Nonprofit Social Network Report 2012

An interesting report published in collaboration with the Nonprofit Technology Network, Common Knowledge, and Backbaud. The report provides insights for nonprofits, foundations, media and businesses working with nonprofits about the most important behavior and trends in social networking with regard to marketing, communications, fundraising, programming and IT.

Some of the findings include:

• The Most Common Fundraising Tactic on Facebook is an Ask for an Individual Gift – i.e. soliciting Facebook supporters for individual donations (e.g. one-time gifts, memberships, monthly gifts). Event fundraising was the second highest category .
• The Top 3 Factors for the underlying success on social networks are: Strategy (they took the time to develop a vision and strategy for a commercial social networking program), Prioritization by Executive Management (the executive team prioritized social networking for the organization), and Dedicated Staff (they created a new position or added staff specifically focused on the commercial social networking program).
• Facebook advertising is used primarily to raise awareness about the organization or program,  to increase the number of likes on the Facebook page, and to have supporters complete non-financial calls-to-action (ex. sign a petition, volunteer, attend a free event, etc.).
• The platforms used most are Facebook, Twitter and Youtube with some now egging with Pinterest (more so than Google+).
• The metrics most used to gauge the success of the social networking communities are “site visitors”, “reach”, “customer feedback”, while the least used are “user generated content” and “fundraising revenue”.
• The main goals identified for the commercial social networking program for 201 was  ”build base”, “engage members more”, and “do or grow fundraising”.
• In terms of outreach and marketing methods used to promote the commercial social networking sites, most identified placing links on their orgnizational website as the method used most often. Using email, promoting the social networking presence at events, and placing social network presence on print material, were also identified as frequently used methods. Surprisingly, engaging with bloggers, SEO, and buying ads is apparently not used frequently.
• Communication and marketing departments are most often responsible for social networking.

Read the full report here>>

PR/communications spending on evaluation

PR/communications spendingThe USC Annenberg’s Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) for Public Relations study found that compared to 2009, total spending on evaluation in PR/communication budgets jumped from 4% to 9% in 2012 – even when some 80% of practitioners reported overall PR/communication budgets flat or decreasing.

An interesting report on PR/communications spending, which was posted by my colleague Glenn O’Neil on his blog about Evaluation & Measurement:

View the full report here (pdf)>>

Global mobile statistics 2012

Some interesting statistics about mobile communication. Given the fact that our audiences are moving to mobile platforms, these facts are important for communication today.

Global mobile statistics 2012: all quality mobile marketing research, mobile Web stats, subscribers, ad revenue, usage, trends… | mobiThinking.

The evolution of evaluation by Professor Tom Watson

This summer, at the annual International History of Public Relations Conference at Bournemouth University, UK, Professor Tom Watson delivered an interesting presentation on the evolution of evaluaiton in PR- Public Relations eratic path to the measurement of effectiveness. As an expert on the history of PR himself, with over 20 years of experience in the field, Professor Watson outlined the role of evaluation and measurement in pr and how it has evolved in the past 200 years.

Some points that are raised in the presentation include the evolution of PR measurement and evaluation as an eradic progress. Development evaluation as a surrogate history of PR. He looks at it in the form of a timeline narrative, starting in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and ending with todays current PR practices.

Have a look at the speech below:

The people formerly known as the audience

A very interesting article in the Economist about the changing landscape of news in light of recent developments with Newscorp.

It provides a thorough outline of how journalism has evolved with a focus on the influence of social media, and specific examples of how social media has impacted the news since it’s inception in the late 90′s. From the “Rathergate” scandal in 2004 which provoked the resignation of renowned television anchor Dan Rather to the rise of hybrid news sources such as the Huffington post and the viral news of the revolutions in the middle East, this article provides insight into the increasingly important role that social media has in our lives.

Rather than thinking of themselves as setting the agenda and managing the conversation, news organisations need to recognise that journalism is now just part of a conversation that is going on anyway, argues Jeff Jarvis, a media guru at the City University of New York. The role of journalists in this new world is to add value to the conversation by providing reporting, context, analysis, verification and debunking, and by making available tools and platforms that allow people to participate. All this requires journalists to admit that they do not have a monopoly on wisdom. 

Full article>>

3rd annual AMEC Summit feedback

At the 3rd annual AMEC Summit in Lisbon some interesting thoughts were shared about measurement and evaluation in PR, particularly linked to social media. From establishing definitions for concepts such as engagement and influence to discussions about AVE’s the conference provided a wide spectrum of input from professionals in PR and beyond. A good summary has been provided by Professor Tom Watson of Bournmouth University. He also presented an interesting workshop on the fundamentals of measurement and evaluation. Read more on his Dummyspit blog in the post on social media metrics.

Another good summary can be found on the PR Media blog.

The presentations can be viewed here.

Foursquare social media strategies

Increasingly, companies are using Foursquare to reach their audiences. Numerous promotions have been successful in attracting new customers and converting existing ones to new ambassadors for your brand, which is the basis of social media. It is increasingly important to interact with the customer and their audience. They are no longer passive bystanders as we know, both for communication and marketing. Today, almost everyone has some sort of smartphone, hence the rise of applications such as Foursquare, which allow you to check in anywhere, find points of interest around your checkin as well as current and potential or future contacts. This provides an excellent opportunity for people to become familiar with a product or to create resonance around it and attract attention, which is usually the objective on an advertising campaign.

The most common approach is to provide a discount to users who check in at one of the store’s branches. Many companies including Gap and Starbucks are renowned for this approach. Jimmy Choo, however, took it a step further by organising a type of treasure hunt in the city of London. Through their Twitter account @Catchachoo they posted specific locations around the city and the first person to check in at one of those locations via Foursquare would receive a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes of their choice for free.

McDonalds is another example of an original campaign. The aim was to increase foot traffic to their stores by 33% in one day by using Foursquare. 100 randomly awarded $5 and $10 giftcards were used as checkin bait to attract potential customers. The bait also worked to attract attention from the media and resulted in more than 50 articles talking about their so called Foursquare special. The problem with this campaign was the measurement. The blog thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com provides an excellent summary of this.

 

 

 

 

Social media policy

Following my last post, an additional element to consider is the social media policy. A recent post from the Greenbuzz agency makes a valid point about the idea that a social media strategy should include a coherent policy to help employees understand how they fit into the strategy. “Companies can build the most carefully-planned social media strategy, but if employees don’t have specific ‘how to’ guidelines, confusion erupts and hands are slapped in the process.”

Ready to tackle social media policy development? Consider these questions:

1.    Will employees be allowed to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. during business hours?

2.    How much time, or which specific time periods, will be allowed on these sites? Only during the lunch hour and breaks?

3.    Who is the designated spokesperson/people representing your company’s ‘voice’? Don’t designate “anyone” — choose wisely.

4.    What style will be used when posting? Conversational and friendly? Business casual? Professional and formal? Make sure the style accurately represents your company’s culture.

5.    Can employees access sites via company mobile devices? Will this pose a security risk?

6.    Who ‘owns’ contacts made for business purposes? This is an especially important question for companies with sales forces.

You can read more by taking ideas from what others have done in this list of 160 social media policies.

A structured communication plan is the foundation of a sustainable social media strategy

Recently I received several calls from organisations seeking advice about how to establish a presence on Facebook and other social media platforms. Most importantly they wanted to hear about the advantages of social media adoption. My first question to them is always: what is your communication objective? This is usually followed by a moment of silence. In fact, most of them do not have a communications strategy.  Yet jumping into social media without a proper communications strategy seems like building a house without a proper foundation.

Social media may produce immediate results but it also presents an opportunity for a long term communication management. You build relationships, gain knowledge, and participate in and shape conversations. But how do you combine the immediacy of posts, status updates, rss, etc. with longterm objectives and goals linked to a communications strategy? To answer that we should review the elements of a communications strategy. These include a proper stakeholder analyses, goals, objectives, and a proper method for evaluating results.

A stakeholder analysis is essential for any organisation. There are numerous methods that can be used which focus on the identification of stakeholders. The challenge is to decide which stakeholders should receive specific attention. One excellent model that can be used was developed by Brad L. Rawlins which prioritizes stakeholders through a four-step process: 1. Identifying all potential stakeholders according to their relationship to the organization; 2. Prioritizing stakeholders by attributes; 3. Prioritizing stakeholders by relationship to the situation; 4. Prioritizing the publics according to the communication strategy. This model helps an organisation decide how much attention each stakeholder group deserves or requires. If you know your publics you can select which platforms are most suited for your specific objectives more effectively. You might set shorter communications initiatives with some stakeholders while others would require a longterm investment. Social media could be used for both.

In communication we distinguish between goals and objectives, in that a goal is a statement rooted in the organization’s mission or vision and an objective is a statement emerging from the organization’s goals. For example, if your goal is to raise awareness about a certain issue or product, your objective might indicate how much awareness and it would specify a time frame. Once an organisation has set specific objectives and decided on which stakeholders to target, specific channels can be identified. These channels may include a more traditional approach such as print journalism or advertising or they may include social media. One advantage social media offers is that you are able to listen to your stakeholders. Effective communicators implement a two-way approach which requires longterm investment. Just posting a message blindly to reach a maximum number of people will not be effective in the long run.

The final step is then to decide on how to measure your results. Here again the most effective approach is a combined measurement, both on and offline. Some interesting references for measurement are Intelligent Measurement and the Metricsman. They talk extensively about the importance of evaluation and measurement but also about the combined approach implementing both online and offline techniques.

One reference which I think describes this point is from the film Field of Dreams, where Kevin Costner’s character hears a voice which tells him to build a baseball stadium. He hears repeatedly “if you build it, they will come” referring to the spectators. And at the end of the film you see thousands of cars approaching the farmland on which he had built the field. But was he ready for all those people? We don’t know because the film ends. In social media it is comparable, you can build your profiles, start posting, commenting, linking and you might generate a great deal of traffic very quickly. But if you do not feed that traffic with quality material they will disappear and it will be counter productive in the long run. Therefore, think and plan ahead. Establish a proper communications strategy before building.

Communication, Chaos, and Control

From the New Yorker, I came across this interesting interview with Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School and the author of “The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires,” about how forms o