Nonprofits, Social Media and ROI
…. Beth Kanter, Zoetica COF, Annual Conference, April 2011

Measuring and learning from social
media practice must start from the beginning ….

CRAWL WALK RUN FLY Nonprofit
and Social Media Maturity of Practice Model Capacity Building in Best Practices

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

Where to focus … CRAWL
WALK RUN FLY Communications Social Media Social Media Multiple Channels Strategy Strategy Strategy Reflection/Improvement Culture Change SMART Objectives Engagement Network Building Audience Content Listening Experiments/Pilots

Listen Promote Participate Publish Build
No Engagement Broadcast/Share Low Engagement Content Intensive Network High Engagement 15 min/day + 20 min/day + 30 min/day + 3-5 hrs/wk + 5-10 hrs/wk CRAWL WALK RUN FLY Original concept by Beth Kanter – remix by Aliza Sherman

What is your biggest challenge
using social media effectively? Tools Skills Culture Don’t Know Awareness of Don’t Value What to Tools Learning Measure Collect lots of System data, have no Lack Dashboard idea what it Resources means

Culture
Fear of Failure

Culture
Don’t Value Learning

MomsRising:
Joyful Funerals

You want me to Tweet
and measure it too? Lack Resources: Time and Staff

Tools Not aware of the
many free, low cost , and professional social media analytics and measurement tools (and how to use them)

Tools/System: No Dashboard or Siloed
Dashboard

Skills: Confusion between counting and
measurement

Not sure what to measure
….

Collect a lot data, but
not sure what it means

Many do not start off
with a SMART Social Media Objective

If they did, they would
know that there are just 3 things to measure …. Source: Kami Huyse http://www.slideshare.net/IABCHouston/measure-this

Awareness

Attitude

Action/Behavior Change

Social Media strategy is part
of integrated communications strategy. Track Awareness: Share of Conversion About Hunger Conversions for advocacy (Child Nutrition Bill) and donations Cross Department Dashboard FLY KPI: Linked to Job Performance

Crawl: Spreadsheet Aerobics: Begin with
2-3 data points

Benefits Value Costs Math The
ROI Analysis Puzzle

Executive Directors and Pot Holes
Problem

What are the results? What’s
the value? How much time? Executive directors want to know …. Photo by edyson

ROI: Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly
Results Impact Investment $ Interaction Insight Number of Months Strategy, Measure, Improve

Goals: 1. To promote Independent
Sector with “non-attending audiences” through attendees’ social media mentions 2. To capture summaries of the 2010 conference to show the richness of the content as a means to promote the event for 2011 3. To test pilot social media at the conference and to capture lessons learned and ideas for future social media efforts Metrics for Success 1. Seven bloggers and seven Tweeters are identified and recruited to cover the event 2. Content from seven sessions is posted to the IS blog or other blogs 3. The number of retweets using the hashtag #ISconf increases from 2009 4. The team gains social media experience and insights about social media practice

Cost of acquisition Donor conversions
Life time value of a donor

Wisdom of the Crowds Meets
Person-to-Person Fundraising

Results More timely and accurate
public health messaging communities. and more efficient use of staff time Booking appointments Answering public health questions Less time on phone or other channels Ease of communication with journalists More press coverage, less staff time

“People regard our program as
honest and informative. After almost two years on the social media front, we’ve developed a good system to get timely and accurate public health messaging to our communities. We firmly believe that our presence on social media sites has really enhanced our communication with the media and public. Executive Director, Gary Edwards said it best in our 2010 Annual Report; that during tough economic times, SLVHD rose to the occasion and found innovative, cost effective ways to communicate with our community. “ - Vanna Livaditis, New Media Coordinator

A/B testing Isolate variables X
number of smokers quit smoking over x months

ROI Storytelling: System for collecting
stories not in the charts

Measuring the Networked
Nonprofit

Conclusion Social media measurement goes
hand in hand with good practice Slightly more mature practice for measuring business results vs social impact Social media measurement is a discipline, not a task, and it needs to be part of the organization’s culture There’s a big need for more training/capacity for measurement discipline and improvement of practice and sharing the stories