A Study of 5 Canadian Charities Use of Twitter on October 27, 2009

At a party last Saturday, I found myself speaking with an agency creative director who works predominately for not-for-profits. We started talking about how charities are missing the mark with social media. While I was waxing on about how the world would be run if I were in charge, she interrupted to ask me, “Who is getting it right?” I realized that beyond a couple of examples of cool things the odd charity was doing online, I didn’t have a single example of a Canadian charity who is a lean mean online machine.

Online donations make up a mere fraction of the total donations that the average Canadian charity receives. Even the charities making good use of online are seeing maybe 20% of all donations coming from the Internet. But that’s going to change as traditional direct mail donors shuffle off this mortal coil and GenX and Y become the primary donor targets. And if not-for-profits sharpened their online game, they may even get a few boomers in the meantime too.

Marketing effectively through the Internet is a massive undertaking. It involves doing hundreds of things well simultaneously. It’s impossible to present “Successful Online Marketing” in a blog post, so I decided to look at it from the other side: from one part of the minutiae and pull back to see the big picture. I chose to look at how 5 charities used Twitter on one particular day: Tuesday, October 27, 2009. Please note that I am only judging success by number of followers. How and if these followers translate into increased donations is not within the scope of this study.

Things That Surprised Me

• Most of the charities I checked out had a very similar number of followers, between 1000-3000, with most hovering around 1,200.
• They were mostly all doing the same things right and the same things wrong, which would likely explain the similarities in followers.
• The ones that were excelling above the rest by having online enhancements like blogs, were not using them very effectively. But the ones with blogs did have a higher number of followers than the ones without.
• It took me a shockingly long time to find a Canadian charity that was “doing it right”. It’s obvious by the numbers which one.

Sick Kids Hospital

@sickkids – 2,600 Followers

Tweets for October 27:

• RT @sickkidsnews AboutKidsHealth has provided a helpful H1N1 Guide for Parents: http://www.aboutkidshealth…. Share with your friends!
• #PIBdayresults are in. What a success! Check out our blog for details: www.sickkidsfoundation.com/…

Tweet Overview

They had 2 tweets, one offering a guide on the H1N1 virus for parents on their About Kids Health information website. The second tweet was about the success of their Pay It Backward fundraiser which happened on September 30.

What Sick Kids is doing right:

The second tweet links to the Sick Kids blog. Blogs are a fabulous social networking tool. Their blog offers news about the organization and fundraising success stories. The blog has big donate now button and follow us social networking buttons which adds followers. Remember that every piece of your social network should include links to the other pieces. Keep the network flowing!

Both tweets drive followers to websites which is critical because the main “sell” happens on websites and blogs, not on social media.

The main Sick Kids website has nice big donate now button. The website also has follow us buttons connecting to social networks (good!) but they are very small and in bizarre place at the top right. Over the past 20 years, websites have developed conventions. I should be able to already know where to find the search bar, view cart, and the privacy policy even on a site I’ve never been to. The same has become true for social media links. They are in your right or left sidebars, just beneath the main content. Trust me, that’s where people are looking for them.

What Sick Kids is doing wrong:

The url link in their first retweet is incomplete and goes nowhere. Twitter, like all corporate communications, should be checked for errors.

They have split their Twitter supporter channel into 2 – 1 for the foundation and 1 for “news” but they are both tweeting about the same content which is a waste of effort and segments their followers.

They aren’t talking to anybody, they are talking at everybody. This is not a conversation and defeats the purpose of social networking. There is no “I” in network.

Their tweets are entirely self-referencial. They retweeted an item from the @sickkidsnews twitter feed and spoke about their own “Pay It Backward” fundraising event using the #PIBday hash tag. The @DoOneGood Twitter account for Daily Challenge (the online community who came up with the idea for the Sick Kids Pay It Backward fundraiser) has 2,499 followers and knows how to social media market up the yin yang. If Sick Kids had included them in the conversation (by tweeting @DoOneGood) about the event, they would have reached 2,500 marketers, influencers and potential donors. They ignored them, tweeted instead about themselves and their own success, and the opportunity was lost. It was good that they included the #PIBday hashtag as many of the Do Gooders were following that subject, but that’s risky.

The About Kids Health website is a great resource but doesn’t look to drive donations or gain followers. They should always tie everything back into their social network and donations donations donations!

The Sick Kids blog doesn’t include any hard hitting content about what Sick Kids does. It’s exclusively about fundraising events, not current events or health issues that make a case for support.

United Way Toronto

@unitedwayto – 1020 followers

Tweets for October 27:

• Kim & Colleen from @973ezrock posted videos about how to make Toronto a better city. Check it out & make your own video http://bit.ly/2jXKoJ
• RT @destiniya john balatka & astra milberg from community living TO just spoke. they’re supported by @unitedwayto & deliver v. powerful msg
• @annyannyle Congrats on climbing the tower in 38 mins & nice team pic @ Enbridge CN Tower Climb for United Way – http://twitpic.com/mwbp2
• @EntreEndeavors: You did it! Thanks for climbing the CN Tower for Untied Way. Nice YouTube videos too! http://bit.ly/2LaXm0
• @pgvildys Congrats on the personal best of 23:41 at the Enbridge CN Tower climb for UWT. Nice blog entry too! http://tinyurl.com/yfbx2sv
• @Birdsofwales Thanks for playing the SickKids United Way fundraiser yesterday. Glad to hear it was a success.
• RT @NYWS Met a former resident, now manager in a nonprofit @ workshop! Success like this not possible w/out donors&funders like @unitedwayto

Tweet Overview

United Way Toronto had 7 tweets, 6 congratulating participants in their Enbridge CN Tower climb and one linking to a video about making Toronto a better city.

What the United Way Toronto is doing right:

The United Way Toronto had lots of activity on October 27 which makes them interesting to follow.

Their tweets offer cool links to videos, photos and other on-message media. They give good gratitude. It’s important to thank your event participants, donors and supporters, and Twitter offers a quick and personal way to do just that.

What’s interesting to see here is that the day after a benefit show for United Way at Sick Kids Hospital, the United Way are still tweeting about it but Sick Kids are not.

They make good use of Twitpic to share photos of their fundraisers amongst followers and event participants.

They offered a good number of tweets. In my opinion, you don’t want to tweet more than about 7 times a day. You don’t want to give your followers tweet fatigue. I’ve unfollowed people simply because they tweet every 15 minutes and monopolize my Twitter feed.

What the United Way is doing wrong:

They are not driving me back to their website, and telling me about their organization. They are not increasing my awareness of what they do for my city by directing me to a blog where they talk about it.

Also, by not driving me to a website they miss the opportunity to get me linked up to their Facebook page. They are also missing this opportunity by not having their website, Facebook page, Flickr and Youtube account url as part of their custom background on their Twitter page.

They could also take the opportunity to customize the graphic background to push their latest fundraising event, the Enbridge CN Tour Climb.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation

@TheHSF – 806 followers

Tweets for October 27:

• RT @AHAScience: Nov. is Diabetes Month. Learn why heart disease is your No. 1 enemy. http://twurl.nl/kj7exx
• RT @AHA_nutweetion: Test your knowledge of high blood pressure facts & myths. http://bit.ly/Bh91B
• A study of grade 9 students in Canada shows many already have at least one risk factor for heart disease. http://bit.ly/DMzn8http://twitter.com/TheHSF/status/5199767040

Tweet Overview

The Heart and Stroke Foundation had 3 tweets, 2 retweets from the American Heart Association and one linking to a news piece on their website.

What The Heart and Stroke Foundation is doing right:

They are educating me about their cause. Every tweet is telling me why heart attacks/strokes are the number one killer in North America. They link to their website’s news section which offers great articles like the one above. They have a prominent donate now button and a nice callout asking for volunteers.

They are following lots of people and organizations related to their cause.

What The Heart and Stroke Foundation is doing wrong:

The news piece the Heart and Stroke Foundation link to doesn’t provide any information on what the foundation is doing to prevent heart disease among children. In fact, the call to action is to parents to get their children to be more active. Since my preschool children are beanpoles I’ve decided this doesn’t apply to me so I move on. If they had talked about their programs for youth and asked for a donation, who knows? What if they had asked me to share the article with moms of teenagers via Facebook? The point is they got me that far and then they didn’t ask me to do anything.

They don’t include their follow me links on the sidebar of all of the pages (only their homepage). Give visitors the opportunity to find you on Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr as well.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Twitter page is one of the default designs which screams “We don’t know what we’re doing!” Create a custom page that provides your website, Facebook url and other social media urls if you have them. Remember to keep the information portion of the graphic short and narrow so all screen resolutions can see it.

Again, they are not speaking to anyone but themselves. They are standing at a podium talking about their cause, they are not having a conversation about it. There are all kinds of conversations on Twitter on this topic. Do a search on #stroke and #cardiovascular and join in!

Unicef Canada

@uniceflive – followers 1,259

Tweets for October 27:

• Thanks for letting ppl know! RT @BWW_Toronto: The Young Centre Supports UNICEF Canada With The Canwest Cabaret Festivalhttp://bit.ly/2PI26d
• Here’s something different: UNICEF in Space! http://twurl.nl/c61lmp
• Halloween pumpkin carving contest in Winnipeg and contestant Doug Speirs (Winnipeg Free Press) means business! http://twurl.nl/26xcv0
• Congrats to Uxbridge, ON for winning a Haunted Halloween Night from Cadbury! Drop by Brock St on Oct 31st, 5:30-9 pm! http://twurl.nl/6t0ng8

Tweet Overview

Unicef Canada had 4 tweets, all congratulating people for supporting Unicef and linking to sites where people are writing about them.

What Unicef Canada is doing right:

Gratitude goes a long way. It’s nice to see Unicef talking about people and organizations that are talking about them. It’s also a good practice to retweet anyone who has endorsed them.

The Unicef Canada website was difficult to find from the Unicef International link provided. That’s fine. I’m going to assume that on other days, @UnicefLive would provide links to their Canadian site. The Canadian site is good in that it offers current events and what Unicef is doing about it. The sidebar lists money handles, what specific gift amounts can do in the field, which compels visitors to donate. These money values would be more effective, however, if they were linked directly to items in their online gift catalogue.

They have nice big buttons on every page for Shop and Donate. Very clear. They have social media icons in their footer to link me the their accounts.

They have nice hot pink donate now buttons at the end of every news piece which makes their case for support. Perfect. They also include a Flickr badge in the sidebar of all their pages – a link to their Flickr page that gives you a teaser of the photos you’ll find there.

The Unicef “News and Blog” articles are not set up in this format, however, and suffer for it. They are stand alone pages that don’t lead me anywhere, ask me to do anything, or help me navigate amongst them.

What Unicef Canada is doing wrong:

They have a tremendous amount of support across the country and it is not being reflected by the relatively small number of followers. They have corporations, journalists, schools and astronauts all backing their cause. Why aren’t they talking to them? Simply adding an @winnipegnews in their tweet about Doug Speirs would have doubled their readership of that tweet (The Winnipeg Free Press have 1,820 followers on Twitter).

They should be putting #unicef in every tweet. Do a search on #unicef and you’ll see a massive conversation going on, including a link to this fun Thriller flashmob that went down in St. John’s Newfoundland for Unicef: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dIU28ANW1Y. I should be reading about it from the Unicef twitter feed, not because I’m checking out the #unicef hashtag in my research for this article.

The link to the news piece is great but the international site itself is confusing. There is no clear sense of where I am, so it’s hard to read more about the organization. They don’t have follow us buttons on the webpage, but they do have a “social media” link way at the bottom that leads me to a whole page teaching me how to “subscribe”, “friend”, “fan” and “follow” them with whole paragraphs dedicated to each. The graphics at the top for each network, however, are not actually links and you have to scroll down through the text to find the links to each network. Yikes! Put the icons in the sidebar of every page of your site. We know what to do with them, thanks.

I realize that Unicef Canada likely has little control over the international website. In that case, why not republish the news story on the Canadian site? But first, structure your news pieces like the “Unicef in Action” main stories and get them working for you!

David Suzuki Foundation

@DavidSuzukiFDN – 13,315 followers

Tweets on October 27:

• @veggyblue Thanks, we will check it out – we’d like pictures with ppl in them (in nature, at home, at work, taking action, etc.)
• @somenice Thanks so much, we will take a look and add you as a flickr contact (dsf_canada)
• @kdot Thanks for the tip! ^JS
• @rumon Thanks, we’ll take a look! ^JS
• DSF could use some interesting photos to freshen things up online. Got some you can donate/share with us? Let us know!
• For the Wise people in your life: Vancouver Elders Forum with David Suzuki Nov. 9th http://bit.ly/6XSwb Pass it on!
• The DSF office just got an overhaul… next up, time to remodel our virtual office.

Tweet Overview

The David Suzuki Foundation had 7 tweets, 1 telling followers what they were up to today, 1 talking about an upcoming event, 1 asking for photographs, and 4 thanking people for contributing photographs.

What the David Suzuki Foundation is doing right:

The numbers don’t lie. Clearly the David Suzuki Foundation are kicking virtual butt. So let’s figure out how.

First, they link back to their website and push an event they are holding. They ask you to “pass on” the invitation even if you don’t want to attend. This is great because it costs their followers nothing. They are simply forwarding the message to their social networks which potentially grows the David Suzuki Foundation’s network.

Of critical importance to note is the David Suzuki Foundation’s website is fabulous*. It’s clean and direct with a beautiful prominent donate now button and a fun, friendly call to join their email list right beneath it. The site has follow me buttons linking to their social network, an RSS feed and teaser links to a blog that focuses on – wait for it – news stories that tie into their cause and reports on how the foundation is active in the cause.

*Since October 27, the David Suzuki foundation has launched the redesign of their website and removed the donate button and the “join e-newslettter” form. They have a donate menu item in a different colour which should do just fine. Their share buttons are less obvious and their “home” link is buried in the footer, but other than that, it’s a beautiful site so I’m going to shut my mouth.

Notice how they thank all the people who responded to their appeal for photographs and even plugged their Flickr account while they were at it. Smart and gracious.

And of all the charities I began following to write this article, the David Suzuki Foundation was the only one to follow me back. Why did they do that? Because they want a relationship with me. When you have a relationship with your followers, you can do stuff like ask them to give you free photos for online initiatives and forward invitations to events to all their friends. It’s kinda the whole point.

What the David Suzuki Foundation is doing wrong:

Very little. The next time a colleague asks me who is getting it right online, I have my answer. But there is always more you can be doing so here is what I would recommend.

The David Suzuki Foundation could customize their Twitter background to showcase their brand, display their slogan (Solutions are in our nature) with their website and social networking urls.

Also, they could spend more time talking to influencers.

This article showing how the right influencers can raise millions for your cause came through my Twitter feed a few days ago from @laurie_pringle Social Media helps DEC raise more than 3 million dollars http://bit.ly/UQSwV

You may already have influencers following you. You may already have influencers supporting your cause. Examples of this from our October 27 tweets are @DoOneGood for Sick Kids and @WinnipegNews for Unicef. I’m sure David Suzuki is connected to many influencers that could be included in the foundation’s tweets. This broadens your network and gets people with a big voice talking about you.

Every day, do a search on your topics of interest and see who is talking about them and supporting them. Everyday do a search on who is talking about your organization and talk back. Better yet, follow them and start talking. Engage your audience and they will follow you, literally.