Secrets to social media campaigns: New Case Foundation report
Posted by katya on Tue, June 23, 2009A little over a year ago, the Case Foundation, together with partners Network for Good, Causes on Facebook and Global Giving, and corporate partner Parade Magazine, encouraged thousands of individuals to compete online for donors, donations, and matching awards for their favorite charitable causes as part of the Foundation’s first-ever Giving Challenge. Nearly $2 million was raised for charities. It was one of the earliest and largest experiments encouraging everyday people to become champions of their causes - and fundraisers - using social networks.
Now the Foundation, together with two venerable social media gurus Allison Fine and Beth Kanter, have put out a report summarizing what they learned. You can read the full report here.
The key findings are actually no secret at all. But we tend to forget their truth, which is why we need to mind them closely. Allison Fine summed up the findings on her blog yesterday, and I liked what one of the commenters said: that the main findings are what’s been true for at least 200 years, long before computers. Namely, says commenter Kristina Carlson, “People give to people they know and trust; and a sense of urgency is critical to success.” Allison agreed, and I do too. Technology does not change the basic truth that we give for emotional reasons in a moment of generous impulse. It just makes this phenomenon happen more easily, faster, and on a larger scale. It also allows individual people or very small organizations to be catalysts for broader giving. Most of the top fundraisers were not from large organizations. One person can do much by reaching out to their inner circle, which then connects to a greater community. Take it from two participants:
“We had 40 volunteers who did the work of 4,000 volunteers. They emailed their address book of friends. They asked their friends to ask their friends to donate. It is fascinating. The last day of the contest you’ve never seen 40 people more on edge. We were shocked by the numbers. By the end of the day, we got 700 donations in one day. Took years off our lives!” – Linda Shiller and Mary Parente, 11th Hour Rescue
Here are the main findings:
*Four key elements contributed to the success of the 2007-2008 Giving Challenge: its competitive structure, the limited timeframe, the leaderboard allowing participants to track their progress, and the incentive to receive additional award funds.
*Personal connections were critical in activating the viral effect of successful cause efforts - by large margins (between 61-74%), cause champions reported reaching out for donations and outreach assistance to people they knew personally, including known supporters, family, friends and colleagues first to spread the word and encourage participation in the Challenge.
*Smaller organizations & all-volunteer efforts experienced significant success - 11 of the 16 Giving Challenge award recipients interviewed were for causes with annual organizational budgets of less than $1M
*Individuals and nonprofits learned how to use new tools and technologies to encourage participation and give new significance to small donors - while some participants were more comfortable with using social networking and other tools such as microblogging, other more novice users turned to their networks for advice and technical support, and immersed themselves in learning how to use these tools.
To succeed online, you need to remember all of these things: keep the focus on the audience (not the tools), because people are what make things go viral. A deadline never hurt, either!
Thanks to the Case Foundation, Allison and Beth for your findings.
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