Bee Measure

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Russia’s Facebook Ads, Data Makeovers & Predicting Donors

What’s New This Week?

Russia Funds Political Facebook Ads
Having covered various Facebook Ad drama, I didn’t think anything on the platform could shock me. But it can! Facebook disclosed on Wednesday (finally!) that a Kremlin-backed company funded $100,000 worth of Facebook Ads. The ads, which ran from June 2015 until this May, focused on divisive social issues, such as gun control.

Finding Donors in the Data
Turn on your speakers and check out this podcast from Blackbaud. The nonprofit tech company explains how nonprofits can use predictive analytics to find their most likely (and capable) donors.

Happy Birthday, Here’s the $$
Facebook rolled out a new feature that allows people to solicit birthday donations for their favorite nonprofit. It works like this: two weeks before your birthday, Facebook will prompt you create a fundraiser for an approved organization (There’s currently 750K). You set a goal and create a message. Then, Facebook notifies your friends on the big day. The catch: a 5% fee.

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Better Web Forms, Gender Positive FB Ads & A Note From Cville

Bee Measure is proud to be based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Much has already been said about the events of last weekend, so I debated whether to add my voice in the mix. Then on Wednesday, a friend and I took a walk to see the impromptu memorial of flowers, candles, writing and gifts that mourners assembled at the scene of the crash. I wanted to share the photo my friend took. The image says a lot about the mix of sadness, apprehension and determination we all feel this week. As nonprofits (and nonprofit supporters), we do great work. And we will persevere.
– Emily (from Bee Measure)

 

What’s New This Week?

Who’s on First, Oops, Facebook?
Business Insider published a new report about the demographics of our fav social media platforms. Here are the free takeaways. And here’s my summary: Snapchat is getting older, LinkedIn is richer and everyone’s on Facebook.

Gender Positive Does Better, Swears Facebook
I’m not sure how much faith I put in research done by Facebook about Facebook to promote Facebook advertising, but I still am heartened by its study of gender in advertising. For an industry that loves to use images like this, it’s good to have stats that ads promoting equality pay off.

Pittsburgh, Not Paris
I love a good case study, so here’s Pittsburgh’s Chief Data Officer talking about how the city built an open data site that displays 311 calls and police blotter data. And the name is a pun too. Gotta love it!

The Protest in IP Addresses
It’s been a while since I’ve covered data privacy issues related to the Trump administration. But it’s back. In the winter, anti-Trump protestors used the site DisruptJ20.org to organize Inauguration Day protests. Then, the Justice Department issued a request for 1.3 million IP addresses to identify site visitors. Now, the site’s hosting company is resisting.

Advice of the Week

End Web Form Intimidation
Your site probably has a form, or two, or 10. Mine has several, and it only has a dozen pages. I love the content from MarketingExperiments.com, and this video on optimizing website forms provides solid advice. (Just ignore the annoying ads.)

Cool Visualization of the Week

86% Eclipsed
Let’s end this on a fun note. Nothing is currently bringing the US together quite like the solar eclipse. So here’s Vox’s fun, interactive graphic to show you what the eclipse will look like in your zip code. Why can’t you be closer to totality, Charlottesville!

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Machine Learning Explained, Fake Ads Found & Airbnb Reviews Mapped

When the Journey is the Goal
Many nonprofits use social media to promote education and awareness of a cause. They don’t necessarily have conversion in mind. So how can a savvy nonprofit communicator evaluate this type of social content and campaigns?  Well, MarketingLand does a nice job of explaining alternative metrics. (Interested in setting this up for your website? Reach out. )

Explain Like I’m Five: Machine Learning Edition
“Machine learning” is one of those buzzy terms that gets thrown around a lot. I was happy to stumble on this nice explanation of what it is (and is not).

And now that we know about machine learning… here’s Engadget explaining how Facebook uses the technology to detect fake ads.

Talking to Your Data
I recently covered Google Analytics’ new feature that is supposed to allow analysts and business people to get data by asking questions, rather than running reports. Well, it looks like Tableau is barking up the same tree. They recently acquired start up ClearGraph, a service that lets users visualize data through natural language queries (think “this week’s transactions over $500”).

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Tracking Donation Funnels, Bad News for Twitter & The Most $$$ Keywords

Measure Your Differences
I enjoyed this advice from Hootsuite on how to pick social media metrics. Their number one tip: figure out your organizational goals and base your metrics on that. (And don’t worry about what everyone else is measuring.)

Google’s Most Expensive Keywords
If you administer a Google for Nonprofits AdWords grant, finding keywords that cost less than $2 can be a big pain. Having struggled with this issue myself, I got a kick out of seeing how much some keywords cost. $58 for “bail bonds,” anyone?

Yet Another Nail, Twitter
I’m not a big Twitter user, but even I feel bad for Trump’s favorite social media site. Here’s the latest report about Twitter’s decline. Monthly active users in the United States fell last quarter.

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Top Nonprofit Websites, Game of Thrones Data Viz and Get Your Google Analytics Questions Answered

Is Your Website Cool?
TopNonProfits.com studied nonprofit websites, picked out the top trends and highlighted some of their favorite sites.  So what are the top trends? Long scrolls, mobile responsiveness and limited navigation options. Check out their favorite sites here.

Hey Google, What’s Up?
Ever wanted to ask Google Analytics a question, rather than dig through the data? If so, your dream has come true. Google is launching yet another new product called Ask Analytics Intelligence. Here’s the press release from Google and the explanation from TechCrunch. And here’s to hoping this does not put your friendly neighborhood web analyst out a job!

Your Weekly Dose of SEO
I’ve heard SEO called “black magic voodoo” so many times. But it’s about more than attracting clicks to your site; it’s about giving your search users a good experience. Here’s some solid, data-driven advice on SEO best practices. SEO Sherpa highlights their 16 favorite SEO experiments and results. Then, Search Engine Journal tells you to stop messing with spammy inbound links.

You Say Potato, I Say Instant Articles
This newsletter has covered Google’s newish AMP articles (the fast-loading, stripped down webpages designed especially for mobile users) before. Never one to be left out, Facebook is arguing that it’s fast-loading, mobile-friendly Instant Articles are better. Here are the stats on that.

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