Social Media Ctcef Conference 2009 Updated

Technology & Fundraising: How to Leverage Social Media to Increase Your Organization’s Overall Visibility and Fundraising
Brooke Csukas
Account Executive, eTapestry Division of Blackbaud
October 6, 2009

What do you check first after lunch?
How many have:
cell phone b. email account c. Facebook/LinkIn/My Space account d. Twitter account e. Your own blog or podcast
What is your Home Page on the Internet?
Search engine (ie Yahoo/Google) b. “my page” on a search engine c. Facebook d. NPO/Corp page e. Giving Institute f . Other application
Do any of your education foundations want to tap into the Web?
A Quick Survey…

The Rise in Internet Use
Website Optimization
What is Social Media & How to Use it Effectively
YouTube
Facebook
What are the different aspects of Facebook (ie: pages vs. groups)
Twitter
Flickr, Podcasts, Message Boards, Blogs
Personal/Viral Fundraising
Pulling it All Together + Real Life Examples
AGENDA

The Rules Still Apply
(It’s all about relationships…not technology)

Web Site Optimization…
If Relationships are Built on Communications . . .
Basic Parameters are Driven by Common Sense
A Few Key Changes can Make a Huge Difference
Leverage Partners who KNOW the Non Profit Sector

Web Site Optimization: Be Like Martha or Oprah
Both are masters @ Multi-Channel Marketing

Web Site Optimization:
Before, After, and After!

Keys to Building a Successful Web Site
1. Learn from your content
(Start with Google Analytics to see how many unique visitors you have, how they found you, what they viewed, where they stayed the longest, and what content produced actions.)
2. Make your content easy to consume
(Always offer RSS feeds in addition to various subscribe options. Make sure they are easy to find and use.)
3. Make your content ever changing
(Be brave enough to blog, show responses, share viewpoints, and utilize forums. New information needs to be added daily or weekly by you and your community. Why do you think millions go to Facebook or Twitter by the minute.)
4. Make your site easy to find
(Every NPO and those serving NPO’s should have a social web presence. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr are your outposts linking back to the web site hub!)

Top Ten Traffic Sources

Google Grant/Sponsored Links—How to increase your web presence/visibility

They’re at your website, now what do they do?
Can they engage?
Can they add content? (Web 2.0)
Can they give or volunteer?
Your goal – to get something from them!

Keep it simple & Make Integration a Focus
Social Media
Website
Constituent
Use Email
Gather Information
Database
Database

What is Social Media??
Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. Social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content; it's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.
Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use.
Source: Wikipedia, 2009.

Food for Thought….
Top 5 Most Visited Websites in the United States:
Facebook is #3
YouTube is #4
MySpace is #5
(Twitter is #14)
Source:
http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US

Provides a strong avenue for your organization to broadcast testimonials and describe how you are serving the community
Allows you to attract more traffic to your website
Videos can easily be posted on website or as a link within an eBlast or eNewsletter
FREE service to increase your visibility
Growing in popularity and becoming more accepted in the NP world as a method for reaching constituents
YouTube!

April 2009 Data comScore Video Metrix Service
78.6% of total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
Average video viewer watched 385 minutes of video, or 6.4 hours
107.1 million viewers watched 6.8 billion videos on YouTube.com (63.5 videos per viewer)
The duration of the average online video was 3.5 minutes

Real Life Example….
Dec 11:
Subject line:
Urgent Appeal: Your gift to CRS is vitally important!
Straight Appeal
Static donation form
Raised $112k
View the donation form
Source: Laura Durington: CRS Social Media Presentation-AFP Maryland, 2009

YEAR-END 2008
Dec 29:
Subject line:
Only 48 hours left to make a tax-deductible gift!
Added “hotspot” text
Added video message from our president (that plays right on the donation form)
Added a strong pull-quote
Raised $112k
Watch the video

YEAR-END 2008
Dec 31:
Subject line:
Final Deadline: Last chance to make a tax-deductible gift
New “hotspot” text
Kept video message from our president
New pull quote
Raised $119k
Watch the video

The Results…
Was CRS’s most successful online fundraising campaign to date (non-emergency).
Three e-mail messages in this campaign (based on a direct mail piece)
Banner ads used on website
Posts on social networking sites advertising campaign
Coordination with Google AdWords
This campaign raised $594k online.

“SHOP” Others
Identify a few constituents who would like to share their story with others & record a few different testimonials each year
Integrate with your website and eNewsletter blasts
Get Creative!!
YouTube Takeaways…

What is Facebook??
A FREE, online social networking site that connects people through online communities
Facebook started out as a service for university students but now almost one third of its global audience is aged 35-49 years of age and almost one quarter is over 50 years old.
Non profits can use Facebook to:
Connect
With supporters
With other organizations
Brand
Build trust through exposure
Share your story
Pictures
Stories
Fundraise
Promote events
Find supporters/donors
FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK Users

Personal Page= Your Organization’s Official Page on FB
Facebook Pages
TIPS:
Invite colleagues, board members, and friends to become fans
UPDATE often
Start Conversations
Brand your page

Facebook CausePage=Online Donation Tool (application) on FB
Also a Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Page since anyone can start/create a cause
Facebook Pages Cont…
TIPS:
Brand & Link to your Page
Provide Clear FR Goals
Give Supporters Updates on your Progress

Group/FanPages=Tool for gathering people w/ like interests
Facebook Pages Cont…
TIP:
Ask supporters to start groups related to your Charity

Real Life Application
The Nature Conservency’s “Lil Green Patch” Case Study
Built a cause page on FB to attract users to support the Adopt an Acre program to conserve rainforests in Costa Rica & fight global warming
20K new cause members and $33K in support since Feb 2008
These results will most likely NOT be the case for your organization…
HOWEVER, creating an online, Facebook presence will not hurt
Creating a group of fans/people that advocate for your cause WILL increase your giving and support
POST YOUR ONLINE GIVING PAGE LINK ANYWHERE YOU CAN ON FACEBOOK
Determine the type of page you want to create, and how you’ll tackle making sure it’s constantly updated. Best advice, rotate between a few people probably weekly. (Or in conjunction with events, education sessions, etc)
Facebook Takeaways…

What is Twitter??
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
Compete.com numbers show that roughly 2.5 million people visit Twitter.com each month. Just as a comparison, Facebook receives about 41 million unique visitors per month.
Often times referred to as a “micro-blog” (140 characters or less) where entries are “TWEETS”
A service that is QUICKLY gaining momemtum!
But NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network) reminds us that Twitter isn’t the point. Relationships are the point. Relationships are always the point. The most basic of fundraising secrets is that people give to people. Twitter is simply one more tool to help people connect with each other.
**Can your nonprofit afford to not explore all the tools available?**
TWITTER—Stupid or Worth a Second Look?

We’re all familiar with the iPhone and the popular apps that are the new craze, right? Twitter’s got ‘em too!

TweetDeck is a must for any community manager, marketer or researcher tracking important and relevant conversations on Twitter. It's an Adobe Air desktop application that enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing the tracking of a broader overview of tweets based on keywords or groups of people.
TwitterFeed connects your blog to Twitter and automatically feeds posts into the timeline with each new update.
Whoshouldifollow.com makes it easy to find relevant, like-minded friends as well as friends of friends based on keyword and validated networks.
Twubble can help expand your Twitter network. It searches your friend graph and introduces and recommends new people who you may want to follow.
Twellow, a service of WebProNews, is an exceptional service for finding people who matter to your business or industry, by category. You can search keywords or browser through common categories to find the voices you deem as worthy following and/or connecting with on Twitter or other social networks. You can also claim your Twitter ID to further customize your individual profile with a short bio, extended bio, links to other profiles popular social networks such Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, Flickr, FriendFeed, etc.
A few apps to take a look at as you get started

Don’t get overwhelmed—there is a lot of information to sift through in the beginning as you learn how to use it effectively
Don’t be afraid to try it and start connecting with other like organizations—You’ll be surprised how fast your followers grow
“Tweet” regularly—assign someone this responsibility each week
Use Twitter to reach out to your constituents as a way to get information in front of people—whether that be about your organization as a whole or to inform them of the need for support, or to celebrate how well things are going 
Takeaways from Twitter…

Real Life Story via the “New York Times”…

“Web Site Story Continued”
Gift for Promotion
charity: water
* 11 Employees
* 500,000 Followers
on Twitter
* 500 Donors Cover
all Admin Costs
* Donors can Locate
Their Well on Web
via Google Earth
* Raised $965,000
via Sept. Birthdays

charity: water
Was the $250,000 raised via Twitter the key fact?
Was the $975,000 raised from Sept. birthdays the key fact?
Is the way they have harnessed web/video technology the key?
How about how they show impact via Google Earth?
Communicating daily w/ 500,000+ followers!

Flickr—Photo Sharing Application
Podcasts—Short recordings about a variety of topics that can be purchased, downloaded for free, or posted on web page
Message Boards—A segment of a website that hosts an open discussion amongst users
Blogs—A portion of a website (or a separate entity altogether like Twitter) in which an author posts discussion topics or information to be shared with followers
Personal Blogs=Online ‘Diary’
Organizational blogs=Information sharing/News Updates
Linked In – networking tool to connect people, organizations
Flickr, Podcasts, Message Boards, Blogs

The Power of Twitter

Linked In – networking tool for individuals or groups
Create a personal profile
List organizations you are affiliated with
Create and join Groups –Create a group for your education foundation!
Grow your list of connections through the “people you may know” suggestions
Recommend other people/organizations and have others recommend you!
Can supply link to your education foundation website!!!!!!

Peer/Personal Fundraising Online

Personal Fundraising
Source: Kintera

Average volunteer sends over 30 emails
One in four emails sent by a volunteer results in a donation
Average online event gift is $59 which is a 50% increase over the average off-line gift
Many volunteers reach their stated FR Goal!
Personal Fundraising results are typically pretty impressive. Take a look…

Where does the information go?
How do you track all of the information you know about a donor?
Can you store their interests, historical conversations, and all contact points in one location?
Is your institutional memory protected?
What are the benefits to combining all this information into one location?

Some Thoughts to Ponder on Social Networks
“My own "ah ha!" moment came recently on my birthday. In my personal email account, I found 33 notifications from Facebook that friends had left birthday greetings on my Facebook page, but only two regular emails with birthday greetings.” (54 yr old male)
“Most interactions now come from my social networks. Not only do my birthday greetings come via Facebook and Twitter, but almost all of them were made where other people could see them. Those public greetings prompted several others to add their own.” (52 yr old female)
“Email messaging — the main tool of most nonprofits for "push" marketing — will need to meet a higher and higher bar in terms of relevance, or it will be increasingly ignored.” (61 yr old male)
Kevin Mannion, On-Line Publishing, February , 2009

Write a blog post
Share stories w/ friends
Follow Charities on Social Networks
Support Causes on Awareness Hubs (ie. Change.org)
Find Volunteer Opportunities
Embed a Widget on your site (to collect $$ through social network)
Organize a Tweetup
Express yourself using a video
Sign or start a petition
Organize an online event (form fundraising drives/eCommerce)
Source: Mashable:The Social Media Guide (http://mashable.com/2009/07/14/support-charity-sosg/)
10 Ways to Support Charity Through Social Media(from a donor or board member perspective)

Social Networks: Hints for Success
It is not FREE, resources are required
Being present is not enough, engage
Be authentic, otherwise you will be exposed fast
Integrate, don’t imitate other mediums
Endorsements matter, think forwarded emails!
Measure
Have something to say, must be regular or it dies fast
Stephanie Miller, Email Insider, 2009

No Email List? No Problem…
Whether you have some contacts or are starting from scratch, anyone can grow a strong email list
The three most important factors in effective email list-building are:
Where and how you acquire the addresses
How you welcome each new subscriber
How you manage the relationship after the opt-in
Source: EmailLabs

Grow Your List Online
Direct staff and other close supporters (board, volunteers, etc.) to include subscription links in email signatures
Use Search Engine Optimization/Marketing to increase traffic and subscriptions
Investigate alliances or partnerships with similar or complementary organizations to reach common supporters
Advertise your newsletter/services/cause through a 3rd party list

Grow Your List Offline
Ask for email addresses at every touch point
Instruct staff to capture email addresses over phone when appropriate
Include your website address on all printed materials
Offer an incentive to register (contest, raffle) to collect emails

Now that I have permission…
Hook them early, and keep them engaged over time
Optimize the welcome message
Send follow up message within a week (or less)
After a few months of active email, survey lists to see if you are meeting expectations (ask for feedback, give them what they want! )

Why Segmentation is Important
Segmentation breaks your audience into manageable parts
If the goal is building relationships, it helps to know who you are talking to
Segmenting your list will lead to more targeted messages
If you don’t segment, you are treating every one of your recipients like they are the exact same type of person

How to be a Good Sender
In your messages, always include:
The purpose; why you are sending it to the reader
A clear way to unsubscribe.
Consider offering alternative ways to receive emails, such as:
Receiving newsletters monthly vs. weekly
Change of address (home vs. business email)
Sign up via RSS
Link to your homepage
Privacy policy
Physical/street address of your organization
Don’t get caught in spamtraps

How Important is that Header?
80% of respondents decide whether to click on the "Report Spam" or "Junk" button without opening the actual message
73% based that decision on the "From" name
69% percent based the decision on the subject line
Source: 2007 Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC) study

Designing for Mobile Devices
email (html)
Mobile readers are more likely to scan your email rather than reading
Include compelling call to action in the first 15-25 characters of your subject line
Avoid “top heavy” images in the design
In addition to testing email browsers, test messages in handheld devices

Today’s Supporter
Reads email before snail mail
More comfortable online
Busy, satisfies interests on own schedule
Expects immediate feedback
Demands information on progress/stewardship
Wants a way to share experiences with others online

What Social Media Is…and what it isn’t!
Is a tool to help raise awareness, generate buzz and drive people back to your website!
Is embracing the trend in changing donor preferences—people want involvement.
IS NOT the magic wand that will solve all of your fundraising struggles.
It’s Still All About Relationships –use Social Media to inform and more importantly engage your supporters!

What Now?
1. How do we stack up?
Website effectiveness, social media tools
2. Written Plan
Add to Board agenda and staff meeting
3. Continuous Evaluation of Tools/Technology
Website hits, fundraising, donor retention, friends
4. Have FUN
Try new things, share your passion, be creative!

Resources
Getting Started with Facebook
Beth Kanter Blog – How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media
Jay Love Blog – CEO eTapestry -- Jay Love Twitter Page
Blackbaud – Raising Money During Challenging Times
Getting Started with Google Analytics
LotusJump – Website Marketing Made Easy
http://www.charitywater.org
Flickr http://www.flickr.com
Blogger https://www.blogger.com/start
Podcast.com http://podcast.com
Twitter http://twitter.com
Linked In http://www.linkedin.com
eTapestry Home Page
Contact eTapestry for Guidance

QUESTIONS?Thank You!
Brooke Csukas
Account Executive
brooke.csukas@etapestry.com
317-336-3912

Social Media Ctcef Conference 2009 Updated

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