Why is Your Cause’s Blog So Anti-Social?
#1 Thing You Need to Learn from this Post:
While non-profits have a higher social media adoption rate than other sectors, they have a way to go before they are using them effectively.
A More Detailed Exploration:
Thanks to the recent paper from Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D., and Eric Mattson at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, we have the first longitudinal study on the usage of social media by US charities. Since its release, it has been passed around and promoted as encouraging news for non-profits.
Their findings showed that 79% of non-profits who responded to their survey used video blogging, 79% are active on social networks, and 57% blog. The authors chose to highlight the blogging adoption rate in comparison to other sectors: Fortune 500 – 16%; Inc. 500 – 39%, Higher Ed – 41%, and Charities – 57%.
Armed with this research, I decided to look around the Internet to see how these non-profits were leading the way in blogging. What I found was actually disappointing.
Results Come from Activity, But Never Confuse Activity for Results
When I speak at conferences and meet with potential non-profit clients, the question that comes up the most is “How can I raise more money using social media?” From an early point in my fundraising career, I took on the mantra that “activity leads to results, but never confuse activity with results.”
Awareness does not pay the bills. Nor does it fund awesome programs. Contributions do.
Up to this point, most organizations have been satisfied with justifying the online and social media investments by pointing to metrics indicating greater awareness. Recently, the move has been towards measuring engagement. With the current economic squeeze, it is quickly becoming about how it’s generating contributions.
Non-Profit Blogs are Anti-Social
As one of the older forms of social media, blogs have played a central role in giving non-profits, companies, and individuals a voice on the Internet. With the rise of social networking and microblogging, they are now one of a many options. But they remain a powerful platform to highlight the great things your non-profits does for the world.
After reading the research, I began to look around at the non-profit organizations cited by name in the report and those listed toward the top of the Fortune 200 list of US charities. Finding no examples of non-profits blogs that are doing a great job of cultivating relationships, I turned to Twitter. After tweeting a couple times asking for people to help me find non-profit, I did get a couple suggestions, but none met my expectations. Very few generate regular comments, if at all.
My definition of a successful blog is one that sparks conversation and generates traffic. Those who are successful generate regular comments and spark a flurry of tweets and retweets. Think Chris Brogan, Jeremiah Owyang, and Beth Kanter. None of the non-profits listed in the report and suggested to me meet these criteria.
Think about it – when was the last time YOU felt compelled to leave a comment on a non-profit’s blog or retweeted a link to one?
Elements of a Great Non-Profit Blog
If no one is doing it right, how can non-profits blog successfully? I think it comes down to three things:
- Demonstrate why your non-profit’s mission is relevant to me
- Illustrate how my gift (time, money, or voice) is helping you achieve your mission.
- Invite and involve me in the conversation by posing interesting questions and addressing conversation-worthy topics.
As Penelope Burk’s research shows over and over, donors want to see the progress you make from their support. That is what triggers their next gift. So when you show me that the $100 I already gave you creates a $100 of impact, I will be ready to make my next gift. The more you are able to tie impact to previous gifts, the more you can help your donors feel like philanthropists. When you do that, they are hooked.
Don’t Overlook Your Best Blog Resource: Your Development Team
Every day and every week, you have a very powerful platform to share stories, videos, photos, and links with me and other donors. To me, the most overlooked blog (and social media) resource is your development team. They use these stories on a daily basis and are the first point of contact with your most important audience – your donors. If they’re willing, set up a schedule for theme to blog and give them story deadlines. If they’re not, get them together on a regular basis (or attend their meetings) to pick their brains and generate post ideas.
Prove Me Wrong
Did I not look hard enough to find a shining example? Am I expecting too much from non-profits? Are there other ways to blog successfully?
Find me on Twitter:
@scottyhendo
Scotty:
Well done … appreciate that you connected us to the Center for Marketing Research information in a meaningful way.
I’m an a panel at the upcoming pre-conference session for the AMC Institute – American Society of Association Executives event in Toronto.
Am “surveying” pre-registered attendees on their use of various social media tools. Your post should be a useful addition to our session.
Thanks.
Steve
on Twitter @causeaholic
Love the post, Scott. As you know, I’ve been hard-pressed to find examples. And when I push social media, the point I keep hearing is that awareness is “nice” but are we raising funds? It’s difficult for NPOs to get support for social media efforts unless we can raise funds against it. IMO, this is where the lack of engagement stems [or engagement = call to donate]. I keep going back to KD Paine’s phrase of “return on relationship.” One element I took away from is that there are ways for us to quantify social media success outside of the dollars raised. But it’s a tough sell within any organization [esp. in this economy] to show that $X invested in social media led to this relationship when those dollars could be put towards fundraising.
Re: Elements of a Great Non-Profit Blog, I think there are NPO blogs that hit at least the first two of those points. However, #3 seems to be the sticking point.
Good points, Jeff. And thanks for helping to fuel the fire of this post.
I think many NPO blogs think they’re doing #1 and #2, but they aren’t doing it with the audience in mind. Sure there are a lot of posts that seem to demonstrate relevance and impact, but they are being written from the NPO’s perspective, not the supporter’s.
Wendy Harman from the American Red Cross made her comments via Twitter. Here they are intermixed with a comment I made to her and a question Jeff (@sharestrength) asked her:
wharman: @scottyhendo I agree re: level of engagement so far, but disagree about purpose. Purpose of any np is to provide (cont in next tweet)…
wharman: @scottyhendo (cont) unique valuable service that otherwise wouldn’t be provided. Our goal is not to raise money – it’s to help ppl.
wharman: @scottyhendo and we’ve had unbelievable internal change – leading to centralized DRM, etc in part bc of cultural evolution of socmed.
wharman: @scottyhendo it’ll take a bit longer to have guts to be totally transparent. Plus, ppl seem to like to talk to us on Facebook better.
scottyhendo: @wharman Glad to have your tweet-comments re: my post. Don’t think we disagree on purpose of NP. Let’s discuss here: http://tr.im/upRa
wharman: @scottyhendo part of the point! You want ppl to comment on your blog but your audience wants to comment where convenient for them.
wharman: @scottyhendo one of many ways we’re pulled in lots of directions at nps.We average 15 comments per post on fb w/ same content.
wharman: @scottyhendo not sure yet what that means for increased donations or empowering ppl, but it’s conversation. Can’t control where it happens.
wharman: @scottyhendo of course to your original point there’s still TONS of room to grow. We’re still in diapers. We’re pioneers in diapers.
sharestrength: @wharman R those FB comnts about the blog posts or similar content/topic but posted on FB? [via @scottyhendo convo]? Curious.
wharman: @sharestrength I have a feed from the blog posting to Facebook. Sometimes it’s separate status updates, but mostly just the blog posts.
Wendy – you raise some very good points in your tweets.
First off, let me say that we agree on the main purpose of a non-profit – to provide a service. But every non-profit relies upon funding sources to have the financial means to do so. My focus on fundraising is tied to immediate financial needs being created by the current economy. Money is just energy and a reliable measurement for how a non-profit is valued by others.
It’s fascinating to hear of the internal culture changes that social media is creating within your organization. You’re not alone as most non-profits I talk with have seen a dramatic shift of awareness in the past year. A year ago, social media seemed theoretical to most. Now, it’s right there in their faces and they’re beginning to realize that internal change must happen. I’d love to hear more about this cultural shift from you and other non-profits.
Your use of tweets to comment on the blog to prove your point that conversations happen where it is convenient for the other person was well played. That’s the reality of today – covering many bases with few resources. Your experiences mirror what many people are seeing – a movement from decentralized blogs to centralized social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It makes a lot of sense to me – our brains are naturally predisposed to use as little energy as possible. Going to one website to see what my friends and colleagues are thinking and doing is easier than going to all of their blogs or reading thru a long list of RSS feeds.
Like Jeff, I too have been in search of some great nonprofit blogs to use as a shining example of what could be if we published one.
But I haven’t found one either.
But I didn’t need to. There are plenty of good blogs out there that show me every day via my own visits that they are useful, impactful and will, ulitmately, do or will have an ROI for the individual or business that runs them.
Have written a blog for 4 1/2 years I know the ups and downs of blogging. I can surely appreciate the poet who said “his name was writ in water.”
But I also know that combined with other forms of social media–and, yes, blogging is a form of social media–that blogging can be a powerful, expository and complementary form of engagement.
Having seen the power of blogging for myself, I want to do it for my organization, and I have much better idea of how it should be done. We have simple tagline at my hospital: “Exceptional care without exception.” That’s what my blogging efforts will be about whether they involve fundraising, our food pantry, patient care or our fight at Beacon Hill to secure funding.
A note to all nonprofits about money: We all want it and it’s in short supply for all of us. These are the facts. Another should be that we all need to take this time to dig down to the roots of our organizations to look at who really are and the message we want to communicate to donors and potential donors.
I can guarantee you that if you do this exercise honestly and sincerely, your communication strategy based on printed newsletters and your email blasts will look like one homely tree.
First thing to remember is that this is a competitive marketplace. For instance, there are at least 6,000 green blogs. Most make no money. So in the world of emerging Social Media, you must and will compete for money, minds and eyeballs.
Second, the nonprofit business model is replaceable. We are in the midst of transformational change. Just ask the American Red Cross. In addition, Social Entrepreneurs are going to give it there best with boots on the ground, as opposed to checks in the mail.
Lastly, helping people is your priority, but where do the majority of the revenues go? With the transparancy of the Internet comes the reality that organizational productivity will only grow as an issue and check writters will continue to take a closer and closer look at how they utilize limited funds.
So if you want to stay in the game, get some more skin in the game and that doesn’t necessarily mean blogging, it means getting in on the conversation with those who support you.