The Phone Test

I just published an entry to the TechSoup Blog about what I'm calling the phone test, based on a post by Laura Quinn. The idea of the phone test is that before starting any communications campaign (old media or new media), compare its impact to the impact you'd have by spending the same amount of time calling donors.

When is a social media campaign the right choice? When can it have a more substantial impact than traditional communications, and how can you gauge that impact?

Cheers,
Elliot

This is a great idea, but even though I tell people I am an "Internet consultant", I don't know what you mean by "social media campaign". Can't we just refer to these types of communication as "marketing"? It's a topic people know and about which there is tons of information.

For some reason marketing only seems to be a common idea with larger NPs that are more like corporations. But the concept can benefit just about any NP.

Making phone calls will take more time than most other forms of marketing (search advertising, banner ads, email, direct mail, etc.) but as one of the more personal methods, I have to think it would be more effective both in cost and end results.

The only suggestion I would make for an organization considering this on a large scale, is that they get permission from the people they are going to call at some point. NPs don't have to abide by the national do-not-call list, but they should in my opinion. Most people are on there because they don't want phone solicitations. I have lost interested in several NPs due to abusive phone marketing, and I generally vote against politicians that use the method. :-)

You win, Chris, I don't know what I mean by "social media campaign" either. I was giving into the fear some nonprofits have of using the M-word. Channing wrote a great blog post about this awhile ago.

Your post reminds me of a conversation I had with a colleague recently. I was stressing the importance of developing real, lasting, two-way relationships with donors, not just asking them for money three times a year. He replied, "Okay, fine. But that's just an illusion you're creating for the donor. It's an act." In some organizations, that's certainly the case, but not in the best ones. I've only been in the nonprofit world for a few years, but my favorite experiences in nonprofits (and my favorite experiences as a donor, too) have been in organizations where the lines between donor, employee, volunteer, and beneficiary aren't so clear. Ones in which donors aren't just given lip service but listened to, their ideas considered and their feedback applied.

I love getting that sort of phone call. The obviously-outsourced calls I get 12 times a year from a certain well-known Bay Area theatre company? Not so much.

Elliot