A few weeks ago, I saw Justin Marchart’s shoutout to support his latest animated web series, Fantasy Hospital. I like to support other producers when I can and, as he was not far off his goal, I pledged a $10 donation to the campaign on Kickstarter.

Justin animated all of the contributors to his campaign into this hilarious trailer and, as a December Dwarf, I am now in the illustrious animated company of fellow web series creators Susan Miller, who appears as one of Santa’s Elves, David Nett – an Orc on ice; and other supporters who were animated as fairies, centaurs, unicorns and additional fantastical creatures.

When I received the link, I watched this in anticipation and sheer delight. My friends have had a good laugh at my photo spinning around on a dwarf’s body. I’ve been able to share this project with more people than any automated ‘Dear Supporter, thank you for your donation’ email. And, although I have no idea what the rest of the show is going to be about, I’m very much looking forward to seeing it and supporting it, and have checked out his back catalogue of other shows in the meantime.

It’s this kind of imaginative, personalised ‘thank you’ that would be amazing to see in the charity sector. Last year, charity:water created 250 videos for 250 of their 250,000 supporters to thank them for the imaginative ways that they had shared and supported their campaign. I’d be surprised if any of those people stopped supporting the campaign.

Much work is always done on formulating the ask – how to get people there, A/B testing combinations of copy and images, optimising the payment funnel. But it’s always disproportionate to the amount of effort we put into saying thank you, especially when we know that our warm audiences – existing supporters – always perform well in future campaigns.

Being able to thank our supporters – fans, donors and volunteers – is one of the best parts of being a producer; dreaming up ways to do it – even more so. As a fundraiser, whether it’s for charities, web series or my church’s flowers fund, I’ve appreciated the benefits of putting in as much thought and care into saying thank you as in formulating the ask.

As a donor, I’ve laughed, been delighted and shared. And you can bet that I’ll be following this show at each episode.

Posted by Rochelle

Image/video credit: Justin Marchert/Fantasy Hospital

Thanksgiving: the giving season?

Hot on the heels of American Thanksgiving Weekend came Cyber Monday – an online sales shopping bonanza – and the lesser known Giving Tuesday. Billed as the antidote to Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday was, in the words of founding partner Bill Gates, a fundraising initiative to ‘encourage people to give more, give smarter and celebrate the spirit of giving’. As part of the initiative, individuals can choose their favourite cause and make a donation on the Giving Tuesday website.

Donors gave more than $10 million to non-profit organisations on Giving Tuesday – 53% more than on the same day last year.

With figures just released announcing that one third of UK consumers will now start their sales shopping online on Christmas Day, I’m wondering whether we’re ready to embrace a philanthropic antidote to our seasonal shopping fix.

Would you fork out for Tumblr analytics?

Fresh out of beta, Tumblr’s preferred analytics provider, Union Metrics, has now made their service publicly available. You can now access a wealth of Tumblr analytics – such as the number of reblogs and reach – starting from the princely sum of $500 per month.

It’s expensive, that’s for sure. The starter package only tracks one topic and 10 blogs, and with a culture and design aimed at each user creating multiple blogs, that’s not going to get you very far if you’re tracking influential bloggers or trends.

It’s going to be interesting to see whether Tumblr achieves its potential to become a viable marketing tool with the numbers to match to warrant investing in this tracking tool. In the meantime, for solo users, most themes support regular ol’ Google Analytics (or you can paste them in yourself).

What do you have in common with Richard Branson?

Richard Branson became the first person to hit 1 million followers on LinkedIn this week in just a few weeks after the launch of their influencers programme.

Sitting neatly between LinkedIn News and its actual networking function, LinkedIn Influencers allows you to follow the network’s super influencers without being one of their connections.

As one of the key features of LinkedIn is being able to see at which company or organisation someone is based, it puts a little added pressure on organisations to retain influential individuals – as that individual is as much a marketing tool for the organisation as their own brand page. Although this dynamic already exists on every social network, it’s virtually impossible to be on LinkedIn without saying where you work.

I anticipate that LinkedIn will broaden this programme just a little more beyond the current 170 influencers and I’m looking forward to seeing which charity influencers make it into the mix.

Have a great week!

Rochelle

Image credit

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Facebook launched a beta test on Facebook Gifts allowing users to make donations to one of eleven American charities for a friend or family member. The user can choose the charity, or gift the donation to their friend who can then select the charity.

When this rolls out beyond the initial test, I’m excited to see whether this will become a viable fundraising channel for charities everywhere.

Donate to Hurricane Sandy on iTunes

I thought this was pretty awesome in its simplicity: you can make purchases in iTunes simply using your Apple ID, so you can also go ahead and donate on the same platform.

It is a given that conversions increase when PayPal is offered as a payment method: you don’t need a credit card handy, so you can make that spur of the moment purchase you weren’t intending to make when you stumbled upon that page or status update. So any platform that allows you to simply sign in then makes it easy to add a donation in a convenient place in your user journey (kudos to ebay) is an absolute gift to charities (and CSR teams), especially in times of crisis. Amazon, I’m looking at you.

Facebook testing new timeline

Here’s a Facebook update that might actually be welcomed: Facebook is testing a wider single column layout to timeline updates, with activity, apps update and friends mosaic in a narrower right hand column.

Judging from these screenshots, it certainly looks a lot more intuitive to read status updates vertically, as opposed to horizontally and vertically, and brings the user experience more consistently in line with their mobile app.

Until next week

Rochelle

Image credits: Facebook, Mashable

On the offchance that you missed it, the iPad mini was announced this week (as was the iPad 4, but as an iPad 3 owner of less than four months, don’t even get me started on how I feel about that).

So what does this mean for charities?

Thankfully, for app developers, the iPad mini has the same aspect ratio as the second generation iPad (1024 x 768), meaning that no additional development work has to be undertaken to fit existing iPad apps to the new tablet.

However, with an increase in tablet users comes a wider audience and I anticipate that it will only be a matter of time before owning two mobile devices will becoming more prevalent, not just because of this new product but also the growing choice and affordability of tablet devices across all platforms. So if it’s not on your radar at the moment, it might be wise to start thinking about your strategy for mobile optimisation – both in terms of your website and your apps.

Get your game on in Facebook

So here’s an interesting insight when planning your next Facebook app: there are some 35 million more people that are playing games on Facebook more than last year – that’s around 251 million people in total. This growth is attributed simply to the social network effect: you’re more likely to play a game if you see that more of your friends are playing it.

The most popular genres are simulation games, followed by arcade and puzzle games. In line with an increased focus on mobile, Facebook will increase the number of games with which its mobile platform will integrate in future, taking apps to a whole new level.

Chirp away

This week, Mashable reviewed Chirpify, an interesting way of making payments and donations directly from your Instagram or Twitter stream. When you @ reply ‘buy’ or ‘donate’ your Twitter or Instagram account is linked to your PayPal account to take payment, removing the multistep process usually involved in clicking on a link in a stream and going through a traditional checkout.

It’s certainly going to add some muscle to Twitter campaigns and, short of finding a campaign in the near future into which we can implement this, I’m going to be watching the progress of this platform with great interest. Visit the Chirpify website and click on fundraising in the menu.

Until next week

Rochelle

Image credits: Apple, Chirpify

You’ll have a keen eye for detail, be meticulous about getting things right, organised, methodical and dedicated.

You’ll also need to be good with people, because you’ll be a key point of contact for our clients (being a good listener is essential).

It’s not all administration and project management though. The work we do is creative, innovative and often breaking new ground – much of our best work has come from turning all minds to a problem, and it would be great if you can contribute.

Ideally, we are looking for someone with a couple of years’ fundraising experience, who has run direct and digital campaigns, who keeps up on new trends and is excited by the possibilities of new technologies.  But we are also interested in hearing from you if you have transferable experience and, above all else, a passionate desire to help charities achieve their missions.

If this sounds like you and you like the sound of joining our team, email me: info [at] hellobeautifulworld [dot] com.

Rachel

Introducing Google Tag Manager

In every organisation I’ve ever worked in, tags – or rather, the implementation thereof – have always been one of those tasks that have caused much friction between the marketing and development departments.

Marketing has tags that need to be on every page, or a group of pages, in order to track user behaviour or enable other features – these could include affiliate programmes, meta information plugins, Google Adsense and Analytics and Facebook Open Graph. The dev team is focused on keeping their code as clean, well-documented and as unbloated as possible, so finding a place to put the tag usually ends up with some kind of hack needed. Remembering to remove it again is another story.

So Google Tag Manager is an absolute godsend for both teams. It’s a neat container that only needs to be implemented once, and then marketers and other campaign managers can log into Google Tag Manager to upload, switch off, delete and manage their tags for their campaigns as they like.

Facebook has another go at gifts

Remember Facebook Gift Shop that closed in 2008? Well, it’s back in business as Facebook Gifts.

There are many factors which will hopefully improve the product’s prospect this time around. Online shopping, the growth in tablet use and deeper integrations between platforms and services have all served to increase the confidence of users in purchasing online.

With family in Asia and the US, I was a big fan of the potential of Facebook Gifts back in the day, especially as I’m not great at remembering birthdays. But the selection wasn’t great. This time around Facebook Gifts may provide online retailers with a viable platform on which to sell their products without them having to invest in their own Facebook stores.

I’m very much hoping that Facebook Gifts succeeds this time around in order to promote purchasing within Facebook – as this should see some positive behavioural benefits to donating in Facebook.

Hello, Marketers – love, Tumblr

Union Metrics, the makers of Tweetreach, has licensed their analytics platform to Tumblr meaning that, for the first time, Tumblr users will be able to see which of their posts or reblogs performed the best.

This move is in line with the platform’s growing popularity with marketers as, we reported recently, Tumblr’s visitor count puts it in the same ballpark as Pinterest, the third highest referring social media platform.

Until next week

Rochelle

Image credits: Union Metrics, Facebook

This week’s beautiful bytes is photo themed: Twitter gives everyone new photo headers but is reportedly looking to take away your Twitpic while Facebook pulls facial recognition. But first – a little Tumblr and Pinterest.

Tumblr and Pinterest – neck and neck

It was revealed this week that Tumblr’s unique visitor count increased by 100% in the last year to an average of over 26.9 million per month, which places it firmly in Pinterest’s ballpark of 23 million visitors.

I’m a huge fan of Tumblr – you can find a blog on any meme that ever was on that platform, as well as getting a lesson in re-purposing content. The majority of content shared on Tumblr is either image or video based, and is probably responsible for bringing back the animated gif. In the channel mix, Tumblr sits in that space between Twitter and more traditional blogging platforms.

However, because of its growing popularity coupled with the changes that Twitter will reportedly make to disallow third party photo services, I think we’re going to start to see more people posting content from Tumblr to Twitter; this has the added advantage of being able to categorise and search your Tumblr presence.

Go tag yourselves

You know when you go to upload an album of photos and then Facebook magics its facial recognition software to suggest friends that you can tag? Well, from now on, you’re going to have to tell your friends to tag themselves, or tag them manually, as Facebook has pulled the plug on its facial recognition software following demands from EU privacy regulators (non-EU users: as you were).

I have to say that I’ve never been too bothered by this feature; as a page admin, I’ve found it really useful when you upload photos from events – especially if you can’t remember people’s names (ahem), so the removal of this feature may just create an opportunity to engage everyone after the event to go tag themselves.

Twitter goes all Facebook

Have you always wanted a header image on your Twitter profile, just like you have on your Facebook or Google+? Well, now you can, courtesy of the latest round of Twitter updates.

This feature has also made it into the latest Twitter app update for iPad, with photo stream updates also made to their iPhone and Android apps.

Another one bites the dust

IFTTT became the latest victim of Twitter’s recent changes to their API. If you’re unfamiliar with IFTTT, it stands for ‘if this then that’ and allows you set up rules that move your data around a plethora of services, from social media platforms to email to RSS to Dropbox e.g. ‘If I upload a photo to Flickr, then share it to Google+’ or ‘If someone mentions me on Twitter then email my colleague’. These rules are called recipes, and these new changes mean that we’re going to have to mix them up a different way.

We will no longer be allowed to use Twitter as the ‘trigger’ – the ‘if’ part – but we can still use Twitter as the output – the ‘then that’ part. It’s a small but significant change.

If you don’t use IFTTT, I highly recommend checking it out, especially if you manage your organisation’s social media.

It’s depressing that I sit here every week watching out for the latest service to fall foul of Twitter’s new updates. Make it stop.

Until next week

Rochelle

Image credit

So it’s particularly pleasing to see that beautiful world and its clients Merlin, and Blind Veterans UK, have been shortlisted in no less than two categories for 2012.

The Facebook application we created for Merlin’s Christmas Heroes campaign has been shortlisted under Innovation and our Tarts For Troops work for Blind Veterans UK features in the Charity/Not For profit section.

Fingers and toes are now crossed!

“Working with beautiful world is easy. They listen, ask good questions and have a great understanding of our sector. Then ultimately, they translate all of this into great work!

It has been a rewarding experience and we are delighted with results! We have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from our beneficiaries, partners and supporters. We now have an image reflects how we are, as a charity.”

Nickie Wren, Marketing Manager, The Makaton Charity 

The Makaton Charity approached beautiful world in 2010 in a search of a design agency to inject new life into its marketing materials – and we’ve been enjoying each other’s company ever since.

We entered a world of signs, symbols and Mr Tumble. We began with the charity’s general information booklet, ‘What is Makaton?’ and have since designed its product catalogue, event posters, business cards, stationery and more.

Earlier this year beautiful world redesigned The Makaton Charity website,  showcasing the new brand online. We  conducted a Google Analytics review, identifying key journeys on the site and popular content as well as telephone research with internal and external stakeholders.

Before the redesign

After the re-design

Subsequently we audited site content, focusing on users needs and advising on content hierarchy.

As part of this project we also worked with the charity to build its photo library – reflecting an organisation with people at its heart.

We created a site which is intuitive, fresh, and, importantly, recognisable as The Makaton Charity. We are also undergoing quarterly user testing to ensure the site we designed still meets users needs.

We’re now embarking on a new project with the Charity to launch this Autumn, bringing Makaton to the community.

Its not easy to carve out a new niche in amongst the plethora of running events, coffee mornings, walks, swims, bake offs, you name it.  We wanted to find an event the was appropriate for Blind Veterans UK but not a literal connection to what they do.  It also needed to be easy to do, memorable and  fun.

We decided to have as much fund as we could in dreaming up an idea.  In an atmosphere of mild hysteria someone yelled: “Tarts for Troops!”  Yes, it was followed by laughter and nearly discounted, but we soon realised that we had something.

It was fun.  It was simple.  It sounded a bit naughty – but that would, surely work in its favour.  After all, much of Britain’s best loved comedy over the years has been loaded with innuendo.

In the current climate of cookery shows, an event that asked people to bake, buy and sell something as simple as a tart could work.

As you’ll see from the work below, the idea translated into a great logo (it drew more clicks on Facebook than any other ad).  We created a simple, good looking microsite to allow them to register their event.

It made for a great social media campaign, and we developed the social media strategy and content plan, with Tart of Day as a regular feature. And for those who didn’t have the time to bake or sell tarts – there was the opportunity to show support by buying a virtual tart.