Communications Reach Report June 2014

Communications Traffic Summary Our largest audience, by far, is reached through Facebook, with 53% share of total audience. The Website and Newsletter e-Blasts each account for 18% of total audience. We may want to focus on Facebook with an eye toward bringing more users in to the website and its resources. Our distribution is growing while we update our mailing – removing long unsubscribed/bounced addresses and adding new ones. Website traffic has steadily increased over the past 3 months.

The GALA Web Site was completely redesigned in 2012, with the Online Resource Center fully implemented in The site currently contains 850 pages organized into 5 major sections. The web site provides in-depth information on programs and events, provides means for member choruses to connect with one another and serves as a digital library of resources related to the operation of a chorus. During 2014 we are focused on presenting site-wide visual consistency and ease of navigation, improving search capability within the Online Resource Center, and increasing the visibility of available resources and the 411 Advisor Program. Looking ahead, we expect to engage 5 x 5 Design to audit the site in 2015 and to improve the look and functionality of the site for viewing from mobile devices.

GALA WEBSITE OVERVIEW June 2014 The number of Unique Visitors, number of Sessions, and average Duration all increased in both May and June, indicating increased reach and user engagement with the site. The Bounce Rate (visitors who leave site without interaction) has decreased from the previous month in both May and June, another indication of increased engagement. We are working to segment which pages have the best & worst bounce rates and to establish a target rate and plan to increase user retention. We started using a pop-up set of 3 questions as a tool to provide insight into our web site audience. The home page was reconfigured from 3 to 4 columns, to spotlight Blog entries.

GALA WEBSITE ACQUISITION June 2014 New users accounted for 74% of website visitors and 59% of total visits in June, many from outside the U.S., presumably due to our having a presence at Unison and Various Voices. More users are entering the site directly (via a web search), rather than being referred from other channels. like Facebook. The average number of pages per new users session is up from May, but the bounce rate has also increased, indicating that people are finding what they want quickly, or that whatever they were looking for is not relevant to GALA Choruses.

RESOURCE CENTER USAGE June 2014 While the Job Bank has always been the busiest page in the Resource Center, both the number of unique visitors and the number of visits showed a significant increase over previous months. There was also a rather dramatic increase in the number of visits to the Singer section of the Resource Center, which is likely due to increased Canadian and European usage. The use of the Chorus Manager section has remained flat over the past several months, but is no longer in the top 5 pages due to increased use of other sections.

The GALA Blog was created during 2013 in response to a request from the membership to have a place in which to share stories with one another between festivals. The blog is our primary source of member-related and member- generated content. Our current goal is to post one unique article about a member chorus and one general item of interest each week. We will be testing the awareness of the blog among the general singer population as part of the communications survey. We regularly reference the blog and link to blog articles within our e-Blasts and Facebook posts.

GALA BLOG June 2014 The number of Unique Visitors is up, while the number of New Visitors is way up. The Bounce Rate for blog articles is an excellent, low 1%. We’re working on goals and strategies to increase Blog traffic. We’d like to grow interactivity with more content coming more frequently from member choruses.

Direct communication, which includes newsletters, announcements and surveys, is distributed through Constant Contact software. GALA maintains a variety of mailing lists within Constant Contact, including a general interest list (delegates from festival and those who sign up), to which the newsletter is distributed; ED, AD and Board President lists; and temporary lists around particular events. The e-Blast template was redesigned in 2013 to conform to the visual brand developed for the web site. The mailing lists have been updated with data from a re-designed chorus membership renewal form to ensure effective information distribution to member chorus leadership. Join Our Mailing List

E-NEWSLETTER June 2014 The Open Rate is quite good at 35%, compared to an average open rate of 22% for Constant Contact non-profit arts organizations; and it ‘s increasing over time. Newsletter distribution is becoming more efficient as we clean up bad addresses and ensure that all leadership positions are included on the General Interest list, as well as specialized lists for each role. The Bounce Rate has been improving the past several months, and is 1.5% lower than the Constant Contact average for non-profit arts organizations.

e-Blast Messages June 2014 Yahoo! and a few other ISPs have recently changed their algorithms for identifying spam, which automatically sends much mass- to the recipient’s Junk folder. We will add a reminder to the next newsletter asking mailing list members to add GALA Choruses to their contact list to prevent this from happening. A new Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL) went into effect July 1, We are in compliance with this regulation.

GALA AND SOCIAL MEDIA Social Media accounts for 61% of GALA’s total audience reach. 13% of all GALA website traffic is referred through social media. Use of social media is increasing in every demographic.

The GALA Facebook Page is used to provide real- time sharing of news and greetings to new members, new directors, choruses celebrating anniversaries, etc. We have increased the number of posts, especially photos, and have begun to experiment more with boosting posts to reach a larger audience, especially in light of the vast reach of Facebook among our membership. For 2015, we will be developing a specific budget for Facebook and a strategy for increasing engagement.

GALA FACEBOOK PAGE June 2014 Facebook accounts for 53% of GALA’s total audience reach, but refers only 12% of GALA website traffic. GALA added 16 posts in June, including several chorus anniversary acknowledgements, photos from Various Voices Dublin, member chorus pride events, and mentions of new Blog articles.

The GALA YouTube Channel hosts all of our videos including collections like the entire Our Legacy = Our Song concert from Festival There are currently 60 videos available on the site. The GALA Channel was created in May 2011, and then reorganized and rebranded in 2012.

GALA YOUTUBE CHANNEL June 2014 Published new videos “Consensus Validation” and “Gay Games Greeting”. YouTube accounts for 5% of total audience reach and directs 0.01% of traffic to the GALA website. Number of Subscribers has increased in each of the past 6 months..

The GALA Twitter Feed is used for brief, spontaneous news updates in real time. It was established in March Tweets posted by GALA have included announcements of upcoming events, recent accomplishments of member choruses, and messages from the Leadership Symposium in Cleveland, where we projected the live GALA Twitter Page.

GALA TWITTER FOLLOWERS June 2014 Twitter accounts for 4% of GALA’s total audience reach and directs 0.2% of the traffic coming into the GALA website. The number of Followers has steadily, albeit slowly, increased each month since Autumn The number of Followers and Mentions has increased steadily over the past 6 months.

Other Available Metrics Newsletters & e-Blasts: -Clickthrough stats for individual website pages linked in newsletters & messages Website (including Blog and Resource Center): - Page Depth Distribution - Session Frequency Distribution - Days Between Sessions - Traffic by Computer Operating System - Traffic by Mobile Phone Operating System - Traffic by Mobile Screen Resolution - Traffic by Browser Type - Sessions by Country - Sessions and PageViews by individual Web Page Social Media Breakouts: - Sessions by Referring Social Medium - Referred Sessions by Landing Page / Shared URL - Referred PageViews by Referring Social Medium -Referred PageViews by Landing Page -Referred PageViews by Shared URL Facebook: - Total Reach (Organic / Paid / Viral) - Total Impressions (Organic / Paid / Viral) - Logged-in PageViews - Page Stories - Page Reach - Post Impressions - Page Impressions - External Domains Referring to FB page - Frequency Distribution - ‘Likes’ by Gender & Age - ‘Likes’ by Country YouTube: - Total Estimated Minutes Watched - Number of Impressions Twitter: - List of accounts following GALA - List of accounts GALA follows

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