There is no hotter topic than association and nonprofit use (and metrics) of social media. The data of the latest benchmark report on nonprofits and social media takes a while to digest, and even longer to determine relevance for any particular organization. A benchmark does not provide any particular guide to strategy, especially if almost every organization is still struggling with issues of ROI and meaningful metrics.
I admit, as an Executive Director of 20 years experience I had questions about my association’s investment in social media. In talking with my peers, (most of whom are also boomers), I found that my questions weren’t only mine. One colleague said, “So, we get 10,000 likes on our Facebook page. What does that mean? And in the long run, how does that benefit our organization?”
Boiling down the conversations I have had with colleagues over the past couple of years, the questions come down to these:
1) How does our investment in social media lead to an increase in conversion or retention? Can we show that our investment in social media increases membership or product sales, or retains members? There can be a lot of discussion about engagement, but I’m sorry to report this fact: many Executive Directors may feel that engagement on social media only is a kind of discounted engagement. It is easy to click “like” or to follow a link, but if that doesn’t lead to measurable benefit for the organization in terms of revenue, there may be continued skepticism about the level of investment made by staff.
2) How does our investment in social media enhance our organization’s reputation as the preeminent source of information/expertise among our communities of interest? There may be many communities of interest…but of particular importance for many organizations (especially if the #1 question is difficult to answer), is whether others begin (or increase) their use of information provided by the organization. For example, as the association of which I was Executive Director, The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, increased its presence in social media, we directly increased calls from reporters for “mainstream” media outlets (the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc.). These reporters want further information on material AAMFT had published or stories they were writing, or to use as sources for new articles. In addition to online links, pingbacks, etc., this created an external measure of impact for our social media activities. Social media led to earned media exposure for the organization itself.
3) How does our investment in social media translate into use and assimilation of the organization’s (or members’) positions, advocacy or public education initiatives, or member’s business/social interests? The key word here is translation. Can you measure third party use or adoption of positions, statements, or key strategic messages from investment in social media. This doesn’t mean that an organization has to produce something that goes viral, although that certainly could be one metric. The Oregon Dental Association created the public service announcement BRUSHY, that scored several hundred thousand hits in a number of days. By that measure it was a great success! Now, is there a way to tell how many kids watched it, as opposed to dentists? And is it used by pediatric dental offices for patients? As an Executive Director, that is one question I want an answer to: does the work translate out of the virtual world?
A social media strategy can be built that will aim at any of these three questions. Metrics can be established that are organization/campaign specific that will help define the value and success of efforts in social media. For many executive directors, who have to manage multiple priorities, budgets, and politics, the more practical the metrics, the more relevance of social media investments.
I’d love to hear comments or reactions to these questions and ideas.
Executive Director's Toolkit 