Note from Beth: My take away from this guest post is the advice that my co-author, KD Paine, has been saying for years. “Don’t measure the world, if you don’t have the time and resources to do so.” It is a key theme in our book, “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit.” What we talk about is the idea of taking baby steps in measurement to build the practice and you won’t be able to do that if you attempt to measurement too many things and collect too much data. In this case study, there are many things that World Hunger Day could measure, but they focused on engagement and measuring along the ladder of engagement.
Measuring World Hunger Day – a guest post by Geoff Livingston
As the lead social strategist for the World Hunger Relief Project a social fundraising giving day on World Food Day this October 16, I was given two goals: Encourage 10,000 people to raise $200,000.
But there was an additional motive behind Yum! Brands effort for World Food Day, specifically the philanthropic goal of encouraging people to participate in small acts like a social share or a $10 or $25 donation.
Dynamics of Cause Engagement – Final Report from Center for Social Impact Communication, Georgetown University
When Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication released a significant study earlier this year demonstrating that social sharing does impact charitable actions and giving, many online communicators issued a sigh of relief. What we believed and saw was true, that individuals, liking, repining, plussing could make a difference.
According to the study, people who frequently engaged in promotional social activity are:
- Twice as likely to volunteer their time.
- Twice as likely to take part in events like charity walk.
- Three times as likely to solicit donations on behalf of their cause.
We aim to encourage this type of activity. To measure the effect of slacktivism, we could look at public tweets, shares, etc. And certainly we will.
But instead, our primary metric to determine whether people are really engaged and taking the small act to hear will be the word of mouth referral from donors. Specifically, what do they do after donating. Do they care enough to advocate via email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.?
One of the most important metrics we saw from Give to the Max Day: Greater Washington was a 62% word of mouth referral rate from donors to friends. It’s how we knew the event had captured the hearts and minds of donors.
If I had my druthers we would do a baseline and post-survey, too to determine attitudinal shifts, but alas, because of the way the campaign is structured, we are unable to do this.
So what do you think? Is WOM referral a right metric for small acts?
In addition, as the social marketing lead, if you like the idea, please join me in this effort. We have a blogger/influencer resource kit built already where you can grab pictures, pre-drafted tweet, Twibbons, and other good stuff.
Thank you to my colleague Beth Kanter for allowing me to guest blog, and congratulations on your latest book, Measuring the Networked Nonprofit!
Geoff Livingston is an author, public speaker and strategist who helps companies and nonprofits develop outstanding marketing programs. He brings people together, virtually and physically for business and change. A former journalist, Livingston continues to write, and has authored three books. Most recently he co-authored Marketing in the Round with Gini Dietrich, and wrote the social media primer Welcome to the Fifth Estate.
