How to Make Your Campaigns More Viral November 21, 2013

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How to Make Your Campaigns More Viral With Jim Pugh, ShareProgress November 21, 2013

Presenters Becky Wiegand Interactive Events Producer TechSoup Assisting with chat: Ale Bezdikian, TechSoup Jim Pugh CEO ShareProgress

Introducing TechSoup Participant Poll Pressing the Viral Button What Is Virality Campaign Optimization Examples: CREDO Peers.org Q&A Today’s Agenda:

TechSoup is part of TechSoup Global, working towards the day when every nonprofit, library, and social benefit organization on the planet has the technology, knowledge, and resources they need to operate at their full potential. What Is TechSoup?

TechSoup is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. As of April 30, 2013, TechSoup Global has served more than 208,300 organizations — including over 67,000 organizations outside of North America. We have distributed more than 11 million software and hardware product donations and enabled recipients to save more than US$3.61 billion in IT expenses in 56 countries around the world.

Technology donations available through the TechSoup catalog: 401 Number of donor partners for US programs, including Adobe, Cisco, Microsoft, and Symantec: 63 NetSquared Local monthly meetup groups around the world: 48 TechSoup’s community blog and forums have participation from more than 50,000 monthly NPO and library users. Reach more than 200,000 NPO, library, and philanthropy subscribers in the United States with our newsletters each month.

Have you run an online campaign before? – Yes – No Participant Poll

What size is your organization’s list? – <1,000 – ,000 – 10,000-50,000 – 50, ,000 – >100,000 Participant Poll

PRESSING THE "VIRAL" BUTTON FOR YOUR CAMPAIGNS

WHAT IS VIRALITY? Often used, poorly understood:  “Make me a viral video!”  “There’s a viral campaign happening on Twitter”  “Social media goes viral on Capitol Hill” Virality measures organic growth, not overall popularity Determined by how much your users are sharing with friends

WHAT IS VIRALITY? Virality Ratio – average number of new people each user recruits Definition of “viral”: Virality ratio greater than 1 – explosive growth Virality ratio less than 1 is sub-viral – growth is limited

VIRALITY EXAMPLES VIRALITY RATIO INITIAL USERS (GEN 1) RECRUITED USERS (GEN 2) RECRUITED USERS (GEN 3) USERS AFTER 10 GENERATIONS 0.015, , , , ,0002,5001,250 9, ,0004,5004,050 32, ,0005,500 6,05079,687

Action Invite Response Action Rate x Invite Rate x Response Rate = Virality Ratio THE VIRAL LOOP Users take action Users invite friends Friends respond, become users Repeat

IMPROVING VIRALITY "Ok, I understand what virality is -- but how can I increase it?" Remember: Virality Ratio = Action Rate x Invite Rate x Response Rate Improving rate of any step improves virality ratio by same amount

EXAMPLE CAMPAIGN #1 New campaign has virality ratio of 0.1 – viral actions increase total action count by 11% Virality loop optimizations:  Optimize action page -> 20% higher action rate  Use optimized share page -> 60% more sharing to friends  Test share language -> 35% higher click rate New virality ratio: 0.1 x 1.20 x 1.60 x 1.35 = 0.26 Viral actions increase total action count by 35%

EXAMPLE CAMPAIGN #2 New campaign has virality ratio of 0.4 – viral actions increase total action count by 67% Virality loop optimizations:  Optimize action page -> 20% higher conversion rate  Use optimized share page -> 60% more sharing to friends  Test share language -> 35% higher click rate New virality ratio: 0.4 x 1.20 x 1.60 x 1.35 = 1.04 VIRAL CAMPAIGN

CASE STUDY CREDO ACTION PETITION: “STOP THE MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT”

CASE STUDY CREDO ACTION PETITION: “STOP THE MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT”

RESULTS The average petition gets less than 2% of names from social sharing CREDO received 13% of signatures from social sharing, resulting in 25,000 new names on their list How did they do this? CREDO optimized their petition page, used ShareProgress share pages, and optimized their share language asks

CASE STUDY CREDO ACTION PETITION: “STOP THE MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT” OPTIMIZED PETITION PAGE Multiple rounds of testing have improved the action rate for the petition page where people add their name

OPTIMIZED SHARE PAGE CREDO used a ShareProgress optimized share page for the petition In head-to-head tests, the ShareProgress page has received 50% more sharing than the original CREDO share page

OPTIMIZING SHARE LANGUAGE CREDO tested share language with ShareProgress to turn more shares into viral actions One Facebook language variation performed 63% better that the first version, increasing overall viral actions by 35% Facebook Title Shares Driving Action / Total Shares Success RateImprovement Monsanto shouldn’t be above the law 341/ % (±2.9%) -- “One of the most outrageous special interest provisions in years” 322/ % (±3.0%) 2.2% Tell the Senate: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act 458/ % (±3.1%) 43.8% Sign the Petition: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act 555/ % (±3.0%)63.4%

OVERALL RESULTS Virality loop optimizations:  Optimize action page -> 20% higher conversion rate  Plug in ShareProgress share page -> 50% more sharing to friends  Test share language -> 35% higher social conversions Result: Virality ratio of (13.5% of actions from social sharing)

WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED WITHOUT OPTIMIZATION? With Optimization: Virality ratio: ,000 actions from social 25,000 new-to-list Without Optimization (estimated): Virality Ratio: ,000 actions from social – 22,000 less 9,300 new-to-list – 15,700 less

CASE STUDY PEERS.ORG PETITION: “SAVE AIRBNB IN GRAND RAPIDS”

CASE STUDY CREDO ACTION PETITION: “STOP THE MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT”

RESULTS The petition received just under 1,100 signatures Only 584 signatures came from recruitment – an additional 498 signatures came from social sharing, increasing the total by 85%

CASE STUDY CREDO ACTION PETITION: “STOP THE MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT” OPTIMIZED PETITION PAGE Peers.org used best practices and A/B testing to optimize their petition page

OPTIMIZED SHARE PAGE Peers.org also used a ShareProgress optimized share page for their petition

Peers.org used best practices from previous share language tests to choose their Facebook and share language:  Including “Sign the petition” in Facebook headlines increases social actions by 20-63%*  Using personal subject lines in share s (e.g., “I just signed this – will you?”) increases social actions by 33-92%** Overall boost from optimized sharing language: ~40% * Best Practice: Sharing a petition? Be direct with your Facebook title.Best Practice: Sharing a petition? Be direct with your Facebook title. ** Best Practice: Be personal with your share subject linesBest Practice: Be personal with your share subject lines OPTIMIZING SHARE LANGUAGE

OVERALL RESULTS Virality loop optimizations:  Optimize action page -> 20% higher conversion rate  Plug in ShareProgress share page -> ~65% more sharing to friends  Test share language -> ~40% higher social conversions Result: Virality ratio of 0.46 (85% increase in actions from social sharing)

WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED WITHOUT OPTIMIZATION? With Optimization: Virality ratio: actions from social, 1,082 total Without Optimization (estimated): Virality Ratio: actions from social – 382 less 700 actions total

Q & A Please type your questions in the chat window. Follow-up questions can be posted in the community forums:

Additional Resources ShareProgress Best Practice: Sharing a petition? Be direct with your Facebook title Best Practice: Sharing a petition? Be direct with your Facebook title Best Practice: Be personal with your share subject lines Best Practice: Be personal with your share subject lines Contact for ShareProgress Contact

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