This document outlines a workshop on using measurement and data to improve nonprofit social media strategies. It discusses defining success metrics, collecting the right types of data, and using measurement for continuous learning and improvement rather than just tracking outputs. Key steps include starting with small pilots to test measurement approaches, focusing on a few important metrics, and having regular reflection meetings to analyze results and identify lessons learned from successes and failures. The overall message is that nonprofits should view measurement as a way to enhance their strategies rather than just collect data for its own sake.
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Compasspoint Measurement Workshop
1. Be Networked, Use Measurement,
and Make Sense of Your Data
Beth Kanter, Author, Blogger, and Master Trainer
February 20, 2013
2. Agenda
AGENDA
OUTCOMES
Leave workshop ready
Becoming Data to take a small step to
Informed improve how you
measure and learn to
improve your social
Nonprofit Measurement
media strategy!
Stories
How To Measure Social
Media in 7 Easy Steps
• Interactive
11. Maturity of Practice Framework
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.”
12. Where to focus …
CRAWL WALK RUN FLY
Linking Social with Ladder of Network Building
Communications Results and Engagement
Strategy Networks Many Free Agents work for
Development Content Strategy you
Pilot: Focus one
Culture Change program or channel Best Practices Multi-Channel
with measurement Engagement, Content, and
Measurement and Measurement
Incremental Capacity learning in all above
Reflection and Continuous
Improvement
13. Share Pair: Where Is Your Organization?
Where is your nonprofit now? What does that look like?
What do you need to get to the next level?
17. What’s Your Biggest Measurement Challenge?
Lack of time
Concern that social media does not return ROI
Lack of Skills
Defining success or results
Identifying right KPI
Tools to collect and analyze data
Making sense and learning from the data
18. The Five Stages of Measurement
Acceptance in the Nonprofit Sector
Data
Delight Informed
Confusion
Fear
Denial
20. Fear
What if my strategy
or program doesn’t
show success?
21. Confusion I know I should
measure our social
media and
network, but not
sure what or how?
22. Delight
Hey check out
these cool
charts and
graphics!
23. Data Informed
Successful networks and
social media start with
measurement
24. CWRF: Becoming Data Informed: What Does It look like?
Crawl Walk Run Fly
Lacks consistent data Data collection Data from multiple Org Wide KPIs
collection consistent but not sources
shared
No reporting or Data not linked to System and structure for Organizational
synthesis results, could be wrong data collection Dashboard with
data different views, sharing
Decisions based on gut Rarely makes decisions Discussed at staff Data visualization,
to improve meetings, decisions reporting, formal
made using it reflection process
Analysis
Tools
Sense-Making
32. Why did it fail?
What did we learn?
What insights can
use next time
around?
DoSomething.Org’s Fail Fest
33. CWRF: Becoming Data Informed: What Does It look like?
Crawl Walk Run Fly
Lacks consistent data Data collection Data from multiple Org Wide KPIs
collection consistent but not sources
shared
No reporting or Data not linked to System and structure for Organizational
synthesis results, could be wrong data collection Dashboard with
data different views, sharing
Decisions based on gut Rarely makes decisions Discussed at staff Data visualization,
to improve meetings, decisions reporting, formal
made using it reflection process
Analysis
Tools
Sense-Making
34. Advice for Nonprofits: Becoming Data-Informed:
• Use the 7 Steps of
Measurement
• Identify small
pilots and iterate
• Don’t let lack of
data nerd skills
stop you …
35. The 7 Simple Steps of Measurement
Goal
Insight Audience
Tool Cost
KPI Benchmark
36. Measurement Pilots: Small Steps
Audience: Artists and people in their community
Show the human face of artists, remove the mystique, get
audience to share their favorites, connect with other
organizations.
Focused on one channel (Facebook) to use best practices to:
Increase engagement by comments per post
Content analysis of conversations: Does it make the
organization more accessible?
Increase enrollment in classes and attendance at events
10% new students /attenders say they heard about us
through Facebook
38. Result KPI - Metric
Increase donations % reduction in cost per dollar raised
Increase donor base % increase in new donors
Increase number of % increase in volunteers
volunteers
Increase awareness % increase in awareness,
% increase in visibility/prominence,
Positive correlation between increase
in donors vs. visibility
Improve relationships with % improvement in relationship scores,
existing donors/volunteers % increase in donation from existing
donors
Improve engagement with % increase in engagement (comments
stakeholders on YouTube, shares on Facebook,
comments on blog, etc.
Change in behavior % decrease in bad behavior,
% increase in good behavior
Change in attitude about % increase in trust score or relationship
your organization score
Increase in skills and Increase in revenue per employee,
knowledge of staff Learning % employees understanding their roles
and organizational mission
39. Share Pair
• What’s your definition of success? (Pick
One)
• What are your most important metrics to
measure along the way?
41. Setting Up Measurement Dashboard: Flying
Goal: Grow the Movement
MomsRising is building a strong multicultural movement of people who
care about family economic security and well-being.
Need To Know KPI
Are we adding new members? Increased New Members
Are we losing members? Decreased Lapsed Members
Are we diversifying Number of Collaborations
membership? with multicultural orgs
42. Growing the Movement: Web Site and Email Metrics
Website Metrics
Google Analytics
& CMS Analytics
43. Growing the Movement: Social Media Metrics
Social Media Metrics
Twitter
Facebook
Twitalyzer
Klout
46. Share Pair
• Now that you have defined success and
identified KPIs, what are your key
performance metrics for Web, Email, or
Social Media?
• Do you need any qualitative data?
47. What do you not need to collect?
Easy Hard
Not
Useful
Useful
48. Evaluate Your Key Performance Metrics: Useful
• If you collected this metric, how many people in
your organization would care?
1: No One ………………………………..……….. 5: Everyone
• To what extent would tracking this metric help you
make better decisions?
1: Not at all………………………………………..5: A Great Deal
49. Evaluate Your Key Performance Metrics: Ease of Collection
• Are you currently tracking this metric?
• Can it be easily and quickly captured or exported into a
spreadsheet?
• Can you easily summarize or analyze this metric?
• If qualitative data, can you easily and quickly do a
content analysis manually or with an automated
system?
51. Right Tool for the Job
Content • Positioning
• Themes
Analysis • Sentiment
Survey • Awareness
• Relationships
Research • Preferences, Perception
Web • Engagement
Analytics • Action
51
52. Maturity of Practice: CWRF – Measuring Content
CRAWL WALK RUN FLY
Shares content that Uses an editorial Uses an editorial Uses an editorial
may be relevant to calendar to align calendar to align calendar to align
audience, but not content with content with content with
consistently and not objectives and objectives and objectives and
measuring audiences to publish audiences to publish audiences to publish
across channels across channels across channels
consistently – aligns consistently and consistently,
with program and measures measures
advocacy calendars performance performance, and
uses data to plan
content
53. Editorial Calendar Example
January 2013
Include hashtags (#) and URL resources for staff to do some research on topics
United Ways of California
www.unitedwaysCA.org
54. Measuring Your Content: To What End?
Result Metrics Analysis Question
Consumption Views Does your audience care about the topics your
Reach
Followers
content covers? Are they consuming your
content?
Engagement Re-tweets Does your content mean enough to your
Shares
Comments
audience for them to share it or engage with it?
Action Referrals Does your content help you achieve your goals?
Sign Ups
Phone Calls
Revenue Dollars Does your content help you raise money, recruit
Donors
Volunteers
volunteers or save time?
59. Is the time you
are spending on
social media
worth it?
60. How much did it cost?
Be honest – Social
Media is not “free”
Be transparent
Given your
investment, are
your expected
results reasonable?
Compare alternate
ways to achieve
goals
61. Results Value/Cost Metric
Increase donations More efficient fund raising % reduction in cost per dollar raised
Increase donor base More revenue from a more diverse % increase in new donors
base
Increase number of volunteers More gets done, % increase in volunteers
Less burden on existing volunteers or
staff
Increase awareness Increase donors/volunteers % increase in awareness,
Change in behavior % increase in visibility/prominence,
Positive correlation between
increase in donors vs. visibility
Improve relationships with existing Better management, more stable % improvement in relationship
donors/volunteers finances scores,
% increase in donation from existing
donors
Improve engagement with Better feedback and ideas for % increase in engagement
stakeholders innovation (comments on YouTube, shares on
Better understanding of attitudes Facebook, comments on blog, etc.
and perceptions of stakeholders
Change in behavior Achieve the mission % decrease in bad behavior,
% increase in good behavior
Change in attitude about your % likely to volunteer or donate % increase in trust score or
organization increases relationship score
Increase in skills and knowledge of Improved results from intangible to Increase in revenue per employee,
staff Learning tangible % employees understanding their
Using best practices, saving time roles and organizational mission
62. Was Your Time Worth It?
800,000 Uniques 180,000
700,000 Twitter Referring Traffic 160,000
Facebook Referring Traffic 140,000
600,000
120,000
500,000
100,000
400,000
80,000
300,000
60,000
200,000
40,000
100,000 20,000
0 0
January February March April
Tracked Results:
Stage 1 – Integrated into staff
Stage 2 – Hired social media staff
68. The Failure Bow
1. Raise hands in the air and bow
2. Grin like a submissive dog
3. Say Thank You I’ve Failed
4. Move on and learn
69. Specific Time for Reflection and Improvement
Step 7 – Analyze Results
Joyful Funerals Metrics Mondays
1. Fail
2. Increment al Success
3. Dramatic Success
72. Summary
Think about how to implement incremental changes in your
networked strategy and social media practice to build capacity
Start with small pilots and iterate using the 7 steps of
measurement
Define success and the “kicking butt index” first
Don’t get distracted by too much data or tools – but pick the right
tool for the job
Use measurement to improve what you’re doing, not to pat
yourself on the back
73. One Minute of Silence: What is one idea that you can put into
practice next week?
Flickr Photo by John K
Becoming Networked Nonprofits: What Nonprofit Leaders Need to Know to Succeed in Age of Connectedness
Worked in the nonprofit sector for over 33 years. Had a front row seat at the creation of a field – nonprofit technology – use of technology for mission-driven work. I’m a master trainer so I get to travel around the work and work with changemakers on how to use the tools for social change or mission driven work. Most recently, have designed and delivered curriculum for nonprofits to become networked nonprofit – Middle East, Africa, India, etc. There are wicked problems in the world -- I’m passionate about social change and strongly believe that two of the skills that nonprofits need to embrace to solve them. Also a share of the royalities are going
Meet KeoSavon. It is important to me that the book has a social change mission so I am donating my royalities to send her to college in Cambodia through supporting the Sharing Foundation program for education. It will make difference in her life.She is a civil engineering major and is 2nd in her class. I met her this summer when I visited Cambodia. She lives in the orphanage that my daughter came from in Cambodia – and KeoSavon also calls me “mom.” She told me she wants to go to graduate school in the US – MIT or Stanford. I told her that I would have to sell a lot of books!
The book covers basic measurement techniques and frameworks like how to measure engagement, relationships, influence, define success, social fundraising, as well as some of the more difficult networked nonprofit strategies like networks, transparency, and crowdsourcing.It has a lot of practical information and tips – but I’d like to share with you one idea from the book – and that’s about becoming data informed, but first I have to tell you about my own measurement story.
The book covers basic measurement techniques and frameworks like how to measure engagement, relationships, influence, define success, social fundraising, as well as some of the more difficult networked nonprofit strategies like networks, transparency, and crowdsourcing.It has a lot of practical information and tips – but I’d like to share with you one idea from the book – and that’s about becoming data informed, but first I have to tell you about my own measurement story.
The “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly” Maturity of Social Media practice framework is in Beth’s next book, Measuring the Networked Nonprofit. We used to help us design the program, determine process outcomes, and help us evaluate our progress.Explain modelPhotos: Runhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/clover_1/2647983567/Flyhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/micahtaylor/5018789937/
There’s another important organizational skill - data-informed this describes agile, responsive, and intelligent nonprofitsthat are better able to succeed in a rapidly changing environment and can fuel networks of networks. DoSomething.org has a big hairy social change goal: To harnesses teenage energy and unleash it on causes teens care about by launching a national campaign per week. The call to action is always something that has a real impact and does not require money, an adult, or a car. Their measurable goal is to get 5 million active teen members engaged in social change campaigns by 2015. Their use of social media, mobile, and data all strategically selected and use to reach that goal.They are a networked nonprofit with a data informed culture – and it started at the top with their board and advisors ..Reid Hoffman and DjPatil – “A Data Scientist” – have advised the CEO – Nancy Lublin – not only what infrastructure is needed to collect and make sense of data, but how she as the leader can’t rely on hunches – decisions – have to be informed by data.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkrigsman/3428179614/DoSomething has two data analyst positions on staff .. And they aren’t sitting in the corner playing with their spreadsheetsWhile a big part of their job is to become the stewards of the dashboard, they work with staff – so that making sense of data Is not an adhoc process, but one of continous improvement of the programs. The data analysts work collaboratively with staff to help them apply and understand their data.
One of their organizational mantra is “Spend More Time Thinking About The Data, Less On Collecting ItPregnancy Text” Campaign featured on their quarterly dashboard. This clever sex education campaign is an updated version of the teen pregnancy education program where young people carried eggs around and pretend they are babies. It was a text campaign where teens opted in to receive texts on their mobile phones from the “baby.” Once they joined (and they could share it with their friends). they received regular annoying text messages at all hours from the “baby” that poops, cries, and needs their immediate attention.The team at DoSomething.org uses data to base the program design, key performance indicators and a hypothesis to be tested. They looked at survey data from the National Campaign: nearly 9 in 10 (87%) young people surveyed also say that it would be much easier for teens to delay sexual activity and avoid teen pregnancy if they were able to have more open, honest conversations about these topics with their parents and/or friends. So, success of this campaign would be mean that participants talk with their family or friends about the issue and delay sexual activity.The basic design had those who signed up challenge their friends to take care of a text baby either by (1) going to DoSomething website and selecting 5 friends to challenge or (2) after receiving a text from DoSomething (sent to DoSomething’s 300k mobile subscribers) would opt to challenge friends after reading a quick stat on US teen pregnancy. Participants that accepted the challenge would then start receiving texts the following morning from the text-baby. After completing the challenge user were prompted to send it to their own friends.DoSomething.org also followed up with 5k of the users with a text-based survey to measure impact.Once defining success and identifying the right data collect, here’s some of the insights they gleaned according to Nancy Lublin, CEO of DoSomething and Jeffrey Bladt:SMS as a platform: They are monitoring engagement per communication channel and it has revealed SMS to be 30xs more powerful for getting their users to take action as compared to emailChallenging 5 friends: we’ve tested various group sizes for SMS experience and have found the a group of 6 (1 alpha inviting friends) leads to the highest overall engagementResearch Based Messaging: The general messaging for the campaign was based on survey findings that found (1) big scare tactics (e.g. getting pregnant = not going to college) we not as effective as highlighting who being a teen parent changes daily life (e.g can’t go to the movies because baby sitter cancelled); (2) a CDC report that found: “The impact of strong pregnancy prevention messages directed to teenagers has been credited with the [recent] teen birth rates decline.A/B Testing: They pre-tested different messages and frequency of sending the messages to smaller test groups of teens to optimize the number of messages the baby would send during the day, as well as the content. They ended up doubling the frequency and rewording several interactions as well as building in a response system (so the baby would respond if teen texted an unsolicited response). The insights from these tests pushed up engagement and likelihood of forwarding at the end.Impact: They did a survey to measure this. 1 in 2 teens said that taking the Pregnancy Text made it more likely that they would talk about the issue of teen pregnancy with their family and friends.As you can see from the above insights, DoSomething just not gather and analyze topline data:101,444 people took part in the campaign with 100,000 text-babies delivered171,000 unsolicited incoming messages, or 1 every 20 seconds for the duration of the campaign. During the initial launch period (first 2 weeks), a new text message was received every 10 seconds.For every 1 direct sign-up, DoSomething gained 2.3 additional sign-ups from forward to a friend functionality. The viral coefficient was between 0.60 and 0.70 for the campaign.1 in 4 (24%) of teens could not finish a day with their text-baby (texted a stop word to the baby)DoSomething.org uses its data to continuously improve programs, develop content, and shape campaign strategies. So DoSomething.org wants its staff to spend more of its brainpower thinking about the data, rather than collecting it. To ensure that this happens, DoSomething.org’s Data Analyst Bob Filbin’s job is more than programming formulas in Excel spreadsheets. Says Filbin, “One of the biggest barriers in nonprofits is finding the time to collect data, the time to analyze, and the time to act on it. Unless someone is put in charge of data, and it’s a key part of their job description, accelerating along the path towards empowered data-informed culture is going to be hard, if not impossible.”
No addhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhgsJjNVbu0http://gawker.com/5950941/kathie-lee-dropped-a-puppy-on-his-head-on-live-tv-todayhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQzo_3yIc8M
Back in the office, the data scientists were looking at the data in real time to figure out what was driving people to their landing page and getting them to sign up.
Fail Fest And Pink Boas: Don’t Be Afraid To FailDoSomething.org doesn’t use its data to pat itself on the back or make the staff feel good. Lublin notes that they’re not afraid of failure. They hold regular “Fail Fest” meetings, where each person on staff has to present a campaign or program failure. They share three things they learned about themselves and three things the organization learned. To remove the stigma from failure, Lublin says, “We have to wear pink boas when we present.” http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruminatrix/2734602916/in/faves-cambodia4kidsorg/
The “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly” Maturity of Social Media practice framework is in Beth’s next book, Measuring the Networked Nonprofit. We used to help us design the program, determine process outcomes, and help us evaluate our progress.Explain modelPhotos: Runhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/clover_1/2647983567/Flyhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/micahtaylor/5018789937/
Becoming Data-Informed: Change Is Easy With Baby StepsChanging an organization’s culture to a more data-informed approach must begin with baby steps. While it does not have to be difficult to orchestrate, it does need to start from the top. Unless senior management can agree on the definitions of success and how they will be measured, you can waste a tremendous amount of time accumulating data but not using it. In Chapter 4, we describe the basic steps of any measurement program and discuss how to set up a measurement pilot program. Chapter 5 discusses how to identify the value of success. Getting started on the path to becoming a data-informed nonprofit is a matter of having some important internal conversations. It is not just about having new inspiration about measurement or working with new tools; it means thinking differently about the organization and how it works.Begin at the End: Discuss and Identify ResultsIf your organization doesn’t know exactly what you’re going to measure, you can’t become data-informed. Unless you have a discussion upfront of what success looks like, you’ll end up collecting data, but it won’t help you make decisions. You will waste your time. So begin at the end by carefully identifying desired outcomes. Don’t be afraid of a bit of healthy disagreement. The best measurement programs are borne of—and benefit from—lively conversations about what really matters to the organization and who can “claim credit” for what. You need to keep your “mission” hat on and keep the conversation focused on the ultimate goals of the organization. Just keep repeating, it’s not about “credit”—it’s about achieving the mission. You will also want to manage expectations: What is realistic to expect given your current investment in social media, or compared to peer organizations? What do short-term, medium, and longer-term results look like?You might need to bring in an outside consultant to facilitate a meeting to help get consensus on what you want to measure or clarity on results. Or you may need to bring in a measurement expert to help you clarify what you want to measure and why. This doesn’t have to be expensive. For example, as we discuss in Chapter 8, the Analytics Exchange helped the American Leadership Forum by supplying an analytics volunteer to help create a framework and system for gathering data. Become a Curator of MetricsIf you are the person responsible for implementing social media for your organization, either part time or as your whole job, you need to become what John Lovett defines as a “Curator of Metrics” in his book Social Media Metrics Secrets.This is someone, like Carie Lewis from the Humane Society whom we introduced you to do in Chapter 1, who knows the difference between different types of metrics and ensures that her organization is using data in an intelligent way. A curator of metrics knows how to help guide their organization into choosing the right metrics, and knows how to report insights in a way that connects them to organizational goals.Use Experiments To Make The Case To EvolveOne way to evolve into a data-informed organization is through implementing a series of social media measurement experiments, as described below and in Chapter 4. Each one needs to have solid metrics, and should be designed to provide results that will help you make the case to evolve. Keep the end in mind when agreeing on how experiments will be structured, run, and measured. The experiments should not be willy-nilly, but help you develop and test your strategies and tactics – and lead the way to best practices. Take a Baby Step: My First Data Collection ProjectTo get started, select a project, event, small campaign, or program that is a high priority on your organization’s work plan for the year, that incorporates social media, and that you can apply a couple of good metrics to. Be mindful of other organizational deadlines that may divert energy and focus from this important first baby step. You might find it difficult to set aside quality time to focus on it. Don’t try to measure every objective or collect all potential relevant data. Make it easy to manage. You should also have a very clear idea about what you want to learn. Keep in mind that you are going to take your report and use it to make the case for a more comprehensive measurement program. It’s important to make sure that anyone who is going to use the data, or sit in a meeting and review the data, buys into your metrics. That could be the Executive Director, a program manager, the board of trustees, or other people in your department. If there are many different decision makers you may need to do a formal survey to make sure that everyone ends up on the same page. Sara Thomas, who handles social media for the Ocean Conservancy, says, “It was really useful to bring in my entire department on the effort rather than working solo on the project. This helped with buy-in.”Learn from Your ResultsOnce you collect your data, analyze it and understand how it can help inform decisions. Make sure you educate through examples. Show how adding a data-informed approach to your social media or all media or programs can avoid ineffective campaigns and increase audience satisfaction.More importantly, you don’t just need to develop discipline around collecting data, what you want is the discipline to look at what you’ve collected and generate insights. That requires reflection, not just counting.Doing a measurement pilot will help create the discipline of stepping back from whirlwind of social media tactical implementation, but also wrestle with larger questions about how social media fits into an organization’s overall efforts. Which vehicles and channels gain us the most traction? How should we adjust our workload internally to reflect those results? How are our social media activities helping us meet our overall strategic goals? How are our efforts using social media supporting our programs?Reflecting does not have to be a private activity. It can be done in connected, transparent ways. The organization’s blog or website can be a place to share lessons learned with readers, and ask them for their feedback and suggestions as well. The result: a powerful way to learn and improve over time.ConclusionTo start the shift to a data-informed culture, you must begin with small incremental steps with the full support of leadership. It’s important to think big, looking at key results, but since many outcomes deal with long-term changes, you can’t get there overnight, nor can your organization transform its culture overnight. Keep the steps small and manageable. As your organization’s culture begins to shift, then when you present reports on social media activities, you get better questions from your executive director or board. You don’t get asked how many fans do we have or what does that mean? You get questions that help you Kanter, Beth. (October, 2011) Are You A Curator of Metrics? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.bethkanter.org/curator-metrics/Thomas, Sara, private conference call peer learning group with David and Lucile Packard grantees with Beth Kanter, September, 2011
There really are only three times of tools in social media measurement If you want to measure messaging, positioning, themes, sentiment you need Content analysisIf you want to measure awareness, perception, preference you need Survey researchIf you want to measure engagement, action, purchase: you need Web analyticsIf you want predictions and correlations you need two out of three
MonthlyCommon messaging - along with partners on health careShare the responsibility – brainstorm contentIntegrate with what is timelyGet input from partners and friends – group learning
They focused on developing a robust engagement and content strategy – that was integrated with other channels, all to support objectives in communications strategy and outcomes – and used measurement. They started with one channel – FB …