sourcing Innovative Social Change
March 14 at 3:30 PM

Top Nonprofit Leaders to Follow on Twitter

2010-03-08T21:46:29Z

In the past year, registered Twitter accounts have grown more than 1,500%, according to Biz Stone, Co-Founder of Twitter. With such an explosion of new voices, that’s a lot of tweets and noise for nonprofit campaigners to filter through. So if you can only carve out 20 minutes a day to follow nonprofit leaders and thinkers discussing nonprofit issues on Twitter, who would they be? Tough question, right? There are so many smart folks. Here’s my top 10. Feel free to add your top picks too in the comments section. Note: I have kept the list to only include one person per organization. And don’t forget to follow @Care2frogloop – Frogloop’s very own Twitter feed.

@jocelynharmon – Jocelyn, who has been working in the nonprofit sector for over a decade tweets about online fundraising and how to connect with donors, email marketing, and online advocacy. Jocelyn is also the Director of Nonprofit Services for Care2.com, the company who runs the Care2Frogloop blog.

@kanter – The go-to expert on social media for nonprofits.

@mobileactive – One of the best sources for information on integrating mobile into campaigns.

@NancySchwartz – As a nonprofit marketer, Nancy tweets about online and offline communications including email copywriting, fundraising strategy, and nonprofit resources she discovers.

@nptechblogs – Tweets about the latest articles from the top nonprofit blogs.

Homer Simpson for Nonprofits: The Truth about How People Really Think and What It Means for Promoting Your Cause

2010-03-03T21:18:12Z

What does Homer Simpson have to do with your cause? More than you probably think.

People including your activists, donors and prospects share a lot in common with Homer Simpson. And I don’t just mean they love bacon.

We might not want to admit it, but people make irrational, Homer-like decisions every day. We cave to social norms. We opt for small, immediate satisfaction, rather than big long-term gain. We buckle to authority.

The list of illogic is long. And it adds up to making decisions that are often contrary to our own best interests.

But while we may be irrational, we are not unpredictable.

Enter in behavioral economics.

A reaction to “rationality”— the concept that people use logic and reason to make the best choices for themselves — behavioral economics identifies social, cognitive, and emotional factors that influence decisions.

The big takeaway? People make decisions like Homer Simpson, not Spock.

What’s more, in the nonprofit space these irrational decisions have high stakes. We’re not asking people to buy a Coke. We’re asking them to change the world. Their decisions matter — a lot.

So what’s a nonprofit marketer and fundraiser to do?

Online Fundraising Strategies Conference

2010-03-02T15:30:07Z

Mark your calendar for March 30, 2010 where some of the top minds in online fundraising and social media will gather in DC at the Newseum for the Online Fundraising Strategies Conference hosted by Artez Interactive. Join Care2's Jocelyn Harmon and Eric Rardin who will be leading the soup to nuts panel, Nonprofits and New Blood: An Overview of Online Acquisition Tactics and Strategies.

The workshop will discuss why recruiting new donors, advocates, and members are critical to nonprofit's growth. There are numerous tactics for online acquisition including Search Engine Marketing, Co-Registration, Email List Rental and Lead Generation. Nonprofits will also learn ways to evaluate the performance of online acquisition programs so that they can improve their return on investment. Finally, nonprofits will hear about best practices in converting new subscribers into donors through direct appeals, multichannel conversions, and peer-to-peer fundraising.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the top thinkers in the industry and network with your peers at the Online Fundraising Strategies Conference.

Click here to see the full agenda and register.

You should follow Frogloop on Twitter.

Receive monthly updates

Is Your Nonprofit Cultivating Women Donors?

2010-03-01T01:21:59Z

Is your nonprofit reaching women and harnessing their power for social change? If your nonprofit is not actively marketing to women and recruiting them, your organization is missing out on major fundraising opportunities. During last week’s webinar The She Spot – Best Practices in Marketing to Women, Lisa Witter co-author of the book The She Spot and Morra Aarons-Mele of Women Online discussed why women are the market for changing the world and how to reach them.

“Women have numerical advantages,” said Witter and Mele. The average profile of a volunteer in the US is a working mother. Surprised? Check out these stats.

Women give more to nonprofits then men.
In the last four presidential elections, women voted at higher percentages then men.
Women are connectors. Women are twice as likely to pass on information about your cause. So if your organization is not connecting with women in your campaigns, your nonprofit is missing out on major word of mouth marketing.
Women make 83% of consumer purchasing decisions.
Latina women are 3.5x more likely to respond to direct mail.
70% of women say that it’s important for companies to engage in corporate social responsibility and be active in their local community.

Connecting with women in online social networks is also important, said Mele. Social media allows nonprofits to get to know their audiences because they can engage back and fourth with them real time.

Is Your Nonprofit Reaching Diverse Activists and Donors

2010-02-25T15:53:07Z

The demographics of the US are changing. An estimated 40% of the US is comprised of people of color, according to 2008 US Census data. Yet many nonprofits online lists aren’t diverse. Why aren’t nonprofits cultivating diverse activists and donors (a topic Jocelyn Harmon of Care2, Shireen Mitchell of Digital Sistas, and Ivan Booth of Rootwork and I will be discussing on our panel at NTC on April 10th)? People of color care about the environment and climate change, women’s rights and equal pay, healthcare reform, labor reform, human rights, etc. Yet outreach and cultivation to diverse communities are typically done around election time, instead of as part of our regular campaign outreach work. This is a big mistake.

“Many people of color's lives are impacted by social justice issues everyday, some significantly more than others. Many are committed and have died for the issues they believe in. They are committed activists and nonprofits should be cultivating them,” said Shireen Mitchell, founder of Digital Sistas, a nonprofit that focuses on promoting women's equality in technology and a public speaker on this issue.

Furthermore, by not having diverse activists and donors, nonprofits are missing out on interesting and new ways to discuss, approach or address social justice issues with diverse audiences which also brings diverse perspectives, said Mitchell.

During the 2008 Presidential election, voter turnout increased by about “2 million more black voters, 2 million more Hispanic voters and about 600,000 more Asian voters, while the number of non-Hispanic white voters remained statistically unchanged,” according to the US Census Bureau.

Are nonprofits harnessing the social power of diverse communities who care about issues that nonprofits advocate?

“At the most basic level, all nonprofits are trying to change something in the world. It goes without saying that how we go about organizing, communicating and fundraising and whom we engage in our work can have a dramatic impact on our outcomes,” said Harmon in a recent blog post on Diversity, Community, Technology and You.

Tips for Managing and Engaging Online Communities

2010-02-24T14:44:49Z

Before Web 2.0 took over the world, people were part of smaller online participatory communities called listservs. Remember them? Though not as sexy as Twitter, people are still active on listservs and they continue to be valuable tools for nonprofits and community groups to connect with people who are passionate about discussing issues, sharing resources, and engaging in thoughtful and sometimes heated debates. Yet even after all these years, many organizations still haven’t mastered how to use listservs in building successful and engaging online communities.

The biggest barriers groups face is how to structure listservs.

Should they be moderated?
How should people frame their topic for discussion when they post to the listserv? By subject line categories?
How do you handle posts that are just “loosely” related to the community? Is that considered off topic? Is that a bad thing? Should the posts be rejected?
How do you handle heated debates and inappropriate comments?

Do you see a pattern emerging from the questions above? Organizations are typically uncomfortable giving up control. But if organizations are going to truly engage people in meaningful discussions online, they need get comfortable letting people talk, even if that means that they don’t share the same perspectives as some members of the community.

“I think there's a delicate balance to be had. Moderate too little, and everyone except the loudmouths and bullies get shut out. (I say that as a loudmouth myself, no offense intended.),” said Jaclyn Friedman who runs the very active Women, Action & The Media (WAM!) Media listserv.

Cause Marketing: Selling Products Or Social Good?

2010-02-22T22:26:15Z

Since the days of Edward Bernays, marketing has attempted to convince consumers of their hidden desire to buy products. Have fifty years of manipulation run their course? Many leading members of the cause marketing industry feel that consumers are beginning to demand corporations not only provide quality products but also become responsible members of the community. Can your nonprofit afford to not become part of a cause marketing campaign? I spoke with three leading practitioners of cause marketing to find out.

The way people view the role of corporations is constantly changing. Today many of the leading Fortune 500 companies have enacted pro-social campaigns. Everyone from Exxon to Wal-Mart have initiatives that engage non-profits and local communities. Corporate America’s sudden enthusiasm for doing good is being backed up by statistics as well. According to the 2008 Cone Cause Evolution Study, 79% of respondents said they would switch brands (provided price and quality were equal) to the one that is associated with a good cause. Carol Cone, one of the pioneers in the cause-marketing world attributes the change to trust issues and a changing demographic, "Consumers expect companies to have profits with purpose and there are many reasons for it. The first is because Millennials are the most pro social demographic since WW2. The second is because of the tremendous erosion of trust in big corporations. So companies are now expected to not just make a profit but also become engaged in social issues."

Enter Cause Marketing

Unlike corporate philanthropy, cause marketing is really about the collaborative effort of companies and nonprofits to achieve things they could never do alone. Take the Nothing But Nets Campaign, a collaborative effort of the UN Foundation and a number of corporate partners including the National Basketball Association and VH1 to stamp out Malaria. Nothing But Nets successfully leveraged the UN Foundation's expertise in infectious disease with their corporate sponsors money and celebrity resources to create a vibrant campaign that distributed over 2 million bed nets in 2008.

Finding and Engaging Superstars

2010-02-19T03:27:49Z

We've all heard and lived the 80-20 gospel: 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts. In the consumer products world, it's the 10-50 rule: in any product category, 10% of consumers account for more than 50% of profits. In the online advocacy and politics world, many of us have internalized the "Power Law" thanks to Clay Shirky and other leading thinkers in our space. But there's a gap between knowing the Power Law and putting it to use as an engagement ladder to identify and cultivate those superstars that might make up 20% of your list.

We can start to bridge the gap by getting a handle on three things:

1. What's the ideal profile of a superstar for your organization? Is it a monthly donor? Someone who signs up and then shows up for offline events? Someone who organizes those events? Do your superstars submit content for your website, emails or direct mail? Do they forward, post, and retweet your content? If I told you I could bring you 1000 people who would consistently deliver on three things - what would those things be? What contributions made well and consistently would move the ball furthest for your organization?

Being clear about what you need from the most active 20% of your supporters, activists, readers, or volunteers is the first step to ensuring you're building structures to find, cultivate, and support those critical folks.

2. How will you know who your potential superstars are? With a clear profile of an ideal superstar in mind, you can set up the analytics tools and reporting to help you identify them - the first step toward learning more about your superstars and cultivating them. If you're all about content and ideas (i.e. Mother Jones or the New Republic) then you should set up analytics tools to help you identify the people who both read and share your content most.