Your organization has a profile on an online
social networking site such as FaceBook,
and you have hundreds of "friends" linked from your profile.
So what?
Your organization has thousands of subscribers to an email
newsletter.
So what?
Dozens of people virtually attended your virtual presentation on
Second Life.
So what?
You have hundreds, even thousands, of people following you on Twitter
or Instagram.
So what?
Hundreds, even thousands, of people voted for you on some
contest as the "best" nonprofit, or the one with the best idea.
So what?
Hundreds of "friends." Thousands of followers. Dozens of
"virtual" attendees. Those are impressive numbers on the surface,
but if those numbers don't translate into more volunteers, repeat
volunteers, new and repeat donors, new and repeat clients, greater
onsite event attendance, legislation, press coverage, or public
pressure, they are just that: numbers.
For online activities to be of any value, online action must
create and support offline action or behavior, or
measurable engagement with targeted audiences. What could this
look like?
- An increase in the number of volunteers providing service to
your organization
- An increase in the number of volunteers who stay with your
organization over a longer term
- A greater diversity of volunteers providing service, with
greater representation from under-represented groups
- Greater numbers of donors
- More repeat donors
- New donors
- Greater attendance to conferences, workshops, etc.
- Greater attendance to events with an entrance fee, which
creates greater revenues
- Greater numbers of downloads or purchases of a publication or
other product
- Greater numbers of clients or people served
- More repeat clients
- A greater diversity of clients receiving services from your
organization
- Larger numbers of people writing government officials,
corporate representatives or the media regarding the cause your
organization promotes, or engaging in other activism and
advocacy on your behalf
- Larger numbers of people filling out surveys that you will
use in creating proposals, reports and publications regarding
your organization's work
- More feedback from volunteers, donors, clients and the
general public regarding your work
- Elected officials, government workers (police, social
workers), or other officials commenting on your work (online, or
making a reference offline to something you shared online)
- Volunteers and clients reporting a perception of greater
support from your organization
- Volunteers and clients reporting a new / changed perception
that relates to your mission (for instance, those you engage
with online reporting that they are no longer prejudiced against
a particular group or community) or a change in behavior or
practice that relates to your organization's mission (for
instance, if you were an organization that promotes recycling,
and those you engage with online telling you they are recycling
more)
- Volunteers, clients, staff, the general public and/or the
press reporting a perception of greater support from your
organization, an improved perception of the organization's
impact, an increased awareness about the cause an organization
promotes, etc.
- People commenting on your Facebook status updates, asking
questions or affirming your message or even disagreeing with
something, giving you an opportunity to comment further.
- "Likes" on status updates/messages.
Evaluation of your online activities can be done formally and
informally. Formally, there are email surveys, phone (or online
audio) surveys, web-based surveys, and focus groups (which can be
done online, using various tools, or onsite), as well as reviewing
data, such as demographic changes among volunteers that could be
attributed to your social media activities.
To track the results of your organization's online activities,
you should:
- Ask all new volunteers, donors, clients, event attendees and
others how they heard about your organization
- Track attendance to all events, from volunteer orientations
to large conferences, and compare attendance before and after
online activities are launched
- Track volunteer service contributions (when were the offers
made in relation to social media activities?)
- Track donor financial contributions (when were the offers
made in relation to social media activities?)
- Survey new and repeat volunteers, donors, clients and event
attendees regarding why they came or return to your organization
or events
- Ask questions in surveys of volunteers, donors, clients,
event attendees and others regarding your organizations online
activities and how they feel this does, or does not, support
them in their relationship with your organization, how it does,
or does not, prompt them to write or call government officials,
corporate representatives or the media regarding the cause your
organization promotes, etc.
- Do pre-online event and post-online event/activity surveys or
quizzes, to see if perceptions or awareness changes
- Continually track and review the demographics of volunteers,
donors, clients and others involved with your organization
- Continually track and review feedback from volunteers,
donors, clients and the general public regarding your work
- Consult with government officials, corporate representatives
or the media regarding activities by your supporters and their
perception of such
Informally, you can ask volunteers, donors or others you encounter
in a casual setting about your organization's online activities.
"What do you think of the debate this week on our online discussion
group" is a great conversation starter while waiting for your
coffee, or a worthwhile last sentence in an email discussion
something else. Informal or casual ways of seeking feedback are just
as important as formal ways; creating an atmosphere where feedback
and observation is welcomed at anytime means success and problems
don't wait to be discovered. Keep track of what you hear or read
informally about online activities by your organization. This
includes compliments, complaints, observations, whatever. No matter
what you hear about online activities by your organization, write it
down for later investigation or to use in an internal report. This
ensures that issues are really captured and will, hopefully,
actually be addressed. Negative issues don't go away on their own,
and may wait silently until remembered at the least opportune
moment.
Taking this even further: is your organization touting its
online activities as supporting its mission? Then you are saying
that your online activities are helping to meet your
organization's outcomes -- you are saying these online activities
aren't just outputs, but that you have measures to show real
impact by your online activities towards your mission. More
on Measuring
Real Outcomes from Hildy Gottlieb (the "Practical Examples"
at the bottom of the page is particularly helpful).
Are there any online results that can reflect success regarding
your organization's online activities? Yes. Instead of number of
followers, consider these measures:
- Are there any instances of your online community defending
your organization to those who are criticizing it?
- Have suggestions that have been made by volunteers, donors or
online community members online lead to changes at your
organization?
- Are various departments - not just one - at your organization
incorporating online engagement into their work plans and
strategies?
It will take internal investigation to find out if this is
happening. If it is, then reflect these incidents and changes in
internal and external messaging.
Contact me with YOUR ideas
regarding how to evaluate online activities.
Also see this article on how
social media success can actually mean a FAILURE in customer
service. An excerpt:
No, Michael Dell, I don't want to use (Google+)
Hangouts to connect with Dell customer service. What I want, from
you or any company, is to ensure I actually get the best customer
service experience possible when I actually use your "normal"
customer service channels.
And consider this article on HOW
TO: Calculate the ROI of Your Social Media Campaign. This is
a corporate approach to ROI in social media that has some advice
that's applicable to the nonprofit/NGO/mission-based sector - but
also shows why for-profit approaches don't always work in the
nonprofit world. For instance, I don't encourage anyone to value
volunteers or donors only on the amount of revenue he or she will
bring to your company over the course of their lifetime with your
organization...
Also see:
- Measuring
social media success? You’re probably doing it wrong.
If your nonprofit is an animal shelter, or a farmer’s
cooperative, or a community theater, or a health clinic, or any
other nonprofit that serves a geographically-specific clientele,
having thousands of Twitter followers is not an indication that
you are having social media success. So what?
- Snapchat’s
Potential Power for Social Good – with REAL examples
SnapChat is a phone-based app that uses photos or videos, with
text, to create its messages to an account’s subscribers; you
have a fleeting moment to captivate your audience, because 10
seconds after a user opens the message, it disappears. It's a
very popular platform with young people. Should your nonprofit
be using it? This page will help you decide.
- Building a team culture among
remote workers
Coming together face-to-face, in the same room, does not
automatically create team cohesion and a strong sense of team.
Yet, many people think having online meetings automatically
means it’s difficult for staff to have a strong sense of team.
When thinking about creating a sense of team online, try to get
away from that aforementioned belief. People feel a part of a
team if they feel heard and included, whether online or off. And
they will attend meetings and pay attention to those meetings if
they feel the meeting is relevant to their work - on or offline.
This resource offers ideas for live events, asynchronous events
& activities that can build a sense of team among remote
workers.
- Handling Online
Criticism
Online criticism of a nonprofit organization, even by its own
supporters, is inevitable. It may be about an organization's new
logo or new mission statement, the lack of parking, or that the
volunteer orientation being too long. It may be substantial
questions regarding an organization's business practices and
perceived lack of transparency. How a nonprofit organization
handles online criticism speaks volumes about that organization,
for weeks, months, and maybe even years to come. There's no way
to avoid it, but there are ways to address criticism that can
help an organization to be perceived as even more trustworthy
and worth supporting.
- Using Real-Time Communications With
Volunteers
Many organizations use real-time online communications --
usually called "chats" -- to hold online meetings with
volunteers, or to allow volunteers to interact with staff,
clients, or each other. This resource provides more information
on chats -- what they are, how agencies are using them to
interact with volunteers, tips to encourage and maintain
participation in chats, and where to find chat platforms.
- Internet discussion groups for
volunteers
Many agencies have created e-mail-based discussion groups or
newsgroups for their volunteers. These asynchronous online tools
allow agencies to easily make announcements to volunteers, and
sometimes also allow volunteers to interact with each other, get
suggestions and feedback, and ask questions. They can also serve
as a written record of participation, concerns, trends and
issues for volunteers. Unlike chats, volunteers can participate
whenever they wish, and they don't need special software to do
so.
- Using Video to Support
Online Volunteers/Remote Volunteers.
Video is a great way to further support volunteers, and your
computer probably already has all of the tools you need to make
a video, or to engage in a live video conversation with others.
Video isn't something to use only with online volunteers or
remote volunteers (those providing onsite service at a different
location than yours). It's also a tool you can use with new and
current volunteers. In addition to an organization producing
videos for volunteers, it can also work the other way around:
volunteers can produce videos for organizations. This resource
provides information on your options, and links to my own short
video on the subject.
- Stages of Maturity in
Nonprofit Orgs Using Online Services
What does a networking technology-savvy nonprofit organization
look like? To help nonprofits think about networking tech
standards they should pursue, and possible goals for the future,
I've created this assessment of the states of maturity for a
nonprofit organization's use of networking/online technologies.
- Safety in Online
Volunteering Programs
Information to help your agency create general safety
guidelines for all online volunteering programs,
suggestions and examples for those managing programs involving
youth as online volunteers, and suggestions for bringing
together youth and adult online volunteers.
- How People In Remote Locations
Can Work on the Same Document
The key to sharing documents among people in remote locations
isn't your computer technology; it's how your humans save and
share information.
- Online culture and online community
It's becoming the norm for mission-based organizations (NGOs,
NPOs and others) to use Internet tools to work with volunteers
(including board members), staff, donors and others. This
section of my site has been greatly updated, providing
even more ideas and resources on how to work with others online,
in language that's easy to understand for those considering or
just getting started in using online technologies with
volunteers, donors and other supporters.