I read an article over the weekend by Cody Switzer, the Web Editor for The Chronicle of Philanthrophy. Cody’s article helps us put our interaction with millennials (20-30‘s) into perspective. I’ve added my two cents worth here:
Are you working harder than ever and doing it with less these days? The way I see it, little is changing in the way of methodologies and new strategies to reach those you are trying to reach. My conversations are also telling me that there ia a race to reach the “20-30 somethings”.
There are two things that I want you to point out to your leadership (and those that are standing in the way of change):
- Check the facts (which I am including in this blog)
- Let them know that we do not build for them. We build for our audience.
According to the 2012 Millennial Impact Report, a whopping 65% of the 6,500 surveyed, said that they would like to learn about your non-profit through your website. Compare that to 55% who turn to social networks, 47% who said email was the best way. On the lower end of the percentages they found that only 18% opted for printed material and 17% said face-to-face was preferred.
77% percent of those surveyed said that they own a smartphone, not just a phone , but a smartphone. This is not going away. It has been said that the smartphone is the new personal computer. You have to be thinking mobile strategy.
So as you begin to look at your site more strategically, consider this…
- When on your website, 90% of your audience is going to the “About Us” page
- 41% are looking for the way that their donations make a difference in the lives of others
- 41% are looking for volunteer activities
- 41% look for an event calendar
- 30% are looking at videos and photos
So, you starting to get the picture?
Beyond the basic information on the website, the 20 and 30-somethings scrutinize design. One person was quoted as saying “I judge the character of the organization with it’s presence on the Web.” You are being judged by the way your site makes a user feel.
However, the converse is also true. If you build for the gravitational pull of the audience into your site, they trust automatically. Just a side note…if you are a social change organization you need to be trustworthy, period.
Don’t think that User Experience, (UX) is important? Participants in selected focus groups said they wanted to understand an organization’s mission in less than a second after visiting the Web page. Wow! That is faster than even I thought. Next it will be nanoseconds!
So, as you are thinking about mobile, think about all those bad experiences you’ve encountered:
- A user has to expand the site by hand to read the content
- A user is redirected to a site’s homepage when clicking a link to your site from an external source
- A user is constantly prompted to check out the mobile version or app version of the site
So to wrap up: your organization has got to move past thinking of just using mobile for “text gifts” and creating apps. It is time to focus on “them”—whoever your “them” is—and make sense. Let’s Talk.
M
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