November 25, 2019
Overview
Communications efforts in the month of November centered largely around signage updates as part of the Volunteer Maine rebranding initiative, making patchwork updates to Volunteer Maine's websites to ensure brand compliance while a new website is being developed, coordinating the 2020 Public Service Announcement campaign contract with the Maine Association of Broadcasters, and helping Maine AmeriCorps program members with their recruitment efforts by scheduling face-to-face conversations to learn about each program's individual needs.
As we near the end of the 2019 calendar year, public relations efforts to earn traditional media placements were reduced from October 2019 as planning for the 2020 communications plan are underway now that the two major events held in the previous month are complete.
Please see below for details on specific initiatives.
Public relations and press placements
Release title: "Five community representatives appointed by Governor Mills to Volunteer Maine, the state service commission"
Click the link to view coverage on the Bangor Daily News website.
Click the link to view coverage on The Piscataquis Observer website.
Click the link to view the original press release on the Volunteer Maine business website.
Organic social media
Note: Organic social media refers to posts that were shared without utilizing advertising dolars
Tweets: 15 (37 sent in October)
Tweet impressions: 6,805 (8,918 in October)
Profile visits: 50 (97 in October)
Mentions: 8 (7 in October)
New Followers: 2 (-5 in October)
On the numbers: The overall decline in numbers can be explained by the reduction in tweet frequency, which will stabilize as the 2020 communications plan is implemented. After remaining dormant for most of 2019, the Twitter account was revived to expand awareness of the Volunteer Maine rebrand as well as an avenue to engage with partners at the state service and national service levels.
Total number of page likes: 3,501 (+4 from Oct's 3,497)
Average total organic page reach: 216 people per post (down 49 from Oct's average of 265)
Post engagement average (14 unique posts): 24 per post (down 30 from Oct's average of 54)
On the numbers: The overall decline in numbers can be explained by the reduction in organic post frequency, which will stabilize as the 2020 communications plan is implemented. Once the plan is in place, we will know which measurable goals to focus on for future reports.
Paid social media - AmeriCorps Thanksgiving Facebook recruitment campaign
Goal: The goal of the social media campaign is to create awareness about service opportunities in the State of Maine. The targeted audience was individuals, age 18-65+, who are returning to the state of Maine during the holiday in hopes that a section of these individuals want to return to the state. On the age range, Facebook limited the ability to target a specific age range because we were technically promoting an employment opportunity. The campaign featured six different pieces of creative, five still photos and one video, to give us six ads running during the campaign. The creative was provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Numbers:
Total amount spent: $400
Number of people reached: 6,658
Impressions: 12,067
Frequency: 1.81
Most successful: "Be the Greater Good" video, which was the only one of the six that received an above average rating in quality and engagement rate. What that tells us is that we may want to pursue an increased use of video in paid advertising.
Takeaway: While we did well in terms of reach, impression and frequency, 20 individuals took the time to click the learn more link in the post. One way to improve that statistic is to use short, impactful post captions as opposed to a longer caption that explains more. The longer caption bumps the "learn more" link to the bottom of the post.
Maine Principals' Association Print Program AmeriCorps/AmeriCorps NCCC Advertisement
Please note: Limited data is currently available as ad began running near the end of the month. The December report will contain more info. Also, this same ad placement will also be placed in MPA championship programs throughout the year, so the most complete picture will be painted in March upon the conclusion of the MPA basketball tournaments.
Goal: The goal of the campaign is to create awareness among graduating seniors or their family members about AmeriCorps service opportunities in the State of Maine as well as "gap year" opportunities with the AmeriCorps NCCC program. The print ad included a QR code which allows those interested to scan the code with their smartphone and be taken directly to an info page on the Volunteer Maine business site. Between events in football, cheerleading and basketball, the ad will be printed in 8,750 programs, according to the MPA's advertising partner Alliance Sports Marketing.
Numbers: So far, there are only two reported QR code scans. Updated information will be provided in the December report.
Google search results
Clicks to Volunteer Maine business site (.gov): 382
Impressions: 24.1K
What this means: More than 24K individuals had the option to visit the Volunteer Maine website throughout the course of the month while searching a given term, and 382 actually visited the website.
Top 4 most-used terms:
Maine Commission for Community Service: 45 clicks
AmeriCorps Maine: 31 clicks
Maine AmeriCorps: 10 clicks
Volunteer Maine: 4 clicks
Takeaway: The fact that MCCS was the most used term can support an argument that more outreach and awareness are needed around the new Volunteer Maine brand.
Device breakdown:
Desktop: 262 clicks
Mobile: 106 clicks
Tablet: 14 clicks
Takeaway: This is in interesting stat because it goes against the current trend that a large amount of people utilize their mobile device to browse the internet. However, when considering the upcoming website redesign, we still want to ensure the design is mobile-friendly so individuals can access the website with no issues, no matter the device that is being used.