Social media: free or not?

One of the main reasons social media has been so loudly hailed in our sector is because it’s free. And free marketing is a valuable commodity to not-for-profits.

But is it really free? You can certainly set up an account on Facebook or Twitter without having to pay a single penny. But could there be hidden costs, costs we should be factoring in?

A recent and fabulous infographic ‘The Real Cost of Social Media’, suggests that there are, presenting the challenge to the concept of free social media in a powerfully visual way: http://www.focus.com/images/view/58313/

Some of the aspects of social media that can end up costing quite a bit of money are:

• Staff time - including time for strategic planning, research, content creation, monitoring & responding
  
• Advertising
• Tracking & analytics
• Advanced content creation – for example, design, videos, audio etc.

And there can be far more…

So yes, of course we all want to explore the potential of those communications tools that cost nothing to get… but it is essential that we take into consideration the costs of using those tools and be certain that doing so is really cost effective for our organisations.

What do you think? Do you think it’s really worth using social media? Do the benefits outweigh the costs for you?

Read more

http://www.clickz.asia/2653/social_media_is_free_social_media_marketing_is_not

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1729279/social-media-is-not-free-heres-why

(Where to find) Pearls of Fundraising Wisdom: Better online fundraising #5

As promised last week, this is the final instalment in our blog series on better online fundraising. This week we’re pulling together some of the places we’ve found pearls of fundraising wisdom.

• Drayton Bird - http://drayton-bird-droppings.blogspot.com/ For example (for great pointers, jump to the end of this blog): http://drayton-bird-droppings.blogspot.com/2011/05/could-i-interest-you-in-one-of-my-ready.html

• Ted Hart – People to People Fundraising (P2P): https://sites.google.com/site/tedhartusa/our-company For example, his e-newsletter archive at: http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/mod_archive_view.cfm?u=p2pfundraising&search=dt)

• Patrick Ruffini – political fundraiser (some really interesting ideas even if you don’t agree with the politics... For example (really liked the ‘Feel the need’ comment about why donors gave): http://www.engagedc.com/2010/01/28/scott-browns-online-fundraising-machine-inside-the-numbers/

• Dr Stephen L Goldstein – (check out the nicely modest blog name!): http://www.fundraisingguru.blogspot.com/ For example, interesting piece about the power of visuals: http://fundraisingguru.blogspot.com/2010/10/fundraising-without-words.html
  

• NTEN - not just about fundraising, but lots of relevant material on a regular basis: http://www.nten.org/blog/ For example, fabulous piece of homespun wisdom: http://www.nten.org/blog/2010/02/08/why-my-mom-my-fundraising-guru

• Howard Lake’s UK Fundraising - on subjects as diverse as E-Bay, Twitter & digital curation: http://www.fundraising.co.uk/latest-blogs For example: this idea about diversifying fundraising in the light of diminished charity giving: http://www.fundraising.co.uk/blog/2011/06/14/asking-your-supporters-switch-their-consumer-spending-you

Are there other places you recommend checking out on a regular basis? Please let us know.

Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find: Better online fundraising #4

Still on the subject of improving your online fundraising, it’s a good time to take a look at the ask. Not what it is – I’m sure you know that – but how you make sure the user:

• is clear about the ask; and
• can find it online.

Make it easy

It needs to be really easy to find the ask online:

• ‘Donate’ and/or ‘Join’ should appear in the main navigation, so nobody ever has any excuse for missing them.
• Any important appeal should be featured on the homepage.
• People should be offered an appropriate range of ways to give: for example, donation, membership, sponsorship, shopping etc.
• People should be offered a range of appropriate methods of paying: for example, direct debit, online card payment, phone, post etc.
• Keep buttons (‘Donate’ etc) above the fold.
• For appeals, use an appeal-specific URL (for example ‘/japan-earthquake’)

Think about where they have come from

You need to shape your ask according to the place the user has come from:

• Offline DM campaign – you can assume they have already read the material and are coming online to pay. So make it clear that they’re in the right place (consistent campaign branding) and then make it as quick and easy as possible for them to pay.
• Online banner – they may not know much yet about your campaign, so you need to tell the story (in a web appropriate way – see link below to our resource on effective web writing) and then invite them to donate.
• Your homepage – again, tell the story and then invite them to donate.
• E-newsletter – if you’ve written the kind of brief e-newsletter we’d recommend (see the link below) then you can again tell the story and invite them to donate.

As ever, let us know if you think we’ve missed anything. And we’d be very interested to hear more about your experience...

Next week we’ll finish our series about better online fundraising.

Further reading

• 5 Pillars of Online Fundraising: http://www.suefidler.com/papers/
• 10 Tips for writing effective web copy: http://www.suefidler.com/resources/
• 10 Tips for effective emails: http://www.charitybuzz.net/search?q=10+Tips+for+effective+emails

Cookies – what the lawyers say

Very interesting to see a lawyer’s view of the cookie situation in the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/butterworth-and-bowcott-on-law/2011/may/27/cookie-law-shambles-web-browsers?CMP=twt_gu

Definitely worth a read. You could see it as:

• reassuring – even a lawyer can’t make head or tail of what we should be doing; or
  
• depressing – it really isn’t at all clear (even to the experts) exactly what we should be doing!

What has your organisation decided to do about the new directive? We'd love to hear...

Who gives online? Better online fundraising #3

Thinking about improving your online fundraising, we’ve already looked at knowing your audience and planning. Another of the crucial considerations is how to meet your users’ expectations. And to answer this, you need to start by clarifying who actually gives online.

What do we know about online givers?

Those who give the most have tended to be ‘business users’ in their middle years. This is important, because it means they are used to a sophisticated level of online delivery – and woe betide us if we fail to match this. There is also a significant (& growing) group of younger donors who rarely give offline but will sometimes give online – and the points below are equally true of them.

What do they expect?

• Speed – they have busy active lives & are“cash rich”, time poor.
• Information – they tend to be relatively well educated & want to understand why they are giving etc.
• Good service – they are used to online commerce and expect fast responses.
• Personalisation – they are used to sites like Amazon, where a high level of personalisation is the norm.
• Ease of use – if they can’t see how to do something – or if it takes too long – they are likely to abandon it.

Does your experience support this? Is there anything else you think they expect? We’d be very interested to hear more...

Next week we’ll look at some of the techniques you can use online to help you meet these expectations.

Further reading

• 5 Pillars of Online Fundraising: http://www.suefidler.com/papers/
• CAF Survey of Online Giving 2010: http://www.cafonline.org/default.aspx?page=17922
• nfpSynergy on fundraising & giving: http://www.nfpsynergy.net/reports_presentations/our_free_research/our_reports_by_topic/fundraising_and_giving.aspx
• The State of Online Fundraising: http://www.nten.org/blog/2009/09/24/state-online-fundraising

It’s all in the planning – better online fundraising #2

Following on from last week’s blog about better online fundraising, another feature of successful fundraising (in fact, successful anything, I reckon) is thorough planning.
The first important thing to say is that this isn’t particularly different from planning an offline fundraising campaign – though there are a few things to take into consideration that wouldn’t come up offline. So you should starting with the strategic end of your campaign and make sure you’re clear about:

• Your objectives
• The target audience for this campaign
• The resources you have available

Next you move onto:

• The ask itself – what exactly do you want people to do? (And why?)
• How you can integrate what you are doing on and offline
• The user journey – the experience you are going to provide for your potential donors as you take them from their initial encounter with you on this issue, right through to the point where they give money
• The different ways to give – the possibilities are extensive and you should think about which are most suitable for your campaign
• Which tool/s you will use – again you have a lot to choose from and you need to work out which is/are most suitable for the target audience
• Thanking and banking – how will you thank your donors and how will the payment/banking process work?
• Data management – what data will you collect? (keep it to a minimum for the donor’s sake) And how will you integrate it with your internal systems?
• Feedback – how will you collect feedback?
• Evaluation – how will you know whether the campaign has been a success?

As you can see, this isn’t rocket science... But covering these issues in the planning stage will reap rewards for you and your organisation.

Some tools you may find useful:

• http://www.suefidler.com/papers/ (Five Pillars of Online Fundraising)
  
• http://www.fundraising123.org/files/FundraisingCampaigninaBox.pdf
• http://www.justenoughplanning.org/download.php