Beth Kanter Insight Yields Return On Investment February 18, 2009 Conference Call: 866-740-1260 Access Code: 6339392 The ROI of Social Media

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This seminar will be available on the TechSoup & NTEN websites: www.techsoup.org/go/webinars www.nten.org/events/past/webinar You will receive a link to this presentation, material and links. After the webinar, you can ask follow-up questions in the Emerging Technologies Forum You are being recorded

This seminar will be available on the TechSoup & NTEN websites:

www.techsoup.org/go/webinars

www.nten.org/events/past/webinar

You will receive a link to this presentation, material and links.

After the webinar, you can ask follow-up questions in the Emerging Technologies Forum

Beth Kanter Offline Online

Beth Kanter “ I” stands for Insight and Investment February 18, 2009 Conference Call: 866-740-1260 Access Code: 6339392 The ROI of Social Media

Basic introduction to ROI processes for Insight and Investment Social Media metrics How and when to incorporate qualitative data A few good measuring tools Agenda

Basic introduction to ROI processes for Insight and Investment

Social Media metrics

How and when to incorporate qualitative data

A few good measuring tools

An analysis that looks at the benefits, costs, and value of a technology project over time. It uses metrics to measure your results and help you improve your strategy over time. Helps us move away from tool driven decisions to results. What is ROI?

Created by DuPont and used by Alfred Sloan to help make General Motors manageable in the 1920s. Return on Investment

Wall Street Method

What your executive director thinks when you mention social media strategy How much will it cost? What are the results? How much staff time? Was it worth it?

How do I calculate that? Can I even calculate that?

ROI is more than math! Smart Objective Defined Audience Clearly articulated benefits statement that looks at tangible and intangible Use of metrics to measure your results Results translated into dollar value (donations or time saved) Financial calculations: net gain, opportunity cost, or comparison to other method Communicating the results

Smart Objective

Defined Audience

Clearly articulated benefits statement that looks at tangible and intangible

Use of metrics to measure your results

Results translated into dollar value (donations or time saved)

Financial calculations: net gain, opportunity cost, or comparison to other method

Communicating the results

What is the current thinking?

What is Return on Insight?

Number of Months/Experiments Using of Listen, Learn, Adapt Process Insight Comes Before Investment: ROI

Number of Months Using of Listen, Learn, Adapt Process Dollars Return Insight Insight Comes Before Investment: ROI

Number of Months Using of Listen, Learn, Adapt Process Dollars Return Insight Insight Comes Before Investment: ROI $

Secret sauce of social media success It may require internal culture change – proactive listening and experiments May initially feel like “extra work” but should be embedded in your implementation process Requires longer-term thinking which is difficult given current financial pressures You must start with Listen, Learn, and Adapt

Secret sauce of social media success

It may require internal culture change – proactive listening and experiments

May initially feel like “extra work” but should be embedded in your implementation process

Requires longer-term thinking which is difficult given current financial pressures

Should do once you’ve had several thoughtful experiments using Listen, Learn, and Adapt not on the front-end ROI analysis requires documenting, collecting data, and internal discussion and cooperation Must be more than math. Return on Investment

Should do once you’ve had several thoughtful experiments using Listen, Learn, and Adapt not on the front-end

ROI analysis requires documenting, collecting data, and internal discussion and cooperation

Must be more than math.

Let’s Take A Deeper Look

Using monitoring tools Know your keywords Use your RSS reader like a rock star Engaging and monitoring responses from clients Engaging internally Listen: Keep Your Listening Ears On All The Time!

Using monitoring tools

Know your keywords

Use your RSS reader like a rock star

Engaging and monitoring responses from clients

Engaging internally

First project was a listening project over two years ago People were talking and they needed to listen At first, felt like going to war, but changed internal perception of social media Listen: The Red Cross Example

First project was a listening project over two years ago

People were talking and they needed to listen

At first, felt like going to war, but changed internal perception of social media

Listen: Monitor, Compile, Distribute Wendy Harman

“ I took an American Red Cross class I thought was less than satisfactory. […] Someone found my blog post and told the local chapter director. He called me to talk about it honestly. […] They care about me and they’re willing to go the extra mile. […] This gives the American Red Cross HUGE points. I am now significantly more likely to take another class than I was before.” - Blogger Listen: Leads to Engagement

“ I took an American Red Cross class I thought was less than satisfactory. […] Someone found my blog post and told the local chapter director. He called me to talk about it honestly. […] They care about me and they’re willing to go the extra mile. […] This gives the American Red Cross HUGE points. I am now significantly more likely to take another class than I was before.” - Blogger

Listen: Organizational Listening

Listen: What’s the Value? Changes internal perception of social media value Improves relationships with audience and identifies influencers Incremental improvements for campaigns

Changes internal perception of social media value

Improves relationships with audience and identifies influencers

Incremental improvements for campaigns

Learning: Careful Experimentation Think like a scientist Observe like a Primatologist

What Beth does for every campaign Objective and Audience Document on the fly Test and tweak Pick the right hard data points Harvest insights Look at what other nonprofits are doing in the space Pause for reflection time before next reiteration: How to improve results?

Objective and Audience

Document on the fly

Test and tweak

Pick the right hard data points

Harvest insights

Look at what other nonprofits are doing in the space

Pause for reflection time before next reiteration: How to improve results?

My 7 th Fundraising Campaign Objective: Use the birthday feature in causes to double the dollars in TSF Cause and recruit more people Audience: My friends and people who had joined the Cause previously Before 206 members $955

Strategy Points Use stories about the children and share lessons learned Be funny, authentic, and ask in conversational ways and say thank in creative ways Include a matching or leveraging opportunity and deadline Engage with organization cause members, model Quiet launch, add other channels, including blog and Twitter, urgency last day Include other ways to donate other than Facebook

Use stories about the children and share lessons learned

Be funny, authentic, and ask in conversational ways and say thank in creative ways

Include a matching or leveraging opportunity and deadline

Engage with organization cause members, model

Quiet launch, add other channels, including blog and Twitter, urgency last day

Include other ways to donate other than Facebook

Learning: Document On The Fly

Learn: Trends in the Numbers

Learn: Harvesting Insights

Adapt: Making Change The hard part: You have to be nimble

Adapt: Making Change The Humane Society

Adapt: Making Change

Adapt: Making Change Carrie Lewis, HSUS “ Since this was our first run at a photo petition, it was difficult to get across exactly what we wanted people to do without writing a book. So every person who needed help was answered personally. This gave us a good idea of how to more clearly explain ourselves next time.“

Adapt: Making Change

Adapt: Making Change Wisdom of the Crowds Meets Person-to-Person Fundraising

Adapt: Making Change

Adapt: More than the Social Media The Humane Society has successfully broken down staff silos. The HSUS team has daily 9 minute meetings, unless there is something really important then they can run a few minutes longer. These short briefing meetings have helped them be more efficient and effective with every aspect of multi-channel campaigns.

Adapt: Getting to Investment Tangible Benefits Increased email database Obtained original content Obtained free PSAs Raised some money Recruited new donors Recruited members, fans, friends Intangible Benefits Raised awareness about our issues Engaged people to participate in the issue Generated discussions on our issues Received buy-in from the top Received recognition and media attention (online buzz)

Adapt: Pick the Right Metrics # of submissions/comments # of friends, fans, members over time # of new names added to email file # of donations/amount of donations # of video / photo views # of subscribers (RSS, blog) # of blog and wall comments # of voting participants # of blogs linking to us / covering our story (consider quality) # of friends recruited Content of keywords, comments (what are people talking about?)

Adapt: Ready for Return on Investment Email is their conversion driver and is accelerated by the many other touch points via social media They've done an excellent job of stating & measuring their goals An internal shift has occurred within the organization to support the external shift of their fundraising strategy & tactics.

Email is their conversion driver and is accelerated by the many other touch points via social media

They've done an excellent job of stating & measuring their goals

An internal shift has occurred within the organization to support the external shift of their fundraising strategy & tactics.

Insight: Listen, Learn, and Adapt Number of Months Using of Listen, Learn, Adapt Process Dollars Return Insight $

Step by Step: Return on Investment Smart Objective Defined Audience Use of metrics to measure/refine your results Clearly articulated benefits statement that looks at tangible and intangible Calculate costs, translate benefits into dollar value (donations or time saved) Financial calculations: net gain, opportunity cost, or comparison to other method Communicating the results

Smart Objective

Defined Audience

Use of metrics to measure/refine your results

Clearly articulated benefits statement that looks at tangible and intangible

Calculate costs, translate benefits into dollar value (donations or time saved)

Financial calculations: net gain, opportunity cost, or comparison to other method

Communicating the results

Return on Investment: Blogging Objective, Audience

The Secret Sauce: Metrics Raw Author Contribution Unique Blog Readers Engagement Authority

Raw Author Contribution

Unique Blog Readers

Engagement

Authority

Raw Author Contribution Word Counts Publishing Frequency

Word Counts

Publishing Frequency

Unique Blog Readers What is the trend and is it going up or down? Why? Email versus Feed subscribers

What is the trend and is it going up or down? Why?

Email versus Feed subscribers

Unique Daily Visitors Look at Unique Visitors against strategy What cause peaks and valleys?

Why the valley?

Engagement Metrics

What posts score high and why?

Authority Ranking Comparisons

Articulate Benefits: Tangible and Intangible Tangible: Easily Converts to $ or Time Market Research Mainstream media mentions Inquiries for consulting Helps me prepare for trainings/consulting Program Ideas Increased Relevant Visitor Traffic Increased Page Rankings Fundraising – reach new donors – both small and large

Translate Tangible Benefits Into Value: $ or Saved Time Time saved, Income from contract Streamline Inquiries for service $ amount raised Fundraising – New donors Cost of Google Ads or SEO consultant Increased Page Rankings Cost of PR agent Mainstream media mentions Cost of A Focus Group or Survey Market Research Value Benefit

Intangible Benefits: Difficult to Translate, But Still Important Behaviorally oriented Less Credible Subjective Important to collect stories, quotes to make your numbers come to life

Behaviorally oriented

Less Credible

Subjective

Important to collect stories, quotes to make your numbers come to life

Articulate Benefits: Intangible Intangibles Makes me happy Makes me smarter Reduces my information overload People say they are learning as a result

Intangibles

Makes me happy

Makes me smarter

Reduces my information overload

People say they are learning as a result

Collect Stories About Intangibles Your blog has made a tremendous difference in my work at my nonprofit .” “ You've really been a huge help. Thank you for taking the time to help us newbies along. I especially appreciate both the quality and the personal nature of your posts and learning tools." - Nonprofit Reader

Converting Benefits Into Tangible Value Does an acceptable, standard metric exist for the measure? 2. Can the conversion be accomplished with minimum resources? 3. Can the conversion process be described to an executive director and secure their buy-in in five minutes?

Does an acceptable, standard metric exist for the measure?

2. Can the conversion be accomplished with minimum resources?

3. Can the conversion process be described to an executive director and secure their buy-in in five minutes?

Costs: Mostly Time for Blogging Track your time Find ways to be efficient and save time Figure out a systematic approach

Track your time

Find ways to be efficient and save time

Figure out a systematic approach

You may need to collect other data Staff Surveys Staff Interviews Client surveys Clients Interviews Data from system Task Analysis Times Sheet Analysis Articles Field research (Listening) Observation Secondary research reports Benchmark studies Budget and Financial Analysis

Now You Can Do Math! Compare the total cost/benefit of different options Compare the total costs with the benefits/value Compare the costs of not doing the project Identify pilot(s) to identify cost/benefit (Listen, Learn, Adapt )

ROI Storytelling Blend the numbers and non-financial factors into a concise and informative presentation Focus on the value Be honest about the issues and facts, but spotlight value to mission Creating effective stories is not hard, provided you clearly understand who these decision influencers are, know well what they most care about and understand where to place stories for the most impact.

Summary Insights translates into dollars over time Use Listen, Learn, Adapt especially in the early stages Pick the right metrics and track to improve what you’re doing Focus on value of social media first – tangible benefits Intangibles are important Numbers are important, but stories can enhance your case

Insights translates into dollars over time

Use Listen, Learn, Adapt especially in the early stages

Pick the right metrics and track to improve what you’re doing

Focus on value of social media first – tangible benefits

Intangibles are important

Numbers are important, but stories can enhance your case

Beth’s Blog http://beth.typepad.com Have a blog post topic idea? [email_address] Questions?

Metrics and Tools for Podcasting Liberated Syndication (LibSyn) includes metrics Cross check with other sources Corey Pudhorodsky Twitter: @CoreyPud [email_address]

Metrics for podcasting Corey Pudhorodsky Twitter: @CoreyPud [email_address] Over time podcast downloads will become more greatly represented by people listening on the web

Over time podcast downloads will become more greatly represented by people listening on the web

Metrics for video How many times was a video watched? How many times was it rated and what were the ratings? How many comments did it get? How many times has it been favorited? How many times has it been embedded? How many times has it been linked to? KD Paine, Measuring YouTube

Metrics for video

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We would like to thank the Packard and Surdna Foundations for their generous support of this webinar series. The ROI of Social Media