Category Archives: charity

maximising mobile marketing – @Brandrepublic conference

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Last week I attended a conference on maximising mobile marketing. I tweeted. A lot. Here’s the best bits.

  1. “
    #brmobile over 1billion in bets through mobile says @betfair speaker – people using dead time
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 4:16:01 AM EST
  2. First speaker… Comscore
  3. “
    Mobile handsets – 27% nokia, 11% iphone, Samsung 19% #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 4:20:47 AM EST
  4. “
    54% of people in the UK don’t have a smartphone #BRMobile
    Nikki Bhogal
    November 8, 2011 4:22:34 AM EST
  5. “
    40% consumers use mobile when see an interesting ad – even if not a mobile ad #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 4:28:10 AM EST

  6. Top tips #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154318090
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 4:29:20 AM EST
  7. “
    10% of UK smartphone users (4.7m) accessing mobile banking now #brmobile
    Robin Thomas
    November 8, 2011 4:33:33 AM EST
  8. “
    Don’t forget SMS – it can give significant response 1.9mil out of 19.9mil #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 4:38:58 AM EST
  9. “
    July 2011- 2.9mil scanned a QR code – mostly for product discovery #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 4:40:42 AM EST

  10. Top tips slide 2 #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154319556
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 4:41:50 AM EST
  11. “
    3 takeaways from comescore-1.Mobile growing rapidly 2.consider carefully the audience you want to reach 3. don’t get left behind #brmobile
    Anne-Marie Sheedy
    November 8, 2011 4:44:22 AM EST
  12. Next speaker… Expedia
  13. “
    #brmobile 39% of people use their smartphone whilst on the toilet
    Robin Thomas
    November 8, 2011 5:24:00 AM EST
  14. “
    80% of apps less than 1000 downloads (consumer healthcare). Less than 1% branded apps pass 1mill downloads #brmobile (Deloitte research)
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 4:57:01 AM EST
  15. “
    . @expedia decided not to silo mobile with a specific mobile person. Had mobile champions but integrated into core business #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 5:17:44 AM EST
  16. “
    4mil monthly mobile visitors to @expedia mobile, and it’s not cannabalising website bookings #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 5:33:18 AM EST

  17. Top tips for creating a mobile experience from @expedia #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154325602
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 5:32:20 AM EST
  18. “
    Community/ gaming layer, local immediacy layer, social layer, self-service layer – the components of @expedia mobile experience #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 5:30:31 AM EST
  19. Next speaker… Weber Shandwick
  20. “
    Intent vs Content: @jamesdotwarren discusses the results of WS’s #smartmarketing report at #MaximisingMobileMarketing conference #brmobile
    Weber Shandwick LDN
    November 8, 2011 5:34:12 AM EST
  21. “
    Mobile mkg = teenage s*x. lots of talk, not much doing, and if doing the doing is not good. #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 5:57:21 AM EST
  22. “
    44% of people feel naked without their smartphone. 36% changing way think and interact with products and services #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 5:59:49 AM EST
  23. “
    Search lifecycle- desktop 30day journey search to purchase, 1hour on mobile! #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 6:05:51 AM EST
  24. Next speaker… Sky
  25. “
    Sky have over 1m people viewing live tv via mobile devices every month #brmobile #skygo
    Robin Thomas
    November 8, 2011 6:45:02 AM EST
  26. “
    23% of online time is spent on mobile. If you work in digital you should spend at least this on mobile too #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 6:50:38 AM EST
  27. “
    3 screen strategy is core @sky. From content build through to advertising – becoming agnostic to a degree #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 6:39:04 AM EST
  28. “
    ‘integrated marketing is the output of an integrated business’ Tim Hussain, Sky #brmobile
    robindthomas
    November 8, 2011 6:51:11 AM EST
  29. “
    Ultimately it’s still about single consumer view. Just multiethnic touch points and screens #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 6:41:00 AM EST
  30. “
    Mobile USP to a campaign- it’s personal, it’s a second shadow (always there), it’s immediate, it’s feature rich #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 6:54:30 AM EST
  31. Next speaker… Autotrader
  32. “
    Used 4m mkg strategy- Mindset:test,learn,iterate. Method:awareness,education,trial. Mix:mobile,ATL,partners,autotrader. Msg. #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 7:08:09 AM EST
  33. “
    0.5mil mobile users in 12 months. Became a new challenge #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 7:16:32 AM EST
  34. “
    Bounce increased by 20% when off season. They hit saturation with their activity. Too much share of voice #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 7:18:29 AM EST

  35. Maturing the mobile strategy from autotrader #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154340838
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 7:20:56 AM EST
  36. “
    300k year 1, 500k year 2, 1mil year 3, next years target is 2mil mobile users of autotrader #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 7:23:09 AM EST
  37. Next speaker… Pizza Express
  38. “
    Now up- pizza express: In oct 27% of all traffic to pizza express sites came from mobile #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 8:07:36 AM EST
  39. “
    1000 table bookings a month through mobile #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 8:12:16 AM EST
  40. “
    Optimising for mobile search by creating restaurant pages for local sites. To avoid bouncing people into a location search #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 8:13:57 AM EST
  41. Next up a panel discussion
  42. “
    panel with @nicholascumisky – says don’t forget Nokia is still biggest handset producer #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 9:32:37 AM EST
  43. “
    French connection fail – build an app before a m.site and it didn’t work. So now building one. Doh! They needed proper analytics! #brmobile
    Sticky Pinny
    November 8, 2011 9:20:13 AM EST
  44. “
    HTML5 offering new innovations. Yodel mobile working on an interactive ad unit for the reader Kobo #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 9:37:27 AM EST
  45. “
    Unilever lynx case study means they now see mobile as a horizontal not just an add-on. They ask how mobile can extend the story #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 9:44:45 AM EST
  46. “
    3G vs 4g question is diluted by fact that huge amount of mobile connectivity is via wifi. Cloud is on the rise instead of apps #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 9:49:58 AM EST
  47. “
    By 2015 estimated 1.5bil mobiles will have NFC built in. Perhaps some will be dormant – but it’ll be there #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 9:56:21 AM EST
  48. “
    QR code coming under criticism. Only 1% of phones able to read #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 10:00:43 AM EST
  49. “
    NFC going to compliment QR codes and AR not replace it #brmobile
    Anne-Marie Sheedy
    November 8, 2011 9:59:52 AM EST
  50. Next speaker… Debenhams

  51. How @debenhams see mobile in their business strategy #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154371429
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 10:08:05 AM EST
  52. “
    mobile providing link between channels as always on @debenhams #brmobile
    Anne-Marie Sheedy
    November 8, 2011 10:09:59 AM EST
  53. “
    Impressive – @debenhams app paid for itself within 2 weeks #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 10:25:06 AM EST
  54. “
    700k downloads, £3mil sales, over 1/3 use @debenhams app repeat times #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 10:14:06 AM EST
  55. “
    Use push notifications when people close to store – result in 67% app open #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 10:17:32 AM EST
  56. Next speaker… WWF
  57. “
    Goal to increase fundraising by £1mil so @wwf targeting countries where mobile already surpassed desktop use #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 10:29:24 AM EST

  58. . @wwf sms conversion case study – Austria 2007 #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154377697
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 10:38:14 AM EST

  59. Text num on @wwf street team shirt low rsp but ‘text facing’ good #brmobile < note @UNICEF_uk pic http://lockerz.com/s/154379603 http://lockerz.com/s/154379620
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 10:45:51 AM EST
  60. Next speaker… FT.com
  61. “
    next up FT.com @spoonerf on user journeys #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 11:12:23 AM EST
  62. “
    Mobile users 20% of FT traffic, 30% page views from mobile. Overall 4mil reg users, 250k subscribers #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 11:17:32 AM EST
  63. “
    15% of subscriptions direct from mobile. Mobile users twice as likely to consume content at wkds #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 11:19:19 AM EST
  64. “
    Last year FT kept launching apps in response to market. But not sustainable. And then apple changed subscription payment journey #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 11:21:32 AM EST
  65. “
    So took a risk – June launch of HTML5 site – within a week 100k downloads so removed apps from iTunes #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 11:22:45 AM EST
  66. “
    Big marketing benefit – can send people straight to content in web app. Not to an iTunes download page #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 11:24:55 AM EST
  67. Next speaker… Visit Britain
  68. “
    First Mobile @visitbritain app in 2008. Too expensive but learnt. 2009 next app learnt need PR to have app found. #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 11:39:35 AM EST
  69. “
    Found more success by tying in mobile to bigger picture – overall digital and marketing strategy rather than just a silo app #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 11:54:05 AM EST
  70. “
    Love UK @visitbritain app used Facebook places. Users 50% more likely to buy and 20% had bigger basket value #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 11:52:31 AM EST
  71. Last speaker… Barclays

  72. Mobile payments and services @barclays #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154395549
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 11:59:39 AM EST
  73. “
    Big challenge is awareness and education about mobile payment options #brmobile
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 12:03:49 PM EST
  74. “
    Digital wallet is not just a replacement of physical wallet-bump you phone to share money-identification is key #brmobile
    Anne-Marie Sheedy
    November 8, 2011 12:10:02 PM EST

  75. Mobile wallet should do more than your usual wallet – @barclays ideas here #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154397648
    Laila Takeh
    November 8, 2011 12:09:36 PM EST
  76. Parting thoughts …
  77. “
    Fair to say native apps haven’t fared well at todays #BRMobile conf- scope for them certainly- but mobile internet has more potential
    Ben Carter
    November 8, 2011 10:11:54 AM EST
  78. “
    #smartmarketing #brmobile ROI anyone? 80% of branded apps get less than 1k downloads
    David Lawrence
    November 8, 2011 6:57:29 AM EST
  79. “
    Still not sure about NFC. Been talked about for years now #Brmobile
    Hypocrisy Buster
    November 8, 2011 10:11:18 AM EST
  80. “
    Great loyalty case studies on Starbucks and Pizza Express. Shows what can be done with mobile loyalty. #brmobile
    Jan-Erik Anderson
    November 8, 2011 7:56:34 AM EST
  81. “
    Very thought provoking day at #brmobile mobile marketing conference. Glad to see we’re not alone in our barriers
    Katie Stayt
    November 8, 2011 1:29:02 PM EST

will digital teams continue to exist?

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My recent posts have sparked some real world discussions around two questions:

  • If everyone in the future is ‘just doing digital’ what will digital teams be doing?
  • And, as best posed by Alison Daniels, “the nirvana where everyone is ‘just doing digital’ may come, but what’s the ideal transition digital team?”

I’m going to explore the first question here and dedicate a separate post to the other one (watch this space!).

The easiest way to explore this question is with a definition of what everyone in an organisation ‘just doing digital’ could look like, and identifying some of the questions this creates.

Everyone is ‘just’:

  • creating web content – they’re writing web pages, creating short videos, and posting pictures.
  • using social media – through networks like facebook they’re servicing and attracting customers / supporters, through networks like linkedIn they’re making business connections, and they’re using all types of social media to co-create strategies and products.
  • building websites – they’re using drag and drop online tools to create simple web pages that ‘do stuff’.
  • doing digital marketing – they’re creating (or commissioning) search, affiliate and display advertising campaigns.

So here are the questions:

  • How do you manage the quantity Vs quality balance?
  • How do you prioritise for the greater good rather than individual interests?
  • How do you avoid duplication and cannibalisation where it matters?
  • How do you avoid fragmentation and make integration happen?
  • What if existing off-the-shelf tools don’t do what you need them to do?
  • How do you stop your digital activity looking identikit if you’re ‘just doing’ what everyone is ‘just doing’?
  • How do you keep on top of the next new thing if you’re busy doing the day job?

I see the role of future (and perhaps existing) digital teams is to answer these questions. In fact, stepping back, these questions are not too different from those that marketing teams have worked with for a while. So a logical conclusion might be that digital teams will become the marketing teams of the future.

And so we see the rise of creative marketing technologists – this presentation summarises it nicely.

Rise of the Marketing Technologist

 

So what do you think? Are you a future creative marketing technologist?

who owns digital in charities?

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If I had a penny for every time someone asked me where a digital team should sit within an organisation I’d have a lot of pennies. The debate has changed over the years as digital has become more important but the core consideration remains the same.

So I always find it useful to start with my own personal context. As someone who has worked in digital for my entire career I’ve been ‘all over the shop’:

  • At the Multiple Sclerosis Society digital was part of the Services directorate, a sub-team of Research and Information.
  • At RNID (now Action on Hearing Loss) digital was a sub-team of the Marketing and Brand team, and after I left the team moved into an External affairs also within the Comms directorate.
  • At the British Heart Foundation digital was in the Policy and Communications division, at one point as a sub-team with Marketing and Brand, another point just a separate Digital team, and then a part of a Multimedia team that includes traditional media officers who were spreading out into digital PR.
  • At UNICEF UK the Digital hub sits in the Fundraising division, following the merge of a Digital Marketing team from Fundraising and a New Media Resources team from Comms.

But in my experience the digital team have always been a cross organisational team no matter where the line management happens. So back to that core consideration I mentioned; “Where will the team have the influence and resources it needs?”. A question you could ask about any team in any organisation, but it’s the need that might be different.

A digital team needs to be more than just a service team during this time of transition between traditional and digital mediums and ways of working. A digital team which is only about direct delivery misses the opportunity to catalyse the skills and behaviour change that is needed for the whole organisation to embed digital.

As I alluded to in my post which mentioned the hub and spoke model, there will be a time when everyone needs to ‘do’ digital and it’s not far off. I often use two analogies to explain this:

  • When electricity was first around every business had an electricity manager. Now they just call in the electrician (experts) every so often.
  • Businesses used to have typist pools, now everyone (ok – almost everyone) does their own word processing. It’s only when you need to do something complex or special that you get expert help in.

Any organisation which isn’t leveraging the expertise of its digital team to change the ways of working and spread digital skills across the organisation is, in my opinion, going to be left behind. So the team should sit wherever in the organisation it’s possible for this to happen, and that depends on the organisation.

tales of single sign on

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SSO sounds like some sort of distress call. For a time I’m sure a few at BHF probably thought it was. A recent project to develop a single sign on (SSO) approach took quite some time and had it’s up’s and a large number of down’s. But the new BHF community is a testament to collaborative working to overcome issues, it’s also a testament to the value SSO brings.

It all started as a seedling of an idea in 2009 when it became clear to me that a toolbox made up of many different technology platforms was the ideal situation if only we could integrate the user journeys and the data behind the scenes. Why did I think this?

  • Avoiding over reliance on a single partner or platform.
  • Using the best tool for the job (by the time I left BHF we had; Magento for the shop, Drupal for the community and Alterian WCMS for the main site plus many other supporting tools).
  • Cost efficiencies of using out of the box functionality that might exist in one platform but not another.
  • Streamlining user journeys across sites – lessening confusion and drop off.

The first opportunity to use SSO was with Vielife who provided a lifestyle check tool. We implemented a SOAP based one-way sign-in to allow people to take the lifestyle check without having to re-type all their personal details. It took about 10 – 15 working days effort to put in place as Vielife had already built SSO connectivity into their platform – so we only had to create the Alterian WCMS end. It all worked very nicely!

Around a year later we decided to implement a Drupal platform for the new BHF community, with the plan that we would use this as an opportunity to build a standard two-way SSO layer to our technical architecture. This layer being the key to delivering on the ideal multi-platform approach in the future.

Following investigation by the two delivery partners (Sift and Positive Technology) and BHF IT it was decided to use SAML this time around. The core reason for this was the wider compatibility offered that would allow for future integrations (eg Magento). It was a challenging project for many reasons; multiple agencies, open source vs proprietary platforms, differing understanding of requirements, internal team changes and more. But we all learnt a lot along the way and came out with something that is beautifully simple as a product.

Would I do it again? Yes, and whenever I run a tender exercise in future I’ll always ask about examples of the platform in use with SSO (plus API‘s and Web Services) even if I don’t intend to make use of these at first.

I’ve only heard of one other UK charity making use of two-way SSO in their digital work. So if you have any SSO tales please do leave a comment – I’m sure there’s more I could learn!

coping with BHF’s biggest online event

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I’ve been reflecting on my last few months at BHF (I’ll be starting @UNICEF_UK on Monday 27 June 2011) and thought I’d share a big learning experience that will stay will me.

There is always a huge spike in bhf.org.uk traffic on the day that standard places are released for the British Heart Foundation London to Brighton Bike Ride. The first year we switched to online applications was 2009 and each year we learnt something new and tried different things to improve the process for our supporters.

In 2011 we tried using a virtual queue system. Unfortunately not everything went to plan and quite a number of people were left waiting for quite a few hours. Applications were getting through – just slower than expected because the queue was being over efficient (like a jobs worthy bouncer). After a few hours of this we decided to switch the queue off completely as we felt it was better to risk the site falling over than continue the frustration for everyone (ourselves included). By this point the traffic had lessened too – meaning we were more confident that the site would be able to cope (it did).

Here are a few entirely personal thoughts about what we learned:

Communications on the day:

  • Use social media and be transparent about the problems – people genuinely had more patience when they knew we were equally frustrated and working as hard as we could. My favourite thing was seeing a response which recognised the dilemma of balancing technology spend with charitable spend.
  • Instant messenger was good for keeping all the teams in touch with each other – but needs to be topped up with additional teleconference calls when quick decisions are needed.
  • Be clear about roles for the day and stick to them even when in a pressured situation – including who has the final say on various elements.

Tech:

  • There was lots of testing – but the wider stakeholder groups should have been involved in this earlier to ensure all scenarios were considered. Ideally involve a professional testing agency if you can afford it – it’ll pay off in the long run if everything goes smoothly even if it seems expensive at first.
  • Put tracking tags on everything – we didn’t tag the queue holding page to keep page weight low to lighten the load on the server but the info is far more valuable than you think and it’s worth the page weight.
  • Make sure all your relevant suppliers (web hosts, development team, credit card merchant etc) are on standby and have been engaged in designing the contingency plan, as well as the main delivery plan.

After the ‘storm’:

  • Establish a cross team comms and evaluation group which looks at everything objectively – throwing around blame risks things being swept under the carpet and reduces the potential for learning.
  • Collect as much data as possible as quickly as possible – some of it might expire and not be available forever, especially given the human tendency for forgetfulness.

What charities can learn from Twestival

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It’s been a little while since Twestival in March so I thought it was about time I penned a short blog piece on it.

I’d been aware of Twestival for a while and so when Amanda, Twestival’s founder, called out for volunteers with social media skills I jumped right in and offered my time.

I was one of around 15 people on the worldwide social media team- a few working in each country. We were there to take the pressure off the regional co-ordinators so they could work with each of the local cities in their region. It was a new role/team for Twestival and so it started off a little loose and ready to be shaped by everyone. But it was clear from the start that we were bubbling with ideas.

Harnessing it was harder as we were lacking definition and all looking to each other to make the first move. So it was great when one of the global Twestival team stepped in to give direction – he gave shape to our responsibilities and we agreed who was taking the lead on different things.

So how did it work?

  • Each channel was divided up to be led by a different person- the local city volunteers already run their own profiles while the UK national ones were covered by the social media team.
  • Each city received guidance and support from the rest of the Twestival collective through huddle.
  • We crowd sourced various strategies and documents amongst the social media team on huddle and skype chat. For example:
    • Our first skype chat resulted in the creation of incentives for cities for the first time – this being a tactic to get the most of social media chatter and produce great content eg best team photo and best logo.
    • A quick social media tips guide that covered comms, persuasion and bribery for attention- and social media fundraising tools
  • We continued to have regular skype or gotomeeting calls to keep in touch with what the next focus area should be and any things that need sorting out.

Learnings

What Twestival really demonstrates is the power of a loosely formed network connected together through social media. Success in this can only come from an organisation trusting the network and letting the network shape the activity rather than having a top down approach.

Completely unconnected to Twestival I’ve been reading some of the free MIT course notes and this quote really struck me:

“The rise of networks… means that conflicts may increasingly be waged by ‘networks’ perhaps more than by ‘heirachies’. It also means that whoever masters the network form stands to gain the advantage” – John Arquilla & David Ronfeldt, Networks and Netwars (Rand 2001).

This quote was in the context of Al Queda and conflict – but turning it on it’s head and thinking about it in the context of doing good works just as well, and Twestival proves it.

So I absolutely and totally agree with Cian’s blog post which has some great references on networks. This digest of how the Plymouth City Twestival engaged volunteers is also pretty insightful too.

digital fundraising – integrating online and offline @thebhf

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I recently spoke at the Third Sector Digital Fundraising Conference and gave a very hurried run through of our Mending Broken Hearts campaign. This is by far the biggest and most integrated campaign the British Heart Foundation have done. It blends an awareness message with a fundraising call to action.

It’s still early days as the appeal is for five years, but we’re already seeing the benefits of integrating across digital and traditional channels. So for anyone who wasn’t there on the day here’s the slide deck.


what should your bounce rate be?

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I’ve been pondering bounce rate. Bounce rate is when someone visits your site but then quickly exits without clicking into any other page. It’s natural to aim for the lowest bounce rate possible. Low bounce rate generally means a more engaged audience.

At the British Heart Foundation our bounce rate is currently around 40%. But this has been playing on my mind since a committee member from a well known commercial brand said they thought it was high. What should charities be aiming for? and is it really a bad thing to have a higher bounce rate? why might commercial and charity sectors differ?

According to my quick twitter poll 40% is similar to other charities, one person even said for their health professional information bounce rate is more like 100%. Taking a quick sweep of the internet – advice seems to be that 40% – 65% is an acceptable average range.

But having a high bounce rate can’t always be a bad thing. There are some cases when you probably want people to leave your website right away – say when you have some sort of affinity deal with a corporate partner, or if you’re signposting to another charity who offers services you don’t, or serve an audience you don’t support.

So why would commercial and charity sectors differ (if they do)? Well perhaps people who go to commercial brands are generally looking to build their trust in the brand a little bit more than they might be on a charity site. Or maybe commercial sites are not designed to meet people’s goals quite so well / quickly.

I’d be really interested to hear other people’s thoughts and any additional bounce rate benchmarks anyone is willing to share.

One thing’s for sure – if you’re not monitoring your bounce rate, you should be!

trends in digital charity teams

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In the last day or so I’ve finally published my digital charity job archive page. I’ve only gone back as far as 2008 but I’ve been an avid watcher of the charity job market ever since I started in the sector. It’s a useful indicator of charity digital team structures and roles.

Looking back over the almost four years worth of salaries and job adverts a few things stood out to me:

  • Salary rates haven’t changed that dramatically – surprising given that anyone who works in digital knows that there is probably more to your job now than a few years ago.
  • Charities have more digital content related roles than other types – most charities outsource a lot of their digital marketing, production or development. I personally can see this changing as digital skills become more native with each generation, and tools become more intuitive too.
  • Social Media and Community roles are starting to appear across more charities. I believe you need an internal champion to help spread adoption and integration across an organisation – and so you need someone with the time to do this work either a dedicated post or otherwise.
  • There is an absence of analytics and insight related roles. We’ve got a dedicated post in the British Heart Foundation Digital team, as well as broader roles in other teams – an Insight Manager, Evaluation Manager and Knowledge Manager. My guess is that analytics and insight is part of the remit of some other digital roles and / or other teams. But on the surface I can only assume some charities are underinvesting in this – I’m hoping to be proved wrong!

Be really interested to hear your observations, additions or thoughts…

building the business case for digital in your charity

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I’ve pulled together stats for a presentation on why investing in digital, and in particular the new trend for mobile, is important. There’s lots of information out there if you’re prepared to do some digging. But I thought I’d share some of my own research to potentially save you the effort. Feel free to take anything useful.

Mobile

  • Vodafone say 70% of new customers signing up in the UK demand a smart phone compared with just four in 10 in Europe. [http://bit.ly/fHLCjL]
  • Mobile commerce experienced an 8% growth this Christmas [http://bit.ly/e2rA97]
  • In April 2010, 19% of UK consumers were already participating in mobile commerce [http://bit.ly/h9GLjE]
  • Mobile commerce rises to 29% when you look just at the 18- to 34-year-old market [http://bit.ly/h9GLjE]

Social media

  • This is still a rapidly growing area, with over half of the UK population being on Facebook [http://bit.ly/elAq4L].
  • Social commerce is a particular trend which is on the up – Amazon and other only retailers are taking their checkouts to Facebook. (couldn’t find a link for this one)

Increasing cost efficiencies while building scalability

  • Online fundraising raises around £10 for every £1 spent on direct costs and the average donation is double that given offline (£30 compared to £15).  [http://bit.ly/gJ7CAP]
  • When targeted, the average online donation is £54. [http://bit.ly/gJ7CAP]

Charity examples

  • Oxfam Created a YouTube video after the Haitian Earthquake, a media spoke person simply talking to camera, explaining what the situation was and asking for donations. It was picked up by YouTube’s homepage where it got nearly 700,000 views, and generated £30,000. [March 2011 http://bit.ly/gTIgRR]
  • Save the Children Created an SMS petition in 2009 and won an NMA award – as well as building awareness it reportedly boost donations at a low-cost per acquisition (just pence per SMS) [http://bit.ly/fh56bM ]
  • Disasters Emergency Committee For the Haiti Earthquake Appeal they encouraged people to text donations to a special short number. Despite being promoted almost exclusively on Twitter more than £161,000 was raised [http://bit.ly/gJ7CAP]
  • Depaul UK Had the most high-profile charity mobile app to date, more than 400,000 downloads May – July 2010. The free interactive game offers users the chance to make decisions on behalf of a young man facing homelessness. “We didn’t spend a penny on marketing,” iHobo has also raised £7,000 in small donations from 3,100 people [http://bit.ly/9KuHOT]
  • British Heart Foundation The 50th anniversary year we launched a cross-channel campaign to build brand relationships and long-term prospects. As a result of Facebook Adverts and the natural ripple effect we recruited over 32,000 new Facebook fans within February. These individuals were acquired at a cost of 25p each and will be developed through the ongoing social media activity.
  • Zynga (social gaming production company) Not really a charity – instead a charity appeal. Farmville with its 20 million users a day raised $3m for Haiti from by donating 50% of the cost of special virtual Sweet Seeds, bought by players for their virtual farms. An initial promotion generated a donation of more than $575,000. This was repeated three times to raise the total. [http://bit.ly/gJ7CAP]

Please leave a comment with any more fantastic results and stats I should be including!