Case Study: Knight News Challenge 2008-09 Using social media to drive awareness & engagement (while being lean but not mean) Susan Mernit Seizing the Moment conference August 2009

How to use social media tools—Facebook, Twitter, Flickr & blogs—to create awareness for your project that will get you new audiences, deeper user engagement and more buzz—without a lot of cost: a case study.

Knight News Challenge (newschallenge.org): Annual competition awarding $5MM in funds to projects that support local news and discussion in specific geographic communities (3 yrs) Open competition, anyone can enter, products MUST be open source International reach, proposals sought from wide range of communities

Knight News Challenge (newschallenge.org):

Annual competition awarding $5MM in funds to projects that support local news and discussion in specific geographic communities (3 yrs)

Open competition, anyone can enter, products MUST be open source

International reach, proposals sought from wide range of communities

Goals for 2008-09 challenge : Improve quality and diversity of applications Improve peer support and peer mentoring experiences at start of program Strengthen international applications, particularly in Asia What we had to work with: Part time team of 3 people: 5 hours a week each for 2 months $2,500 events budget Free social media tools Results we achieved: 47 % increase in traffic to newschallenge.org 50% increase in unique visitors 17,000 uniques at site last day of competition, 100% increase 224 blog posts about program compared to 24 the previous year Vibrant community: 1,800 registrants for NC Garage

Goals for 2008-09 challenge :

Improve quality and diversity of applications

Improve peer support and peer mentoring experiences at start of program

Strengthen international applications, particularly in Asia

What we had to work with:

Part time team of 3 people: 5 hours a week each for 2 months

$2,500 events budget

Free social media tools

Results we achieved:

47 % increase in traffic to newschallenge.org

50% increase in unique visitors

17,000 uniques at site last day of competition, 100% increase

224 blog posts about program compared to 24 the previous year

Vibrant community: 1,800 registrants for NC Garage

So how did we do that?

Made A Plan w/Measurable Goals Goals: Increase awareness in tech & social media communities Create viral buzz, blogosphere Diversify applications Build community Tactics: Orchestrate program of blogging Local meet-ups Build Garage, peer review/mentoring Multiple Facebook groups & events Email blasts across the world Outreach to key influencers Multiple twitter accounts 2X day for 2 months

Goals:

Increase awareness in tech & social media communities

Create viral buzz, blogosphere

Diversify applications

Build community

Tactics:

Orchestrate program of blogging

Local meet-ups

Build Garage, peer review/mentoring

Multiple Facebook groups & events

Email blasts across the world

Outreach to key influencers

Multiple twitter accounts 2X day for 2 months

Executed plan, on a schedule Built 2 month, 3X a week schedule for blog posts; asked reviewers to blog Assigned main twitterer; retweeted, thanks others for retweets Active flickr groups; #hashtag, #knc09 2X week email blasts 9 live meet ups across US over 2 months Video testimonials Repeated contacts w/influencers, bloggers

Built 2 month, 3X a week schedule for blog posts; asked reviewers to blog

Assigned main twitterer; retweeted, thanks others for retweets

Active flickr groups;

#hashtag, #knc09

2X week email blasts

9 live meet ups across US over 2 months

Video testimonials

Repeated contacts w/influencers, bloggers

Budgeted time & money Time Assigned staffers, distributed time over week Minimized lingering, turned social media OFF Weekly call discussing roles, impact, goals for week Money P/T social media community manager for 2 months, 15 hours week Free spaces for meet-ups, soda & chips for snacks No hotel bills; planned with Knight travel

Time

Assigned staffers, distributed time over week

Minimized lingering, turned social media OFF

Weekly call discussing roles, impact, goals for week

Money

P/T social media community manager for 2 months, 15 hours week

Free spaces for meet-ups, soda & chips for snacks

No hotel bills; planned with Knight travel

Results 2,323 entries submitted 60,000 mentions of “Knight News Challenge” on non-Knight sites in 2008; 110% increase from 2007 1,800 registrants, Garage; 50% applied 400 attendees, live meet-ups; 50% applied 700 links to mentions of the events indexed in Google, 30 photos on Flickr tagged Knight News Challenge meet up) Write ups NYT, Valleywag

2,323 entries submitted

60,000 mentions of “Knight News Challenge” on non-Knight sites in 2008; 110% increase from 2007

1,800 registrants, Garage; 50% applied

400 attendees, live meet-ups; 50% applied

700 links to mentions of the events indexed in Google, 30 photos on Flickr tagged Knight News Challenge meet up)

Write ups NYT, Valleywag

Why did this work ?

Social Networks are growing VERY QUICKLY Twitter Facebook FriendFeed Flickr YouTube

Adults have joined FB & Twitter In the past year, Twitter traffic has grown 3,700%; minutes spent on Facebook have increased 700% in the same time frame In the U.S, total minutes spent on social networking sites have increased 83 percent year-over-year. Visitors aged 25 to 34 and 35 to 49 were the highest indexing age groups on Facebook, representing 27 percent and 23 percent as more likely to visit the site than the average user, respectively.

And it’s on our phones. Yes, even those crappy cell phones…

Web resources for follow-up Social media for social action , Susan Mernit, white paper documenting social media outreach by The Knight News Challenge & others http://susanmernit.com/services/ Beth Kanter’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media- http://beth.typepad.com Deanna Zandt, forthcoming book, Share This! How You Will Change the World With Social Networking ! (Barrett-Koehler) &her blog: http://deannazandt.com Rebecca Leaman, Wild Apricot’s Non Profit Tech Blog, http://www.wildapricot.com/blogs/newsblog SocialBrite, social tools for social change, http://socialbrite.org

Social media for social action , Susan Mernit, white paper documenting social media outreach by The Knight News Challenge & others

http://susanmernit.com/services/

Beth Kanter’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media- http://beth.typepad.com

Deanna Zandt, forthcoming book, Share This! How You Will Change the World With Social Networking ! (Barrett-Koehler) &her blog: http://deannazandt.com

Rebecca Leaman, Wild Apricot’s Non Profit Tech Blog, http://www.wildapricot.com/blogs/newsblog

SocialBrite, social tools for social change, http://socialbrite.org

Real Time Resources to learn more Public Media Collaborative , volunteer group dedicated to free and low cost training in social media—next training October 23, 2009, Oakland, CA (http://bit.ly/1UkVC) Net Squared Net Tuesdays, monthly meet-ups at Tech Soup Global, San Francisco, next meeting, September 8, 2009, 6 PM,( http://www.netsquared.org ) Non profit boot camp, Craigslist Foundation http://craigslistfoundation.org/schedule.html

Public Media Collaborative , volunteer group dedicated to free and low cost training in social media—next training October 23, 2009, Oakland, CA (http://bit.ly/1UkVC)

Net Squared Net Tuesdays, monthly meet-ups at Tech Soup Global, San Francisco, next meeting, September 8, 2009, 6 PM,( http://www.netsquared.org )

Non profit boot camp, Craigslist Foundation http://craigslistfoundation.org/schedule.html

Thanks for listening! Susan Mernit [email_address] Twitter: susanmernit Watch for Oakland Local, new community site coming in September, http://oaklandlocal.com News for the people