Archive for the ‘Engagement’ Category

Jan

2012

11

Category:

Content, Engagement

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10 Comments

How Facebook Changes Are Impacting Engagement on Brand Pages and What Nonprofits Should Do About It

Measure Networked Nonprofit

View more presentations from Beth Kanter

As part of my work this year as Visiting Scholar at the Packard Foundation,  I’ve facilitated many peer learning groups on effective social media, networked nonprofits, and measurement.    Several of groups serves as testers of the various ideas in my forthcoming book, Measuring the Networked Nonprofit, with co-author KD Paine.    While it was a little like changing a flat tire on a moving car to test frameworks while writing the book,  it was a rich learning experience.

For two of the peer learning groups, we explored best practices for using Facebook strategically as part of an integrated communications plan based on this content (http://bit.ly/networked-nonprofits-facebook).   We worked together for over six months, with a monthly conference call and “homework” assignments.    Each session called shared a best practice, debriefed on the results of applying the best practice shared the month before, and we collectively generated insights.     As one participant noted, “The consistent monthly time to reflect about learning was invaluable.”

For one of the sessions,  we focused on a methodology of how to make sense of data from Facebook Insights to improve the relevance of content and engagement activities.   It was a rich learning experience to have everyone doing this type of tracking and then debriefing together, even sharing a couple of screen shots of insights data.    Here are some patterns of success:

  • To expand reach, new, recycled, and interesting content is key, but posting too frequently can cause people to hide or unlike you.
  • Post a variety of different media types, photographs and visuals get attention, shorter status updates, and curated links.
  • The art of writing good teaser headlines is critical to getting more interaction
  • If the audience is local, it is important to framing content and issues for local geographic area
  • Editorial calendar provides the structure so you don’t have to randomly find content, but keep it flexible so you can post breaking or timely news related to your organization or the issues it tracks which gets more attention and interaction
  • Human interest stories and good news from the organizations generated more interaction than others
  • Commenting on the posts in other aligned partner’s Facebook pages
  • Engaging photos, especially of local places and animals work well
  • Optimal posting frequency is about 2 posts per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon or evening, and posted by hand.

While there are some generic principles for getting your Facebook into people’s newsfeeds, making sense of Facebook Insights to hone your content strategy will get you the best results.  Also, it allows you to test your own pre-conceived notions about what think YOUR audience wants.  For example, one participant shared that they were concerned to post controversial content that their audience would not like, and to their surprise it resonated.

Building Your Subscribers for Your Facebook Individual Profile

Once you have the discipline in place of setting up an editorial calendar, measuring it, and generating insights about what resonates with your audience,  you might wonder – what’s next?

Back in September when Facebook made its changes to individual profiles, one of the features they added was the ability to for people to “subscribe” to your individual profile public updates.    What this meant is that you could use your personal profile in a public way but also keep certain updates and content just for friends.    My initial reaction to this was, why would I want to do that?  I had some privacy concerns and also it felt like it would require feeding another channel – why bother when I already had a brand page.    I’ve changed my mind.

Here’s my public personal profile and here’s my brand page.  It has required that do the following:

  • Understand my privacy settings on my profile and figure out what content is for friends only and what is “public”
  • Decide what type of “public” content I want to share on my personal profile vs my brand page.   My brand page for my blog has specific objectives and I mostly post practical and useful material about how to use social media effectively.   That’s not all that I focus on or write about on my blog.   I share the other content through my personal profile as public posts.
  • Post content on my brand page as the page administrator, but comment through my personal profile.  That way, my brand page content gets into newsfeeds
  • Determine a “friending” policy.     Now that people can subscribe, you don’t have to friend everybody.

A few days ago, Mari Smith posted this update:

The News Feed is *clearly* favoring posts and activity from friends and subscriptions (vs. fan pages) — it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get fan page content seen in the News Feed. So, do businesses then need to turn to ads/sponsored stories?

I’ve also been hearing from some nonprofits:

“If brand pages won’t get into news feeds as easily because they can’t be subscribed to, then is Facebook going to become a less useful tool for us? Is it worth looking into creating a profile page for our Executive Director and having people subscribe to her updates to spread our message?”

The answer, of course, it depends.   For one, I think we have to wait and see how this plays out.  First, it isn’t clear when or if Brand Facebook pages will get the timeline and other features.   Second,  the individual profiles don’t have metrics yet, so if you haven’t tracked and honed your content strategy and understand what engages your audience, you won’t be able to do that easily on individual profile.   Third, as to the question of whether the ED or senior management staff should have a public profile and encourage subscriptions.   I think the same advice applies to the question of whether or not Executive Directors should use social media.   They have to be comfortable having a personal, authentic voice and using the technology.  A few examples:

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Momsrising
Billy Shore, Share Our Strength
Mary Wittenberg, New York Roadrunners
Bruce Lesley, First Focus
Kevin Donnellan, AARP

(If you’re in the NYC area, Big Duck is doing a social media session for CEOs)

In this post, Five Reasons Why Facebook Is Changing and What To do About It (hat tip to Kerri Karvetski) offers some additional advice on how to build up your subscribers.   I think it is too soon to throw out your organization’s branded Facebook page, but looking at how to enhance your networking by having staff create a subscribe presence and support the organization’s page is probably worth some investment of time.

Cultivating Champions

Before the holidays, I wrote a post about creating branded cover images for your supporters to incorporate into their individual profiles.  It wasn’t clear exactly whether it was a violation of FB policy as Mari Smith noted.   As you can see many nonprofits are going ahead and using them.  For specific advice on sizing images, see this post by John Haydon.    Of course, you get people to use them, you’ll need a strategy as part of  working with champions or brand ambassadors.

And now to end with a shaggy dog story.   My colleague, Jon Dunn, who works for Best Friends, let me know that they had created a set of cover images and were tracking whether cats or dogs were more popular.   Last week, I had used a cover image from Surfrider because I truly love the ocean.  But I also love animals.   Then, I found the wonderful cover image with the dog and the ocean!  Now, if it was only a black lab, carrying a Surfrider bag picking up trash on the beach!  And, next week, I can’t wait to pick out a timeline cover image from NWF or maybe these from NRDC.

Questions:

  • Do you know what content resonates and how to engage your audience on your Facebook brand page based on thorough understanding of your metrics? (If not, do that first.  Read 4 Ways FB Insights Can Get You Fans)
  • Do you have people on staff who are comfortable with personal branding and juggling a personal and public individual profile on behalf of your organization?  Can they train others?  How can you leverage their participation on behalf of your organization?
  • Are you thinking of using lightly branded cover images to get your message out? Do you have a strategy to go with it?

See my Facebook Best Practices curriculum for more advice.



Oct

2011

25

Category:

Engagement, Guest Post

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1 Comment

A Revolution in Documentary Film

Note From Beth: Yesterday, I attended a convening called “Beyond Dynamic Adaptability” for arts organizations about cultural participation in the arts.  A hot topic:  How do artists and arts organizations engage audiences in the creative process?    One of the slides shared (from a study by the Irvine Foundation) presented a ladder of engagement for arts audiences – from receptive to participatory.     This revolution in artistic process is taking place across disciplines, including documentary films.    Will a networked approach to documentaries, particularly those that are about social change issues become the norm in our connected world?

 

Guest Post by Vincent Stehle

The recent passing of iconic protest singer Gil Scott Heron reminds us, as he so memorably sang, “The revolution will not be televised.” Perhaps not.  But it will be shown in documentary footage in pretty much every other format: in limited theatrical release, on DVD, in short clips on the Internet and even via podcast on mobile devices.

We are living in a time of noisy revolution on the streets, from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park. But there is also a quiet revolution taking place in the field of documentary film. The system of making and distributing documentary films is changing rapidly. The creative process of making films is opening up and the outreach efforts to spark social change through documentary media are becoming much more dynamic and collaborative.

The most successful documentaries are having a significant impact on major debates and public policies, from environmental concerns to financial regulations. This year’s Academy Award winning film – Inside Job – is one of the most powerful descriptions of what went wrong leading up to the financial collapse of 2008. And runner up, Gasland, has sparked a powerful movement to restrain the unchecked expansion of “fracking,” the controversial natural-gas drilling procedure of hydraulic fracturing.

One notable aspect of the success of Gasland, which recently won the Emmy Award for documentary film, is the way director Josh Fox worked with grant makers at the Fledgling Fund to galvanize a movement that greatly amplified the efforts of traditional environmental groups. Together, Fox and Fledgling developed an intensive outreach strategy through more than 500 community screenings. They also created a website that serves up clips from the film, plus a wealth of supporting information backing up the provocative claims contained in the movie and myriad ways for citizens to get involved in their own communities.

Two powerful catalysts for change in the world of documentaries are Good Pitch—a collaboration of Channel 4 Britdoc Foundation and the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program—and the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies at the Bay Area Video Coalition. Good Pitch is an effort that brings documentary filmmakers together with a wide range of partners in distribution, financing and outreach for activism. And the Producers Institute is a 10-day workshop that brings together a select group of documentary filmmakers and technologists to create outreach and activism strategies using online and mobile tools for activism.

One of the most compelling products of the Producers Institute is a project associated with the award-winning film Granito: How to Nail a Dictator,  which depicts the genocidal civil war in Guatemala. In Granito, veteran filmmaker Pamela Yates returns to the subject of her first film, When the Mountains Tremble. Where her first film was a contemporary account of the Civil War in Guatemala, particularly the story of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Rigoberta Menchu, Granito is an effort to capture the history of the war through recollections and archival exploration. But that is only the jumping off point for the inquiry. At the Producers Institute, Yates worked with technologists to create Granito: Every Memory Matters – a mobile interface that will invite anyone who experienced the war in Guatemala to upload their own experiences and recollections for posterity. Every Memory Matters is expected to go live in January, 2012, when Granito is broadcast nationally on the PBS series POV.

In the past, documentary films were carefully crafted by the filmmaker in relative isolation and in complete control of the finished product. With a project like Granito, the film is only the beginning and serves as an invitation for everyone to share their story.

 

 

 

Vincent Stehle is a regular columnist for The Chronicle of Philanthropy and a member of the Board of Directors of Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media.

Sep

2011

26

Category:

Engagement, Measurement, Movement Building, Networked Nonprofit

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11 Comments

Facebook Changes for Organization Pages: Focus On Results

Flickr Photo by Lululemon

The discussion about the recent changes on Facebook has focused mostly around what it means for individuals, particularly the tension between openness and  privacy.    Many people are wondering what it means for nonprofit brands  using Facebook as one of their marketing channels.   So are people like me who do coaching and training on how to use Facebook effectively.     It makes no sense to freak out.

When I create training, I always take a  ”principles” approach.   While the specific tactics and techniques for a tool may change, the concepts generally hold constant.    Over the years, as I have watched Facebook roll out features and changes,  it seems takes a predictable pattern:   the big announcement, hype,  backlash, more tweaks to the platform, experiments by users/organizations, and learning what works.

One of the principles is to listen,  learn, and adapt and stay informed.  That is what a lot of us are doing.  We’re trying to understand  what continues work and what doesn’t and evolve practice.     You need to be nimble and not blindly follow a template because it worked in the past.      Measurement and learning are now more important than ever for success.

Focus on Engagement That Leads To Action

The Facebook “Like” button will morph and include  more actions.    According to this post from All Facebook,  these actions might include:  Want, Buy, Own, Listen, Read, Eat, Watch, Work Out – whatever developers create.   Each of these verbs would describe a type of relationship between things that exist in what Facebook has up until today called the Social Graph (our connections) or now what is being called the “Open Graph.”

For nonprofits,  some app developers, like Causes, are already envisioning types of nonprofit supporter actions on Facebook, such as Give and Pledge, which will allow them to prominently feature higher-value actions amidst the sea activity posted to Facebook everyday.

It is important to have a good understanding your target audiences’ decision-journey or ladder of engagement.   Don’t just stop at reach or awareness and don’t just focus on the number of likes which will become meaningless.   Organizations need to think about what motivates supporters to do something that moves the needle on their outcomes.

Gloria Huang from Red Cross said in a comment, “These changes are an opportunity to use our org’s Facebook presence to inspire actual action, rather than just “liking” posts.  This puts even more pressure on us to figure out how to bridge the gap between digital and real life. For example, if someone cares enough to add an app from the Red Cross that publishes an update whenever they give blood, it’s that much more important for us to thank and reward that donor once they actually show up at the blood center.” The Red Cross uses a ladder of engagement to move people beyond the likes on Facebook from awareness all the way to volunteering.

Brands have the opportunity to use apps to tell their story.  According to David Armano, Executive Vice President, Global Innovation & Integration:

“Facebook’s latest moves add up to three things: personalization, mobilization and amplification. For users, Facebook will allow users to further personalize how they want to share their lives to friends and connections. It also means doubling down on a better mobile experience. To brands and businesses, the revisions mean their interactions can be more effectively amplified IF they work really hard at high quality content and/or leverage paid options such as sponsored stories. From a business perspective Facebook is seeking to become the social layer that is woven throughout the Web.

The changes stress the increasing importance a “brand’s voice” in that it will need to be even more meaningful and add value to Facebook users. Companies who broadcast irrelevant information will be easier to tune out vs. those who genuinely connect with customers etc. who in turn reward them with engagement and amplification. In Facebook’s latest iteration, it becomes more about quality over quantity.”

Integrated Marketing and Communications Campaigns

Last month,  I shared a case study called “Facebook Likes Are Not A Victory” that told the story of how Momsrising uses an integrated communications strategy and measures success.    Momsrising goes beyond the “like” and uses deep engagement to inspire results – actions that take place offline as well as online.  And, that is how they measure success. This advice still holds true.   Momsrising does not look at the number of fans as an end point – and neither should your nonprofit.

Another example comes from a presentation that Carie Lewis from HSUS did in June,   “Beyond the Facebook Like.   They do not focus getting as many fans a possible, they’re focused on engaging with their network and inspiring them to take some form of action.

Relationship Building Is Even More Important

The news ticker, that streams all updates by all your friends will be important for brands, but not in the way you think.  It won’t be able getting your brand’s Facebook page wall updates into the ticker, but the actions your fans take on your page that end up on the ticker. (The ticker is a box on the side of the interface that provides a scrolling list of everything that is happening inside your social network. Coupled with this is some smart technology that figures out which stories are “top” and puts those (and only those) inside the main news feed.)   ClickZ has called this feature a way that Facebook will be friendlier for brands, and it’s easy to see why.    According to a post from ClickZ:

A lot of the content from brands that consumers like will end up in here as well. Most likely, a consumer does not want to see daily information from a brand on Facebook. What would end up happening, then, is that content would be hidden from view, unless you clicked over to the “most recent” tab on the screen. Which is to say that a lot of the posts that brands were putting up were never getting seen.

Also, given that the new openness of Facebook and serendipity of being able to see everything our friends are doing (and their friends), using multiple channels for engagement of our networks is even more critical.   But not to just share your message, but to truly engagement people by sharing stories – your networks stories, shining a light on those who are making a difference, saying thank you in person and creative ways — all the good principles nonprofits have been using to build relationships with stakeholders.

The new skills are learning how to be a good community manager – and focus on relationships with people, not tactics on specific platforms.

As this all evolves, I suspect that the number of fans will be truly meaningless.   It will be harder to cut through the clutter if you are simply contributing to the clutter.    A Facebook strategy isn’t just about  recruiting fans, but  deeply engaging people, building relationships, and leading them to action – but doing this through different channels.

Another change, is that people will be able to interact with your Facebook wall content without having to like your page.     This means that engaging content will win.

I posted this link on my Facebook Page and it prompted some great discussion about how some nonprofits are going to start rethinking what they’re doing.      Instead, keep calm and take a listen, learn, and adapt approach.

Some things to consider:

  • Ask your team, what are the results that you want to achieve?  How can Facebook support your organizational communications, marketing or program objectives?
  • Facebooking for, and engaging with, a nonprofit organization is now about meaning and resolving issues. How can your nonprofit improve the quality of posts, tone and managing the creativity of the your organization’s image and its engagement style?
  • Read what analysts and pundits are saying about the changes and how brands are responding.   I like to follow what Mari Smith has to say – for example – here is her post about the privacy implications.
  • Watch what other nonprofits are doing and emulate – but be sure to test new ideas in a way that you can learn and improve.

What is your organization doing to learn and adapt its strategy to the new changes?

 

Sep

2011

15

Category:

Engagement

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4 Comments

What’s the Secret to Social Media Success? Cute Animal Theory

What will it take to get the climate some attention?  Cute Dog Photos! That’s Sam, grist.org’s office puppy.

We know that people would much rather look at pictures of cute dogs than think about downers like climate change. So, grist-.org  is using Sam to call attention to the environment and harness puppy power on behalf of the climate.   They’re inviting folks to submit their own cute dog photos

grist.org has discovered what social media folks who work for zoos, aquariums, and animal welfare organizations already know.   Cute animals rule the social web!    The example below is from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium and one of their most popular videos.

And, of course, otters aren’t the only marine animals that people love – there’s mariachi whales.

Time to Update The Cute Dog Theory of Social Media:  Cute Animal Theory

Cute Dog Theory

View more presentations from Beth Kanter

Several years ago I created the Cute Dog Theory, a node to a Nicolas Kristof quote about how puppies get more attention than dry statistics about Darfur.   It was also a nod to the  ”Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism” which was the title of a talk given by Ethan Zuckerman at O’Reilly’s E-Tech Conference in March, 2008 (notes from Ryan Singel of Wired Blog).

Ethan points out that the Web was invented so physicists could share research papers, but Web2.0 was invented because people want to share cute pictures of their cats.  These same tools become very powerful in the hands of activists. Ethan’s presentation takes a look at creative uses of well-known Web 2.0 tools from outside the United States that help digital activists evade Internet censorship and promote human rights issues to a wider audience.

Back in 2007, I noticed a pattern in the US.  Many of nonprofit Internet strategists are Dog lovers! Take for example Jonathon Colman who is the Internet Strategist for the Nature Conservancy or Wendy Harmon from the Red Cross both are dog lovers!    I started a  photo sharing group on flickr called, “NpTech Dogs” and it is filled some the cutest NpTech dogs ever (and a few cat photos too!) .  I even did a series of interviews of nonprofit social media professionals and their dogs and its all available on a fun  wiki.

 

But now as more and more nonprofit shave embraced the social web, it is not longer just dog lovers.     There are the cat lovers too.  Marine animals and much.

Cute animals rule the web.

What types of photos or videos that your organization shares on the social web get the most attention?  Those dinner videos or cute animals?


Sep

2011

14

Category:

Engagement, Networks, Online Community

Tags:

4 Comments

Celebrating 25 Years Today: Some Thoughts About Relationships and Networks

September 14, 1986

Twenty five years ago on this date (September 14th),  my husband and I got married!   We’ve been together for 32 years!   I marked my 20th anniversary in Flickr and on YouTube with this video (darn the gown doesn’t fit!)

I checked out Rob Cottingham and Alex Samuels  geek anniversary gift list and it looks like photography equipment is how you’re supposed to mark a quarter century of marriage – probably in focal lengths of 25 mm?    Instead, decided to make a donation to charity:water during their September Birthday campaign.    (They didn’t have an anniversary card, but did send out a Tweet.)

After sharing our wedding photo on Flickr in 2009, I received an email from an Esquire Magazine writer asking for permission to use the photo.  They told me that it would be used in an article about wedding attire   I said, sure, just credit the original source.

Boy was I surprised when I discovered  the framing for the article!

We’ve endorsed the real-life charm of Awkward Family Photos. But when we scoured the Web for the worst wedding-day outfits on record, there was no recourse: time to right these hilarious wrongs and call in the Fashion Department for some much-needed advice.

And here is how our wedding photo was described:

The thing around the man’s neck in this photo is called a cravat, last seen around the neck of the Undertaker before his match at Wrestlemania XXV. Unless you can deliver tombstone piledrivers to anyone who scoffs at you, opt for a bow tie.

Well, that was when we celebrated our 23rd Anniversary – and good thing we both have a sense of humor!  Good relationships stand the test of time.  The secret ingredients are listening, engaging, paying attention, loyalty, acknowledging, honesty, balance,and love.

Good relationships are also the glue of building your network and community and those same ingredients are needed.    A good relationship is based on trust, knowing the other person, and being likeable (or as Guy Kawasaki puts it, being enchanting).     Living in a world where we can connect more easily with people through social networks,  transferring those relationship skills to the online world is the key to success.

This is the thesis in a new book by Mari Smith called “The Relationship Marketing” where she outlines how to build a strong and loyal network comprised of quality relationships that lead to tangible benefits.     Chasing after “influentials” is not the way – as Geoff Livingston points out in this post “Machine Guns and Gardeners” — it is about finding and nurturing relationships deep into your network and building over time.   It isn’t about quantity, it is about quality.

How are you cultivating relationships with people in your professional or organization’s network or movement?

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