FennerNatureCenterSocialMediaTrajectory


 * The Big Project for JRN 492 @ MSU: Trixi A Beeker**

(Hello Karl, It looks like I may need to sacrifice my grade on this assignment to keep my promise to help Fenner with their social media metric analsis. They may be doing fairly well with their social media, but I do see room for improvement. Also, they are very eager to have me do what I've promised in helping them evaluate their use & effectiveness of social media via metric analysis - which they aren't doing at all yet. I agree that this option might not provide the fullest experience, but it is a project I can likely handle given my current time constraints - and, as I mentioned, I now feel ethically obligated. Sorry to be civilly disobedient on this one! I'm prepared to accept whatever consequence I will face as a result of this action).


 * Fenner Nature Center’s Social Media Trajectory**

29 Feb 2012


 * 1st Meeting Report - Just a synopsis**

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with two of Fenner Nature Center’s shining stars (whose names I will include in my next post after I double check on permission to do so) to discuss their current & future social media strategy. I’ve promised to clear what I write on this blog with my contact @ Fenner, so this will be only a summary of what I learned & what we plan.


 * Current Status**

Fenner is actually doing very well already with their social media presence. They have an informative website @ [], a youtube channel @ [|http://www.youtube.com/user/FennerNature?feature=mhsn#p/u] , Facebook page [] , & Twitter account @ [|http://twitter.com/#!/FennerNature]. They have a social media guru selected who meets monthly with a communication strategy team. They already have plans for continuing content on the various social media channels.


 * Future Plans**

They aim to increase awareness of Fenner Nature Center among Lansing residents & MSU students in particular, but all of Ingham County in general. The challenge is that their market is so diverse in age & interests - & therefore requires different means of communication. They also aim to ENGAGE, not just inform their ‘customers’ via social media (& other means as well, of course).


 * Where I can help**

Although those involved with social media at Fenner have already attended trainings in various aspects, the specifics of choosing metrics, creating benchmarks, establishing a baseline, & using analytics to measure progress are areas where they welcomed my assistance.


 * Next Steps (draft)**


 * 1) Write detailed notes of our first meeting
 * 2) Email notes to my contact at Fenner so she can review & edit as needed
 * 3) Suggest which metrics to measure in current social media channels
 * 4) Note baseline numbers via tool such as Google Analystics
 * 5) Choose benchmarks of progress (a weekly report is preferred to provide to board of directors to show that social media is worth the investment)

13 March 2012


 * Progress during Spring Break (Week 9 Report)**

1. My contact at Fenner helpfully sent their list of social media goals & objectives. These include: a. Education i. Fenenr history ii. Fenner location iii. Events such as Maple Syrup & Apple Butter Festivals b. Engagement i. Guessing games (ie, old Fenner photos) ii. Nature fact quizzes (ie how maple syrup is made) iii. Fenner history trivia questions iv. Program questions v. Responding to wall posts & comments vi. Respond to tweets vii. Giveaways & competitions leading up to events c. Cross-posting i. About other environmental events in the community d. Aggregation – being a source for nature in the news & community

2. Brainstormed some initial metrics Fenner may use to monitor it’s social media trajectory: a. Website hits b. Twitter followers, RTs & @mentions c. Facebook likes, comments

3. Finding that Google analytics only seems to monitor website traffic, I did a search on Google to see if any tool monitors twitter &/or Facebook. I found Wildfire Social Media Monitor, which claims to monitor twitter & Facebook – seems perfect!

4. Signed up for Google Analytics & Wildfire Social Media Monitor

1. Revise notes from first meeting & send to my Fenner contact 2. Review course notes from week 7/8 to determine best metrics/baseline 3. Find out if any tool allows for creating a weekly report in an instant fashion 4. Read other classmates blogs for inspiration! 5. Learn how to use Google Analytics & Wildfire Social Media Monitor 6. Create Social Media Metrics Plan of Action for Fenner 7. Revise Social Media Metrics Plan of Action for Fenner & email it 8. Take first steps in Social Media Metrics Plan of Action for Fenner
 * Plans for Next Week(s) / Next Steps**

26 March 2012

Received an interesting response from Fenner staff to my questions in bold. I asked these questions to get a better idea of the 'big picture' of their marketing effort, and how the metric analysis of their social media fits in. This gives me a clear direction in which to move during the next couple weeks.

**1. How does Fenner want to measure progress or success via social media use?** I would love to have some solid numbers to show our board when it comes to social media use. This means an increase in the number of likes/comments/shares on our Facebook page, as well as a measurable increase in the number of visitors and program attendees. However, I think it will be less easy to directly attribute an increase in program and visitors to social media, since we're also making efforts in a lot of other areas outside of social media, in order to increase participation (increased marketing, fundraising, etc). But social media will still be part of the larger package of reaching our mission, so we should definitely monitor it! By the way, I don't know if I mentioned it, but our broad mission is "connect people to nature in the heart of Lansing." So anything that gets people outside and to our programs more will help us meet this mission. Our end goal is generally to raise awareness of Fenner, in order to increase attendance in programs and visitors to the center, increase membership and increase donations/financial support. We want to spread awareness of Fenner to people who wouldn't normally be involved, in order to encourage them to participate, join as members, and/or donate. Because we need to think about numbers that are measurable, I agree that we should include the virtual social media results, which are easy to calculate. But we can also include numbers about our program attendance and visitors to the center, both of which we track.
 * 2. What is the end goal?**
 * 3. Do we want to look at just the virtual social media results or also include the real word? We need to think about numbers that are measureable.**
 * Below is a list of 'real word' possibilities that I just brainstormed (you may well come up with better ideas!).**

We didn't start keeping track of the number of general visitors to the center (who are not involved in a program) until April 2011, but we do track this now. This does not include how many people walk the trails, just how many come into the visitor center. We also count this. This year's Maple Syrup Festival was around 3,000, whereas last year's was around 2,700. Apple Butter Festival in 2010 had 4500 attendees, while in 2011 it had 3000 attendees (but this was largely due to bad weather in 2011). We currently have 206 members. We would love to increase this! We do keep track of the number of program participants. I think it would make sense to go back to 2011 numbers and compare these from month to month. For example, last February 2011, we had 221 participants in our programs. This February 2012, we had 169. February is an odd month, since the weather is iffy and people are less likely to be involved. But we could do this for any month. We count all programs, including public programs, school programs (field trips), and Boy/Girl Scout programs.
 * (1) Increase in numbers of visitors to Fenner - How many visit Fenner now? Do you gather this information?**
 * (2) Increase in attendees of special events such as Maple Syrup Festival - Do you count these each year?**
 * (3) Increase in memberships - What is the current level?**
 * (4) Increase in program attendance - This one would be easier to count I would think, although you have many programs - which programs would you count?**

26 April 2012

Below is the final email sent to Fenner about my suggestions for social media metrics tracking:

"It turns out my suggestions for social media metrics analysis and data presentation for Fenner Nature Center have been suddenly made MUCH simpler by a new online tool just developed in Germany! I was just going through the laborious process of creating tables of free online tools and functions to use to gather various metrics for each of your social media channels, when I did a quick research recap - & found TwentyFeet.

TwentyFeet is an extremely cheap way of tracking all the most important social media metrics for your channels AND having them displayed in nice, clear tables each week. Data is available for viewing at the TwentyFeet Website and also is emailed to you. You can choose to simply print the tables or export them to Excell.

If you were to track Fenner’s Twitter, Facebook & YouTube Accounts using TwentyFeet, it would cost less than $25 per YEAR!

I’ve just tried the service with my own accounts and like what is produced. It’s also very user friendly – VERY quick to learn and apply. The first month is a free trial. https://wiki.twentyfeet.com/

So, Courtney, would you be willing to try the first month trial to see if all those involved in the social media venture at Fenner think this solution will work? I'd be happy to chat if you have any questions."

The person in charge of social media at Fenner responded by saying they would need to run it by the board in charge of such funds, so I replied:

"Sounds good! Let me know what you hear back. If you are interested, I could create document explaining what would need to be done to 'manually' generate the kind of data you would get from the $25/year tool I suggested. I'm guessing when the time investment required (number of hours, amount of wages for those hours) is calculated, it may be that the $25/ year wins. But perhaps the metrics you want to track aren't worth it, and just very basic data will be enough."

We will have to see what they decide! To be continued after this class is over...