The document discusses the importance of measuring the impact of social media for charities, providing a framework for setting objectives and tracking progress. It outlines different methods and tools for evaluation, including traditional and social media ROI metrics, while emphasizing the need for actionable data to inform decisions. Examples and tips for effective measurement strategies are also provided to enhance fundraising and engagement through social media channels.

1. Measuring the Impact
of Social Media
June 16, 2010

2. CanadaHelps.org
What is CanadaHelps?
A public charitable foundation that provides accessible and
affordable online technology to both donors and charities.
For Charities
A cost-effective means of raising funds online.
For Donors
A one-stop-shop for giving.
CanadaHelps is a charity helping charities.

3. Today’s Presenter
Kirstin Beardsley
Communications and Marketing Coordinator
CanadaHelps

4. You can hear us, but we can’t hear you
Type questions in the Questions Log
Webinar recording and slides
will be available on
www.mycharityconnects.org
Turn up your volume
For the best webinar experience, close all other applications.

5. THE VALUE IN MEASURING

6. “Measure what is measurable, and make
measurable what is not so.”
Galileo Galilei

7. Why measure?
• Track progress objectively
• Creates objectives
*Photo courtesy of wikipedia

8. BEFORE YOU MEASURE

9. How does your organization define success?

10. What are you trying to achieve?
GOAL
• ABC charity will become an expert and trusted
resource in our local community about adult literacy.
AUDIENCE
• Local literacy service providing organizations, local
media outlets
TOOL
• Blog

11. Objectives
• Increase blog subscribers by 50% over the
next 12 months
• 40% of blog posts contain active discussion in
the comments about the issues raised

12. S-M-A-R-T Method
Specific
Measurable
Actionable
Realistic
Timed
*Term first used by George T. Doran

13. What is [traditional] ROI?
Benefit – Cost
ROI =
Cost

14. What is [social media] ROI?
Exposure Engagement Influence Action
*Adapted from Don Bartholomew

15. Exposure
• Number of visits
• Number of unique visitors
• Search engine rank
• Message inclusion
• # of followers/likes
• Article/post readership

16. Engagement
• Click-thrus and view-thrus
• Repeat visitors
• Duration of stay
• Subscribe to feeds (RSS)
• Comments/posts ratio

17. Influence
• Change in awareness
• Change in attitudes
• Association with your brand

18. Action
• Donation
• Tell a friend
• Sign a petition
• Visit the organization
• Attend a fundraising event
• Volunteer

19. What’s Your Strategy?
• Tied to social media plan
• Establish a timeline
• Tactics to accomplish objective
• If-Then plans
• Create an simple way to track progress

20. What Are Your Tools?
• Google Analytics
• Google Alerts
• TwitterSearch
• Facebook Insights
• Hootsuite
*Photo courtesy of geishaboy500

21. Spreadsheets!
• Track your measures in a simple spreadsheet
• Graph changes over time

22. GETTING STARTED

23. “Any measurement must take into account the
position of the observer. There is no such thing
as measurement absolute, there is only
measurement relative.”
Jeanette Winterson

24. • Chose a few things to measure
• Track progress
• Record data based on monthly or bi-weekly
timeframe

25. Baseline measurements
• number of followers/subscribers
• action/donation/sharing/clicks
• resources expended (people, time, money)
*Photo courtesy of conray

26. WHAT TO MEASURE

27. Actionable Data
• Focus on actionable data:
– Measurement should inform specific decisions
and/or actions.
– Do not measure everything, but do measure what
is most important to your goals.
– The data you gather should help you learn
- From the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

28. Website Data
• Number of unique visitors
• Page views
• Length of time on site
• $$$ raised

29. Website Data
• Search rank
• Registrations
• Referrals
• Donation average

30. Social Media
• Subscribers/ Unsubscribes
• Followers
• Comments
• Favourites
• Video/photo views
• Retweets
• Likes

31. Social Media
• Page/post views
• # of posts
• Most popular posts
• Conversations
• Feedback
• Repeat supporters

32. Added Value Measures
• New ideas
• New partnerships
• Reduced training / professional development
costs
• Reduction in communication costs
• Reduction in phone calls, emails about a
particular issue

33. EXAMPLE

34. XYZ Charity & P2P Fundraising
Campaign
GOAL:
• Promote a new peer-to-peer fundraising
campaign to raise awareness of our
organization and raise funds through social
media
AUDIENCE:
• Young professionals in Windsor

35. XYZ Charity & P2P Fundraising
Campaign
TOOLS:
• Facebook Page & Twitter
OBJECTIVES:
• Recruit 20 fundraisers to set up GivingPages
• Raise $1500 by September 31st through our
campaign
• Raise awareness – increase likes by 150 &
Twitter followers by 150 by September 31st

36. Measures
Exposure:
• Traffic to page
• # of “Likes”
Engagement:
• Links to campaign landing page
• # of posts to page
• Conversations

37. Measures
Influence:
• # of posts on other pages/sites about
campaign
Action:
• # of GivingPages set up
• # of new donors
• $ raised

39. TIPS

40. Don’t analyze too much/too soon
• Analyze a manageable amount of data after a
reasonable amount of time

41. Make measurement part of your
social media plan
• Makes it easier to
track progress

42. Don’t just watch, observe and record
• Accurate and thorough records creates a more
complete picture of your efforts

43. Have a time-frame for your objective
• Easier to assess the success of your objective
• Don’t make it too short
*Photo courtesy of alexkerhead

44. Measure a relevant amount of time
• Ensures that you’ve gotten a representative
sample that can be used to spot trends

45. Experiment!
• Now that you’re measuring, test out different
styles of post, frequency or messaging
*Photo courtesy of we are dc

46. Tie it to long term goals
• Increases the likelihood of success of your
shorter-term social media objectives
*Photo courtesy of rtadlock

47. ABOUT MYCHARITYCONNECTS

48. www.mycharityconnects.org
Next Webinar
• Free online resources
• Information about technology “Peer to Peer
• Video demonstrations Fundraising with
CanadaHelps
• More webinars
GivingPages”
• Past webinar recordings
• Learning opportunities June 23, 2010
• Events 2PM – 3PM
(Eastern Time)

49. Question and Answer
You can hear us, but
we can’t hear you
Ask questions here
Ask away!

50. Thank you for attending!
Webinar slides and recording will be up on:
www.mycharityconnects.org/pastwebinars
Check out www.mycharityconnects.org for more resources!
Questions, feedback, comments?
Email us at: info@canadahelps.org

51. • socialmediatoday.com – Brian Solis
• altitudebranding.com – Amber Naslund
• asimplerway.com – Evo Terra
• metricsman.wordpress.com - Don Bartholomew
• bethkanter.org – Beth Kanter