Group+2+Ocean+Conservancy


 * Ocean Conservancy**

Participant Name: Sara Thomas Web Site: http://www.oceanconservancy.org Email: sthomas@oceanconservancy.org Phone: 202-351-0469


 * Social Media Presences**

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/oceanconservancy Blog: YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/oceanconservancy Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ourocean LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/41098?goback=.fcs_GLHD_ocean+conservancy Listening:

After each session, use the wiki journal to jot down key takeaways, ahas, next action steps, or questions.
 * Wiki Journal**

Orientation: Overview of the Peer Exchange and answer questions July 13, 2011 at 11:00 am PST/ 2:00 EST


 * Session Reflections:** We are really excited to be a part of this group and know there is much to learn from others. I found it interesting (and slightly reassuring) that we are all looking to utilize social media to advance our mission through brand recognition/reputation, educate on issues, to conduct and disseminate research on topics/issues, and to mobilize actions on legislative/policy issues and behavior change because that is exactly where OC is at. We are increasingly aware that we must measure more for quality than quantity and are eager to use the next six months to get that on track. Our focus will be on understanding how influencers impact our work online and how we can better utilize them to further our goals. We will also be looking to implement a way to see if/when we get internal stakeholder buy-in and a way to measure that new activity. This will help us to better convey why these tools are important to our senior team, while also guiding us to make better, smarter decisions with our time.

Session 1: Assessing Your Networked Nonprofit Maturity of Practice July 28 at 11:00 am PST/ 2:00 EST


 * Session Reflections:** The second session sparked quite a bit of internal conversation for us at OC -- especially all of the ideas that came up around the internal dashboard concept since it's something we've struggled with to date. We have an extensive metrics monthly reporting system and an established weekly reporting/storytelling/ideas gathering social media meeting, but no dashboard that can be given to other departments or used in conversation with the e-team to help them visually understand what we are doing online. For this reason, our first pilot project for this process will be to establish an evolving dashboard that can be used both with the exec-team and in various capacities around the organization to encourage more participation in our social media program and better show KPIs**.**

Another pilot project we are going to establish during the next few months is for a new initiative the organization has**.** The project itself is in the beginning stages and therefore presents an ideal opportunity for establishing performance goals from the beginning that revolve around social media engagement. For the first time at OC, we will set up a program and build progress benchmarks around social media metrics and not monetary benchmarks. To do this, I believe we will need to firmly state not only what our goals are but how will achieve them and if or when we will check in to decide to alter our tactics based on the metrics. This is new territory for the organization because by aligning program goals with engagement rather than fundraising changes the ask and sets a different standard for the tactics we will use throughout the campaign -- for instance, rather than asking people visit a website/take action/donate, we will ask them to share.

Session 2: Align Social Media Measurement With Results August 25 at 11:00 am PST/ 2:00 EST


 * MEASUREMENT PILOT DESIGN WORKSHEET**

Over the past year, we’ve developed a comprehensive messaging spreadsheet that allows us to cross-analyze all digital communications platforms, including social media. While it’s very useful to our digital team, using a multi-page spreadsheet to report metrics to other staff and the executive team has proven ineffective. To better tell the story of what we’re doing on social media and why it matters, we plan to create a visual dashboard that isolates the most compelling metrics and explains their importance in a digestible and easy-to-understand way.
 * 1. WHAT ARE THE RESULTS OF THE ACTIVITY YOU WANT TO MEASURE FOR THE PILOT?**

Our executive team wants to know if social media is truly a productive use of time, and why people like scientists should care about it. We need to show them what we are getting out of social media and how the organization (as well as members within the organization) can take advantage of the various platforms.

If we create a dashboard that successfully conveys these points, then the senior team buys into the use of resources. With their trust, we can move forward with testing new engagement tactics. Then, we can grow our audience on social media, increasing awareness of ocean issues. A greater awareness of these issues in the general public will allow us to further our program goals.

Our target audience includes people who care about the ocean and who pay attention to what’s going on in the world and keep an open mind. We target people who listen and think through both sides of an argument and form opinions based on practical reasoning rather than dogma. Our influencers are public activists who have a large following. The ladder of engagement begins with people liking/following us, then commenting on our posts, then taking action, then sharing our content.
 * 2. STRATEGY**

Our voice is upbeat and enthusiastic one, but serious about the work we do. We maintain authority by verifying the scientific accuracy of everything we post, staying true to the AP style guide, and quickly and graciously admitting when we’ve made a mistake. We share news and stories related to our program work, as well as the ocean and marine wildlife in general. We aim to inform and inspire, not to blame or condemn.

Our monetary budget for experimenting with tactics like ads or promoted hashtags is low, but in terms of staff resources and time it’s about medium. We anticipate that with a successful dashboard, we can get increased financial support for testing engagement tactics.

We came up with our “how many” and “by when” based on what we’ve seen the past two years and our internal growth goals. We have also looked at other similar organizations. At the beginning, our goals were definitely far-reaching.
 * 3. BENCHMARKS**

We are most concerned with measuring the engagement of our fans and followers: how often they take action and share content, and with how many people. Therefore, we favor metrics showing number of shares and retweets, click-throughs to our action pages, and top influencers over growth. Some metrics we don’t formally measure are retweeted words, best time of the day to tweet, or Facebook tab views. As part of the dashboard creation process, we are identifying which metrics tell the best story to staff outside our team. While we will continue our extensive digital measuring for our own use, we will narrow down the metrics we share externally.
 * 4. KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS**

In terms of staff time, about 35% of our team’s total time relates to getting this dashboard off the ground. This includes all the metrics monitoring we already do on a monthly basis, as well as team meetings about the process and talking with others in the organization to find out what they’re most interested in and how we can convey it in the most user-friendly way possible. The opportunity cost is high, as we get important internal recognition when we convince them of our work’s benefits to the organization. We will be adding resources as well as shifting them to achieve this goal.
 * 5. COSTS**

We currently use tools including Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, Bit.ly, TwitterCounter and ReTweetRank to measure progress and activity as well as to help inform our investment and activity going forward.
 * 6. RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB**

We have plenty of ideas with which we’d like to experiment on social media, but we haven’t had enough buy-in to run with them because priorities have needed to be placed on other work. If we can prove to the executive team that tactics like Facebook ads have a serious ROI as far as growing our audience and broadening our brand recognition, they will provide us with more funding and allow for a realignment of priorities as they relate to our daily work. Our first “get on the same page” meetings have gone extremely well, and have resulted in positive feedback from the executives as well as public accolades for our work. We are definitely on the right path and just need to continue fine-tuning the dashboards and working with others in the organization to make sure we are giving them the information they need—even if they don’t currently realize what, exactly, that is.
 * 7. TURN DATA INTO ACTION**


 * Additional Notes:** Pam Sturner from the Leopold Leadership Program and I had a great in-person meeting about OC's past experience getting buy-in from skeptical staff (ahem, scientists). It was great to get the chance to put a face with a name and engage in a conversation in person. The Leopold Leadership Program's needs' are certainly different than OC but the strategy in which they find success can be similar to ours so I was more than delighted to be able to help a peer out with establishing that path. I'm looking forward to hearing how it all goes!


 * Some feedback for this project:** Even though I know budgets are limited, it seems like for "next time" it would be useful to do some kind of intensive in-person session with the group either prior to the calls starting or in the middle of the six-month project because the in-person I had with Pam was incredibly helpful and focused so I can imagine what the impact of meeting with this group of people for a few days would be.

Session 3: Why Does Bad Measurement Practice Happen To Good Nonprofits? September 22 at 11:00 am PST/ 2:00 EST

Session 4: Benchmarking: Networked Nonprofits Measure Social Media in Context October 27 at 11:00 am PST/ 2:00 EST

Session 5: Overview of Measurement Tools November 17 at 11:00 am PST/ 2:00 EST

Session 6: Transform Data into Wisdom and Reporting December 15 at 11:00 am PST/ 2:00 EST

Session 7: Reflection and Reiteration January 5 at 11:00 am PST/ 2:00 EST

Learning Culmination January 12 at 11:00 am PST/ 2:00 EST This session will be a “virtual party” to celebration the completion of the program and for participants to share what they learned through their action learning projects.