#nomakeupselfie

My favourite things from Fundraising Online 2014: Day two

Fundraising Online 2014 turned out to be a brilliant two days of sessions from some great speakers!  Here are summaries of my two favourite sessions from day two…

1. The inside story behind #nomakeupselfie & Cancer Research UK

Day two kicked off with Aaron Eccles, Cancer Research UK’s senior social media manager, talking about the #nomakeupselfie trend.  There have been lots of articles and blog posts about Cancer Research UK’s success with this hashtag trend, so it was great to hear Aaron’s side of the story.

Aaron explained that Cancer Research UK (CRUK) always used social media as a platform to create connections and engage with people so that they would come back and support the charity further down the line.  They never expected people to go direct from social media to donating.  That all changed with #nomakeupselfie.  Here’s a quick run-down of what took place:

  • The CRUK out of hours social media team noticed #nomakeupselfie being linked to #cancerawareness. People asked @CR_UK  if #nomakeupselfie was started by them and they confirmed that it wasn’t.
  • The next day, traffic to the CRUK website from social media was up dramatically. People wanted a tangible link between posting selfies with no makeup and fighting cancer (the ‘social proof factor‘). CRUK responded to this requirement by providing a text-to-donate number (keeping it mobile).

CRUK1

  • People started posting screenshots of their text donation confirmations alongside their selfies.
  • After day 1, £1 million had been raised for Cancer Research UK! 5.1m reach on social media, 196k likes, comments & shares, 225k post clicks. The below tweet became their most retweeted tweet ever!

CRUK

  • The media picked up on this and started sharing the story, including the text donation code.
  • After so much organic success, CRUK decided to boost the campaign by putting some spend behind it.
  • After just 6 days, £8 million had been raised!

CRUK2

This campaign has been listed by Econsultancy as one of the best social media marketing campaigns of all time!

Aaron outlined some of the key learnings from the campaign, which any nonprofit should take note of, including:

  • Out of hours social media coverage is essential
  • Simple, engaging content should be created that can be easily replicated by others
  • Unique opportunities that arise from the action of others should be embraced
  • Offline channels should be used to amplify a digital campaign (CRUK had a big boost from PR)
  • Instagram is a major player and brands should keep using it

 

2. The art of mobile

Oisin Lunny delivered a great session about how to get more from your mobile strategy.   Despite some sound issues at the beginning, Oisin delivered a thoroughly entertaining presentation filled with very interested facts about mobile strategy.

Oisin put forward a strong case for any nonprofit organisation to have a good, well thought-out mobile strategy:

  • 80% of global internet traffic will come from always connected mobile devices within 4 years.
  • Mobile users have a different mindset to PC users.  They are more action orientated, so therefore more likely to respond.
  • Acquisition can be so much quicker on mobile – 5 seconds compared to 4 minutes on PC.
  • Desktop is flatlining, while smartphones are growing significantly.
  • Click through rates increase when emails are optimised for mobile.
  • Donations via text can be a good way to obtain contact details for your marketing list.
  • Use mobile beyond fundraising: petitions, activisim, helplines, research, citizen journalism, location based services, staff and volunteer coordination, remote consultation and more!

I think one of the best bits of advice from Oisin was KISS: Keep it Simple at the Start.  If you’re interacting with people over mobile devices, you need to make it very easy for them to make the first step.  Oisin used a great example from from WWF, with a compelling headline and a clear, simple call to action:

WWF

Oh, and also, another great piece of advice: DON’T USE QR CODES!! Especially if you’re trying to encourage people to keep their smartphones locked away, on an underground train platform where there’s no mobile signal. Tube advert FAIL:

Tube

If you want to see Oisin’s full presentation, he’s kindly shared it on Slideshare.

 

Fundraising Online will be back in May next year!

What we can learn from #ThumbsUpForStephen & #nomakeupselfie

The huge success of a fundraising campaign by terminally ill Stephen Sutton, highlights the power that social media can have when it comes to fundraising.  Stephen explains on his JustGiving page that he initially aimed to raise £10,000 for Teenage Cancer Trust as part of his bucketlist, but following unprecedented support, he has now raised an incredible £3.1 million.  Teenage Cancer Trust has confirmed this as their biggest ever individual donation.

This campaign gained momentum when a number of celebrities showed their support and tweeted photos with #ThumbsUpForStephen posters, including Coldplay, Jason Manford, Rebecca Adlington and Robbie Wiliams. More recently, Prime Minister David Cameron visited Stephen to pose for a Thumbs Up photo and kept the word spreading about Stephen’s cause.

Social media also has it’s downside. Stephen recently had to defend himself against internet trolls who suggested he was trying to ‘dupe’ people out of money. But in terms of the fundraising campaign, this probably only helped spread the news, with newspapers running the story and adding to the cause’s exposure.

This isn’t the first time this year that we’ve seen a campaign take off on social media on an remarkable scale.  #nomakeupselfie went viral after women began posting photos of themselves without makeup on social media sites and nominated friends to do the same.  Cancer Research UK cleverly seized the opportunity to engage with people on social media and, through the #nomakeupselfie trend alone, raised an amazing £8 million.

The virality of campaigns such as these is extremely difficult to replicate, however, there are certain aspects that any fundraiser should take note of.  Obviously, a passionate, brave story such as Stephen Sutton’s encourages donations and was the cornerstone of his campaign’s success.  Other key points to take away from these campaigns are:

  • Brand your initiative – An initiative with strong branding will travel further.  The trends of #nomakeupselfie and #ThumbsUpForStephen effectively added brand names to the campaigns and added to their success.
  • Recruit influencers – In both of the above cases, celebrity involvement went a long way to increase exposure of the causes. Not all charities will be lucky enough to benefit from this kind of celebrity endorsement, but reaching out to influential people that you may have in your networks is a good place to start.
  • Of course, the golden rule of comms, remember your call to action! – Just take a look at the Robbie Williams tweet above!

I’m really looking forward to Fundraising Online 2014 on 21-22 May, when Aaron Eccles (Cancer Research UK’s senior social media manager) is going to talk about how they were able to react to the #nomakeupselfie trend and change their approach to social media accordingly.  Fundraising Online is free, but you must pre-register. So if you’re interested in seeing the #nomakeupselfie session, make sure you register  before 12 May.