Making the case for social media investment

• UK’s largest co-educational youth movement

• Growing membership of 435,000 boys and girls supported by 100,000 adult volunteers

• Volunteers include Chief Scout, Bear Grylls and HRH The Duchess of Cambridge

• Over 200 different activities

Scouts: who we are

• The changes we wanted to make

• How we decided to invest

• How we made the case for investment

• How we’re measuring our results

What we’re going to talk about

• One twitter and one facebook channel for adult volunteers, Scouts and the public

• Around 30k followers on both channels

• Reasonable engagement• Low reach (12k/day)• 4 editorial staff taking

turns in runningchannels

Our channels in 2013

• Targeted, coherent social communities that engage and reflect their audiences

• Engage ¾ of the movement in online discussions

• Amplify key strategic messages (community impact, inclusivity, growth and youth-shaped) to a wider audience

• Better planning and execution of channels

The aim for our channels

• To make social strategic (time)

• Deliver a better service (time)

• Reach a new audience (time & money)

• Squeezed reach of organic posts on Facebook (money)

Why invest?

• New channels for key groups

• Better planning

• Get feedback

• Promote channels and key messages

The plan

What are we investing in?

• Agency: We employed 33 seconds to perform an audit & recommendations

• Adversiting: Facebook and Twitter advertising to launch new channels

• Content: For launch and advertising• Time: approximately 2 FTE now spent on social

(previously 0.5 FTE) across several staff

…and we’re planning on increased investment next year

How much budget do you need and

how will you spend it?

• Reliance on print• Belief that social

should be free• Limited

understanding of social media

Internal resistance

How we made the case

• Agency expertise• Comparative

organisations• Followers• Achievements• Spend• People

• Linking to the strategy

What internal challenges do you

face and how could you

overcome them?

Putting it into action

• New youth channels launched

• More platforms: Instagram, Pinterest

• Next: platforms for younger children

Measuring success

• How does it deliver on the strategy?

• Improving numbers (reach 100k/day)

• Reach of key messages

• Hits/conversions on website

What should your KPIs be?

•Link to your organisational strategy – be explicit•What would internal skeptics like to see?

Summary

• Use your strategy• Know your

competition• Measure your

real-life impact

Resources

•Blog: How to invest in Social Media•CharityComms report: What Goes Where •33seconds.co

Gail.Scott-Spicer@scouts.org.uk@gailscottspicer

Lynn.Roberts@scouts.org.uk@digitalynn

Visit the CharityComms website to

view slides from our past events, see

what events we have coming up

and to check out what else we do.

www.charitycomms.org.uk

Workshop

22 October 2014

London

#CaseForComms

Making the case for

comms: unlocking the

purse strings