Recovery Month's New Media Newsletter for April

April

Building Loyalty on Facebook: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital The term "brand loyalty" may bring to mind many well-known companies, such as Facebook, Google, Walt Disney World or Starbucks, but what about a non-profit organization? According to a recent brand loyalty survey from social research firm LoudDoor, the brand with the most loyal Facebook fans is not a for-profit corporation. It's St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The study, which asked consumers how likely they are to recommend a brand page they "like" on Facebook to a friend, found that consumers feel far more loyal to St. Jude than even Facebook itself. St. Jude scored a 77.8 on LoudDoor's scale, compared to Facebook's score of 66.6. The reason? John Avola, St. Jude's senior liaison for interactive marketing, social, and mobile, believes that it comes down to mutual involvement and loyalty. "We at St. Jude are just as loyal back to our fans as they are to us," he said. For example, this past July, St. Jude decided to run a weekly feature titled, "St. Jude Moments." These posts focus on one child each week and a few important aspects of his or her daily life at St. Jude. Sharing these more personal moments humanizes the brand and allows it to connect with its audience on a more emotional level. St. Jude also keeps the tone honest. It uses social media to reflect the true nature of the brand by being inspirational and uplifting. While many children at St. Jude are dealing with hardships, their smiles and hope keeps fans coming back to the page. Finally, the St. Jude Facebook page places a high priority on giving back. Posts on the page regularly show appreciation and gratitude to the support of the network, and comments and questions are addressed quickly. All of these practices are what makes St. Jude the most loyally followed brand on Facebook. To learn more, check out the article from Ragan's Health Care Communication News.  TIPS OF THE MONTH Last month, Facebook announced it would be rolling out a redesign for timeline to make it cleaner and more personal for users. Below is some information that helps explain the new design, so you can make the most of these changes for your organization's Facebook page. For the full article, visit Nonprofit Hub.   Tell stories with visuals. The new redesign emphasizes photos and graphics, which provides the opportunity to tell personal stories through compelling imagery.   Posts are filtered to show what's important. Users can now apply filters to their newsfeed so that they see the updates that are most important. This ensures that if fans appreciate the content your organization shares, they have the opportunity to filter and prioritize it.   Content becomes mobile-friendly. Now, Facebook will optimize for different devices, so there is no need to be concerned about what photos and posts will look like on a phone versus a tablet versus a desktop.