Supporting local businesses

This is always high on my list, but I made sure that this year our gifts came from shops owned locally, featuring products made locally as well. This means that products had less transportation costs and are tied to sustaining the community’s economy. For me, my favorite part of shopping locally means that I can create relationships with the shop owners and learn more about the products and producers they work with. I’ve found some of my favorite things this way and enjoy being able to share recommendations with friends – then it is a gift and a connection!

Supporting real crafters

I know I said that I’ve taken my turn a few times with DIY projects, but I’m just a casual crafter. Etsy certainly makes it easy to find those crafters that make my homemade soap look like a class experiment! I’ve also found with Etsy that sellers are eager and open to talk with you about the products they use and how they are working to be sustainable as well. This year, I took it a step further and connected with an incredibly talented crafter locally (double whammy!) so that we could meet in person to discuss the gift idea and ensure it is going to be perfect.

Supporting real impact

The holidays are also the end of the year when many nonprofits are running fundraising campaigns and preparing for the next year. I have given DonorsChoose.org gift cards as “thank you” gifts in the past (especially for speakers or presenters!) and enjoy hearing when someone writes back to tell me which project they funded and why. Razoo also has gift cards you can purchase online and email to recipients, and instead of giving to a classroom project like DonorsChoose.org, Razoo cards can be used to donate to over 1 Million organizations!

Whether you’re a Millennial, budget-conscious, DIY-specialist, or not, I certainly recommend these three options for your last-minute holiday shopping!

Photo: Flickr gazeronly

Fenton just released a terrific guide book focused on actionable metrics: “See, Say, Feel, Do: Social Media Metrics that Matter”.

It is tempting to imagine social media as its own communications island where Twitter Follower counts are valuable currency that can be exchanged for internal high-fives. In this scenario there is no way to exchange social media coins for broader communication or marketing dollars. But who cares when you can boast 50,000 likes on your Facebook Page.

This is the wrong approach for three reasons: 1) it doesn’t acknowledge the complete media consumption behavior of your target audiences; 2) it cuts off feedback loops that can be mined for insights that will improve engagement and returns and 3) it limits the reach and impact of your broader communications.

Fenton’s guide divides up the kinds of metrics you can focus on under the headings See, Say, Feel and Do. As I suggest in my Community Mapping approach, the actions and metrics should be mapped against the segments of the community doing them. I really appreciate that Fenton has included a similar recommendation. I also love that they include both a space for identifying and tracking the data, as well as a place to include the insights and actions associated with it. The best of the guide book, though, is the inclusion of an example reporting form and a template to use in your own organization.

Download “See, Say, Feel, Do: Social Media Metrics that Matter” here. 

What do you think? If you downloaded the report, did you find the template useful? What aspects of the do/see/say/feel metrics approach were you already using or do you plan to try out?

Listening Dashboard

Why create a listening dashboard?

• Save time looking for news
• Monitor multiple channels at once
• Track your organization and your cause
• Create a shared tracking space for your team or whole organization

How to get started:

• I suggest using Netvibes, you can also try iGoogle or even Google Reader
• Use this step-by-step guide for adding RSS feeds
• Refer to the slides below for examples

Content Map

Why create a content map?

• It provides an easy-to-access reference for everyone in the organization showing all content and outlets
• Supports cross-team collaboration as staff understand where their content is going
• Supports tracking and analysis for message and call to action response

How to get started:

• Use this template: http://bit.ly/DIYtemplate
• Follow this step-by-step guide for using the template
• Refer to the slides below for examples

Content Calendar

Why create a content calendar?

• Easy reference
• Coordinated messages
• Supports tracking and segmenting
• Ensure people receive appropriate amount of messages
• Create multiple touch-points
• ID traffic sources

How to get started:

• I prefer Google Calendar, though you can use any shared calendar you have in place in your organization – DivvyHQ is designed specifically for this purpose
• Create a format; ie: Message (STAFF) – Segments, Details
• Use color codes as possible
• Use all-day and timed events
• all-day for emails and blog posts
• timed events for social media posts

Here’s an example:

DIY Management Tools

For looking for a list of suggested tools, here’s a place to get started!

Free tools:

• Google Apps
• Tweetdeck, Hootsuite
• Bit.ly
• Netvibes
• Google Analytics
• Storify

Tool-Specific tools:

• Twitalyzer
• 14blocks
• booshaka
• EdgeRank
• Klout

Low-Cost tools:

• Hootsuite Pro
• CoTweet
• Small Act’s Thrive
• Spredfast
• Sprout Social

Location: Online

Topic: Listening & Engaging: DIY Tools for Social Media Management

Description: As social media tools like Twitter and Facebook become core components of nonprofit communication strategies, there is a corresponding need to assess how well programmatic messaging and organizational identity are propagating in those channels: “We Tweet; is anybody listening?” In addition, nonprofits have an increasing need to know on what blogs, websites and other online venues they and their issues are being mentioned and discussed, both favorably and less favorably. This webinar will show you how to create a listening dashboard for your or your organization’s use. I will also provide an introduction for social media goal-setting and a template for tracking your social media engagement.

Related Links:

• Nonprofit Webinars
• Slides and notes
• Webinar recording

Strategic Data

I have done a few webinars and presentations about social media tracking and metrics and frequently used the phrase “actionable data.” After one of these presentations, a participant came up to me and pushed back a little on what I’d said, explaining that data was for evaluation and that seemed very passive. I responded that data, without action, isn’t worth our effort to track it. That’s what actionable means.

But then I realized, the reason people didn’t see action tied to their data was because they didn’t see how the data, or even the actions that data could indicate, were strategic. Data we don’t want to take action about is even worse. We need strategic data. And, as it turns out, that doesn’t just mean data from your programs and services, but from your social engagement, too.

Step 1: Linking Strategy to Goals

Most of us on this call probably have an elevator speech or even a few that we use to explain what it is we do as an organization, what our role in the organization is; maybe even why people would want to get involved or donate. That’s where we start. We can use that general or generic even mission statement to start putting our social media use into a strategic place.

If your organization has a strategic plan or even a Theory of Change, you are already equipped with even more deliberate language that can help you get started. Most strategic plans include program area or service area specifics and you can use those to help frame why you use social media.

Step 2: Linking Goals to Social

Now that we have identified some areas where social media fits with the overall purpose of the organization, we can start putting certain aspects of social engagement into goal areas. We want to be specific here about the why and less specific about the what. For example, our goals with social media should identify the influence or impact we want to make, but not necessarily say we will do it on facebook. You may, actually use facebook for part of your social media activity, but you want to form your goals so that they are impact-specific, and open to either multiple or changing platform use.

Step 3: Acting on Strategic Data

And the last part, identifying your metrics to track and really tracking it! When it comes to tracking, there are a few things I recommend:

 Get Started

You can use this template to get you started. Be sure to change the blue rows in the document to reflect your goals and align your various metrics underneath. Make a copy of the file for your own use (otherwise anyone on the web will see your data if you put it in my template), or download the file.

>> http://bit.ly/DIYmetrics

Slides & Video

You can review the slides below, or check out Nonprofit Webinars to watch the full recording!

Photo credit: Flickr myklroventine

Location: Online

Topic: Strong Connections: Linking your strategy, to goals, to data

Description: When it comes to social media, email marketing, or even online engagement in general, we often have a feeling when things are going well or when they aren’t. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or something else, you don’t have to be satisfied with a feeling: use your organization’s strategic plan to identify real goals and then track the data to show your impact. The next time your leadership staff ask why you’re spending all that time on Twitter, you’ll be able to show them why it matters!

Related Links:

• Nonprofit Webinars
• Recording
• Notes and slides

Templates

• Community Map Template: http://bit.ly/DIYcommunity
• Content Map Template: http://bit.ly/DIYtemplate
• Metrics Template: http://bit.ly/DIYmetrics
• Listening Dashboard: https://amysampleward.org/2009/10/27/how-to-create-a-listening-dashboard-for-your-organization/

Books & Collections

• We Are Media
• Social by Social
• #SOCIALMEDIA NONPROFIT tweet Book01
• Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission
• Networked Nonprofit

Resources

• Tools and Apps to Energize Your Base
• 5 Steps to a Successful Social Media Strategy
• Google Analytics for Facebook Pages
• Google Analytics for Wikispaces
• List of Social Media Management Systems
• DIY Community Engagement Metrics
• Crowdsourcing vs Community Sourcing
• Slacktivism: Turning a Like into Social Change
• Sustainable Community Building
• Community Building: Landscaping for Gardening

Questions? Ideas? Examples you’d like to share? Drop any questions or things to add to the resource list in the comments here for others to check out!

Presentation

Do-It-Yourself

So often I find that we are too quick to say that because a website doesn’t have our domain, a tool is downloaded to our computer, or a platform doesn’t have our developers working on it that we can’t be responsible for measuring and analyzing the way we use it. It’s just not true! The do-it-yourself mentality that I hope to empower in those reading this post or that participated in the webinar is that if you are engaging there, then there’s opportunity to track it! YOU can do it!

Community Mapping

>> Get this template!

Step 1:  Identify all the groups within your community.

To start mapping the community we need to first identify which groups are within it. Do you have volunteers, interns, or adjunct staff? Maybe you work with schools so you have segments for teachers, administrators, parents, students, and then groups outside of the school. Here are some questions that can help get people talking to start sharing the groups they work with.

In my experience, the more diverse group you can get together to have this conversation and work through this planning together, the more complete a picture you can draw of your community. When people who work in services, programs, grant writing and fundraising, for example, all share their view of the groups in the community, not only can you start mapping the network but you can also have really rich discussions about the way different parts of your organization view the community.

Step 2: Define the goals that match each group.

There are two sets of goals to be discussed here: the first are the goals of that group – what do they want from you, why do they want to come to you, what do they get out of it? The second are the goals your organization has for that group – what are you hoping they will do, how will they contribute, what are you asking for from them? Again, this conversation can be really eye-opening as a part of building the community map, but also as far as encouraging dialogue within your organization and providing clarity around the organizational goals and the way they play out with the community engagement.

Step 3: Identify the tools.

This means identifying the spaces, platforms, and applications where each group congregates and where you can communicate with them. Even though much of these will be online social technologies, don’t forget about the offline spaces, too. Identifying the mechanisms you can use to communicate with each group can help you target your efforts, but in many cases illuminates areas where only one or a couple groups use a certain platform, while others use another – not only will this help you figure out where to say things, but can dramatically change what you say where.

Content Mapping

>> Get this template!

Step 1: Identify all the content.

Now, for this content map to be as valuable across your organization as possible, you want to be as specific as you can be with this section. I’ve listed some examples to get you started, but really think about all the various pieces of content you have. Instead of listing “blog posts,” instead, list what those blog posts are about: maybe job openings, volunteer opportunities, news about your work, examples of your services or people you have helped. New grants or new programs. There will probably be a lot of things to list. And that’s okay!

Step 2: Goals.

These goals should primarily come from the Community Map where you have two columns’ worth of goals and actions. There will be additional goals as well, but you do want to ensure that the goals you have already identified from the community map are included here. The additional goals could be things like, increase visibility, recruit new funders, find new staff or volunteers, etc.

Step 3: Identify all the possible outlets.

Again, you can draw a lot of these from the community map, but you will probably find that this is an opportunity to be really specific, more specific than you were in the community map. For example, the community map may have identified facebook as a platform that one group uses. And in the content map you may list a facebook page as well as facebook events as you can create an event that’s tied to your page but publicizes and manages RSVPs for a one-time event.

Metrics Tracking

>> Get this template!

Remember – Even if you’re using google alerts and google analytics, you may not really be able to look at data over time in a critical way. You will have a good sense of where things are going or how people respond to content and actions, but tracking it like this means you can point to specific data to support your case. This template, like the others, is available at that link as a public google doc that you can save and reuse. It is not intended to be an end-all-be-all template, but it is designed to show you just how much you can be tracking. And get you thinking about where you may have more data points to add in. You’ll notice there are tabs for various platforms so that you can concentrate each view to one platform and measure points over time.

You will have data points that become irrelevant, it’s okay. You will also have data points that emerge later on down the road, and that’s okay, too! The tracking documents you use can be living, evolving documents. Be sure to add things in if they seem worth tracking and see how it goes.

Reporting

There is no point tracking what you’re doing if you aren’t reporting it! On my team, we have A LOT of things that we track. And it would be silly to think that we would have monthly reporting that covers all of it. Why? Well if we wanted to talk about all of it we would just look at the tracking documents! Instead, we have monthly reports that are created for two areas: content and community. They each pull out a few items that are noteworthy – whether it’s a change, a marked increase, or something we can see reflected in other areas of our work. And from those two reports, I create a global report that touches on the items highlighted from content and community as well as our programs.  It can be shared with the CEOs in a way that is directly translated into their understanding of our work as well as into their conversations with other organizations or funders.  These are a few tips for internal and external reporting.

Internal reporting:

• Weekly metrics for various platforms •Add metrics as you go
• Look at long term, not just short term changes
• Monthly reporting of trends and insights

External reporting:

• Share when there is something worth sharing
• Reporting context, not just numbers
• Ask for input and feedback

Example reports broken down by community and content may look like this:

Content:

• This blog post was the most read post of the month
• Facebook activity was highest around this kind of topic/content
• Newsletter subscriber numbers are not growing

Community:

• Participation at the recent event was high at # of people
• Interest in our example program has grown with # of inquiry calls/emails
• Volunteer numbers are dropping consistently over the last 3 months

Example contextual report may look like this:

• We are seeing the most interest around content of this type/topic and hope to share more content like that in the newsletter to spur interest
• With high turn out at events, yet volunteer numbers dropping, we hope to highlight volunteer opportunities and stories of volunteers at the next few events to measure impact
• We are looking to feature more information about our example program on the blog to help with the number of people interested in it

Thanks to all those who joined the webinar and for the folks at Nonprofit Webinars for inviting me to participate in the series! I had a lot of fun and hope it was useful for everyone. If you have other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask; and if you have examples or resources to share, please post them in the comments for other readers!

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Photo credit: richardjingram on Flickr

Location: online with Nonprofit Webinars

Topic: Do-It-Yourself Community Metrics

Description:  Social media, online campaigns, and community engagement can be tricky things to dive into and do well without measuring, monitoring and evaluating. But what to measure? How to evaluate? This session talks about the importance of data and metrics to your work and offers how-to guidelines on ways to map and monitor your community and your work.

Related Links:

• Nonprofit Webinars website
• Slides and notes
• Blog post