Social media: WWF Switzerland, Greenpeace Switzerland and Terre des Hommes top again in 2019

Social media has become an important cornerstone of digitization without discussion. We all spend Around one third of our online time in social networks and like to be influenced there into buying decisions and opinions.

For companies, not only in the NGO/NPO sector, social media is therefore a huge opportunity to grow, to identify new potential, to get to know their target groups better and to improve their business in the long term.

To what extent has digitization arrived or already been implemented at Swiss nonprofit organizations?

With the evaluation of the social media presence of the top 12 Swiss non-profit organizations, a first superficial assessment can be made.

The size of the social media community should be treated with caution: Fake accounts, follow bots, and major cleanup campaigns by Instagram and Twitter raise eyebrows.

At the latest since the adjustment of the Facebook algorithm at the beginning of 2018, the number of followers and fans no longer has a direct influence on the reach and has therefore become obsolete as the sole measure of success.

"We want the time people spend on Facebook to encourage meaningful social interactions," Mark Zuckerberg said in November 2017.

Since then, companies have had to rethink how they attract the attention of their customers, or even just to reach them at all.

What really counts on social media

"Social media is a strategic challenge that affects the entire company," explains UX designer Dirk Unger from the Campfire agency. "The goals to be achieved with social media must be derived from the corporate strategy. However, this also requires a change in thinking within the company, which has not yet taken place for many."

And so many Swiss companies, not only in the NGO sector, continue to measure the success of social media by the number of followers.

Among the top 3 NPOs in terms of community size on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are, as last year, WWF Switzerland, Greenpeace Switzerland and Terre des Hommes, each with a total of over 100,000 followers.

In contrast, the winners in terms of community growth compared to the previous year include SRC (+44.8%), Unicef Switzerland (+35.7%) and Terre des Hommes (+28.5%). These NPOs realized the greatest community growth last year - a good indicator of inspiring content and the implementation of a user-centric strategy.

Losers in the 2018/2019 year-over-year comparison in terms of community growth include Save the Children (-2%), World Vision Switzerland (+1.8%) and Swissaid (+2.9%).

Takeaway

To determine the actual success of their activity on social media, companies must set strategic business goals and measure them both quantitatively and qualitatively. On social media, therefore, sales and traffic can be useful indicators of success in addition to customer engagement and loyalty, which thus naturally go beyond social media alone and for which a professional tracking and measurement system is required. Many companies already see social media as far more than just a marketing tool that helps them sustainably realize a customer-centric brand, in customer dialog, in innovation management, and in corporate growth.