Measuring Your Social Media Return on Investment

I hear it a lot: does social media actually drive people to take action? Is it worth the effort? Does it actually create value for my organization?

Well, here’s some food for thought…

About 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media take action. And of those folks, 59% say they’ll donate, according to Nonprofit Source. That’s huge!

You may be surprised to hear that there are other ways that we measure social media’s impact and “success” for the Habitat affiliates we work with.

Let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of measuring social media success, without the fluff or jargon.

Setting the Stage: What Should Nonprofits Actually Measure?

Before we jump into the metrics, let’s talk about goals. You can’t improve what you don’t measure, right?

I get it – measuring success can be intimidating. There are so many numbers to track, it’s easy to get lost in the data jungle.

Here’s a simple way to think about it:

Picture your community member’s journey with your affiliate as a three-act play:

1. Awareness: “Hey, this nonprofit exists in my community!”
2. Engagement: “I love the work that they do and their vision for the future. It makes my community a better place.”
3. Action: “Sign me up! I’m ready to make a difference! Let’s Go!!!”

This three-act play is called a Marketing Funnel and each stage is vital for your success.

After all, if no one knows you exist, they’re not going to donate. So, step 1 is just as important as step 3.

That’s why it’s vital to measure each stage of your funnel to ensure your marketing is working.

For that reason, each stage has its own set of metrics that can help you gauge success.

Top of the Funnel: Reaching Far and Wide

How do we measure awareness? That seems a bit vague.

One cool metric to look at is Earned Media Value (EMV). It’s fancy-speak for how much your social media exposure is worth in dollar terms.

Why does EMV matter? It shows you the financial impact of your organic social media reach. Meaning, if you were to pay for this exposure, how much would it cost?

Calculating EMV can involve a lot of addition and multiplication, but here’s a simple way to think about it:

1. Assign a value to each type of social media interaction (likes, shares, comments)
2. Add ’em all up
3. Voila! You’ve got your EMV

Here’s a table provides the values for social metrics.

Middle of the Funnel: Building Relationships

How engaged is your community? And, what does engagement even look like?

This is where a metric called, Engagement Rate comes into play. It’s a measure of how much your audience is interacting with your content.

Engagements may be metrics like:

• post reactions
• comments
• shares
• saves
• video plays and views

Here’s the magic formula:

On most social platforms, they will actually provide you this information pre-calculated, so you don’t need to do the math yourself (Phew!).

When social platforms see posts that people are highly engaged with, they’re more likely to show them to more people. And that can lead to more visibility, reach and awareness.

Bottom of the Funnel: Turning Followers into Doers

Are your social media efforts leading to real-world actions? That’s ultimately what we’ve all been wondering, right?

This is where we look at Conversion Rate. It tells you what percentage of your audience is taking the actions you want them to take – like donating or volunteering.

Here’s how to calculate it:

So… what’s considered a conversion?

That’s actually up to you. However, most people will consider a conversion something that provides value to your organization.

This could be:

• cash donations
• GIK donations
• volunteer hours
• ReStore shoppers
• email subscriptions (assuming that you ask your subscribers to donate eventually)

It’s really up to you to justify and measure it. But, make sure that you’re consistent and have a way to attribute value to your conversions.

Understanding your conversion rate helps you see how effectively your social media efforts are driving value for your affiliate.

Show Me the Money: Calculating Return on Investment (ROI)

At the end of the day, we all want to know: Is our social media effort paying off?

That’s where Return on Investment (ROI) comes in. It’s a measure of the financial return on your social media investment.

The formula looks like this:

Now, calculating the “Value from Social Media” can be tricky. You might use your EMV, or you might only count hard values like donations and volunteer hours. The key is to be consistent in what you measure over time.

As for the “Cost of Social Media,” consider things like:

• Advertising costs
• Staff time dedicated to social media
• Contractor fees for social media management and design

Again, consistency is key. Pick a method and stick with it so you can track your progress accurately.

Reporting Your Progress: Tools of the Trade

Measuring is great, but reporting is where the rubber meets the road. It helps your team understand what’s working and what’s not.

Here are a couple of tools I’ve found super helpful:

Meta Business Suite

• Pull the raw data from your Facebook and Instagram to measure reach, engagement and conversions. You can use this raw data in a spreadsheet or a free dashboard builder like Google Looker Studio.
• If you’re running ads on social media, this is where you’d get your ads metrics from as well.
• Pro tip: Record these numbers in a spreadsheet so you can track your progress over time.

Buffer or Hootsuite

• Both offer robust reporting features
• Buffer has a particularly nice interface for customizing reports
• You can even export reports as PDFs to share with your team

ROI Starts with Engagement & Content

Even with the right strategy, it can be hard to carve out the time to do the work. We now know that the more content you post to Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn consistently, the more people you will reach. The more people you reach the better ROI you will get.

But, it can be hard to carve out the time to come up with 1-2 posts each day. That’s where Community Connect can help.

We provide monthly content for our members that includes copy/paste social media content and email graphics so you don’t have to recreate the wheel. Take a quick tour:

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should we be measuring our social media metrics?

I recommend monthly at a minimum. This gives you enough data to spot trends without getting overwhelmed.

What’s a good engagement rate for nonprofits?

It varies by platform, but a nonprofit industry average is, anything above 1% on Facebook and 3% on Instagram is considered good for nonprofits. Habitat accounts that Community Connect manages have seen engagement rates between 3-5% for Facebook and 4-8% for Instagram.

Should we focus more on followers or engagement?

While both are important, I’d prioritize engagement. A smaller, highly engaged audience can be more valuable than a large, passive one.

Wrapping It Up

Measuring the success of your nonprofit’s social media fundraising efforts doesn’t have to be rocket science. By focusing on key metrics at each stage of your audience’s journey – from awareness to action – you can get a clear picture of what’s working and what needs tweaking.

Remember, the goal isn’t just to collect numbers, but to use those insights to refine your strategy and ultimately, further your mission. So go forth, measure wisely, and make an even bigger impact in your community!