1. Networked Nonprofits:
What Social Good Leaders Need to Know to Succeed
in Age of Connectedness
Beth Kanter, Author, Blogger, and Master Trainer
Beth’s Blog
Social Good Brasil
VIP Session
November 7, 2012
15. A Network Mindset: A Leadership Style
• Openness, transparency, decentralized
decision-making, and collective action.
• Listening and cultivating organizational and
professional networks to achieve impact
• Leadership through active participation.
• Sharing control of decision-making
• Blending networking with strategy for results
• Data-Informed culture
16. Leading With A Network Mindset: Shift From Push To Pull
SF Goodwill's CEO, Debbie Alvarez-
Rodriguez
18. Leading With A Network Mindset
Social Media and Networks has to be connected to
your organization’s mission and programs
19. The Networked NGO Professional
Open and accessible to the world and
building relationships
Making interests, hobbies, passions visible
creates authenticity
20. Share Pair: Networks
What resonated?
Is your NGO leading with a
network mindset?
Benefits? Challenges?
21. If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t
run then walk, if you can’t walk then
crawl, but whatever you do you have
to keep moving forward.”
Inspiration
22. Where to focus …
CRAWL WALK RUN FLY
Linking Social with Ladder of Network Building
Communications Results and Engagement
Strategy Networks Many Free Agents work for
Development Content Strategy you
Pilot: Focus one
Culture Change program or channel Best Practices Multi-Channel Engagement,
with measurement Content, and Measurement
Measurement and
Incremental Capacity learning in all above Reflection and Continuous
Improvement
23. Share Pair: Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly
Where is your organization now? What does that
look like? What do you need to get to the next
level?
24. Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly Model: Networked Nonprofit
Practices
Themes Categories Indicators
INTERNAL CULTURE Networked Mindset
Institutional Support
Communications Strategy
CAPACITY Hours
Expertise
Practices
Channels Differ for
MEASUREMENT Analysis
Tools
Crawl, Walk,
Adjustment Run, Fly
EXTERNAL LISTENING Brand Monitoring
Relationship Mapping
Influencer Research
ENGAGEMENT Ladder of Engagement
Responsiveness
CONTENT Integration
Social Optimization
NETWORK Networking and Networking Building
Collaboration with Partners
Social Fundraising
42. Why did it fail?
What did we learn?
What insights can use next
time around?
DoSomething.Org’s Fail Fest
43. Advice for Nonprofits: Becoming Data-Informed:
Change Is Easier With Baby Steps
• Begin at the end – discuss
and identify results
• Curator of metrics
• Use experiments to help
evolve
• Get started with a small data
collection project that is high
priority in your organization
• Make time to learn from
results
44. Share Pair: Being Data Informed
What struck you about the
DoSomething.Org story?
What does your
organization need to
become data-informed?
45. A Minute of Silence
• Do Not Talk
• Think about the discussion and ideas
• Write down one idea that you can put into practice in
the next week
46. You can be networked and use measurement
to change the world!
• Lead with a network mindset to change your
organization from the inside out
• Take small steps, it is okay to go slow, but keep
moving forward
• Learn from your failures and successes through
experiments
• Don’t start to measure anything until you have
clearly defined success
• Collect less data, think about what it means more
• Use your data to make better decisions
Networked Nonprofits: What Social GoodLeaders Need to Know to SucceedThis is going to be interactive, you will get a chance to react to the ideas with your peers.
Here’s a little bit about me – blogger, author, trainer.Worked in the nonprofit sector for over 33 years. I am lucky to have been working in the field of technology for social good since 1992 when I started working for an online network of artists to help them get onto the Internet. When I applied for the job, I told them I didn’t know the difference between modem and microwave, but that I could learn quickly and transfer that knowledge to others. So, for the last 20 years that is what I have been had as my job, working nonprofits all over the world to help them learn how to use technology and Internet for their social change work. I’m a master trainer so I get to travel around the work and work with changemakers on how to use the tools for social change or mission driven work. Most recently, have designed and delivered curriculum for nonprofits to become networked nonprofit – Middle East, Africa, India, etc. There are wicked problems in the world -- I’m passionate about social change and strongly believe that two of the skills that nonprofits need to embrace to solve them.
Meet KeoSavon. It is important to me that the book has a social change mission so I am donating my royalities to send her to college in Cambodia through supporting the Sharing Foundation program for education. It will make difference in her life.She is a civil engineering major and is 2nd in her class. I met her this summer when I visited Cambodia. She lives in the orphanage that my daughter came from in Cambodia – and KeoSavon also calls me “mom.” She told me she wants to go to graduate school in the US – MIT or Stanford. I told her that I would have to sell a lot of books!
My first book has been translated in many languages – including Portugese …. And also in Arabic. I’ve had the opportunity to teach workshops to ngos all over the world, most recently in the Middle East as part of a state department Civil Society 2.0 – based on the ideas in the book.
I wanted to know if there were NGOs that were networked ngos in other countries and places the Middle EastSHABAKAT youth integrate information and communication technologies in the day-to-day lives of their communities to positively transform our families, education, businesses, environment and community. Rami Al-Karmi will share a few words.Founder and CEO of Shabakat, Al Ordon (JordanNet) and is serving as the E-Mediat Strategic Adviser for the Jordan In-Country Team shared some lessons about working as networked ngo. His organization’s name, Shabakat, translates into the word “network.”Shabakat Al Ordon trains young people in technical, professional and facilitation skills who then go out and create programs to train people in their communities. Rami shared how his organization works in a transparent way, open sourcing its program materials and processes. They also work many different partners to spread the program so that his organization isn’t doing everything. They’ve simplified and focused on what they do best.
http://www.bethkanter.org/emediat-day2/They have 300 programs throughout Jordan, but only 3 people in staff. I asked Rami, “What is your secret?” He said they share control of the program with young people who go out to the villages and implement. I asked him, doesn’t that hurt the quality to let go of control. He said, they vet, but that the young people are passionate about the program and it makes them do a better job. I asked him what is the most important think to know about working as networked nonprofit – he said, “Being relevant – give your stakeholders what they need without overthinking it.”
They taught me a lot about the culture – and even how to wear a hijib.Not five minutes after I posted that photo to my Facebook Page, my mother who is 86 and my Dad who is 92 called me and wanted to know what I was wearing.I asked them how they found out about it? They are not on Facebook. My sister, who is, showed it to them. So, not everyone has to be on Facebook for it have influence over people who aren’t on Facebook.
The next day, I got a call that my Dad had taken ill and was in the hospital in the intensive care unit.I was very upset and very far away .. So as I waited to get a plane ticket, I debated whether or not I should share this information on FBMy friends are a mix of family, friends and professionals … is this a professional thing to share.So, I started to post photos of him in better days …DoctorCamera GeekSwimmer And I debated whether or not to share this last photo of him giving a blessing to my neice at Bat Mitzah – we’re Jewish – I worried because I now how a lot of Arab friends ..We didn’t talk about religion or politics.
But posting brought many surprisesAn old friend who runs the “hospital dog” program – where dogs visit patients posted on my FB wall to say that my Dad was in her hospital and that she would bring the dog by to visit.
Another friend from Israel – offered to put a prayer in the Western Wall … I emailed it, she printed it off, and sent me this photo.But later I found out that I could have tweeted a prayer
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soyignatius/5544750526/sizes/l/in/photostream/He is back home, he recovered … but he has parkison’s and walking is hard.So he started by taking a few steps a day around the house, next out of the house and then around the block .. But slowly he regained strength
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soyignatius/5544750526/sizes/l/in/photostream/Walking for my Dad is like climbing a mountain – that is what it is like for Parkinson’s patients.My neice was inspired and decided that she would organize a fundraiser to climb Mt. Kiilmanjaro in Africa – with her millenial friends – working as a free agent fundraisers and they raised $250,000 USD for parkinson’sHere’s what she said: Uncle Earl has Parkinsonism, and was in the hospital for his health-related issues. His family has since brought him home, but as my father described to me, they’re having to make adjustments to the house to accomodate my uncle’s physical challenges. Listening to the NPR report, especially the voices of the people (who I would later learn were Ken and Brad) taking on this enormous undertaking of sumitting Kilimanjaro while dealing with Parkinson’s, made me think about my Uncle Earl, the challenges he is facing in his life, and the opportunities — like summiting a mountain — that are no longer available to him. I was overwhelmed by the inspiration to do something.
As you can see networks are a part of our every day and social change is be becoming network-centric.Nonprofits need to do – connect with their networks to create on the ground change. …Collaboration, coordination, and working in networks are becoming the new normal, as leaders across sectors work to move the needle on today’s most pressing problems. Individuals and organizationsare taking increasing advantage of technology’s ability to facilitate and expand their impact through connection, coordination, and collaboration. Using data to understand what is working or not.
The Red Cross is using all its channels, like Instagram – document the storm damage and relief efforts … and of course fundraise tooThis image – “Ladies when you are the bar and inevitable creepy due asks for your number and hands you his phoneInstead of saying no, or entering a fake number .Text Redcross to 90999So he’ll donate $10 to the Hurricane Relief EffortRed Cross has raised $85 million as of Mondayhttp://philanthropy.com/blogs/2012sandy/2012/11/05/update-red-cross-raises-85-million-for-storm-relief/
How do we manage this change?It means leading with a network mindset – a leadership styleOpenness, transparency, decentralized decision-making, and collective action. Listening and cultivating organizational and professional networks to achieve impact Leadership through active participation. Sharing control of decision-makingBlending networking with strategy for resultsData-Informed culture
I recently heard Debbie Alvarez –Rodriguez from Goodwill SF give a talk about leading with a network mindset ….She’s the CEO - and was talking about how see is often up late at night. And back a year or so ago, her org was going through layoffs ..Tough times – so she up late, checking her email ..She received an email from some employees requesting to be part of the decision-making. She thought, “I better call my board chair because he calls me.”As they were talking, she realized, “They could have put it on Facebook.” This could have created a public relations nightmare (It’s happened in the orchestra world when the Detroit Symphony musicians went on strike and used social media to air their concerns. Instead, these Goodwill employees went to their CEO.This lead them to really examine how to effect culture change. As Debbie says, it wasn’t about just using the tools and platforms like Facebook and Twitter – even for herself as the CEO or her organization. That it required a shift from “pushing to engaging.”
One of the things they did early was to take an inventory of their team members’ skills to discover who was good at the various required skills writing, photography, and video as well as social media savvy. At SF Goodwill they created a Blog Squad to kick things off.Once established, this became one of many platforms for them to engage their community and share control.
So, it is not really about using the tools – it is organizational mind shift that begins with the leadership …..
This might all feel somewhat uncomfortable to you if you are the CEO …. Because it is about being a little bit open, a little bit human.Take this example from the CEO of Save the Children .. One minute she tweets about her work, the next she is sharing a photo of walk on the beach
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54596905@N00/502480485/http://www.flickr.com/photos/plangirls/7781225040/Find a person next to you and have a conversation about this question:What stories resonated? What have you thought about before?Is your organization leading with a network mindset? Benefits or Challenges? When you see me raise my hand, I want you to raise your hand and stop talking …Let me repeat the instructions again ….(Note to Translator: When you see my raise my hand, start telling people to raise their hands and stop talking)I would like to hear VERY briefly a few themes or ideas that came up. Tell us very briefly – and if you talked about the same idea – “Twinkle” - Raise your hands and wiggle your fingers like this .. (I will demonstrate)
Change with NGOs doesn’t happenovernight … leaders lead but you have to bring your organization along.If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
Framework to guide my coaching and peer learning design over the yearsThere are different stages of development for networked nonprofits. The Crawl StageCrawlers are not using social media consistently or measurement processes; they also lack a robust communications strategy. Crawlers can be small or large nonprofits that have all the basics in place, but they either lack a social culture or resist transforming from a command-and-control style to a more networked mindset. These nonprofits need to develop a strategy. Even with a communications strategy in place, some organizations may face challenges to adopting a networked way of working. If so, they should start with a discussion of the organizational issues, followed by codifying the rules in a social media policy. They should also anticipate learning and benefiting from inspiring stories from peers.The Walk StageNonprofits in this stage are using several social media channels consistently, but may not be strategic or fully embracing best practices—maybe they don’t engage with users, or they only share content and messaging produced by their own organization. These nonprofits need to create a social media strategy to support short- and long-term objectives, such policy change or increasing public engagement on an issue. Walkers internalize listening, and use the data they collect to improve engagement and some content best practices.These organizations implement small, low-risk projects that collect stories, learning, and metrics to help leadership better understand the value, benefits, and costs. Walkers should focus on one or two social media tools, going deep on tactics and generating tangible results and learning. They must identify low-cost ways to build capacity internally, such as integrating social media responsibilities into existing staff jobs. Capacity is built with support from leadership and a social media policy formalizes the value and vision.The Run StageRunners use more than two social media channels as part of an integrated strategy, identifying key result areas and metrics that drive everything they do. They have a formal ladder of engagement that illustrates how supporters move from just hearing about your organization to actively engaging, volunteering, or donating to your organization. This is used to guide strategy and measurement. They visualize their networks and measure relationships. These organizations practice basic measurement religiously and use data to make decisions about social media best practices.In these organizations, a single department does not guard social media, and staff are comfortable working transparently and with people outside the organization. The board is also using social media as part of its governance role.To build internal capacity, runners invest in a community manager whose job it is to build relationships with people on social media or emerging platforms. These organizations know how to create great content, and use an editorial calendar to coordinate and curate content across channels. They are routinely tracking the performance of their content strategy and adjust based on measurement.The Fly StageThese organizations have institutionalized everything in the running stage. Flyers embrace failure and success alike, and learn from both. Flyers are part of a vibrant network of people and organizations all focused on social change. They use sophisticated measurement techniques, tools, and processes.http://www.flickr.com/photos/oreoqueen/3235090633/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathandesign/7031920221/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdfbrasil/2416260064/sizes/m/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/http://www.flickr.com/photos/levymh/6891554365/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/
We are going to do a Share Pair.This time, find a different person to chat with. Discuss ..Where is your organization now? What does that look like? What do you need to get to the next level?I’m going
Nonprofits are often slow to change and it helps having a framework that lays out the practices in baby steps .. And the book has a detailed approach to “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly” -- which lays out the steps for incremental change and is very detailed , of course, about measurement and learningIt has a lot of practical information and tips – but I’d like to share with you one idea from the book – and that’s about becoming data informed, but first I have to tell you about my own measurement story.
I used think that measurement was the equivalent of Darth Vadar running after me with a radioactive light sabre
In 2009, I decided to create a panel at the SXSW called “Nonprofit, ROI, Social Media Poetry Slam” – and asked leading NGOs to share their measurement stories but in poetic form. Poetry Slams needs expert judges, so I discovered a social media measurement expert, KD Paine, who gave the advice. I decided to live outside of my “comfort zone” and collaborate on a book on measurement and learning ….. And pulled together a group of 60 grantees from the Packard Foundation who tested the frameworks and contributed to the stories …
One of the reasons why I wanted to co-author this book with the goddess of measurement is that the nonprofit sector has some challenges in embracing measurement …. We wanted to create a handbook that help nonprofits get past these challenges .. .and approach measurement like many of you do – being data informed.
Denial – I don’t have the time or it is too early to measure – I need to get comfortable
What if my brilliant idea or plan didn’t work?What lies beneath? Not being to learn from failure
Not sure where to begin … this is happens around learning how to measure along the ladder of engagement, measuring conversions ..
This guy loves data so much, he lost his head …. Just generating charts and graphs but not making meaning from it
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54596905@N00/502480485/http://www.flickr.com/photos/plangirls/7781225040/Find a person to talk to about this question.What is your stage of measurement acceptance?Is there anyone who feels they are data-informed and want to share what that looks like?
There’s another important organizational skill - data-informed this describes agile, responsive, and intelligent nonprofitsthat are better able to succeed in a rapidly changing environment and can fuel networks of networks. DoSomething.org has a big hairy social change goal: To harnesses teenage energy and unleash it on causes teens care about by launching a national campaign per week. The call to action is always something that has a real impact and does not require money, an adult, or a car. Their measurable goal is to get 5 million active teen members engaged in social change campaigns by 2015. Their use of social media, mobile, and data all strategically selected and use to reach that goal.They are a networked nonprofit with a data informed culture – and it started at the top with their board and advisors ..Reid Hoffman and DjPatil – “A Data Scientist” – have advised the CEO – Nancy Lublin – not only what infrastructure is needed to collect and make sense of data, but how she as the leader can’t rely on hunches – decisions – have to be informed by data.
They have two data scientists on staff .. Their job is to work in partnership with program staff to use data to improve decision-making
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkrigsman/3428179614/DoSomething has two data analyst positions on staff .. And they aren’t sitting in the corner playing with their spreadsheetsWhile a big part of their job is to become the stewards of the dashboard, they work with staff – so that making sense of data Is not an adhoc process, but one of continous improvement of the programs. The data analysts work collaboratively with staff to help them apply and understand their data.
One of their organizational mantra is “Spend More Time Thinking About The Data, Less On Collecting ItThis is an example of their dashboard. It is very visual, but it isn’t just data and charts – they make insight out of the numbers and apply it to improving their program. Their mantra – “collect less data, think about it more”(Translator: not going to cover all this content if we run out of time)Pregnancy Text” Campaign featured on their quarterly dashboard. This clever sex education campaign is an updated version of the teen pregnancy education program where young people carried eggs around and pretend they are babies. It was a text campaign where teens opted in to receive texts on their mobile phones from the “baby.” Once they joined (and they could share it with their friends). they received regular annoying text messages at all hours from the “baby” that poops, cries, and needs their immediate attention.The team at DoSomething.org uses data to base the program design, key performance indicators and a hypothesis to be tested. They looked at survey data from the National Campaign: nearly 9 in 10 (87%) young people surveyed also say that it would be much easier for teens to delay sexual activity and avoid teen pregnancy if they were able to have more open, honest conversations about these topics with their parents and/or friends. So, success of this campaign would be mean that participants talk with their family or friends about the issue and delay sexual activity.The basic design had those who signed up challenge their friends to take care of a text baby either by (1) going to DoSomething website and selecting 5 friends to challenge or (2) after receiving a text from DoSomething (sent to DoSomething’s 300k mobile subscribers) would opt to challenge friends after reading a quick stat on US teen pregnancy. Participants that accepted the challenge would then start receiving texts the following morning from the text-baby. After completing the challenge user were prompted to send it to their own friends.DoSomething.org also followed up with 5k of the users with a text-based survey to measure impact.Once defining success and identifying the right data collect, here’s some of the insights they gleaned according to Nancy Lublin, CEO of DoSomething and Jeffrey Bladt:SMS as a platform: They are monitoring engagement per communication channel and it has revealed SMS to be 30xs more powerful for getting their users to take action as compared to emailChallenging 5 friends: we’ve tested various group sizes for SMS experience and have found the a group of 6 (1 alpha inviting friends) leads to the highest overall engagementResearch Based Messaging: The general messaging for the campaign was based on survey findings that found (1) big scare tactics (e.g. getting pregnant = not going to college) we not as effective as highlighting who being a teen parent changes daily life (e.g can’t go to the movies because baby sitter cancelled); (2) a CDC report that found: “The impact of strong pregnancy prevention messages directed to teenagers has been credited with the [recent] teen birth rates decline.A/B Testing: They pre-tested different messages and frequency of sending the messages to smaller test groups of teens to optimize the number of messages the baby would send during the day, as well as the content. They ended up doubling the frequency and rewording several interactions as well as building in a response system (so the baby would respond if teen texted an unsolicited response). The insights from these tests pushed up engagement and likelihood of forwarding at the end.Impact: They did a survey to measure this. 1 in 2 teens said that taking the Pregnancy Text made it more likely that they would talk about the issue of teen pregnancy with their family and friends.As you can see from the above insights, DoSomething just not gather and analyze topline data:101,444 people took part in the campaign with 100,000 text-babies delivered171,000 unsolicited incoming messages, or 1 every 20 seconds for the duration of the campaign. During the initial launch period (first 2 weeks), a new text message was received every 10 seconds.For every 1 direct sign-up, DoSomething gained 2.3 additional sign-ups from forward to a friend functionality. The viral coefficient was between 0.60 and 0.70 for the campaign.1 in 4 (24%) of teens could not finish a day with their text-baby (texted a stop word to the baby)DoSomething.org uses its data to continuously improve programs, develop content, and shape campaign strategies. So DoSomething.org wants its staff to spend more of its brainpower thinking about the data, rather than collecting it. To ensure that this happens, DoSomething.org’s Data Analyst Bob Filbin’s job is more than programming formulas in Excel spreadsheets. Says Filbin, “One of the biggest barriers in nonprofits is finding the time to collect data, the time to analyze, and the time to act on it. Unless someone is put in charge of data, and it’s a key part of their job description, accelerating along the path towards empowered data-informed culture is going to be hard, if not impossible.”
Here’s another example. It is a campaign to help avoid animals in shelters being killed because they haven’t been adopted.They found in their research that shelters didn’t share photographs or good ones on social networks. So, they are recruiting youth to be “fur photographers” to photograph the animals and share on Facebook.
http://gawker.com/5950941/kathie-lee-dropped-a-puppy-on-his-head-on-live-tv-todayhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQzo_3yIc8MDuring the launch of the program on national TV – the Today Show, Kathie Lee dropped the puppy on his head.Several bloggers picked it up and it got a lot of attention
Back in the office, the data scientists were looking at the data in real time to figure out what was driving people to their landing page and getting them to sign up.
Fail Fest And Pink Boas: Don’t Be Afraid To FailDoSomething.org doesn’t use its data to pat itself on the back or make the staff feel good. Lublin notes that they’re not afraid of failure. They hold regular “Fail Fest” meetings, where each person on staff has to present a campaign or program failure. They share three things they learned about themselves and three things the organization learned. To remove the stigma from failure, Lublin says, “We have to wear pink boas when we present.” http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruminatrix/2734602916/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/
Becoming Data-Informed: Change Is Easy With Baby StepsChanging an organization’s culture to a more data-informed approach must begin with baby steps. While it does not have to be difficult to orchestrate, it does need to start from the top. Unless senior management can agree on the definitions of success and how they will be measured, you can waste a tremendous amount of time accumulating data but not using it. In Chapter 4, we describe the basic steps of any measurement program and discuss how to set up a measurement pilot program. Chapter 5 discusses how to identify the value of success. Getting started on the path to becoming a data-informed nonprofit is a matter of having some important internal conversations. It is not just about having new inspiration about measurement or working with new tools; it means thinking differently about the organization and how it works.Begin at the End: Discuss and Identify ResultsIf your organization doesn’t know exactly what you’re going to measure, you can’t become data-informed. Unless you have a discussion upfront of what success looks like, you’ll end up collecting data, but it won’t help you make decisions. You will waste your time. So begin at the end by carefully identifying desired outcomes. Don’t be afraid of a bit of healthy disagreement. The best measurement programs are borne of—and benefit from—lively conversations about what really matters to the organization and who can “claim credit” for what. You need to keep your “mission” hat on and keep the conversation focused on the ultimate goals of the organization. Just keep repeating, it’s not about “credit”—it’s about achieving the mission. You will also want to manage expectations: What is realistic to expect given your current investment in social media, or compared to peer organizations? What do short-term, medium, and longer-term results look like?You might need to bring in an outside consultant to facilitate a meeting to help get consensus on what you want to measure or clarity on results. Or you may need to bring in a measurement expert to help you clarify what you want to measure and why. This doesn’t have to be expensive. For example, as we discuss in Chapter 8, the Analytics Exchange helped the American Leadership Forum by supplying an analytics volunteer to help create a framework and system for gathering data. Become a Curator of MetricsIf you are the person responsible for implementing social media for your organization, either part time or as your whole job, you need to become what John Lovett defines as a “Curator of Metrics” in his book Social Media Metrics Secrets.This is someone, like Carie Lewis from the Humane Society whom we introduced you to do in Chapter 1, who knows the difference between different types of metrics and ensures that her organization is using data in an intelligent way. A curator of metrics knows how to help guide their organization into choosing the right metrics, and knows how to report insights in a way that connects them to organizational goals.Use Experiments To Make The Case To EvolveOne way to evolve into a data-informed organization is through implementing a series of social media measurement experiments, as described below and in Chapter 4. Each one needs to have solid metrics, and should be designed to provide results that will help you make the case to evolve. Keep the end in mind when agreeing on how experiments will be structured, run, and measured. The experiments should not be willy-nilly, but help you develop and test your strategies and tactics – and lead the way to best practices. Take a Baby Step: My First Data Collection ProjectTo get started, select a project, event, small campaign, or program that is a high priority on your organization’s work plan for the year, that incorporates social media, and that you can apply a couple of good metrics to. Be mindful of other organizational deadlines that may divert energy and focus from this important first baby step. You might find it difficult to set aside quality time to focus on it. Don’t try to measure every objective or collect all potential relevant data. Make it easy to manage. You should also have a very clear idea about what you want to learn. Keep in mind that you are going to take your report and use it to make the case for a more comprehensive measurement program. It’s important to make sure that anyone who is going to use the data, or sit in a meeting and review the data, buys into your metrics. That could be the Executive Director, a program manager, the board of trustees, or other people in your department. If there are many different decision makers you may need to do a formal survey to make sure that everyone ends up on the same page. Sara Thomas, who handles social media for the Ocean Conservancy, says, “It was really useful to bring in my entire department on the effort rather than working solo on the project. This helped with buy-in.”Learn from Your ResultsOnce you collect your data, analyze it and understand how it can help inform decisions. Make sure you educate through examples. Show how adding a data-informed approach to your social media or all media or programs can avoid ineffective campaigns and increase audience satisfaction.More importantly, you don’t just need to develop discipline around collecting data, what you want is the discipline to look at what you’ve collected and generate insights. That requires reflection, not just counting.Doing a measurement pilot will help create the discipline of stepping back from whirlwind of social media tactical implementation, but also wrestle with larger questions about how social media fits into an organization’s overall efforts. Which vehicles and channels gain us the most traction? How should we adjust our workload internally to reflect those results? How are our social media activities helping us meet our overall strategic goals? How are our efforts using social media supporting our programs?Reflecting does not have to be a private activity. It can be done in connected, transparent ways. The organization’s blog or website can be a place to share lessons learned with readers, and ask them for their feedback and suggestions as well. The result: a powerful way to learn and improve over time.ConclusionTo start the shift to a data-informed culture, you must begin with small incremental steps with the full support of leadership. It’s important to think big, looking at key results, but since many outcomes deal with long-term changes, you can’t get there overnight, nor can your organization transform its culture overnight. Keep the steps small and manageable. As your organization’s culture begins to shift, then when you present reports on social media activities, you get better questions from your executive director or board. You don’t get asked how many fans do we have or what does that mean? You get questions that help you Kanter, Beth. (October, 2011) Are You A Curator of Metrics? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.bethkanter.org/curator-metrics/Thomas, Sara, private conference call peer learning group with David and Lucile Packard grantees with Beth Kanter, September, 2011
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54596905@N00/502480485/http://www.flickr.com/photos/plangirls/7781225040/Find a person to talk to about this question.What is your stage of measurement acceptance?Is there anyone who feels they are data-informed and want to share what that looks like?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sakanta/746093257/sizes/z/I’m going to time this with my watch …
