Four Things I Learned from NTEN Ask Expert With Joe Green from Causes (and one thing I didn't)

NTEN hosts regular "Ask the Expert" chats with people in the nonprofit technology field on a variety of topics.  It's an hour on the phone and in a chat room where people get to ask their questions and the expert answers.

Today, the call was with Joe Green from Causes and the session was billed as "Does Slacktivism Lead To Real World Results? Ask Joe Green of Causes at NTEN Session."  There was the usual mix of strategy and in the weeds tactical questions.  I had a few of both.

Here's four insights that I learned:

1.    Connecting Facebook Pages with Causes

Many nonprofits have Fan Pages and Causes and curious about how to best integrate the two.   One way is to add a TAB on your Facebook Page for your Cause.  There wasn't a link for step by steps, so I fiddled with it while listening to the phone call.  Here's how:

To add your Cause to your Fan Page as a tab

1.) Click on Edit Page
2.) Look for more applications and click on the pen and "browse applications"
3.) Search for Causes and click thru to app home page
4.) Click on add to my page
5.) Go back to your fan page - and click on + after the tabs, select causes from the drop down list

That's just for starters.  What are some of the other ways you can weave together the two?  What works what doesn't?

2.   Encouraging and Working with volunteers who set up a Cause

Many nonprofits that are just getting onto Facebook quickly discover that someone (a volunteer or a fan) might have set up a Cause for their organization, but after a while lost interest and it went dormant.  It looks like some organizations have had luck taking it over (see this case study about the Lupus Foundation).  I like the proactive approach.   The video above is from World Visions is an example of encouraging their volunteers to set up a Cause for their organization as part of a coordinated campaign.

How has your organization worked with volunteers who have set up Causes on your organization's behalf? 

3. Green talked about the audience they reach through Causes is typically younger and are often first time donors.  I wanted to know what they knew or have about these donors philanthropic behavior.   Do they tend to give to "issues or causes" versus organizations?  How loyal are they?  

Causes is less organizationally siloed compared to direct mail.  The entry point for direct mail is the organization, that mail piece.  There isn't a set of other options.  On Causes, it is more a marketplace dynamic because the potential donor can see many other options. A lot of people are new donors and haven't been engaged before.  This is their point of entry.  For better or worse, brand equity is less important on Causes.    What's most important is how you communicate about what we do?  For example, look at charity:water and how it does it communications.

What you learned about donor behavior vis Causes?  How has this informed your strategy?


4.  Better analytics are coming real soon now?

Green didn't want to commit to a specific date, but mentioned that there would be some new and improved analytics data available where you can slice and dice the data by ladder of engagement (joined, didn't donate) and click through rates.   Being a little bit of a metrics geek, I'd love to see something like Facebook Insights Tool.

What I didn't hear was an unpacking of the Slacktivism - specifically the philosophical points raised in the article:

The real issue here is whether the mere availability of the "slacktivist" option is likely to push those who in the past might have confronted the regime in person with demonstrations, leaflets, and labor organizing to embrace the Facebook option and join a gazillion online issue groups instead. If this is the case, then the much-touted tools of digital liberation are only driving us further away from the goal of democratization and building global civil society.

Of course, the ideal case here is when one's participation in digital activism doesn't subtract from -- and instead enhances -- one's eagerness to participate in real-life campaigns. However, it's also quite possible that a significant portion of the activist population would be morally content with the "slacktivist" option alone, preferring not to get too close to more dangerous activities that are likely to get them in trouble with authorities. So should we be more careful when discussing the success of most digital activism campaigns, since they may also have unanticipated adverse effects on more effective forms of enacting political and social change? (Of course, the relative effectiveness of one type of activism over another is a matter of great contention too.)

Most people on the call were focused on learning more about improving their Causes strategy as well as specific tactical tips.    Frank Barry contributed an awesome guest post last month called: Four Tips for Nonprofit Success on Facebook.  He suggested the following resources:

More Resources (I’d go through them in this order):

• Nonprofits on Facebook by Facebook
• Facebook Pages FAQ by Facebook [Update: Added on 5.26.2009]
• Why You Need to have a Strategy before you make a Facebook Fan Page NOW! By Jeremiah Owyang
• Pages, Groups, and Causes: How are they different? by Facebook
• Facebook Groups and Pages – Features, Benefits And Killer Tips by John Haydon
• How To Create A Powerful And Engaging Facebook Page by John Haydon
• How To Develop A Facebook Page That Attracts Millions of Fans by All Facebook
• So You Want a Facebook Fan Page? by Beth Kanter
• How To Create and Promote Your Facebook Fan Page by Mari Smith
• Five Lessons Celebrities Can Teach Us About Facebook Fan Pages from Mashable

More on Social Media Strategy for Nonprofits:

• Social Media Strategy: LIVESTRONG and the Summer of Social Good
• Social Media Strategy: United Methodist Church and 10THOUSANDDOORS
• Social Media Strategy: 12for12k Challenge with Danny Brown
• Social Media Strategy: Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
• Social Media Strategy: Athletes for a Cure

Comments

[Sue Anne]

Thanks for the wrap-up. I didn't get a lot I didn't know out of the call, but then again I think that was more the fault of the listener (me!) vs. what was being presented. I get easily annoyed by things like a SprintConnect / other notification happening in the background every minute or two, and I was distracted by some other things.

[Melinda Lewis]

I appreciate the synopsis. I'm disappointed that there wasn't the discussion about the whole 'online supplants real-world' piece--my sense from the organizations I'm working with is that most people are either engaged in multiple ways or are new 'friends' through social media, not that their previously deeply connected activists are dropping back, but the possibility of that is very real and so potentially damaging to the larger movement-building goals that we can't afford to gloss over it in pursuit of tactics. All that being said, I've seen the most success with Causes when it's added to FB pages more as a campaign, something specific with a clear goal and a time limit, than when it's part of the wallpaper, so to speak.

[Sheethal Shobowale]

Thanks for compiling these great resources. I have passed them along to a local non-profit who asked for some help creating their Facebook page. I'm also looking forward to the analytics. Demographic and psychographic research is great.

Here is another resource for audience demo and psychographic info gained from your website by a company called Quantcast - http://bit.ly/J1bTT

[Scarlett Swerdlow]

First, thanks for compiling the Facebook resources. It feels like serendipity because we just launched our Facebook Fan Page yesterday: http://www.facebook.com/ArtsAllianceIllinois. We're going to get together as a staff next week to brainstorm ways to keep the page engaging (not just informative). These resources will be very helpful. I'm already amazed at how people are using the space. It might actually be to our advantage that many of our constituents are in a slightly older demographic than the average Facebook user, meaning their Facebook experience isn't as saturated with a zillion friends, pages, causes, etc.

On the issue of slactivism, it's a huge concern for us. We rely heavily on online advocacy platforms, like Capwiz, to get people involved in legislative advocacy. We hear all the time from folks how they appreciate how easy it is to get involved. The down side? A form email is way less effective than a personalized letter on organizational letterhead. Legislators and their staff know it only take a minute to click three buttons and send an email. They weigh the message accordingly. I would have to think a Facebook petition has even less weight with staffers (unless you reach a critical mass of signers in a swing district right before an election.)

I know the quantity of people involved is higher because of these tools, but I worry the overall quality of our work is less. It's sometimes hard to persuade someone to write a letter or schedule a visit when they know they can just send an email.

We always communicate that certain actions are more impactful than others. Maybe we need to do a better job by including testimonials from legislators or video messages from staff.

I've noticed Democracy in Action's SALSA platform has a way to assign weight to each advocacy action, so signing a petition may be +1, whereas sending an email would be +2, and personalizing that email content would be +3. while meeting with the legislator would be BONANZA!

I'd really love for this conversation to continue among organizers and people using online and social media tools for advocacy. Thanks for drawing attention to it!