online tools overview

24
Tools of Online Communication

Upload: matt-holland

Post on 09-May-2015

289 views

Category:

Self Improvement


0 download

DESCRIPTION

New Jersey Citizen Action (NJCA) annual convention presentation on online tools and strategies

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Online Tools Overview

Tools of Online Communication

Page 2: Online Tools Overview

Who you are, and who I am

You:- Grassroots chapters- Government- Labor unions- Client advocacy- Direct service- Think tank

Me:- National Political

Advocacy- Elections

Page 3: Online Tools Overview

What’s the sameUnion

Government

Agency

Activist chapters

Political Advocacy

messages

messages

mes

sage

s (members, decisionmakers, funders, press, clients, etc.)

messages

messages

Audiences

Page 4: Online Tools Overview

messages

You Them

Page 5: Online Tools Overview

It’s all communication.The online tools do an old

thing in a new way:

• Faster• More transparent• More available• More interactive

This…

Instead of this…

Page 6: Online Tools Overview

So, what’s your

toolbox look like?

(A big pile of the latest stuff is not necessarily any better than being too primitive.)

Page 7: Online Tools Overview

Goal:

The right tool for the right job, at the right price (in time and money).

Page 8: Online Tools Overview

Email List• Still far and away the most-used communications tool on the Internet• Especially popular with older demographic, less so with youth• Very flexible• send many or few• long or short messages• action-oriented or strictly informative• send rich media using HTML format

• Most nonprofit online fundraising is generated through email

• Groups with the largest email lists can capitalize quickly on crises or timely windows of opportunity if prepared

• But … big “viral” growth is rare

Page 9: Online Tools Overview

Best Practices:• Regularity (schedule, senders,

formats)• Personal tone• Not too long• Easy subscribe / unsubscribe

Email List

Page 10: Online Tools Overview

VerticalResponse501(c)(3) nonprofits to send up to 10,000 emails per month for free.

EmailNow by Network for Good, powered by Emma$29.95 per month for up to 20,000 emails

ConstantContact$15 per month for under 500 subscribers, $30 per month for under

2,500, and so on.

CampaignMonitor$5 per email campaign, plus $0.01 per email

Topica$50 per month for up to 5,000 subscribers

MailChimpFree for small campaigns, significant discount for nonprofits.

A Few Available Tools:

Page 11: Online Tools Overview

• Deliverability (do they get through spam filters)

• HTML templates (harder than it looks to get right)

• Integrate with member database?

• Ease of use• Pricing for your size list

How to Choose:

Page 12: Online Tools Overview

WebsiteYour 21st century Yellow Pages listing. First place many people go to look for any information about you, even your phone number.

I don’t know why you have a website – but YOU should.

Some possibilities:

• Educating and informing the public about your issue.

• Creating an established, credible organizational brand and identity.

• Building your base of support and serving as a vehicle to mobilize activists.

• Acting as a central point for media outreach and engagement.

• Being a center for running a campaign to influence a decision maker or target.

• Proving trusted news, analysis or research material to different audiences.

Page 13: Online Tools Overview

Picking Someone to Build it• Select relationships, not software.

It is more important to have a vendor you feel good about working with than a specific technology.

• Select organizations, not an individual.

Teams offer sustainability and accountability while a lone developer can leave you high and dry.

• Don't hire a newbie.

Experience with groups 'like you' is critical, so that the designer/developer understands your constraints.

• Insist on someone who speaks your language.

You are not obligated to indulge techno-babble. Choose vendors who talk to you at the level of your understanding.

• Plan for long term support.

A web site is not done once it is launched. Make sure your vendor offers on-going support training and other development services so your web site can grow with you.

Page 14: Online Tools Overview

Online Fundraising

What it takes

Options:

• Web hosting shopping cart• PayPal• Internet Merchant Account

Page 15: Online Tools Overview

Example: Fundraising for SCHIP “Bethany” ad

• 479,796 emails sent• 81,516 opened (17%)• 922 gave (.2 %)• $27,764 in 48 hours

Online Fundraising

What to expect

Page 16: Online Tools Overview

How well does it work?

Great!

• In 2008 the number of online gifts increased by 43 percent over 2007

• Online total dollars raised increased by 26 percent.

• Online donors are younger and have higher incomes than traditional direct mail donors.

• median online donor increase of 315% over five years from 2004 to 2008, while offline donors declined a median -6% over the same period.

Awful!

• online giving is still dwarfed by direct mail giving. Only about 9% of gifts online.

• Online donors have lower long-term loyalty

• Requires large list for cost-effective fundraising

Page 17: Online Tools Overview

The Metrics

# of recipientsx

Response ratex

Average gift $x

Number of appeals/yr.=

Amount raised/yr.

Page 18: Online Tools Overview

Social Networking

How many do you know?

Page 19: Online Tools Overview

Social NetworkingHow about these?

Page 20: Online Tools Overview

Social Networking

Labor organizer and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez defined organizing as “you talk to one person, and then another, and another.”

Organizing on social networks is no different.

There’s a difference between a communications strategy (posting content) and an organizing strategy (talking to people).

- Online Organizer’s Almanac

Page 21: Online Tools Overview

Social Networking

Is it right for YOU?

Page 22: Online Tools Overview

Facebook: No Free Lunch

“There was a direct correlation between a Cause administrator’s time spent on the Cause and the Cause’s number of donors. The vast majority of administrators who secured over 150 unique donors spent more than 5 hours per week on their cause.

Cause administrators primarily fundraised from people with whom they already had a personal relationship, which illustrates the necessity of building a robust grassroots network if you want to fundraise on Facebook.”

Page 23: Online Tools Overview

Social Networks Aren’t Free

For staff to spend 10 hrs/ week @ $10.00/ hour managing social networks you might see:

•a negative 75-95% ROI for fundraising

•$5.00 per email acquired

•$7.00 per action taken on emails acquired from social networks

http://www.frogloop.com/care2blog/2007/7/17/is-it-worth-it-an-roi-calculator-for-social-network-campaign.html

Page 24: Online Tools Overview

fin