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Newsfeed Exile, Creepy Chat Bots & Why GA Stats Never Match Facebook

Facebook’s New Pay or Disappear Model
It’s been a few weeks, so of course Facebook has made some changes. What’s new this time? FB is rolling out a new Newsfeed called “Explore.”  In most markets, Explore has updates from pages that you don’t follow. But in a few cities, Facebook has bumped brand content to this secondary feed. Only those who pay to promote posts appear in the main Newsfeed.  Look for a follow up soon with metrics about what this means for organizations on Facebook (aka everyone).

The Facebook vs. GA Saga, the Final Word
Ever wondered why Facebook and Google Analytics are different? Yes, it’s a topic that’s been covered before here. But I had to give this article a shout out for falling squarely in the category of “I’m happy they did this, so that I never have to.” The TL;DR version: this article is very kind to Facebook, telling you to add 20% to whatever Google Analytics conversations you attribute to Facebook.

Those Lucky 15 People in Florida
Yeah, yeah. It’s another piece about politics and Facebook ads. Epolitics boiled down the 60 Minutes interview with Brad Parscale (“the first pure-digital consultant to run a major presidential campaign”) to a few gems about the Trump campaign’s savviness with Facebook ads. In one spot, Parscale said the Trump campaign used Facebook to reach clusters of rural voters, such as “15 people in the Florida Panhandle that I would never buy a TV commercial for.”

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Got a Government Contract for Public Education & Outreach? Five Ways to Measure Your Success

Most government contracts for public education and outreach contain an important clause: you must provide analysis and reporting. It’s part of your contract… and a big one. No matter how creative your message, compelling your graphics or innovative your approach, you need to show Uncle Sam the numbers (or the state or local government). Whether you are promoting smarter energy consumption, encouraging flu vaccines or touting local tourism, here are the must-dos for government public education campaign analysis.

Not into reading? Check out my webinar on the “Five Must Dos to Take Action from Your Digital Data,” which contains many of these same tips in webinar format.

spreadsheet with too many metricsMust Do #1: Stop Trying to Track Everything

First thing is first. Get get over your data FOMO (aka. fear of missing out). Many contract administrators and/or marketing firms make the mistake of tracking everything when trying to measure outreach effectiveness of a government contract. But just because you have a lot of stats and a large Excel spreadsheet, does not mean that you have true analysis and understanding of what worked and what didn’t.

The following steps will help you get clear about what’s important to track.  This will help you start recording data in a way that’s not overwhelming.

 

Must Do #2:  Get Clear on the Goal of Your Campaign

Ask yourself, “What is the point of this campaign?” The end goal isn’t likely to be driving video views, Facebook clicks or blog pageviews. Those are simply techniques. The reason you got the contract in the first place is to help you accomplish the broader goal of changing behavior or promoting public awareness. Start with that big picture and work backwards. We live in a society that’s so excited by tracking for tracking’s sake (Fitbit, anyone?) it’s easy to start recording data and lose sight of the “why.”

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Biased Analysts, Harvard’s Social Survey & More on Russia’s FB Ads

Russia’s Meddling, Analyzed
Last time Bee Update came out, the news about Russia’s election-meddling Facebook ads had just broken. This edition, I provide the analysis. $100K is such an odd amount to spend on ads, argues the Atlantic. It’s too much to go unnoticed, and too little to have much effect. Or did it? The low cost of Facebook ads means that $100K can go a surprisingly long way, says The Daily Beast. In this piece, a (colorful) Facebook ad expert estimates that the $100K in ads reached 26 million people. Oh yeah, and Wired explains how Facebook needs to fix itself.

Just Admit You’re Biased Already
I’m a big fan on the Digital Analytics Power Hour podcast. (Yup, there’s a podcast for everything these days). This episode from August on biases was a classic. As much as we want to be impartial, it’s hard to not fall into traps. Here’s some self-reflection from my favorite podcasting analysts.

Social Media Goes to Harvard
Harvard surveyed chief marketing officers and summarized its findings about social media. Social media spending is up 200% in 8 years. (I’m surprised that’s not higher), but nearly half the CMOs say they don’t know if it’s paying off. Here’s that portion and a link to the full survey results.

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Six Steps to Easy & Free SEO Keyword Research for Nonprofit Websites

SEO keyword research isn’t just for big, for profit companies.  It’s something that even small nonprofits can use to attract more visitors to their websites and gain more exposure for their mission.  When drafting a new blog post, press release or other website content, follow these six steps to find the right keyword phrase for your content.

Step One: Decide on your topic & audience location

Easy right?  Let’s say you want to write about your favorite day hikes for your organization’s blog. It will be mostly read by people in Virginia. Your audience could be national, several locations or just your town/city. It depends what people your organization serves.

Step Two: Figure out how people search for your topic

Your topic may be fascinating, but you need to write about it in the same terms people commonly use in search. How do you figure that out? Well, there’s a bit of an art to it. First, go to Google’s Keyword Planner. This is a free tool to research how often people are searching for keyword terms in your area. It’s mostly used for planning paid Ad Words campaigns. But you can use it for SEO keyword research too.

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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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