Focus on what you should be measuring so you can streamline your PR measurement tracking

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises

When it comes to the latest in PR measurement, the mere thought of it may make you feel like it’s impossible to “keep up.” Before you overwhelm yourself, take a deep breath and focus on growing your skills by incorporating these three principles into your regular routine. By focusing on these simple – not to mention, free! – tips to refine your skills, you’ll become a measurement star before you know it!

1. Simplify and Streamline Tracking

As I mentioned in a previous Socialbrite post on creating a measurement program, most of the time we don’t have access to fancy dashboards; because we are often limited by client budgets in the tools we can and cannot use. That’s ok, because I’ve found that the more uncomplicated you keep tracking, the better.

Here’s how you can do this:

• Use an Excel or Google spreadsheet to track outputs and outcomes
• Making sure the time frame within which you’re tracking different things – e.g. traffic, downloads, purchases, whatever – is the same
• Watch your Analytics (at the very least, Google Analytics) at the same time, and regularly look to see if there is a correlation between outputs and outcomes.

2. Two Tools to Know and Love

Let me preface this by first reiterating one of my big “don’ts” – don’t get caught up in shiny new measurement tools. Focus on what you should be measuring, as opposed to getting bogged down, overwhelmed, or limited by a tool. That said, there are some tools and techniques that are just crying out to be used.

I’ve already referred to it once, and I’m doing so again: it’s time to become BFFs with Google Analytics and the Google URL Builder. The tracking of URLs has been around in the marketing world for a while now; and it’s something PR pros should know how (and why) to do. Especially for campaigns where you’re driving calls-to-action online, it’s one of the best ways to understand what is driving actions, clicks, downloads, purchases, sign-ups, etc.

After all, it’s only when you know what is and isn’t working that you can adjust your strategy to make it more efficient, effective, and ultimately more successful.

3. Spread Your Measurement Wings

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” Just as it’s important to continue to track and measure the growth of a campaign or initiative, it’s equally important to facilitate our own growth as industry professionals… and that means seizing every opportunity for learning when we can.

Here are a few free ways to spread your measurement wings:

• Read. It’s that simple. By regularly reading smart bloggers who regularly talk about metrics (Lee Odden and Jim Dougherty spring to mind) you’ll be one step ahead on the PR measurement front.

Want to go the extra mile? Make a point to add a couple of smart books to your library. Social Media Metrics by Jim Sterne is one of my faves.

• Events. Attending or taking advantage of free events seems like a no-brainer, no? Here are just a few:

○      AMEC Measurement Week: presented by Cision (disclosure: client) and Vocus, this free five-day event takes place September 15–19, 2014 in New York City. It will bring together more than 16 speakers who are experts in measurement and analytics across the communication spectrum, and includes keynotes from Mark W. Schaefer and Peter Shankman… and me! Seriously – if you’re going to be in/around NYC next week, you really should attend. Register here, and the hashtag to follow on Twitter will be #AMECatWork.

○      #measurePR Twitter Chat: As the founder of #measurePR, I’m clearly biased, but I’m proud that in its fourth year, #measurePR still connects measurement geeks across the world. From newbies to old hands, they (we) all congregate here… and I hope you will too! #measurePR takes place the first Tuesday of every month, 12-1pm ET (the September chat, however, is on the second Tuesday, Sept. 9, to accommodate returning from the Labor Day holiday).

○      Webinars: Find and participate in free webinars focused on measurement every chance you get. Now, I know it can be tough to find really good webinars (though Cision – and yes, I’m mentioning them again – offers them frequently), so head to PRSA and IABC’s online events calendars to see what they have coming up. That’s a very good place to start.

I hope this helps you get started on spreading your measurement wings. And remember if you’re going to be at AMEC Measurement Week, or drop in at #measurePR, please give me a holler – I’d love to say “hello”!

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Milaap creates sustainability by blending crowdfunding and micro lending

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, educators, journalists, general public.

Icould begin this post by regurgitating any number of statistics on the sensory and information overload we all experience these days, but I won’t. We all know that that’s the world we live in. Technology has really broken down barriers to information and while that’s mostly a good thing, it can be really overwhelming as well.

As a result, breaking through the digital clutter these days is tough. So what do you do when your cause depends on you doing just that? How do you make sustainable giving a reality, so that both your cause and supporters benefit?

Milaap (disclosure: my client) is a unique online platform that blends crowdfunding with micro lending, giving people from around the world the ability to both lend and/or create personal fundraisers for India’s working poor. These micro loans – which start as low as $25 and are repaid in full at the end of the loan term – fund projects in fields as diverse as energy, water, and education. To date, Milaap has a 98% repayment rate, which is quite remarkable.

Here are three ways Milaap is socializing and changing the face of giving:

1. Anyone who gives through Milaap can set up a fundraiser for a project they are touched by. But here’s where it gets interesting; you can make these fundraisers social. In other words, you can bring your community in, asking them to join you in lending to this specific project, telling them why. So, all of a sudden, you don’t just have one person fundraising, you have 3, or 6, or 19… the possibilities are endless! Takeaway: Many hands do make light work. When you encourage people to involve their communities, you grow your own at the same time. This is what has enabled Milaap, over the last four years, to raise $1.6 million, give out almost 13,000 loans and take close to 50,000 people from oppression to opportunity.

2. What I really like about giving through Milaap is that the money you give is a loan—not a donation. While this in no way negates making donations to nonprofits, I think it’s a really smart approach. With the immense donor fatigue we all experience, it’s refreshing to know you will get your money back once the loan matures (unless you choose to relend it, of course, which many people do). As a small business owner myself, I love that approach, as there is accountability built into the process. Takeaway: Elevate your supporters’ investment of time and energy in your cause. Showing them the end-recipients are equally invested is a great way to do so.

3. The best way to touch someone’s heart is by telling them a story. And Milaap has great stories to tell—of its borrowers, of its supporters, of its employees and partners. It has a really rich content bank, especially of visual assets. But what it does very well is let its borrowers stories speak for themselves. I defy anyone to not be moved by the video above we put together for its flagship campaign in 2014, the #HopeProject. Takeaway: Stories work best when they come straight from the source. As much as possible, let those in your stories tell them.

Today is Milaap’s fourth birthday. To celebrate, it is hosting a round-the-clock, global online conversation on sustainable giving, and I do hope you’ll join. Here’s more on today’s #Milaap4Hope event (it’s very easy to join, just log onto the respective platform based on which event catches your fancy, and follow/use that hashtag).

If we all do our part, we can change the face of giving.

The post 3 ways Milaap is changing the face of giving appeared first on Socialbrite.

HootSuite, Post Planner, Buffer can provide productivity boost

Guest post by Shonali Burke
VP Digital, MSL, Washington, DC

When it comes to staying on top of social media, one of the big challenges we have is to find the social media tools that will help us achieve a happy medium between curating, listening, engaging and producing content.

Frankly, I think that sweet spot is tough to find, and when we do find it, it stays with us for a while before it goes dancing off into the sunset, leaving us to figure it out all over again.

What to do? There are a ton of tools — and new ones coming out nearly every day — that purport to help us do this. I haven’t tested all of them, of course, but of those I have tested, here is what I currently think is the holy trinity of managing social media.

HootSuite: Scheduling updates made easy

1I’ve been a HootSuite fan for a long time. It’s a terrific way to post to a number of social networks, schedule posts and listen in on what’s going on, either by creating dedicated searches or creating streams of Twitter lists you’ve set up.

While I don’t use this tool to post to LinkedIn, etc., as much as I could, what I do find very useful, in addition to the publishing/scheduling dashboard, is the ability to monitor and post to Facebook Groups directly from HootSuite:

Typically I like to do my Facebook work “in” Facebook, but I know plenty of people who’d rather do all their Facebook management from a third-party app. And this fits the bill.

And just to go back to the scheduling feature, when people ask me to help them promote specific events, fundraisers, etc. I find the easiest way to do so is to schedule a ton of posts in HootSuite. (Assuming, that is, that those are things I want to help promote.) I find this feature very useful; I can simply copy a post and bung it in at various points in the “publisher” view, making minor edits if I want.

So if you are really pressed for time, then I honestly don’t know of a better one-stop management shop for the primary social networks than HootSuite.

Post Planner: The easiest way to schedule Facebook updates

2I’ve also been a fan of Post Planner for a long time. I find the team extremely responsive and the app just superb. Sure, you can post to Facebook from a number of different apps (including HootSuite), but PP rules, in my book, because:

• There’s nothing like having your own branded footer, as I wrote about a while back.
• Even though Facebook has recently introduced the ability to schedule posts, the feature is extremely clunky, and Post Planner makes it a breeze.

• Post Planner now lets you create lists of Pages and Groups to schedule posts to (though if you’re smart, you’ll still send them out at different times, but at least now you don’t have to schedule the same post over and over again).
• Its “status ideas” feature is just genius.

• You can syndicate your blog posts to Facebook via your RSS feed.
• If you don’t want your posts publishing automatically, you can still set up the RSS feature but set the publishing option to “suggest,” so that you can then send/not send out posts, or edit the accompanying status, as you wish.
• You can give posting rights to a team for group posting, which is terrific! The app costs a little more if you add this feature, but I think it’s worth it.
• Analytics, which can help you figure out not just which type of post performs the best, but when.

Buffer: Integration with Google Reader

3I love Buffer, and not just because Jay Pinkert posted such a thorough write-up of it on Spin Sucks. Buffer has made a lot of changes in recent months. It introduced an iPhone app not too long ago, and while that’s still a little clunky, overall it works pretty well.

But why would I need Buffer when I have HootSuite and Post Planner, you might ask?

Here is what makes Buffer critical for me: It integrates with Google Reader. And though most of the posts I share on a regular basis are through my participation in various Triberr groups or “tribes,” my Google Reader is a critical component of my reading and learning.

So I use Buffer to schedule posts when I:

• See a really great post in my Reader and know that’s something I’ll want to share. This becomes particularly important if there are bloggers I read/learn from regularly with whom I’m not connected on Triberr.

• Want to share posts as a backup to Triberr.
• Am on the go and want to schedule posts from my iPhone or iPad; Buffer integrates with the RSS+ app (on my iPhone) and Mr. Reader (on my iPad). Note, I find it works better on the latter.

Though I have set up Buffer so that I could post to Facebook and LinkedIn from the platform, I usually don’t. This is for two reasons:

1. My primary platform for content curation is Twitter. So they typically contain the @ handle of the blogger publishing that post, etc. And I believe updates with a significant amount of “platform-ese” or terms specific to a certain platform are best reserved for use on that platform alone;
2. I like Post Planner better for Facebook (or posting directly to Facebook), and I’m just not very active on LinkedIn at all.

Recently, Buffer has also integrated with Twitter and Facebook, so you have another way to schedule posts to either platform (i.e. buffer them). That is very useful, but since I’m used to HootSuite and Post Planner, I haven’t really used that feature yet.

Strengths of the three platforms

So, to summarize:

1. HootSuite rocks posting to multiple platforms, scheduling and “pay it forward” karma kind of tweets.

2. Post Planner rocks posting to Facebook probably better than Facebook will ever manage.

3. Buffer rocks sharing posts from Google Reader, from your laptop as well as while on the go (and you can also use it as an alternative to scheduling via the two platforms above).

There you have it: my holy trinity of managing social media. I hope this is helpful! Please tell me: What are your favorite apps/platforms to manage your personal/company social media presence? Are there other platforms I should be looking at? Why? What has your experience of Post Planner, HootSuite and Buffer been? I’d love to know.

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One of the most fun projects I’ve worked on recently was Oxfam America’s International Women’s Day 2012 campaign. Here’s a case study of how it went.

Long story short, we were asked to provide digital support for the campaign — specifically, to engage bloggers with the goal of raising awareness for the campaign and the work that Oxfam America does to empower women around the globe. Because Oxfam America already has a robust social media presence, our task was not to add to its social media plan, but to supplement it via blogger outreach.

I’ve been familiar with Oxfam for a while, and it’s a terrific organization. But the project duration was fairly short, about a month. Since I know how time-intensive any kind of outreach can be, I was hesitant at first to take it on, but it’s such a good cause that I did. And I’m really glad I did.

The objectives

Since every good campaign begins with the end in sight, our discussions led us to agree on our objective: to pitch and secure posts featuring or highlighting the 2012 IWD campaign and asking readers to:

• send an Oxfam America 2012 IWD eCard,
• present Oxfam America’s downloadable 2012 IWD award to a woman who had inspired them, or
• write their own blog post to promote IWD 2012.

Or any combination of the above.

The end goal was to secure as many new constituents to Oxfam America’s eCommunity as possible, since these are the people the organization can activate when advocacy is needed. And as they opted in so Oxfam could interact with them, the organization, would be able to convert them into donors or evangelists for their cause.

What’s measurable?

Here is where it wasn’t easy to begin with. The eCard initiative was new for 2012, so there wasn’t a benchmark, say for 2011, to set goals against. The downloadable award was also completely new — the one we created for Oxfam America, based on a printable version Oxfam had already created.

But here’s what we did know: Based on a similar initiative in 2011, where Oxfam America asked people to upload photos to a photo book, Oxfam America secured 261 new members to its eCommunity. And in 2011, there were seven blog posts on the campaign that had been tracked.

So in my head, I figured at least a 25 percent increase on both fronts – the eCommunity front, as well as the post front – would be a reasonable goal to set.

The big lesson here is that when you don’t have a benchmark, it’s really tough to set measurable objectives. And it takes time to look at the data you have, even if it’s limited, to figure those out. So start doing this as soon as you can.

The background work and outreach

Since we didn’t need to focus on promoting the campaign in social networks per se, but were focused on blogger outreach, we did a ton of research. And I mean a ton. Oxfam America already knew that women, particularly urban women, are an important audience for them. Then there was the fact that the actions we hoped people would take were digital actions.

So using a variety of resources and a lot of sweat equity, we created outreach lists of “mommy bloggers,” women in the tech and entrepreneur community, influencers in the area of nonprofit/social good (check out the list I built for Traackr on this a while back), social media influencers and some general outlets popular with the social media crowd and women in general (e.g., Mashable). After days and days of research, we narrowed down our target outlets – which included a lot of blogs, but also blogs on the online counterparts to women’s publications – to around 245. That’s a lot!

We also did a lot of background work in:

• Creating a one-pager of talking points, adapted from a broader social media messaging document Oxfam America had created for the campaign, to be provided to bloggers on request;
• A more detailed informational document for bloggers that included links to photo and video resources;
• A sample post for bloggers, that included anchor text, which was included in #2 above.

We made sure the latter two were easily accessible via Oxfam America’s ACT FAST microsite, so that it was easy for bloggers to do what we asked them to, if they were interested.

And then we pitched.

Hot tip: I can’t stress this enough. Even if you have done a ton of research, you should write a really good pitch that is personalized to the recipient. Do not send blanket pitches. Do not send press releases. Do not send attachments, unless you’re asked for them. Etc. etc. etc.

The results

I am very proud of these:

• We secured 42 blog posts from a range of outlets, including Mashable, Socialbrite, Mom Bloggers for Social Good, Beth’s Blog, Tootzypop (I loved this one!) and Spin Sucks. This was a significant increase over the 2011 online coverage of seven posts… so that’s, what, 600 percent? In fact, Oxfam America told me that our work contributed to nearly 3 million social brand impressions on March 8, a “record for Oxfam America” (her words!).

• We didn’t plan for this, but an unanticipated result of the outreach was that Victoria Marzilli (my client) was invited to be a guest on #TGChat the evening before International Women’s Day. So we were able to introduce the campaign and Oxfam America’s work to 68 participants in the chat. How cool is that?
• What happened with the eCards? Exactly 1,194 senders sent 2,044 eCards to 5,515 recipients.
• The eAward was downloaded about 1,000 times between March 7 and 10.
• And the big one: Oxfam America secured 752 new constituents to its eCommunity via the eCards. Comparing that to 261 for 2011, that’s a 288 percent increase.

And because we asked Oxfam America to keep us posted on what was happening on the back-end, we learned that:

• The top 28 traffic sources (defined as driving five or more visits) to Oxfam America’s eCards page included 14 of the 42 blog posts we secured. So blog placements, many of which included the anchor text we had included in our pitches and the sample post, were a significant driver of traffic to that page.
  

• There was a strong correlation between the publishing of the blog posts and search traffic via keywords such as “international women’s day ecards,” “women’s day ecard,” and so on.

It was a short, intense campaign, but it worked. And it was worth it, from Oxfam America’s point of view.

And I hope that by sharing this with you, it will give you some ideas on implementing not just creative campaigns for your clients and organizations but on setting them up the right way so that you can really gauge the effectiveness when you’re done.

Thoughts? Questions? Would you like more case study posts? Do let me know – the comments are yours, you know that!

This post originally appeared on Waxing Unlyrical. All images courtesy Oxfam America, used with permission.

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Target audience: Nonprofits, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, cause organizations, brands, businesses, Web publishers — anyone with a Facebook Page.

Editor’s note: Facebook is switching over all nonprofit and business pages to the new Timeline format this Friday, March 30. Because so many organizations haven’t yet made the move, or are still figuring out the best approach, we’re devoting this week to help you get ready to make the transition smartly. Contact Socialbrite if you need help.

In this series:
• Monday: 7 tips & cheat sheets to help you implement the new Timeline
• Tuesday: How to shape your nonprofit’s message in Timeline
• Thursday: What story should you tell in Facebook Timeline?

Like it or not, if you administer at least one Facebook Page, you’ll need to face the music Friday when the new Timeline format will go live on all nonprofit, brand and business pages.

I actually opted to switch my business Page over to the new Timeline when it was offered to me, and overall, I like the format a lot. But many people don’t feel the same.

Comfortable with a format that worked for brands

The thing is, we were comfortable with the old format. It allowed brands to set up default landing pages, so when a new visitor arrived at their pages, they would be prompted to first “like” that page in order to access discounts and other promotions.

Companies loved this feature because it allowed them to convert visitors into fans without much work or paid advertising on their part.

It’s not fun being made to get up out of a comfortable armchair, is it? Seventy percent of people polled on Sodahead voted against the new Timeline.

Businesses have been so furious that they will not be given the option to keep the old page design that some threatened, in discussions on posts such as this one, to stop using Facebook entirely. But if you’re like most companies, deleting your Facebook Page isn’t really an option. The network has become so ubiquitous that customers have come to expect companies to have a Facebook presence.

And with over 845 million active users on Facebook, most companies can’t afford not to be on Facebook.

Tips on maximizing the new Timeline

My friends at Hy.ly are dedicated to solving small business problems. So they’ve just released a new eBook titled “Facebook Timeline for Conversions & ROI.” It’s free. I’ve had a look at it and I really like it (and tell me what you think of the design as well when you read it. I think it’s pretty nifty).

It’s not very long, and it gives you some really practical advice on not freaking out over the new Timeline, but making it work for you. Here are three of their tips:

Recover lost traffic

1Immediately after your Page is converted to the Timeline, you will probably notice a drop in traffic, especially if you were using default landing tabs. This is one of the most significant changes for brand pages, since landing tabs were a common social media marketing tactic.

However, according to TechCrunch, only 10 percent of page app traffic was driven by default landing pages, while the remaining 90 percent came from published links and ads.

What to do: Use your views and apps area to drive engagement, and remember that you can also use your Timeline posts to steer users to the apps you want them to engage with.

Create conversions using customized apps

2Apps are growing from 520 pixels wide to 810 pixels wide, which is in line with Timeline’s overall increased emphasis on visuals.

What to do: Use this to your advantage. Customize your apps to use all of the newly available space when running a contest, making an announcement or crafting your custom App. There’s more on this in the eBook, but the image below should give you a hint.

Star posts and ‘milestones’ to build your brand

3“Starred” posts and “milestones” allow you to showcase your company’s successes and growth. They’re a terrific way to tell your story, so use them to share awards, major events and new product releases with your visitors.

And even though you know you can’t control what your customers say about you, you can control what appears on your Timeline by going back over your old stories and deleting anything that is irrelevant, embarrassing, or obsolete. (See our Socialbrite post How to clean up your Facebook Timeline.)

What to do: Use the star icon to highlight a story and assign it more value on your Timeline. Starred stories will take up more space than unstarred stories, so use them to draw the kind of attention you’d like.

There’s much more of this in the ebook. So if the new Facebook Pages are still giving you kittens, hop on over to grab the ebook and start planning your changes now. I’m pretty sure it will help you; I learned a few new things from it.

Please let me know what you think and happy Facebooking!

Many thanks to Munish Gandhi and the Hy.ly team for sharing the ebook with me as well as providing all the images for this post

Related articles

• How to clean up your Facebook Timeline (Socialbrite)
• Facebook Timeline: Is Your Page Ready for the Change? (panopticonlinemarketing.com)
• Can I ignore the Facebook Timeline deadline for pages? (debsanswers.wordpress.com)
• Is your Business Page Ready for the Facebook Timeline Switch? (homebiz.bukiki.com)
• 15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your New Facebook Timeline Business Page (gabrielcatalano.com)

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Last week I was in Orlando, Fla., speaking about measurement to the Public Relations Society of America chapter there. And I realized that while I speak and teach often on practical measurement for public relations, I haven’t really written about it here at Socialbrite all that much. So below I’ve outlined my approach. If you have a small budget and don’t have access to fancy dashboards, then this might be especially helpful.

Before getting to that, though, I have a few don’ts.

Things to avoid when measuring

• Don’t get caught up in shiny new measurement tools. Because then you start trying to measure the tools, and not what you should be focusing on. Experiment, by all means, but don’t get lost in the tools; keep your focus on your objectives and desired outcomes, and select the tools accordingly.
• Don’t get stuck just counting Twitter followers, Facebook fans, media impressions, yada yada. Note I said “just counting.”
• Don’t go crazy trying to find the one-size-fits-all measurement solution — because it doesn’t exist.
• Don’t get caught up in the misguided use of the term ROI (return on investment). ROI is a financial formula and should only be used in that context. You simply cannot try to calculate the value of “likes” on Facebook, for example, in terms of ROI. What you should instead be looking at is whether your activity in social channels is resulting in the kinds of outcomes – actions – your organization needs to succeed.
• Don’t try to measure influence in terms of scores. Just because a supporter might be deemed “less influential” by virtue of a score, doesn’t really mean that he or she is. We’ve seen time and time again that building community is one of the smartest ways for nonprofits and businesses to use social media. Initiate conversations that will help you. Then look at the outcomes that you’re trying to generate, and see who helped you get closest to those. The answer might surprise you.

5-step exercise in creating a measurement program

Now that you’ve read the don’ts, here’s what to do.

Typically, I undertake this very simple five-step exercise:

1Identify what the business objectives for your program/campaign are. Based on these, what do you need people to do? For a nonprofit organization, for example, it might be to increase members of an online community … because those are the people it can start trying to convert into members/donors.

That last bit is what’s most important. That’s what you’re going to work backward from, because while all roads might not lead to Rome, they should lead to that business objective. Your business objective(s) should be at the core of your measurement program. So before you do anything else, figure them out.

2Identify how you will measure the success or failure of these objectives.
For example, if your objective is to increase sales, what percentage do you want your sales to increase by over the last fiscal year? If you want to increase the number of volunteers working for your nonprofit, then by how much? If your objective is to grow your email list, because that is where you convert the most prospects into customers, by how much do you want to do this? In what time frame?

Get as specific as you possibly can. This means not just quantifying what you’re trying to achieve, but identifying the time frame within which you’re going to try to do this.

3Now outline your communication strategy. The most important thing here is to remember that you don’t work out your strategy first. You look at what the business objectives are, and then decide how you can use various communication and marketing vehicles to achieve those objectives.

To do this, you must have an understanding of how your audience reacts to and uses different communication mediums. Because your program/campaign is probably going to be more effective if you include those mediums in your plan. This means that you didn’t seize the shiny new toy du jour and say, “Oh, everyone’s on ____! We’re going to use _____!” Or: “Let’s make a viral video like Stop Kony!”

You don’t have to be everywhere all the time. Be where it makes the most sense.

4Figure out how you’re going to track your efforts. This is the part that is a lot of fun for me. With so many of our communications moving online, it’s possible to track a lot of things.

But don’t get caught in tracking nonsense numbers. I mean – going back to the “don’ts” above – you might get an ego boost out of seeing your Twitter followers grow, but if that growth isn’t helping you reach your business objectives, what’s the point, exactly?

Tracking URLs has become commonplace now. Use them. Get comfortable with Google Analytics and Google’s URL Builder. You will be amazed at how much insight these tools give you, particularly when it comes to understanding what is driving actions, clicks, downloads, purchases, sign-ups, etc.

And that helps inform your strategy, to make it better, and even more effective. It will also tell you what’s not working, so that you can decide whether or not it’s important enough to fix. Smart tracking lets you know what worked, instead of making you guess what worked.

5Correlate. Even if you’re not a statistician, I’m pretty sure you already know this principle. Correlation is basically when one thing is related to another in a way as to have an effect on it.

For example, if you get a terrific “hit” in X blog that you know is popular with your target audience, and you see traffic to your site/desired landing page increasing more than usual when that post runs, there is probably a correlation between the two. This means keeping track of your outbound activities — e.g. new blog posts, news releases, e-mail campaigns, and so on — and watching what effect those have on your desired outcomes.

You should also be keeping track of everything anyway so that you don’t mistakenly draw a correlation where there isn’t one.

Free approaches to keep track of key metrics

Because most of the time I don’t have access to fancy dashboards, I’ve found the easiest way of doing this is combining a few things:

• Using Excel or a Google spreadsheet to track outputs and outcomes
• Making sure the time frame within which I’m tracking different things – e.g. traffic, downloads, purchases, whatever – is the same
• Watching analytics at the same time, and regularly look to see if there is a correlation between outputs and outcomes.

If you’re keeping an eye on everything you’re doing, as well as looking at the back end, pretty soon you’ll be able to tell what’s working and what’s not.

And if you want to find the statistical correlation, Excel even has a formula to help you out, though I would work with someone who is really into Stats to make sure you understand what you’re doing.

That’s it.

Put these five steps to work for nonprofit, your business, your campaign. Rinse and repeat and I’m fairly certain you will be taking giant steps in demystifying measurement. Who knows, you might even start having fun! Take a look up top to see the presentation I gave at PRSA Orlando. I hope it’s helpful, and if you have any questions, give me a holler, or leave a comment, please!

This article originally at the Waxing Unlyrical blog.

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Issues of storytelling, transparency & disclosure come to fore

The big social media story of the year so far has been Invisible Children’s 30-minute film on Joseph Kony. I mean, you just couldn’t get away from it last week — 75 million views on YouTube and counting.

I was fascinated, not so much by the video, which I agree was beautifully produced, but by the amount of conversation it generated. So I talked to a few of my colleagues in the nonprofit world, all powerhouse professionals, to get their take on the video and the cultural hubbub that ensued.

And while much has already been written about the campaign, including this terrific Forbes piece on social media lessons, here are a few things nonprofit organizations should keep in mind when using digital media to further their causes:

You must let the truth get in the way of a good story

1One of the primary criticisms is that the Kony 2012 video doesn’t accurately represent the current state of affairs in Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army, not to mention the fact that warlord Joseph Kony hasn’t been in that country in a while. Invisible Children said that in order for the story to resonate, they had to simplify it, and basically admitted via the statement on their site that they left out a lot of detail:

“In our quest to garner wide public support of nuanced policy, Invisible Children has sought to explain the conflict in an easily understandable format, focusing on the core attributes of LRA leadership that infringe upon the most basic of human rights. In a 30-minute film, however, many nuances of the 26-year conflict are admittedly lost or overlooked.”

Yes, the story is complicated. But with the expert talent at their disposal, I have a hard time believing Invisible Children couldn’t have given a sense of history by date-stamping the different interviews and so on.

Beth Kanter agreed, saying, “I believe nonprofits, in a day of social media connectedness, really have to understand transparency and that they can’t get away with not being transparent.” Beth elaborated further on this in a recent post, reiterating that “for responsible social change, you need transparency.”

How much storytelling is too much storytelling?

2Kami Watson Huyse raised an interesting point: “It was clear to me that this video was a storytelling exercise, and stories by definition are personal and take a particular point of view. I was more concerned with his use of his own son’s reaction as part of the story.

“The truth is a matter of interpretation. I think that this video was designed to get people to act, not to be a realistic documentary.”

While I’m not a parent, I would imagine this would resonate with many of you who are. We’ve seen time and time again that good stories are those are easy to understand and that pull on your heartstrings. But do you really have to bring your kids into it?

From Beth on storytelling: “Successful messaging is compelling, visual, emotional and simple. Some highly effective online activists told me that one of their secrets is that their messaging is at sixth-grade level because that makes it clear and simple to understand. That’s a good thing to do.”

Kony 2012 did that in spades. But at what price? At what point does the story take over the agenda — or become the agenda? It goes back to being transparent – which pretty much everyone I asked agreed was key. Nancy Schwartz summed it up perfectly: “The end doesn’t justify the means.”

It’s tough to say no to kids

3I first heard about the video from my Johns Hopkins students. Granted, they’re not kids, but they’re exactly the demographic of young activist and activist-oriented people that the film was trying to reach. Beth said she first heard about it from her 12-year-old son. JD Lasica, my Socialbrite colleague, first heard about it from his 12-year-old son. (By the way, JD interviewed one of the founders of Invisible Children for Socialbrite in 2009.)

My guess is that versions of this scenario played out in countless homes across America last week. (How about yours?)

What happens when your kids, or young people you are responsible for, announce a new fact? You go look it up. What happens when they tell you they’ve just learned about ____ cause and are going to support it? You go look it up — because you want to support them, you’re proud of their developing a social conscience, and you don’t want to let them down. Right?

And if they ask you to support it along with them, it becomes really, really hard to say “no,” especially if they are convinced that a particular cause is going to hunt down a “bad guy.” Because if you refuse, doesn’t that make you a bad guy by association?

If you’re going to try and generate social change through young people, you have a responsibility to them to make sure they understand exactly what they’re getting into. Yes, this goes back to telling the truth. Because if you don’t, it could backfire.

Be prepared for everything to be scrutinized

4Invisible Children started out trying to raise awareness — in their own words, to “make Joseph Kony famous.” But now everything about the nonprofit is being scrutinized, from its financials to its motives. To its credit, Invisible Children has posted several years’ worth of 990s on its site and clearly reiterated, time and time again, the approximate breakdown of expenses.

Did it anticipate having to do this? Probably. But it probably didn’t anticipate the amount of criticism that would be leveled at it. In fact, yesterday CNN reported that director Jason “Russell said he had been a little surprised by some of the criticism. ‘I didn’t know there was that much tension,’ he said.”

Personally, I find this a little naïve. If you’re dealing with an issue that is emotional at its core, it’s going to create, or reveal, tension. The nonprofit world, while doing a lot of good, has its share of competition and politics. After all, there is only so much attention the rest of us have to direct toward causes, and there is only so much our pocketbooks can take. Of course there’s going to be tension.

So even if you don’t think your mission will generate controversy, prepare as if it will. Be prepared for everything – everything – to be scrutinized. And though your original message might be co-opted or broken down in ways you hadn’t anticipated, at least you will remain part of the conversation.

Be clear on what you classify as direct services

5One of the major criticisms that’s been made is that only about a third of the money Invisible Children raises goes to direct services, with the other approximate two-thirds going to film production and marketing. Russell has been unapologetic about this, basically saying that this is how they function, and that raising awareness — through videos, marketing, social media, etc. — is critical to their cause.

This is a conundrum that a lot of nonprofits have to face. Because without marketing, you can’t raise awareness. Without awareness, you can’t get donations. Without donations, you can’t fund your programs.

And since the percentage allocated to programs is one of factors in ratings issued by nonprofit evaluation sites like Charity Navigator — note it gives Invisible Children only two stars out of four for accountability and transparency — you have to be really careful that the public is given as accurate a picture as possible about not just how you raise money, but how you spend it and what exactly classifies as a “program.”

Should rating sites change the way they evaluate nonprofits, particularly to account for the increased importance of marketing? As Kami pointed out, this has been an ongoing debate for a while.

But one way that Invisible Children could do this is, as Nancy pointed out, to “consider marketing as the program. If raising awareness is the goal, this stuff is the program!” (If you look at Invisible Children’s description of its programs, they all seem to be direct service-based.)

What do you think about the Invisible Children video and ensuing firestorm? Do you have other lessons for nonprofit organizations, or do you think I got any of the above wrong? And many thanks to Beth, Nancy, JD and Kami for helping me put this post together!

Related

• The story behind Invisible Children (Socialbrite)

• KONY, Networked Nonprofits, and Transparency (bethkanter.org)

• The best tools for advocacy campaigns (Socialbrite)

• How to effectively use calls to action in nonprofit videos (Socialbrite)

• Writeups on advocacy campaigns (Socialbrite)

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Report explores whether giving days can strengthen nonprofits

There’s an interesting white paper just out, issued jointly by the Case Foundation and Razoo Foundation, and authored by Geoff Livingston (disclosure: he’s a friend), titled How Giving Contests can Strengthen Nonprofits and Communities.

It examines whether “giving days” – such as last year’s Give to the Max DC, which used gamification to give additional awards to the nonprofits and donors that raised the most money – can strengthen nonprofit communities.

Specifically:

“The report seeks to show how a giving day contest impacts a metropolitan area’s nonprofit community. In particular, can these contests provide a financial boost during tough economic times, strengthen relationships between donors and nonprofits, and serve as an online capacity-building moment for participating nonprofits, all while strengthening the general nonprofit sector?

“Or are they another giving gimmick that fatigues donors and distracts nonprofits from vital mission-based activities?”

In a nutshell: yes, they can.

Donors said the event made them more likely to give again

You might remember my telling you about my participation in the event (though I couldn’t do as much as I would have liked to, since I was recovering from surgery), and I found myself nodding as I read some of the findings:

• 96% of donors said they were more likely to give additional monies to their nonprofits as a result of their participation in the day;
• 84% of nonprofit survey said the pre-event training day – which was a key component of the initiative – increased their ability to interact and fundraise online; and
• including prize money, Give to the Max Day raised $2 million for 1,200 nonprofits from 18,000 donors on the day itself (Nov. 9, 2011).

So G2MD did everything it set out to do. Sure, it didn’t raise the whopping more than $13 million that Give to the Max Minnesota did last year. But like everything else, that has to be taken in context; this was the first time such an initiative had been rolled out in the DC area, and the other state/regional giving events have been in existence for a few years.

Everything grows with time; for a first-time initiative, I find this impressive.

Time and training are critical

One of the core components of the event was a training day organized for participating nonprofits in addition to seven half-day bootcamps around the area. The point was to ensure that the nonprofits were as well-prepared for the giving day as they could be and help them figure out how to build capacity, which is critical for incorporating social fundraising into a nonprofit’s DNA.

Eighty-four percent of the nonprofits felt that the training increased their ability to interact and fundraise online, with 72% saying they’d be able to apply lessons learned through the contest to their ongoing work.

You can’t do this type of thing (successfully, at least) without spending time on it. And guess what? The nonprofits that spent more time on their campaigns did better.

Sixty-two percent of the nonprofits that spent 10-30 hours on their events raised $2,500 or more; whereas only 23% of those that spent 10 hours or less raised $2,500 or more.

Donor acquisition and building community

Nonprofit organizations know that they have to balance their short- and long-term fundraising; it’s great when a one-off campaign works well, but the key is to acquire donors that will sustain over time. And when they use social media to build community, and then gradually convert that community into donors, they’re being really smart.

• Of the $2 million raised for area non-profits, more than $1.8 million came from individual donations – that’s huge!
• 24% of donors heard about the day via an email from a friend — which is exactly the kind of thing we hope to see if we can get our community energized
• 58% of the nonprofits recruited new donors
• 96% of surveyed donors said they’d give more money in the future to participating nonprofits

Gamification and my 2 cents

There are some really interesting case studies in the report, including a breakdown of how gamification was used to encourage participation and fundraising, so you should read it, particularly if you work for or with nonprofits.

These kinds of giving days can be a boon or a curse for your organization. If you don’t take the time to prepare and really put some thought into how you’ll approach it, you’ll find yourself scrambling at the last minute.

I don’t think there was anything more Razoo could have done to help the participating nonprofits prepare for the event. And while I don’t mean to be all cranky, if the NPs that didn’t do well didn’t spend the time on preparing for the event… well, they have only themselves to blame.

This kind of event is really a gift to area nonprofits, so if you plan to participate this year, don’t take it lightly. (I’m not sure when the various Give to the Max events are, but I’m sure they will be announced soon.) If you work it, it could be a huge opportunity for your organization not just to raise funds, but to build your donor base that will stay with you over the long haul.

This article originally appeared on WaxingUnlyrical.

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How to build an iPhone-ready DIY photo/video studio for under $200

Target audience: Photographers (amateur and professional), nonprofits, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, cause organizations, businesses, Web publishers, educators, journalists, agencies, general public.

Isaw a post from Chris Brogan a while back, talking about how it’s OK to not be an expert and, in fact, we shouldn’t wait until we’re experts at something to do it.

Sounds right to me. I never trained in public relations, much less social media, and my background is in economics and drama, but I think I’m doing OK. To me, non-experts doing things very well is one of the beauties not just of our profession but a gift that the social Web has given to us.

After all, you don’t have to be an expert to blog well, to excel at online marketing, to take great photos or videos, right? I don’t know about you, but I’m drawn more to the “non-expert” versions of these things because they have a realness to them that a lot of “expert” content doesn’t.

Being a non-expert at much of this stuff, I recently got a bee in my bonnet about finding a way to build my own, iPhone-ready DIY photo/video studio, that would let me create not great but good enough visual/multimedia content. (Project 366 is proving to be great testing ground for this.)

After a month or so of trial and error, finally all the pieces have fallen into place. And I did this on a total budget of less than $200, excluding taxes and shipping. Here’s how you can, too, with six terrific iPhone accessories that will give you a mobile “good enough” photo/video studio. Budget-conscious nonprofits and organizations who send staffers out into the field, pay attention.

Olloclip 3-in-1 lens

1The Olloclip 3-in-1 lens ($69.99) is a very cool little gizmo. It’s a fisheye, wide-angle and macro lens all in one. It clips onto your iPhone and gives you the ability to take some really neat photos.

For example, the photo below was taken during my personal training session the other day; I got Grant Hill to be my guinea pig, heh! Here’s the shot I took using the regular iPhone camera/lens:

And here’s the same scene taken with the Olloclip’s wide-angle lens:

See how it’s extending the visual to the sides, not to mention top and bottom?

And at the very top is the scene using a fisheye lens, which you usually only see on pro photographers’ lenses.

Finally here’s a photo using the macro lens of a really fab wine glass that Rachael Seda gave me. Macros are terrific for taking really, really close-up photos.

By the way, the Olloclip is also available via Apple.com, but I used an Amazon gift card that was crying out to be redeemed. There is also a cheaper version of this, i.e., the same three lenses that come with magnetic rings that you can stick onto the back of your iPhone, but when I tested it, they kept falling off. Not good.

Downsides:

• It won’t fit over a fancy iPhone case, if you have one
• The iPhone’s built-in flash and the Olloclip don’t play nice together, but I have a solution for that below.

iFlash

2So now you’re all excited about the 3-in-1 lens solution, but what happens if you want to use these when you need a flash? iFlash ($12.99) to the rescue. This is lovely, and it works great. It fits into the “30 pin” on your iPhone — that’s what you call the end where you plug your charger in. It will not fit if you have a fancy iPhone case. Yes, again.

Joby GorillaPod

3OK, so now you have your lenses and your iFlash. What if you tend to shimmer and shake when holding your phone/camera, and need something to hold it steady?

Enter the GorillaPod Video tripod ($29.95). Now, I originally bought this for my Flip camera, but I found a way to repurpose it for my iPhone.

Before I get to that, though, what is so neat about all Joby’s Gorilla products is the way the legs bend, which means you can attach them to shelves, branches, doorknobs — just about anywhere you need to, even if you don’t have a flat surface to stand them on. And they also have magnetized “feet,” so if you’re near a surface that will work, you can literally just stick it on there.

How cool is that? It’s a plastic yoga studio!

Joby has a ton of products, including a tripod specifically for the iPhone, but I don’t like that, and I’ll tell you why.

Glif

4The problem with using Joby’s iPhone tripod is that you have to use the case that comes with it in order for the tripod to hold your iPhone securely; it fits on other cases as well, but the point is, it won’t fit on just the iPhone. So if you want to take, say, photos or videos while using your 3-in-1 lens, or iFlash, and still need the steadying influence of a tripod, you’re out of luck.

This is where the Glif iPhone stand and tripod mount ($20) comes in. (I bought mine on Photojojo.) It’s a small piece of plastic – when mine arrived, I kept peering into the envelop to see what was missing – but it fits beautifully onto your phone without a case, and has this hole into which the Joby Gorilla Pod screws beautifully.

I’m sure I will regret leaving that last phrase unedited. But whatevs.

Also, Photojojo has a killer website that is pure fun to go through, and just wait until you get their order confirmation packages. I got a teeny weeny dinosaur with mine!

Audio-Technica ATR3350 Lavalier Mic

5The Audio-Technica ATR3350 Lavalier Mic ($22.34) is just a lovely little lavalier (lapel) mic that you can use with an adapter to enhance your audio. So, say you want to do video interviews, or recordings, from your iPhone — it’s terrific. (I bought mine on Amazon.)

But wait! It won’t work on your iPhone unless you buy this:

KV Connection 1/8″ iPhone microphone adapter

6The KV Connection 1/8″ iPhone microphone adapter ($23.06) — you have to get this along with your lavalier mic, or else it won’t work. Trust me on this one. Better yet, trust Jeff Geerling, whose site I found this from.

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I found, and then ordered, these last two. And I was shattered when they didn’t work. Turns out the KVC adapter was faulty, as Jeff suggested when I wrote to him. So KVC sent me a new one at no cost, and everything worked perfectly. I can’t give their customer service a big enough shout-out.

In summary

Let’s recap, shall we?

• Olloclip 3-in-1 lens: $69.99
• iFlash: $12.99
• Tripod/stand: $29.95
• Glif: $20.00
• ATR 3350 mic: $22.34
• KV Connection adapter for mic: $23.06

Less taxes (if applicable) and shipping, that comes to $178.33.

So for less that $200, you can:

• Take photos and videos that don’t shake
• Take photos and videos from weird, crazy, funky angles, should you be so inclined
• Give new depth, and angles, to your multimedia
• Get extremely decent audio for videos/interviews
• Produce fun, possibly funky photos/videos for your organizations or clients
• Avoid gnashing your teeth when you want to record something on the fly, since you have your studio-in-a-bag
• Make sure the pros you do hire do a really good job — I mean, they’ve got to top you, right?

Add in 99 cents for Camera+, $1.99 for Photosync and $4.99 for iMovie – all great apps for the iPhone for effects, cropping and whatnot – and you got yourself a cryin’, talkin’, sleepin’, walkin’, livin’ doll of a mobile studio, still for less than $200.

And I think that’s pretty cool.

How about you? Have you tested great accessories that will let you take “good enough” photos or videos on the fly? Do share, I’d love to know — and maybe upgrade my own mobile studio!

Republished from Shonali’s Waxing Unlyrical blog.

Related

• 15 top iPhone apps for work, play & creativity (Socialbrite)

• Creating media: Resources (Socialbrite)

• Mobile resources (Socialbrite)

The post 6 iPhone accessories to jazz up your mobile photos appeared first on Socialbrite.

Target audience: Nonprofits, foundations, social enterprises, cause organizations, NGOs, business professionals, educators, students, journalists, general public.

The other day, my brother sent me a message asking me what apps I was currently using on my iPhone. As I went down the list of my frequently used apps, I realized there are a lot that some of you may not know about.

So I put together a list of my 15 top iPhone apps for you, in case you have been evaluating your own use of apps. Some of these might be new to you, some not, but either way, I hope you find the list helpful.

While these apply only to the iPhone, several reside on my iPad as well, and some of these can be used on Androids and BlackBerrys. Most of them are free; I’ll tell you when they’re not. The apps generally fall into the categories of communications, productivity, social networks, photography and video.

Viber: Call and text for free

1This might be a new one for some of you. Viber is a terrific app — both for iPhone and Android — that lets you call other Viber users free. It’s really easy to set up, and once it syncs with your Contacts, it creates a separate list of people who have Viber installed as well. So when you want to contact them, you can IM them, just as you would ordinarily, or call them. Viber uses your data plan, so if you don’t have unlimited texts that come with your plan, it’s a terrific option. It uses wi-fi or a 3G network to connect — there may be charges if you use the latter — and the sound quality is incredible.

Path: Share life with your loved ones

2I joined Path quite recently, and have been enjoying it. It bills itself as “the smart journal that helps you share life with the ones you love.” I don’t post very frequently, probably once or twice every few days, but since I’m keeping my network over there relatively small, I find it provides a more intimate feeling than blogging out to the whole world. And I still get a kick out of Path’s visualization if you tell it you’re going to sleep, or have woken up. It’s also cool that you can post to Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr, or any combination of them, if you want to.

Beejive for GoogleTalk: Gtalk on the go

3I learned of this app from Ray Richman, and I love it. It’s free. Beejive for GoogleTalk basically lets you G-chat — as you would from your Gmail interface — on your phone. Beejive has a bunch of other apps as well that I haven’t tested, but I do like this one a lot.

HootSuite: Cross-post to your networks

4HootSuite has great apps for both the iPhone and iPad, so I have it set up on both. I like that I can use my multiple profiles even when I’m not at my computer, and most of its “regular” functionality is contained in its apps, such as scheduling tweets, posts and so on. Hot tip: In HootSuite’s desktop version, specifically with Facebook, in addition to setting up profiles for your personal and business page (or pages you manage), you can also set up profiles for specific Facebook groups you participate in regularly. I saw this a few weeks ago and it is a boon! However, you can’t do this from the apps. I don’t think that’s such a big deal, and you’ve probably already seen that if you reset some profiles in your “main” HootSuite account, the apps won’t automatically sync them, you’ll have to do so manually.

Tungle: Easy scheduling from the road

5I’ve long been a fan of Tungle, and it finally introduced an app for the iPhone last year. It’s as easy to use Tungle’s iPhone app as it is to use the desktop version, and that’s not something you can say about all apps.

Skype: The ultimate communication tool

6Skype has become the de facto way I communicate with my family and quite a few of my friends, and I suspect you do as well. It’s also how I’ve done interviews. The call quality is great most of the time, and you can’t beat the price of free.

Tumblr: Post photos to a blog

7I set this up recently after embarking on Project 366. I did so because the photos I take are almost always from my iPhone, so I wanted to see if I could post directly to Tumblr from my phone. And, of course, you already know you can. When I was reading the app reviews, I saw a number of complaints, but so far at least, it’s been pretty easy to post to Tumblr from my iPhone, and that includes the caption, tags, short URL, etc.

Facebook: Carry your friends in your pocket

8It wasn’t that long ago that Facebook introduced its own app, and it works pretty well as you post comments, post status updates or photos, like brands and all the rest. Crashes at times, but what app doesn’t? If you have the new Timeline, you’ll notice that it appears on your mobile device as well, which is pretty nifty.

Camera+: Edit and share your photos

9I learned about this from my trainer, Grant Hill. It is absolutely terrific! There’s a free version, but I bought the 99 cent Camera+ app, and it works beautifully. There are a ton of editing options, and you can also share your photos to social networks or via email directly from Camera+ if you want. I highly recommend it.

PhotoSync: Sync photos instead of emailing them

10The $1.99 PhotoSync app is just brilliant. Once you buy it, install it on your iPhone and computer (and I have it on my iPad as well, and no, I didn’t have to pay again). What this does is let you wirelessly transfer photos, which is great – no more cables or emailing photos! You’ll need to make sure the app is open on each device you’re syncing from and to, and you have to enable location services, though I haven’t found that to be a problem. It works quickly, and I haven’t had a single issue. In addition to photos, it transfers videos well, too. And, you can send photos to Flickr, Facebook and a bunch of other sites if you want to.

Flickr: Create photo albums from your phone

11It’s pretty easy to post your photos to Flickr using the Flickr app, though I find the tagging, etc., a bit laborious from the iPhone. Still, it does give you a way to create a Flickr album on the go, say, if you’re at a conference. And what photo sharing network is better than Flickr?

iMovie: Quick and easy video editing

12One of my goals this year is to do more video — using my iPhone. I’m getting more and more comfortable with iMovie, and purchased the $4.99 iMovie app not long ago. I shot this short video of my dog Lola meeting Snoopy over the holidays. Since it was already on my phone, I did some quick editing via iMovie, transferred it to my computer via PhotoSync, and voila. It’s pretty decent for quick editing, but it doesn’t have the full functionality of the regular iMovie software program. Still, for on-the-go stuff, it works.

The Weather Channel: Bring an umbrella?

13I know the iPhone comes with a weather app, but I like the one from the Weather Channel better. And yes, it’s free.

Weather Doodle: Making weather fun

14This is just lovely. It’s a really cute 99-cent app that turns your weather forecast into a cute, animated doodle. Even on a rainy day, I’m pretty sure Weather Doodle will make you smile. And hat tip to@sbc111, who pointed me to it.

Emojee Free!: Emoticons for every occasion

15If you like playing with different emoticons, this one’s for you. It’s free, and it gives you an astounding collection of emoticons, from a wide range of categories, that you can add to email, text messages and so on. However, be aware that only other iPhone or iPad users will be able to see them. Still worth a look, I think, and once you’ve downloaded Emojee Free! it will walk you through how to set it up.

There you go. Fifteen apps for your iPhone — and quite a few will work on your iPad as well. Most of these are free. Check ’em out and let us know what you think.

Do you have favorite apps that you use frequently? Do share, I’d love to learn!

Republished from Shonali’s Waxing Unlyrical blog.

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