The YMCA of Metro Chicago launched Facebook pages for each of its membership centers to build its social media presence. It faced the challenges of preparing 50 authors across its centers to manage 15 Facebook pages with a small team. Its strategy was to establish deadlines and provide training to ready the authors. It held a day-long boot camp to train authors on content creation, administration, responding to comments, and using metrics. The YMCA provided guidelines and resources to support the authors as they took over management of their center's new Facebook pages.

1. YMCA of Metro Chicago
Jumps into Social Media
A Case Study

2. How do you get
50 authors prepared
to manage
15 Facebook pages
in less than
2 months
with a team of
4 people?

3. Overview
During the launch of
our Facebook pages we
faced challenges similar
to other orgs and
thought it would be
helpful to share our
experience. The
following presentation
is an overview of our
process.

4. YMCA Overview
The Y is Chicagoland’s
leading nonprofit
strengthening
communities through
youth development,
healthy living and social
responsibility.
Through its 65 locations and more than 100 extension sites,
the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago helps
children learn and grow, teaches young people to lead, brings
families closer, and encourages individual health and well-being.

5. Goals
Our objective is to have successful, responsible and
sustainable social media sites that are managed as
part of the YMCA's overall business strategy.
• Facebook page for each membership center
• Focus on establishing a presence
• Build a foundation quickly
• Primary audience is people interested in our
membership facilities

6. Our Challenge
Our members and communities connect with their
individual center and want information from them. But
there are numerous obstacles in allowing our
membership centers to own their Facebook pages:
Limited staff Minimal Struggle to Staff size is
time Social Media create content small
experience

7. Our Metro Challenge
Our Metro office had challenges of its own to
overcome:
Limited staff Manage the Ensure success Manage risk
time brand of center pages

8. Our Strategy
The key to our success was the readiness of the authors, not
the mechanics of the page. So with seven weeks to work with,
we decided the key was to establish staggered deadlines for
the authors to meet and a focused one-day boot camp.
Ready Set Go
(now- July 30) (Aug 11 or 12) (Aug 12– Aug 23)
Before July 15 Aug 11 or 12– Attend All Day Before Aug 18
Application Due to IT In-person Boot Camp: Finish setup and content
• Content Creation
• Facebook Administration
July 22 Before Aug 20
• Replying to Comments
Attend kick-off webinar Plan promotion of Facebook
• Comment Escalation
• Metrics
Before July 30 • "Take Home" Assignments Aug 23
Collect communication list Launch Facebook Pages

9. Our Author Strategy
Ready Set Go
(now- July 30) (Aug 11 or 12) (Aug 12– Aug 23)
The authors were given
tasks on a regular
schedule to ensure their
readiness. The goal was
to find ways to prepare
them without creating
unnecessary work.

10. Our Metro Strategy
Ready Set Go
(now- July 30) (Aug 11 or 12) (Aug 12– Aug 23)
While the authors were busy preparing their materials,
Marketing and IT collaborated to get the Facebook pages
configured and designed for all of the centers.
Setup pages Create editing Established
identically guidelines/ readiness
directions checkpoints

11. 2010 Timeline
Facebook pilots launched for
Pilots •YMCA Black & Latino Achievers
(May -July)
•YMCA Safe Kids campaign
Prepare for Facebook launch for our centers
Ready •Centers submit applications and select authors
(July 6 - 30) •Webinar to kickoff process and inform authors
•Homework assigned
One-day boot camp for Facebook authors
Set
(Aug 11 or 12) •Homework assigned
Go Final preparation and Facebook launch
(Aug 12– Aug 23)

12. Our Materials
Our centers have primary responsibility for managing
their page with limited support from Marketing and IT.
So we needed to be very purposeful in providing authors
with the appropriate resources:
• Social Media Author Acknowledgement
• Comment Escalation Resources
• Content Tips
• Page Administration Guidelines
• Marketing Calendar Template
• Links to Articles on Privacy

13. Our Kickoff Agenda
Our boot camp was only one day, so we needed our authors to
get a head start before coming. To that end, we assigned some
pre-work and started with a kickoff call.
• Overview of Facebook launch
• Facebook Configuration
• Your Role as Authors
• Next Steps
• Q&A
Ready Set Go
(now- July 30) (Aug 11 or 12) (Aug 12– Aug 23)

14. Training was a critical part of our plan
The following slides are
overviews of those trainings

15. We Spent Time Explaining the Timeline
Ready Set Go
(now- July 30) (Aug 11 or 12) (Aug 12– Aug 23)
Before July 15 Aug 11 or 12– Attend All Day Before Aug 18
Application Due to IT In-person Boot Camp: Finish setup and content
• Content Creation
• Facebook Administration
July 22 Before Aug 20
• Replying to Comments
Attend kick-off webinar Plan promotion of Facebook
• Comment Escalation
• Metrics
Before July 30 • "Take Home" Assignments Aug 23
Collect communication list Launch Facebook Pages

16. Talked About Facebook Configuration
Each center will have their
own page, plus one for
Metro.
metro. Marketing (with IT) will be doing all of
initial setup and design of the page.
Some Association-wide content
will be pushed to your page.
Design shared at Boot Camp

17. Plus Author Expectations
Authors
Content Moderate Manage
-posting -comments -added tools
-planning -fan posts -metrics
-interaction

18. Each Center Was Assigned
Next Steps Before Boot Camp
Create Flickr account for your center
Get comfortable with Facebook functionality
1. Write 2 status updates
H o me w o r k
2. Gather communication samples
3. Marketing calendar for September
Attend one-day boot camp

19. Boot Camp Agenda
Then came Boot Camp, our one day to equip our
authors to represent the YMCA on Facebook.
• Overview of Facebook
• Content Creation
• Facebook Administration
• Replying to Comments
• Comment Escalation
• Metrics
• "Take Home" Assignments
Ready Set Go
(now- July 30) (Aug 11 or 12) (Aug 12– Aug 23)

20. A Quick Facebook Page Demo

21. Then on to Creating Content
Some content will be pushed from
Recycle existing content
Association page
Build your content in bulk; serve a piece at a time Integrate with all marketing efforts

22. Content Tips
• Focus on goals and audience with a purpose
• Short, professional style with personality &
context
• Provide a call to action
• Use images
• Provide a link
• Tie to events or themes

23. Content – Have a Plan
• Plan ahead on content
• Don’t leave it to one person
• New content weekly
• Actively reply and monitor
• You will make mistakes; plan to react
• Trying something new? (Recruit some ringers)

24. We shared the
Air Force Blog
Assessment to
talk through how
to reply to
comments on
our pages

25. Comment Escalation
But we also needed a deeper plan than just
replying in specific scenarios.

26. We Walked through Facebook Insights
Why have metrics?
• Measure of impact
• Indicator of growth
What to measure?
• Fans, posts, views and
interactions
• Qualitative?
Act on metrics
• Use metrics to make decisions
• Experiment

27. Our Metrics Reporting
Seizing the opportunity to show digital
engagement as a whole, our report includes
email, Facebook and website information.
Digital Engagement Metrics - September 2010
Reach Data Engagement Data
% email address for Unique Website Email Open Rate Email Click Avg. time on Facebook Page Facebook Likes &
Rockstars!
Overall Active Adults adults (*1) Visitors Facebook Fans (*4) (*5) Throughs (*2) website (*6) Views (*3) Comments (*3)
Change (Goal 45% of adults) (Goal 45% of emails) (Goal 28%) (Goal 4%) (Goal 2:20) (Goal .5% of Fans) (Goal 2.5% of Fans)
Center Count % Change % % Change Count % Change Count % Change % % Change % % Change Time % Change Count % Change Count % Change
Austin YMCA
Buehler YMCA
Elmhurst YMCA
Foglia YMCA
Grayslake YMCA
Greater LaGrange YMCA Rather than just reporting stats, we also set goals:
Hastings Lake YMCA
High Ridge YMCA *1 Goal derived from sampling of national YMCAs
Indian Boundary YMCA
*2 Goal derived from average stats from eBenchmark Report 2010
Irving Park YMCA
Kelly Hall YMCA
A Rockstar is a *3 Goal derived from average stats from 2010 NonProfit Social Media
Lake View YMCA
Lattof YMCA
center with Benchmarks Study
Leaning Tower YMCA
improvement *4 Goal is same ratio of member to email counts (45%) but based on fans to
McCormick Tribune YMCA
Rauner Family YMCA across all email counts (20.25% of member counts)
South Chicago YMCA *5 Goal derived from Nonprofit averages from leading email service
South Side YMCA engagement provider
Wabash YMCA
West Communities YMCA
Metro
*6 Goal derived from Google Analytics benchmarks
Association Totals
Association Average
Goal(*1) Variance Goal(*4) Variance Goal (*4) Variance Goal (*2) Variance Goal (*5) Variance Goal(*3) Variance Goal(*3) Variance
Performance Against Goals 45% 45% 28% 4% 2:20 0.50% 2.50%

28. Facebook Promotional Plan
Phased approach to build
experience, content and base of fans
• Aug 23 – Recruit 25 fans for each page
• Aug - Sept – Employee Launch
• October – Launch to members
• November – Incorporate in all marketing
materials

29. Assigned Homework
1. P r e p a r e 2 w e l c o me
p o s t s
2. C o m p l e t e O c t o b e r
Ma r k e t i n g c a l e n d a r
3. D e c i d e y o u r c e n t e r ’s
p r o c e s s a n d r o l e s f o r
r e p l y i n g t o c o mme n t s
4. P r e p a r e f o r e x p e c t e d
r e p l i e s c o m m e n t s
5. T a l k a b o u t F a c e b o o k
6. T e l l p e o p l e

30. Pre-Launch Decisions
Facebook
announced page
changes planned for
Aug 23
(our launch date),
we planned
contingencies
but continued as
planned
A few centers were not able to
complete all of the readiness process.
In the end, we decided to postpone the
launch of a few pages to ensure
sustainability.

31. Our Launch – Aug 23, 2010
50 Trained Authors 15 Facebook pages
Welcome content posted
By the end of the day we had over 25
fans for each page and secured our
vanity URLs.

32. Our Outcomes
Aug 23 we launched our pages!
By the end of August 23:
Promoted pages
• 25+ fans for each page To staff
• Vanity URL secured
• First content posted
Added button to websites
By the end of August 2010:
• 1100+ fans across the pages
• 116 wall posts by authors Full promotion plan
to all audiences
• 1500+ unique page views starting Oct 2010
•Growing engagement (via metrics)
•Authors excited to connect

33. Our Outcomes
October 2010 Stats!
• 2285 fans across the pages
• 191 wall posts by authors
• 2618 unique page views
• 396 likes & comments on our posts
Full promotion plan
to all audiences
Started Oct 2010

34. What’s Next
Facebook pages are just one part of our long
term online presence strategy. Our next
projects include a website redesign, digital
content strategy, mobile tools and more.

35. Contact Us
For more information:
facebook.com/YMCAChicago
twitter.com/YMCAChicago
www.ymcachicago.org
Contact: IT Department
Phone: 312-932-1200
Email:
ymcachicagoit@ymcachicago.org YMCA of Metro Chicago IT Blog