Our nonprofit constituents are empowered and we can’t control that

Consumers are absolutely empowered through technology now. That means our constituents are as well. It has happened and it is a fact. We can’t control that. Sorry to point that out but that is our starting reality.

Our constituents are empowered. They know it. Do we?

They know they have influence. Do we?

Our constituents know they have voice that is powerful. They know they have more power than ever before. Do we know that and act that way?

If you a member of the C-Suite or executive team, did you receive a report today alerting you to what your donors (members / volunteers, etc.) said about you on Facebook, your call center, Twitter, YouTube, Tumbler, Blogs, Pinterest, etc. (the list is ever evolving). Do you receive it every day? Do you get weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual summaries? Have you engaged with any of them personally yourself? If not, it is a reasonable why isn’t that important to you?

Even if we aren’t seeing it, other constituents (or potential constituents) are seeing what is going on. They are forming an opinion of us based on those comments. We can’t control what is being said. We can control how we will react in real time about it. We can control changing the experience in the future.

Say a constituent has a bad experience on your web site and they tweet about it. Do we think others have had the same experience and haven’t said anything? You bet they have. Do we think others will find the same thing and either say something or not in the future? Yes they will find it and yes they will say something or not. There is no hiding. If there is one horrible review out there, they will find it and not the 100 positive things others have said about us.

Nonprofits are beginning to listen to what is being said on social media and respond to it if they can. It does require a commitment of resources but it is not going away. More and more constituents (or potential constituents) are going to share the good, the bad and the ugly about their experience with us.

Have you started to shift resources into engaging on social platforms? How does that compare to your investment in your call center? Is your call center and social media center integrated in the approach you want your constituents to have? We have to manage our online reputation.

What are our constituents going to align with if we don’t first define the experience up front? What do we want them to be a part of? Now is the time to invest more in the experience rather than improve how the donation transaction occurs. Our future as nonprofits is in creating programs that scream out in splendor. It is about experiences that kindle meaningful and sincere interactions at every turn. At the center of our evolution (or is it a revolution) is the experience. The experience is everything now.

Why are we going online?

Americans are going online to pass the time more than they were just a few years ago, according to a new study.

A report from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that about 53% of young adults ages 18 to 29 go online on any given day for no particular reason except for a diversion or just for fun. About 81% of people in this demographic said they have done so at least occasionally.

How valuable is Facebook to online retailers?

The question has been asked many times: is Facebook of any value to online retailers? For a publicly traded company, this is a pretty important question.  According to data recently released by RichRelevance, it is of value.

The e-commerce specialist analyzed 689 million shopping sessions between January and August with a special focus on sessions that were initiated through social channels.

Not surprisingly given its user base, Facebook drives significantly more traffic to retail sites than Pinterest and Twitter do: the world’s largest social network accounted for 86 percent of all shopping sessions that started off on any of the three sites.

What’s more interesting is the fact that shoppers coming from Facebook are more than twice as likely to make a purchase as those coming from Pinterest, a site much more visual appealing and product-focused than Facebook is.

In terms of average order value, Pinterest is far ahead of its peers, which is possibly attributable to the fact that Pinterest has a design-conscious high income user base.

http://www.statista.com/markets/21/topic/194/social-media/chart/643/social-media-channels-as-a-source-of-e-commerce-traffic/

Related articles

• How Valuable Is Pinterest To Online Retail Sites? (webpronews.com)
• Facebook Drives Most Retail Traffic, But Pinterest Drives the Big Spenders (webpronews.com)
• Facebook Drives Most Shopping Traffic But Pinterest Users Spend The Most Money [Infographic] (blogherald.com)
• What the Heck Is Pinterest and Why Should You Care? Let Us Tell You. (blogs.constantcontact.com)

Are you tracking prospects from social media contacts?

This is interesting. It also seems fundamental. I am sure way to many of us are guilty of “believing the buzz about social media and aren’t paying attention to a basic premise. It is about establishing relations and then generating sales.

I would be interested in your experience. Any thoughts? Are you converting social media contacts into prospects? Prospects into customers?

The University of Massachusetts released its annual survey of social media usage at Fortune 500 companies. The report revealed that in the past year, these business giants have increased their adoption of blogging by 5%, their use of Twitter for corporate communications by 11% and their use of Facebook pages by 8%. Sixty-two percent of the 2012 F500 have corporate YouTube accounts and 2% (11 companies) are posting on Pinterest. Sixty-six % of the F500 are now on Facebook. 73% of the F500 have active corporate Twitter accounts.

However, what caught my attention was another recent survey that the University was also promoting on the same web page. This survey examined how universities use social media to attract students to their MBA programs. The study showed the same sort of increases that the F500 survey revealed. However, the headliner take-away from this research was “The Missing Link in Social Media Use Among Top MBA Programs: Tracking Prospects” The report concluded that “the missing link appears to be tracking those who first become interested in the program through one of the program’s social media sites. Being able to measure whether these prospects actually apply to the program is something schools may be looking to do, but have not yet mastered. Without this piece of information it is difficult to really assess the effectiveness of the social media plan and to know where future investments should be made.”

via The Missing Link in Social Media Use: Tracking Prospects | Forrester Blogs.

 

Related articles

• Study shows social media usage surging at large companies (businessesgrow.com)
• 10 Easy-To-Digest Small Business Social Media Tips (amsterdamprinting.com)
• Social Media Measurement and ROI Next Focus of Inc. 500, Fortune 500 (customerthink.com)
• Why is @rupertmurdoch on Twitter? The C-Suite Mystery (futureofbiz.org)