Communications report: January 2020

Overview

Communications efforts in the month of January focused largely on continued efforts to update print materials and physical signage to bring them in compliance with the new Volunteer Maine brand. Discussions on a new, unified Volunteer Maine website -- one of the larger rebrand projects -- with website firm InforME. InforME is responsible for the State of Maine's official website.

Please see below for updates on additional communications initiatives.

Media relations efforts and coverage

Media outreach during the month of January focused on Martin Luther King Day of Service projects hosted by Maine AmeriCorps programs and Maine Youth Act Mini-grant program recipients. Media outreach efforts (view press release here) resulted in a variety of coverage in the Portland and Bangor media markets. Service projects in hosted in Portland, Saco and in Belfast were covered by local print and television media. Some highlights of media outreach efforts include:

  • A front page, above-the-fold presence in the Saco Biddeford Courier weekly newspaper with accompanying online coverage on Maine Youth Act Mini-grant recipient First Parish Church of Saco's "Full Mind Body and Spirit" community event. The event was also covered on WMTW TV 8 in Portland.
  • A story published in The Republican Journal weekly newspaper on the emergency preparedness community event hosted by Maine Youth Act Mini-grant recipient The Game Loft of Belfast, with acccompanying online coverage. The event was also covered by WABI TV 5 in Bangor.
  • WMTW TV 8 Portland story (same WMTW link as above) on Maine Youth Act Mini-grant recipient Portland Housing Authority's MLK Day of Service educational event for local students.
  • Expanded outreach through sharing of owned social media coverage by organizations with large audiences, including America's Service Commissions (ASC), and Colby College.

A full report is available via PDF on MLK Day of Service media outreach efforts, created using the online media relations measurement tool, Coverage Book. The report highlights digital and traditional media coverage and includes statistics from online news coverage. Please click the following link to access the report. Some highlights from the Coverage Report include:

  • 26 different pieces of coverage
  • Estimated online readership of 4.5 million
  • Estimated coverage views of 14.3 thousand
  • 269 social media shares of coverage published online by media outlets

MaineServiceCommission.Gov Website

Traffic:

  • Views: 4,260
  • Unique views: 3,625
  • Bounce rate: 68.43%

Search results:

  • Clicks to site: 426
  • Impressions: 33.7K

Frequent search terms:

  • "americorps maine" 58 clicks
  • "maine commission for community service" 37 clicks
  • "volunteer maine" 11 clicks
  • "maine americorps" 8 clicks
  • "Foster Grandparent Program Maine" 6 clicks
  • "maine americorps" 4 clicks

Device breakdown:

  • Desktop: 59.11%
  • Mobile: 37.33%
  • Tablet: 3.57%

Social media engagement

Facebook:

  • New fans: 3
  • Post likes: 230
  • Post comments: 12
  • Post shares: 18
  • Video views: 65
  • Link clicks: 230
  • Page reach: Average of 175 people per/post

Twitter:

  • New followers:-3
  • Retweets: 29
  • Likes: 66
  • Replies: 2
  • Link clicks: 20
  • Engagement rate: 0.6%
  • Impressions: 22.8K

LinkedIn

  • New followers: 1
  • Likes: 3
  • Comments: 0
  • Shares: 5

Glossary of terms:

  • Bounce rate: The percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. This helps us determine how many engaged/interested visitors visit the site in a given period.
  • Clicks to site/link clicks: The physical action of clicking a link. This helps us measure the effectiveness of our messaging and ability to create calls to action.
  • Click-through number: The number of unique individuals who clicked a link inside of an email. This helps us measure the effectiveness of our calls to action.
  • Click-through rate: This is the ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view a page, email, or advertisement. This helps us measure the success of an online advertising campaign for a particular website as well as the effectiveness of email campaigns. For 2020, the average open rate is 2.6%, according to digital marketing platform Campaign Monitor.
  • Cost-per-click (CPC): CPC refers to the actual price you pay for each click in your pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaigns. This helps us measure ROI on advertising, gain a better understanding of our target audiences, and the effectiveness of our messaging.
  • Engagement rate: A metric that measures the level of engagement that a piece of created content is receiving from an audience. This helps us determine how many individuals interact with the content, and gain a better understanding of our target audiences. Industry standards state the following: (courtesy of Scrunch.com)
    • Less than 1% = low engagement rate
    • Between 1% and 3.5% = average/good engagement rate
    • Between 3.5% and 6% = high engagement rate
    • Above 6% = very high engagement rate
  • Frequent search terms: The most utilized search terms that individuals use on Google to access the website. This gives us a better idea of how people get to our website and what topics matter most to them.
  • Impressions: When an advertisement or any other form of digital media appears on a user's screen. This is not an action-based statistic, but gives us an idea of how many users potentially saw the piece of content. This metric helps us track brand awareness efforts.
  • New fans/followers: The number of new individuals that choose to follow a social media profile, such as Facebook and Twitter. This helps us measure brand awareness and the effectiveness of our messaging.
  • Open rate: This is an indication of how many people "view" or "open" the email. This helps us measure the effectiveness of our messaging and email content. For 2020, the average open rate is 17.8%, according to Campaign Monitor.
  • Reach: The total number of different people or households exposed, at least once, to a given piece of content or webpage during a given period. Much like impression, this is a number that informs us how many people have been exposed to the piece of content. This metric helps us track brand awareness efforts and the effectiveness of our content.
  • Post comments/replies: The number of individuals who take action by commenting or replying on a piece of content. This helps us measure the strength of our content and get a better idea of the number of followers who are engaged/interested in our message.
  • Post likes: The number of individuals who take action by liking or reacting to a post. This helps us measure the strength of our content and the effectiveness of our messaging.
  • Post shares/retweets: The number of individuals who take action by sharing a post with their personal network. This helps us measure the strength of our content and get a better idea of the number of followers who are engaged/interested in our message.
  • Unique views: How many different people visited a given webpage. Slightly different than views, this helps us track the number of individual users (or sessions) that visited the website/webpage in a given period.
  • Video views: The number of individuals who viewed one of our videos. When talking about Facebook, the statistic is based on three-second views, which gives us an idea of how successful we are at capturing a user's attention. This stat also helps us measure the strength of the video both from a production and messaging standpoint.
  • Views: How many times a given webpage has been visited. This helps us track the effectiveness of our search visibility and the impact of our content.