Photo: By Beth Kanter

.ORG and .NGO, The Internet Sisters

It is amazing how many nonprofit sites don’t have the 501(c)(3) in the United States or other designations in other countries clearly marked somewhere on the donation page of their site. It really should be in the footer of every page. Not every donor is educated to find this information, except people who:

• give as part of the culture they were brought up in;
• give as a yearly tax-related habit; or,
• are researching related to a sizable donation on behalf of a corporate or an estate

The .ORG found at the end of an Internet address has done a lot to help nonprofit organizations self-identify as an organization that has a mission to help others without a profit motive.

Public Interest Registry (PIR), who is a client of Zoetica, has been the manager of the .ORG Top Level Domain (TLD) for 25 years. PIR is a non-profit organization and does not gain financially from .ORG addresses. All income from domain names goes to the Internet Society (ISOC), which works to ensure the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world.

Keeping .NGO in Nonprofit Hands

PIR is now applying to ICANN to manage a second domain, .NGO and is seeking the support of the community it has served for so long. If they don’t get this new domain, it will most certainly be taken by others, and thus dilute the nonprofit community.

If you are  are a part of a nonprofit organization, you can sign a letter of support in just a few minutes, it costs nothing and ensures that this new nonprofit extension will stay that way.

Social media measurement should be an integral part of any outreach program, but it is often difficult for organizations to work it into the mix. What should be measured? What matters? How can we set benchmarks?

We believe in building measurement into every campaign and program and have developed a framework to use for measurement. In the pursuit of helping our clients, friends and even competitors to do that, we are publishing this whitepaper.

We believe that the more quality social media programs there are, the better is is for everyone.

The whitepaper, embedded below, is excerpted from the book, Welcome to the Fifth Estate, by Geoff Livingston, one of the original founders and former executive of Zoetica. It was written by Kami Watson Huyse, a current partner and CEO of Zoetica.

Here are Kami’s original posts about this subject, upon which the whitepaer is based:

• Part I: A Commonsense Approach to Social Media Measurement
• Part 2: Setting SMART Objectives
• Part 3: Measurement as a Diagnostic Tool
• Part 4: The 3 As of Social Media Measurement

In the whitepaper, the thoughts of some foundational thinkers on the subject of social media measurement are included. We want to thank our mentors for blazing the path for the thoughts in this paper. Among these people are: Katie Paine, Avinash Kaushik, Jason Falls, Augie Raye, Jeremiah Owyang, Dr. Walter K. Lindenmann, Olivier Blanchard, Iain McDonald, and Linda Childers Hon and James E. Grunig.

Commonsense Framework to Measure Social Media

A recent study sponsored by PayPal Nonprofit, and penned by Geoff Livingston and Henry Dunbar for Zoetica, shows that a personal story, a tight knit community and the authenticity of the messenger count more than simple fame.

Through case studies and examples the paper outlines the following four tips for fundraisers looking to incorporate celebrities or weblebrities in their online campaigns.

Four Tips for Using Weblebrities for Fundraising

Personal connections and authentic passion for the cause.

As demonstrated by cancer survivor Paddy O’Brien in UCSF’s Causes and blogger Ali Edwards in the Six Degrees launch contests, personal connections are critical in generating donations. DonorsChoose’s Doherty notes the vital connection between passion and success. “It is more about identifying the person who would be a strong advocate,” she says, “It’s not social media. The base level [for successful campaigns] is really a passionate advocate. Social media just helps them.”

Willingness to ask their personal friends to get involved and not just their ‘publics.’

For its blogger and social media challenges, Anna Doherty at DonorsChoose.org said they have learned that this is critical for social fundraising success. She said the celebrity champion should be willing to go beyond their public contact. “Once we know that person is willing [to contact friends and family] then we know it is going to be successful,” she said.

Identify avid users of social media, both by the celebrity and their social networks.

TwitChange’s King said they now look for celebrities who are better engaged with their fan based, specifically citing Zack Levi as a model. “His followers are part of a community,” King said. “He engages with them a lot. They feel personally connected.”

Another example is Colbert, who had twice promoted social fundraising campaigns for DonorsChoose.org, raising $190,000 and $167,000 respectively. His collaboration with the Reddit community was much more successful. By adding his star-power to the already engaged social network on Reddit, the Restore Truthiness campaign raised more than double his first two efforts, netting $610,000 from 11,000 donors. Finding this kind of nexus of celebrity combined with a passionate online community can be huge benefit for nonprofits.

Operation Smile’s Kastrounis said they sought out singer Charice because of her engagement with fans. “She’s young and social media savvy, and she had just joined our cause as a Smile Ambassador so we figured she would be great face for the campaign and mobilize her fans to support us in this campaign,” Kastrounis said.

Welcome the non-traditional celebrity.

TwitChange’s King notes that they kept being surprised by which celebrities had the most response in their auctions. “Having followers is not the same as a fully devoted fan,” King said. “We have learned that.” Additionally, blogger Ali Edward’s and cancer patient Paddy O’Brien’s success on Six Degrees and photography Jeremy Cowart’s on TwitChange have shown that lesser-known and even “unknown celebrities” can be extremely effective fundraisers.

You can download the Effectiveness of Celebrity Spokespeople in Social Fundraisers, in full from the Scribed site.

Special thanks to PayPal’s Clam Lorenz, Network for Good’sKatya Andresen, DonorsChoose.org’s Anna Doherty, Operation Smile’s Kristi Kastrounis, and TwitChange’s Shaun King, all of whom provided the outstanding content and insights that made this paper possible.

Other coverage of the paper:

• Celebrities May be Overrated, Chronicle of Philanthropy
• Paypal Research Shows Strength of Community Trumps Popularity, Geoff Livingston
• Think that Celebrities are a Home Run for Fundraising? New PayPal Study Says Community Works Better, Kami Huyse

Image by Sean MacEntee

by Danny Brown and Geoff Livingston

Much has been said about marketing on Google+. Both of us have been intentionally conservative about marketing on the new network due to a statement from Google+ specifically asking businesses and brands to wait until it formalized its business offering. This offering is rumored to include an open API for applications and data usage. Yesterday, a confirmed report from KCET-TV in LA surfaced that Google+ community managers are enforcing the brand “no fly zone.”

To date, ABC News Radio, LAUNCH and Boing Boing have all been removed, or have voluntarily taken down their Google+ profiles. In the face of complaints about brands being unceremoniously dispatched, community managers have indicated that Google+ will focus on optimizing interaction between people first.

Image from KCET-TV

Both Bonsai Interactive and Zoetica represent real brands, corporate and nonprofit. We are posting this advisory to provide clear guidance for our clients and network on how to approach Google+ during this interim phase:

1) Do not invest in formal brand marketing on Google+. As we have seen, Google+ is now policing its network and you risk losing your entire time investment. Further, until the business offering is created by Google, no one really knows how corporations and nonprofits can successfully navigate this new social network. In essence, until Google+ for business is released efforts are likely to be all for naught.

2) Do experiment on Google+ and learn how the network works using your personal profile. It’s too soon to formally say that Google+ will be a significant consumer network, but with reports of 18 million followers and growing, momentum indicates the network is succeeding. Further, as demonstrated by its policing of the network, Google is clearly focused on community first. Becoming knowledgable through participation on Google+ is prudent at this point.

3) Be wary of marketing services firms and individuals who are seeking paid fees for Google+ marketing insights. Again, per the first point, no one really knows how to market on Google+. Investing financially in Google+ is not a good use of resources until finite offerings are available. Ethically speaking we would not charge our clients for advice and strategies in the face of such uncertainty.

Google+ is starting field trials with brands in the immediate future. As Google works through the kinks and formalizes its offering, it is a great time to become comfortable with the social network.

Many of our fellow bloggers are openly sharing their insights and learning together in a fashion we have not seen in years. Enjoy this time, friends. This kind of new social network launch is unprecedented.

Editor’s Note: Just before publishing this post, NBC voluntarily pulled down its Google+ profile.

We at Zoetica never tire of promoting the need for quality content and, by extension, great resources for creating it and good writing. In that vein, we are giving away five copies of Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman’s Content Rules. Winners will be the best responses to the question (graciously supplied by Ann): Can you have a social media strategy without a content strategy?

Selections will be made by a completely subjective judge from within our ranks choosing from all entries submitted by 9 a.m. EDT, Friday, July 15, 2011. If your entry isn’t chosen, you can still win by purchasing the book and following the advice therein.

Here’s what Geoff, Kami, and Julie have to say about content, social media, and their related strategies. Let us know what you think.