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How Age UK uses Facebook to engage with its target audience Rob Mansfield - Senior Digital Editor, Age UK

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How Age UK uses Facebook… <ul><li>Age UK – an overview </li></ul><ul><li>Our Facebook objectives </li></ul><ul><li>Why we use Facebook </li></ul><ul><li>The content that works and doesn’t </li></ul><ul><li>Success criteria </li></ul>

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Age UK: an overview <ul><li>} </li></ul>2009

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Age UK: an overview <ul><li>3 National Partners: Age Cymru, Age NI, Age Scotland </li></ul><ul><li>175 Local partners </li></ul><ul><li>2 financial services companies </li></ul><ul><li>470+ Age UK shops </li></ul><ul><li>500+ local friendship centres and older people’s forums </li></ul><ul><li>1 Biomedical research charity </li></ul><ul><li>1 International sister charity for overseas relief </li></ul>

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What are our objectives? <ul><li>To build an ongoing relationship with our supporters </li></ul><ul><li>Reach new supporters </li></ul><ul><li>Drive traffic to the main site </li></ul><ul><li>Sell our products and services </li></ul>Photo: iko via Flickr (Creative Commons use)

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Why do we use Facebook? <ul><li>You have to be part of the conversation </li></ul><ul><li>Go to your audience: not necessarily bring them to you (5m+ over-50s on Facebook, Mar 2011) </li></ul><ul><li>Instant feedback: our audience is far more at ease with speaking their mind and lets us know what they think </li></ul><ul><li>CRM: another way to help people in need </li></ul><ul><li>Good way to spread a message </li></ul><ul><li>To show that we’re human </li></ul>“ Facebook is the Wal-Mart of the digital space for us. There we find a deep meaningful and easy way to learn from our consumers, co-create with them, market to them and create meaningful experiences with them for the long term” Shiv Singh, HoD @ PepsiCo

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What works well? Donate a Coat Projected increase in fans: 10% Actual increase: 30% (14.5k ---> 18k)

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What works well? (cont) <ul><li>Campaigns </li></ul><ul><li>The tangible campaigning work we carry out always resonates with our audience and Facebook is an ideal way to spread our message, with our audience as the advocates. </li></ul><ul><li>This example: >5% engagement </li></ul>

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What works well? (cont) <ul><li>Topical news stories </li></ul><ul><li>Our audience may have heard the stories already as part of the regular news outlets, but our Facebook page offers a place to talk about the issue with their peers. </li></ul><ul><li>Example: 3% engagement </li></ul>

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What works well? (cont) <ul><li>Fun, lighthearted updates </li></ul><ul><li>We don’t only focus on the doom and gloom – we love to celebrate the achievements of older people, be it a 75th anniversary, 70-year-olds swimming the Channel or Doris Day’s new album. Eg: >4.5% engagement </li></ul>

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What doesn’t work <ul><li>Our international work </li></ul><ul><li>Poor engagement and negative comments, almost every time. </li></ul><ul><li>Example: 0.5% engagement rate </li></ul>

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Success criteria This falls into two areas – quantitative and qualitative <ul><li>Increase in ‘likes’ </li></ul><ul><li>Campaign specific uplift </li></ul><ul><li>Monetary conversions </li></ul><ul><li>Click throughs to main Age UK site </li></ul><ul><li>Event registrations </li></ul><ul><li>Raise brand awareness </li></ul><ul><li>Be able to connect with real people at Age UK </li></ul><ul><li>Enable peer-to-peer connections/conversations </li></ul><ul><li>Feedback </li></ul>

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Success... <ul><li>In July & August 2011, we were ranked in Top 10 of most engaged Facebook pages in UK, according to social media monitors, Socialbakers. </li></ul><ul><li>The numbers look low for all brands, but this is the sort of overall engagement you can expect. </li></ul>

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Summary <ul><li>Have objectives, but don’t be afraid to change them </li></ul><ul><li>Talk to people – accept the bad and the good </li></ul><ul><li>Listen to your audience </li></ul><ul><li>Find out what they like </li></ul><ul><li>Silence is as telling as noise </li></ul><ul><li>Don’t be put off by low percentage returns </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Any questions? </li></ul><ul><li>Rob Mansfield </li></ul><ul><li>[email_address] </li></ul><ul><li>Twitter: @robram </li></ul><ul><li>LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/robmansfield </li></ul>