Flickr Photo: OzymanI gave a little talk on social media today to folks who publish print media (both non- and for profit). My big takeaway is that, nonprofit or for profit, we're all facing the same dilemmas regarding social media: we're nervous about the same issues of openness, and we all have trouble explaining it to our bosses.

Another big takeaway was that everyone has the same email marketing questions. How much should we send? Should we buy names? What kind of segmenting should we do?

The session after mine was presented by Alex Williams of eROI, and focused on emarketing tactics. Along the way, he shared some interesting stats (for those of you who are into that sort of thing):

1. In an average week, people receive 274 personal emails and 304 business emails.
2. More than one quarter of all email is marketing email.
3. 46% of Internet users say that email is not targeted enough to them.
4. Open rates for segmented campaigns are as much as 20% higher on average for the first 30 days.

All of this data, and the bulk of Alex's presentation, echoed many of the ideas and concepts we've been discussing in recent reports, at the NTC, and around the community for a while now.

Maybe we're not as far behind on the tech adoption curve as we thought?

Flickr Photo: not waltonSince I became Executive Director of NTEN last November, the number of things I've needed to stay on top of has exploded. On any given day, I need to be an expert in:

• Social Media tools and strategies
• DNS settings
• Nonprofit and Board Governance
• How innovative nonprofits are using technology
• The state of municipal wireless
• Email open rates
• Human resources laws
• Anything and everything NTEN members are up to
• And everything anyone is saying about NTEN

My old way of managing information was not cutting it. Although I use a lot of social media tools, I was very email-inbox centric. My inbox was the place I kept articles I wanted to read later, ideas I wanted to follow up on, and all of my to-do items.

The result? If you emailed me in the last three months, I probably didn't respond very quickly, if at all. That's no way to lead a membership organization.

Flickr Photo: MuffetAh, Spring: tulips, sun, clean, crisp air, and email metrics.

Today, we hosted and co-released the eNonprofit Benchmarks Study with M+R Strategic Services. During the live event and webinar, we learned a lot about how nonprofits are using email, and how stakeholders are responding. NTEN Members can get the recording of the webinar for free.

Convio also recently released a benchmarks report of its own clients. The reports don't cover exactly the same statistics, but it's interesting that the numbers they do have in common are very similar.

For all organizations in both reports, we found:

M+R Strategic Services and NTEN are excited to announce that we’re releasing an updated eNonprofit Benchmarks Study for 2008. We’ve analyzed online messaging, fundraising, and advocacy data from 21 leading nonprofit organizations.

Be one of the first to get your hands on a copy by joining us for the release of the report:

• In Washington DC: Thursday 4/24 from 3pm to 5pm Eastern
  
• Online at the NTEN webcast: Thursday 4/24 from 3pm to 5pm Eastern

Join us at the release event when we will:

• Cover key findings on fundraising and advocacy metrics
• Explore what the data tells us about industry-wide changes
• Provide key metrics to analyze your organization’s online program
• Hear from Amnesty International USA and Environmental Defense Fund on how they use data to measure success and fine tune their strategies.
• Take questions about the study and nonprofit online metrics

Flickr Photo: mwboeckmannThe Chronicle of Philanthropy ran a provocatively titled piece last Friday: Is Direct Mail Dead? Kudos to them for two things:

1. They correctly identify that simply switching to email fundraising isn't much of a strategy shift. Email IS direct mail in all but name and processed trees.

2. They quote Seth Godin in the story.  Seth's one of my favorite daily reads. He hits it out of the park when he says that the times have changed and nonprofits need to rethink how they raise funds:

“It means opening yourself up to volunteers, encouraging them to network, to connect with each other, and yes, even to mutiny. It means giving every one of your professionals a blog and the freedom to use it. It means mixing it up with volunteers, so they have something truly at stake,” Mr. Godin writes. “This is understandably scary for many nonprofits, but I’m not so sure you have a choice.”

A discussion thread about email subject lines has been growing on The Progressive Exchange List, beginning with a question from Karla Capers of the Union of Concerned Scientists:

I just received this email from "Doug Bishop" asking me to make a donation to the Edwards campaign. I have used this tactic before to raise money for organizations--sending an appeal to the list from a fellow "everyday person"--but I've never changed the "from" name on the outgoing email. I worry that if the email comes from a new name that list subscribers don't recognize they'll either just delete it, or worse, report it as spam. What do others think about this tactic?

NPTimes has a nice short piece today about email delivery and spam scoring systems. I was under the impression that this software, which "reads" your email and tells you what spam filter flags you have in your message, could be immensely helpful in avoiding the spam trap. According to Bill Pease of Convio, it ain't so:

"Unless your organization's email content regularly involves commercial-sounding language, content-only spam scoring systems are of relatively limited utility."

Agree? What have your experiences been?

I think the answer is yes. As next week's webinar presenter Heather Holdridge told me, you have to fish where the fish gather. And the fish, my friends, are at the social networking sites.

MySpace is the world's 6th most popular website, with over 100 million accounts. Facebook is the second most visited site on the web, with over 30 million users. If you want to fish where the fish are at, social networking sites seem like a smart place to start! In this webinar, you'll get a strategic overview of what these sites are and the opportunities they present nonprofits. We'll follow with specific case studies that show how nonprofits are using social networking sites to build their email lists, whether they're e-newsletter, action alert, or donor lists. After these real examples (with statistics), you'll leave with a clear understanding of how social networks can complement your outreach strategies.

When: Monday, July 30, 11am Pacific

Presented by: Justin Perkins and Heather Holdridge of Care2

> Register now!

Too Much EmailJust in case you thought my strategy of consistent (constant?) email to the NTEN community was without merit, here comes the latest M+R report. See people, I email you because I don't want you to forget about us!

Besides which, you know you love my emails!