Many of you joined us for a webinar about the Return on Investment (ROI) of Facebook for Nonprofits. Thanks so much to all who attended and asked questions.  Here are the slides of the presentation.  Below you will find the questions we received along with our answers. If you have more questions, answers, comments, or anything to add, please do so in the comments section!

What is the Facebook pledge app? http://info.helpattack.com/2012/03/facebook-tabs-and-apps/

What does it mean when it says your post has been reached by a certain amount of people? I thought status posts are shown in everyone who “likes” you newsfeed. Here is what Facebook has to say about the difference between impressions, reach, and likes.

“Impressions measure the number of times a post from your Page is displayed, whether the post is clicked on or not. People may see multiple impressions of the same post. For example, a fan might see a Page update in their news feed once, and then a second time if their friend shares it.

Reach measures the number of people who received impressions of a Page post. The reach number might be less than the impressions number since one person can see multiple impressions.”

Here is even more on reach, likes, etc.

What cost is involved in a HA! campaign? For every $100 captured by HA!, the nonprofit receives $91.75. HelpAttack! gets 4% for operational costs and FirstGiving gets 4.25% for credit card processing fees, etc. In terms of ROI, the average donation of a unique visitor to your HA! landing page is a $1.15. To raise $1,000, your HA! page needs to be seen an average of 870 times. It takes about 6 hours over 2 months to launch and run a successful HA! campaign.

Is Google+ the next big thing? Or not worth the time? Hangouts, Hangouts on Air, Circles, and SEO are the most interesting elements of Google+ for nonprofits. Here is a great piece by John Haydon that explains this in more detail.

What are the social media versions of “open rate” and “list size”?

In email marketing, “open rate” means how many people opened the email versus how many you sent it to (“list size”). In social media, your “list size” is your Facebook page’s total number of likes or the total number of people who viewed the post. What is important here is to be consistent. Whatever your organization chooses, stick with it.

The Cutest Volunteers Ever?

Since HelpAttack! is primarily a fundraising tool, we rarely get to talk about volunteers.  To be honest, I never really considered how volunteers could be helpful in fundraising until I spoke with the lovely Barbara Talisman from WFP-USA at this year’s AFP in Vancouver.  She explained that they work with many volunteer 3^rd party fundraisers, and wanted to include HelpAttack! in their arsenal fundraising ideas provide to them.  What a great idea!!  Next time a group of people active on social media (college students, perhaps?) come to WFP-USA wanting to raise money, why not tell them about HelpAttack!?

In addition to simply suggesting a social media campaign to your 3^rd party fundraisers, it’s prudent to supply them with an easy kit of emails, blog posts, logos and other goodies to help them get the word out.  Here are some we have made, feel free to use them!

Barbara also told me about another great online fundraising campaign the WFP-USA offers their volunteer 3^rd party fundraisers.  It has its roots in the well-known Coins for Kids Campaign. The twist is that WFP also offers a virtual red cup to fill!  I think it is a fantastic idea to take an offline fundraiser and also make it available online.  It solves the problem of trying to reach the people more comfortable with traditional forms of giving AND those who are more comfortable transacting donations online.

As you can probably tell by now, I have a nonprofit crush on the WFP-USA and I admire Barbara- mostly because of her dynamic personality and wisdom in fundraising, but also for her impeccable taste in nail polish.  I digress.  Let’s get back to a volunteer’s place in fundraising.

Next time you’re planning a fundraising campaign, especially if there is an innovative or especially neat-o element to it, ask your volunteers to help spread the word!  If your volunteers are blogging, making videos, or uploading photos pertinent to your cause ask if you can include them on your Facebook, Twitter, or website to help drive donations.

There are arguments out there that Tweeting and sharing on Facebook about your cause is micro-volunteering. Lots of volunteers also donate and lots of donors volunteer.  You should look at people as supporters, not just donors or just volunteers.

Whatever your philosophy on volunteers, be sure to show them some appreciation this month.  They deserve it!  HOORAY FOR VOLUNTEERS!

Please leave a comment below or Tweet at me: @vswesnik

Volunteers Working

Last week HelpAttack! and FirstGiving partnered to give a webinar on Best Practices in Social Media Fundraising. It was a blast! So many excellent people attended and brought with them fabulous questions. Here are answers to some questions we weren’t able to get to during the webinar.

Ehren will be writing an entire blog post dedicated to Facebook tab questions. Here are a couple of resources to tide you over until then: Create Custom iFrame Tabs on Your Nonprofit’s Facebook Page Custom Design Your Nonprofit’s Facebook Timeline How to measure Facebook Custom Tabs in Google Analytics with UTM Tags (Video Tutorial)

Without further ado, here are the remaining questions. Thanks for all of your thoughtful interaction!

Q: Why not pin or post a company logo? Is it because it’s too boring or is there another reason? A: Sure, one pin of your company logo or your corporate sponsor’s logo, but according to Noland Hoshino, “Pinterest is about curating inspiration.” Use Pinterest to captivate and attract your followers with engaging and inspiring images.

Q: With the video “thank you” for specific donors, is that something you post publicly or send only to them? I assumed you would send that only to them and create/post a generic one – is that right? A: Share the individual “thank you” publicly. They inspire other supporters to take action by providing social proof that other people are. It also shows current and potential supporters that you value them!

Q: What were the names of those donor databases? A: Blackbaud, Convio, SalsaLabs to name a few.

Q: What is average amount of gift via social media channels? A: The average monthly gift via HelpAttack! is around $25.

Q: What’s a “bot”? A: Automated computer programs that pose as people, but just send out spam.

Q: Social media fundraising works best with which of the following age groups? 13-18, 18-25, 26-40, 40+, or does it matter? A: Nearly everyone under 35 uses social media, but the 40+ group is the fastest growing demographic. Here are some great resources on the topic: Study: Ages of social network users Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens Who Uses Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & MySpace? 4thQ & 1stQ Stats and Analysis Facebook Demographics Revisted – 2011 Statistics

Q: Is there something you have to do to create it, or do you just write # and then what you want the hashtag to be? A: All you have to do is use the “#” symbol. For example, “fundraising” becomes “#fundraising”. The next step is to use the hashtag you’ve just created. HelpAttack! allows you to use them for fundraising campaigns.  Other ideas:  Mashable: HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Twitter #Hashtags

Q: Is it ok to share corporate logos of sponsors on our Facebook and Twitter? A: Businesses usually love exposure of their logo and name. To be safe, check with them before posting and make sure you follow the terms and conditions of whatever platform you’re using.

Q: If you have time, can you go over Facebook Causes – how do you get started? A: Here is some information on Causes: Causes reinvents itself as a campaign center

Q: I’ve tried to learn more about the people who like our Facebook page, but I can’t find out why they liked or how they found us. What is the secret? A: You can ask them via a direct message or put out a general ask on your page.  Make sure it is a personal message and not spammy. That could turn people off.

Q: What scheduling tools are available for Facebook? A: Hootsuite  is a great one.

Q: How do you name your social media site? Should it be by a personal name or by organization? A: Name your site with the organization’s name. If you have one person who sends out the updates, add that to the information sections. It could be as easy as easy as, “Tweets by Allison” or “Updates by Bill”.

Q: How do you figure out what a Facebook follower is worth, and how do you explain that to a boss who has never used Facebook? A: There are many ways to think about this. The average number of Facebook friends is around 150. If someone who likes your organization’s page shares something that you post, you are reaching an additional 150 people (on average). You could take this number and calculate how much it costs to reach that many people in traditional ways such as direct mail to get a dollar amount. Here are some other resources with more ideas: How Much is One Facebook Fan Worth? How Much Is a Facebook Fan Worth? $10. Or Possibly 2 Cents.

Still have questions? Have anything to add to the answers here? Please post to the comments section below.

What’s the process of growing your community on social media called, anyway? Digital networking? Enlarging your social media footprint? Friendraising? I personally like friendraising; it’s like fundraising, but with friends instead of funds. Hooray for friends! Whatever you want to call it, this post is about driving Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers to your organization.

Every time I come home from the gym I see a local business’s marquee saying, “Like us on Facebook!” and every time I think, “Why?” Why should I go home, boot up the computer, go to Facebook, search through all the businesses with similar names and Like them?

Are you giving people a good reason to “Like”, “Friend”, “Follow”, “Pin” your organization?

Provide value:

Probably the first thing you need to do is make sure your page tells your organization’s story. What is the problem and how do you address it? Show supporters what you have been able to accomplish as a direct result of their support. As always, use specifics whenever possible and be sure to thank them for their support. Post statistics, photos, stories, and links that are interesting to your ideal friends. If you don’t know what they want, ask! One of the great aspects of social media is that you can have a dialogue.

Engage and reward participation:

On that note, be sure to listen to your supporters. Fun ways to engage them are with surveys, quizzes, raffles, votes, petitions, calls to actions, photo contests, and posting pictures of events and asking people to tag themselves. Remember your camera for the next volunteer event!

Another free way to get people to follow you on Twitter is to follow them first. On Facebook, you can friend them. People will respond in kind and probably follow you back. Be strategic. Seek out folks like bloggers, community leaders, and lay spokespeople for your cause. They can bring even more people to the party by telling their friends about your organization.

Consider ads:

Before you pay to drive people to your page, make sure you have interesting content to keep them there. Once you have done the above and if you have budget, you may want to invest in Facebook ads or Sponsored Tweets.

Where HelpAttack! can, well, help.

On each cause’s Helpattack! page we include easy buttons to Like and Follow your cause. Also, through the social nature of our campaigns, new people will be exposed to your cause when your current supporter broadcasts the message. In this way, your donors become peer to peer fundraisers. Finding more followers is NOT the main point of a HelpAttack! campaign, but it is a welcome side-effect.