Book giveaway: Win the book to grasp the power of metrics!

If you’re like most nonprofit professionals, you’ll eventually admit that you could do a better job of measuring.

The good news is that you’re not alone. Most nonprofits (and in fact most for-profits) are struggling with the challenge of measuring relationships, which is essentially what social media is all about.

To help you keep your eyes on the prize, Beth Kanter and Katie Paine sell the benefits of measurement in their new book, Measuring the Networked Nonprofit.

Win a free copy of ‘Measuring the Networked Nonprofit’

Want a free copy? Leave a comment below about what measurement has done for your organization. Co-author Beth Kanter will be randomly select a commenter to receive a free copy of “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit.” Feel free to share this post on Twitter, too!

Chapter 4 outlines 12 reasons that measurement is powerful:

1. It helps you get to where you’re going. Because social media is essentially about relationships, continuous feedback is required to improve them.
2. It stimulates new ideas on what to do next. Analyzing data is not just data dumping. It’s discovery!
3. It gives you credibility. You’ll need this to get support for your awesome ideas.
4. It helps you discover what tools and tactics work best for your particular goals.
5. It saves you time. If you know that you’re not getting results from a particular approach, you’ll stop doing it.
6. It increases the likelihood of success through informed planning.
7. It helps you raise more money. If you know why potential donors abandoned transactions, you’ll fix it. If you know which messages turn one-time donors into repeat donors, you’ll use them.
8. It helps you work smarter. Unicorns and rainbows just don’t cut it anymore.
9. It fuels your passion. We all could use more of this, right?
10. It generates excitement. Ditto.
11. It helps you change the world.
12. The last thing I’ll say about Measuring the Networked Nonprofit is that it will help you begin to improve – starting from where you are right now.

Don’t forget to leave a comment below to win a copy of the book!

Update: Our comments service, LiveFyre, has been up and down all day because of a power outage at Amazon AWS. If you don’t see comments below, please check back.

Related

• Metrics tips & best practices (Socialbrite)

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If you don’t know what you want to achieve, it doesn’t matter how many people ‘like’ you

This is the first part of a two-part series on creating a strategy for your nonprofit or social cause.

Target audience: Nonprofits, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, cause organizations, brands, businesses, government agencies.

Guest post by Melissa Foley
Netroots Foundation

Deciding how to measure your social media efforts can be a challenging undertaking. Number of likes? Number of followers? Level of engagement? Which measures are right for you?

Believe it or not, these measures are virtually meaningless. In fact, all measures are meaningless — unless they are tied to your goals.

Think about it: An organization working to raise awareness about an issue and an organization working to pass legislation are likely to have very different goals, even though they are likely to use many of the same tools (eg., Facebook and Twitter). One-size-fits-all “Top 10 social media metrics” lists can be tempting but dangerous. Each organization should choose measures that align closely with your goals.

Figure out what you want

Your first step is to figure out what you really want to do, how and why. I recommend using the following strategic planning process. Don’t let “strategic planning process” scare you — one or two well thought-out bullets for each step is sufficient:

• Step 1: Goal & objective
  Your first step is to carefully define a high-level goal (eg., pass this legislative bill) and a measurable objective (eg., get six key legislators to vote for the legislation).
• Step 2: Strategy
  Next, you need to decide at a high level how you want to go about doing this. For example, influence newspapers in key districts to write stories about community support for the legislation.
• Step 3: Tools and tactics
  Once you’ve got your strategy, map out an action plan for using new media and other tools to execute your strategy. For example, follow local newspapers on Twitter and engage in conversations with them, breaking news related to the legislation. Target communities when possible.

Decide how to measure your outcomes

Once you’ve clearly mapped out your goals, it becomes easy to select the right measures or metrics. Think about it first in real-world terms: How will we be able to tell if we’re successful? In the example above, we will know the organization is successful if local newspapers report on the issue.

Next, think about how you can measure that best, given the tools you have. For this example, we may want to measure the number of articles and posts on Facebook and Twitter by the target newspapers.

Sure, this process takes time. However, the measures you end up selecting using this method will be much more informative than measures chosen from a top 10 list. If the organization hadn’t gone through the strategic planning process and instead chose to measure their total number of Twitter followers, they would have no idea how well they were actually doing.

Agree? Disagree? How do you begin formulating a metrics program?

The post To create a metrics program, first identify your goals appeared first on Socialbrite.

Guest post by Julie Macalik
Greenlights for Nonprofit Success

The first step in starting to measure your impact is to identify the major outcomes that you want to examine. To be successful you’ll need full management support and a dedicated key project lead for your team. This person will take the helm on laying out tasks in a sequence, informing other staff of their roles and assignments, and providing assistance to people as they complete their parts of the evaluation.

The standard nonprofit data points come from fundraising, communications, programs, and finance, so consider these sources when gathering your team. For example, a representative from the fundraising department can make sure you consider when your funders’ reporting cycles are so that you are producing outcome measurement results at a time that aligns with their requests for information about your programs. Also, those most directly affected should provide meaningful participation, so don’t forget about your front-line staff directly involved in providing services.

Next, you’ll want to select the outcomes that you want to examine and prioritize them. For each outcome, specify what observable measures, or indicators, will suggest that you’re achieving that key outcome for impact. After you’ve made your selection, you can then identify what information is needed to show whether you’ve succeeded.

There are many types of technology and other management tools available to assist in this process, and now is the time to take stock of your technology and the tools you’re going to use to track your data. Decide how information can be efficiently and realistically gathered using the different methods that are best for your organization, including:

• Surveys: Consider what features you’ll need. If you’re just looking to get your feet wet with a quick survey, one of the many free or low cost online survey tools will do the trick. In fact, a more sophisticated survey package could be considerably more difficult to use. On the other hand, if you’re looking for survey software to support rigorous research, the more advanced packages are more likely to have the features you need.
• Interviews and focus groups: The desired outcome of this type of method is to solicit data without any influence or bias. This also allows you to develop a relationship with clients or other key stakeholders and get a full range of information. One benefit of focus groups is the ability for participants to feed off each other’s energy and bounce ideas off one another. Consider using an outside facilitator to help develop questions and protocol and to help identify themes from your data.
• Documentation review: Looking at internal records including applications, forms, procedures, and finances allows you to get an impression of how programs operate without interruption and identify new methods of collection.
• Databases: Nonprofits can use these tools to track data in real time and report on results. Internally they can assist in managing performance at the departmental or affiliate-level using dashboards and benchmark progress over time.

After the data is collected, organize the information into similar categories — i.e., concerns, suggestions, strengths, etc. From here you can identify patterns and themes to help you categorize and analyze data according to the indicators for each outcome.

Continue reading this article, which includes more resources and tips, when you subscribe to NTEN:Change for free! Republished from the NTEN blog.

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How to choose the right analytics tools to measure your nonprofit’s success

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, foundations, cause organizations, businesses, brands, administrators, consultants, social media managers, individuals.

By Laura S. Quinn and Kyle Andrei
Techsoup article courtesy of Idealware

Web analytics tools help you track your site’s statistics, which let you see how many people are looking at each page, what sites they came from, and other information to help develop a picture of who your audience is. But which Web analytics tool should you use? Data-tracking needs are similar for all organizations, including nonprofits, libraries, small businesses, and corporations. But given the vast array of analytics tools out there, selecting the right package can be overwhelming.

Idealware talked to six nonprofit experts about the Web analytics tools they’ve seen work well. We also consulted postings on a number of nonprofit listserves and scoured reports on the topic. In this article, we summarize what we’ve learned to help you understand what to consider when choosing an analytics package and identify free tools and applications to help you better monitor your site’s visitors.

Which data should you analyze?

There’s no point in looking for a tool unless you have a sense of what information you want to track. Needs can vary from simple traffic-monitoring to complex analysis on the behavior of specific user groups, support for multivariate testing, and more.

What important metrics and figures should you keep in mind when selecting a Web analytics package? We’ve broken them down into three overarching areas to track. The first thing you want to track is an accurate measure of how many people are using your site, which is neither as easy nor as clear-cut as you might think. Metrics that address this include hits, visits, unique visitors, and page views. Next, you’ll want to track who the visitors to your site are, in broad terms, and what they’re doing when they visit – in other words, what site features and pages engage them? Which ones go ignored? Last, it can be beneficial to track where visitors to your site are coming from. This can help you find similar sites or better understand the types of things that lead people to you.

These areas should be enough to get you started, but powerful Web analytics tools support even more sophisticated analysis. There are people who make a living analyzing Web statistics – if you have a large site and the desire for deep usage analysis, you may want to consult with one of them.

The world of analytics is complicated by the fact that not every software tool handles metrics in the same way. Determining what sequence of Web actions to interpret as a “visit” or a “unique visitor” is complex, and somewhat subjective. Different tools calculate these figures differently. Some types of software – called “log analytics” software – look at traffic based on a log of what pages your web server provides, while others rely on what’s reported back by “cookies” – pieces of information sent back by each user’s browser. Don’t be surprised if your metrics vary somewhat among tools.

Software offered by your Web hosting service

So now that you know what to track, what Web analytics software should you use to track it? You may already have some of the tools you need. Many shared hosting companies, like DreamHost or LunarPages, offer Web statistics through the same control panel you use to administer e-mail addresses and check available file space.

AWStats and Webalizer are the two most common, and both are relatively basic “log analytics” packages that offer information about visits over time, most-visited pages, referrers, search strings, and some data about your visitors’ browsers and locations. Webalizer is a bit more popular, but AWStats’s reports are generally considered somewhat easier to understand.

Because these built-in tools are purchased and maintained by your Web host, there are no fees or installation required. While basic, they are perfectly adequate options if you simply want to keep an eye on your own site.

Site counters

You may have seen site counters on the bottom of Web pages – basically, they’re a numerical display that counts and displays the number of visitors to your site. A quick word about site counters: Don’t use them. All the free tools listed here will give you the same information without interfering with the look of your site.

Google Analytics

In a class by itself, Google Analytics offers substantially more functionality than the basic tools, and is free – unlike most of the more advanced tools listed below.

Unlike Webalyzer or AWStats and other tools provided by hosting companies, you need to install Google Analytics on your site. This involves pasting a chunk of HTML code provided by Google into every page. This piece of code sends back “cookie” information to the Google server. Adding the code requires basic HTML know-how, but Google’s directions are pretty detailed and clear, and the process shouldn’t require a huge amount of time. Once added, Google displays your statistics in a custom reporting interface you can view online.

In addition to the reports offered by tools like Webalizer or AWStats, Google shows how often visitors come to your site, tracks visitor conversion across a series of pages, compares the behavior of different types of visitors (such as new vs. returning, or those from different referring sites), and much more. A selectable date range allows you to analyze any given time period instead of being limited to a monthly view (as you are with AWStats and Webalizer). Almost every set of metrics can be sliced and diced to drill down to exactly what’s of interest to you.

New features continue to be added every few months, creating an increasingly powerful tool. The powerful reporting and filtering tools let you set up custom reports and segments to view specialized subsets of your data. It won’t easily let you track advanced Flash sites, and does not automatically track downloads of files like PDFs, but otherwise is a great free option for analytics.

More powerful analytics packages

Large organizations may want to look beyond Google Analytics for more powerful features. There’s no shortage of available options. More advanced tools like Lyris HQ Agency Edition (formerly Click Tracks), WebTrends and SiteCatalyst provide substantially more: more control, more powerful metrics, much more freedom to perform detailed user segmentation, the ability track detailed patterns, and in many cases, sophisticated data charts such as trees or interactive layouts that make it easier to track complex sites.

They’ll also support complex or Flash-based sites that Google Analytics will not, and offer professional technical support as well. More advanced features come at a cost. The lowest-end packages start at about $100 per month, and you’ll likely need to pay $500 per month or more to get features that rival Google Analytics.

Choosing a package

The first question to ask yourself when deciding on an analytic package is, will Google Analytics meet my needs? If it will, there’s no point in spending money on a more advanced tool. In fact, Google Analytics is a good default option for a lot of organizations.

If your needs are even simpler, check to see if you have a control panel and analytic tools available through your Web host. Or, if you’re familiar with web statistics tools and want more than the analytics and limited control that Google offers, picking a more powerful analytics package might be the way to go.

The right package can make a big difference in your ability to understand visitors’ needs and your site’s traffic. Choosing the right option means you’ll be able to track exactly what people are doing on your site, get all your questions answered, and maybe even sleep a little better.

For more information

• Marketing Sherpa’s Buyer’s Guide to Web Analytics Software
  It costs $249, but provides detailed overviews of 39 different products and extensive advice on how to choose.
• Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity
  Avinash Kaushik’s update to his previous book, “Web Analytics: An Hour a Day.”

This post originally appeared at the TechSoup learning center. It is condensed and republished under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial No Derivatives license.

Related

• All about metrics and Web analytics (Socialmedia.biz)

• Guide to social media metrics: Articles & tutorials (Socialbrite)

• Getting started with social media metrics (Socialbrite)

• How to measure your social media success (Socialbrite)

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Benchmarks study: How does your nonprofit stack up?

At the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington D.C. the other day, I was one of 50 attendees who got a sneak preview of the fascinating 2011 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, the big annual study that shows how nonprofits are using social media, email and much more.

You can download the free 36-page report from M+R Strategic Services and NTEN. The study — the fifth Benchmarks report — collected data about email messaging, email list size, fundraising, online advocacy, Facebook, Twitter and text messaging from 40 U.S.-based national nonprofit organizations for the calendar year of 2010. The study’s authors analyzed the results of 672 million email messages sent to over 17 million list subscribers; more than $114 million in online donations and 2.9 million advocacy actions.

Key fIndIngs of the report

• Online fundraising showed steady growth for participating groups in 2010 despite the current economic climate. Most groups saw a 10% increase in dollars raised online from 2009 to 2010.
• The 2010 advocacy response rate was 3.3%. From 2009 to 2010, advocacy response rates declined 7% on average.
• Not surprisingly, advocacy emails had the highest open, click-through and response rates while fundraising emails had the lowest click-through rate.
• Annual email list churn was 18%.
• Online fundraising revenue grew overall by 14% between 2009 and 2010. This rebound was led by an enormous 163% increase in the International sector due to emergencies like the earthquake in Haiti and flooding in Pakistan. However, all sectors saw an increase of some size in overall revenue from 2009, driven by an increase in the number of online gifts.
• On average, nonprofit Facebook Pages had 15,053 users, defined as people who “Like” a Page (but this includes large nonprofits).
• Facebook users were much more engaged with nonprofits in the Wildlife / Animal Welfare sector than in any other sector.
• On average, an organization’s text messaging list size was 1.9% of its email list size.
• Annual mobile list churn was 14% in 2010.

The graphic at the top of this article conveys, at a glance, why no one is suggesting that nonprofits abandon email marketing in favor of social media or mobile. For every 1,000 email subscribers for your nonprofit, you’ll have, on average, 110 Facebook fans, 19 Twitter followers and 19 mobile text subscribers. What those numbers don’t show, however, is that engaged fans on social networks, and connected fans on mobile devices, tend to be more loyal, to respond at higher rates to advocacy campaigns and to donate at higher rates than the average user.

And, let’s be frank, while most established nonprofits use email effectively, they still have yet to master social media.

You’ll want to also download the accompanying 42-page PDF presentation. I sat in on the webinar Tuesday and it was well worth hearing details of what moved the needle for the League of Conservation Voters and Defenders of Wildlife — and what didn’t.

Convio has also released its Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study, which is worth a read.

So what do you think? How does your nonprofit measure up to these numbers?

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