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Entries in Social Networking (58)

Monday
29Jun

Top 8 Social Media Tracking Tools

DateMonday, June 29, 2009 at 10:07PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

Social media! I seriously think it’s "the" buzz word of 2009. According to Omniture, over 200 million searches are conducted every single day and 78% of people trust recommendations by peers. But how should nonprofits track their social media? What tools should they use?

Understand What You Want to Track.

  • Do you want to track how many people are clicking and sharing your links or updates?
  • Do you want to track how many people are signing your petitions after visiting your site?
  • Are you interested in trends relating to specific topics your nonprofit works on such as health care reform or human rights?

Each objective requires different tools to track your nonprofits social media progress and return on investment. However, it’s important to note that none of them are 100% at measuring results. Lets dig in to my top eight social media tracking tools.

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Thursday
11Jun

How Sticky is Facebook?

DateThursday, June 11, 2009 at 01:28PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

Facebook is the 5th most trafficked site in the United States. Over 179,000 nonprofits utilize Facebook Causes but just how sticky is Facebook? You may be surprised to see some recent stats that question how successful Facebook is as an engagement tool.

According to a recent BusinessWeek article, Cameron A. Marlow, a research scientist at Facebook, conducted a study to find out how close Facebook users are to their friends online. Marlow looked at how often people clicked on their friends' news or photos, how often they communicated, etc. Guess what the results were? “Facebook users with 500 friends actively follow the news on only 40 of them, communicate with 20, and keep in close touch with about 10. Those with smaller networks follow even fewer,” the article mentioned.

What does this mean? Well, in a nutshell Facebook users don't pay much attention to most of their online friends. Marlow’s study sheds even more light on the Washington Post article that said Facebook Causes are not raising much money for nonprofits. Take a look at the stats below.

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Wednesday
03Jun

Why Nonprofits Need to Grow their Online Lists

DateWednesday, June 3, 2009 at 01:06PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

The recent feisty discussion on Frogloop about whether direct mail is dying or not raises some vital questions for every nonprofit fundraising professional to consider. Regardless of whether you believe direct mail is on its way out -- and many smart people seem to disagree with each other on this point – nearly everyone agrees that the role of online giving is only becoming more important over time.

Consider this. It took the…
• Telephone 38 years to reach 50 million users
• Television 13 years to reach 50 million users
• Internet 4 years to reach over 50 million users

Moreover, there are over 220 million U.S. Internet users, or 72.5% of our population, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. In 2006, 627 million people globally made a purchase online, and this number rose by 40% in only two years -- to 875 million. Tens of millions of people are doing business online. Websites like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube are among the top 10 most trafficked sites in the US.

Clearly the Internet has transformed how nonprofits communicate with their activists and donors. For now, direct mail fundraising -- especially when used in a multi-channel strategy -- continues to bring in the most revenue.

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Wednesday
27May

The ROI of Social Media

DateWednesday, May 27, 2009 at 10:39AM | by AuthorHeather Holdridge

Social media is a hot topic these days. No matter where you look, you just can’t escape the buzz. While we’ve seen explosive growth in use of social networks (NYT reported last week that time spent on social networks has exceeded that of email) many organizations are asking how do you effectively deploy a social media strategy and what is the return on investment (ROI)? The trouble with social media thus far has been that it’s been difficult for practitioners measure its efficacy.

I had the honor of participating on the ROI (Return on Investment) of Social Media panel at the Women Who Tech TeleSummit with Monique Eldwell of Conversify and Cheryl Contee of Fission Strategies where we laid out some key metrics and useful case studies.

We decided to organize our session, organized by Monique, by doing a little 101 on social media (what it is), ROI (how do you define it, different metrics used to measure it) and the challenges those organizations of all stripes face. We know that lots of orgs have heard some variation of this from their bosses—“We need to get on the Twitter!” But the fundamental question presented in this panel was “Why?” Organizations can fall prey to what Monique called “Shiny Object Syndrome” (and this is true of nonprofits as well as political organizations and even companies), jumping on the bandwagon of the latest social network, technology or tool, without asking whether that serves organizational goals—who are you trying to reach, what are you trying to get them to do, and how do you define success?

Some Basic 101 Resources and Metrics
ROI = What you spent divided by what you got out of your investment
The metrics for measuring ROI can be extremely varied. Here are a few examples.

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Thursday
21May

Earned Media: How to Stay Relevant and Track It

DateThursday, May 21, 2009 at 01:20PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

“If you don't brand yourself, Google will brand you,” says branding expert Sherry Beck Paprocki. Yes, it’s true and that’s why it’s important for all nonprofits that are advocating for causes to start becoming a part of the conversation publicly and not just behind closed doors or on “the hill.”

Think about it. When the NYT writes about climate change is your environmental group quoted? When the Washington Post writes about health care reform or corporate accountability is your campaign mentioned?

How can your organization effectively brand itself and get on the radar? While paid advertising is a very effective way to increase your list of supporters and help brand your organization to target audiences, earned media is another key tactic to deploy in your overall online communications strategy.

What is Earned Media?
Earned media is media you don't “buy” but earn the old-fashioned way - by taking the time to properly engage reporters, bloggers, and influentials about your issue. Earned media is comprised of coverage through:

  • Blogs
  • Media outlets both online and offline
  • Podcasts
  • Photo sharing sites like Flickr
  • Tweets on Twitter
  • Links shared on Facebook
  • Tagging on social bookmarking sites like delicious, Digg, etc.
  • Word of mouth, etc.

Listen and Build Relationships
Some of the best ways to build relationships with reporters and bloggers who cover your issues is to examine their “byline profiles”, start listening and begin a dialogue. Share important news, feed them useful stats and resources that relates to your cause and the issues they have been writing about. Also, when appropriate tailor your pitches to broader topics that are generating news and frame your story in a similar context. As you begin to build your relationships, it’s also important that you be strategic in your communications. Make sure that the stories you are sharing or pitching are:

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Wednesday
20May

YouTube Launches Video for Change

DateWednesday, May 20, 2009 at 11:29AM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

YouTube just launched the Video for Change program to highlight the most pressing social causes the YouTube community cares about. The new programs hopes to foster the connections between individual activists on the site and nonprofits.

The first Video for Change program features the Enough Project which calls attention to issues that don't get much coverage in the mainstream media. The first contest is "Come Clean 4 Congo" where Enough is asking the community to create a compelling video about the "conflict minerals" used in cell phones and the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo –- the deadliest war since World War II.

YouTube plans to launch the Video for Change campaigns four times a year.

Members of the YouTube Nonprofit Program can email for an application to the program.

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Monday
18May

Social Media Roundup

DateMonday, May 18, 2009 at 10:49AM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

ReadWriteWeb Guide to Online Community Management

ReadWriteWeb launched a great report and cool new tool that provides organizations with the latest research and best tips in social media. Whether you are using your Web 2.0 savvy skills to manage your nonprofits community or just getting up to speed in the social media world, ReadWriteWeb’s Guide to Online Community Management is definitely worth checking out.

The first part of the report features a 75 page collection of case studies, advice and discussion concerning the most important issues in online communities. The report covers the basics, and answers commonly asked questions such as ("Should we be on Facebook? Should we have a blog?") Then the report dives into four key areas: Return on Investment, Job Description, the Marketing/Customer Service Balance and Dealing With Challenging Community Members.

Part two of the report is a companion online aggregator that delivers the most-discussed articles each day written by experts on community management from around the web.

Social Tech Training

The inspiring folks at Web of Change are hosting the second Social Tech Training scheduled for June 10-12th in Toronto. This “Masters level” 3-day hands-on course is ideal for organizations that have a website, an active email list, a profile on Facebook, MySpace, and maybe even Twitter… and see the potential for the web to become a more central part of campaign communications. Led by senior trainers, the training combines inspiring stories from leading web campaigns, a “create, test, and learn” education model, and is designed to connect participants to a powerful community of peers. While the training recently filled up, a few more spots may open up. Email Julia with your name, organization, email, phone number and city to be added to the waiting list.

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