The YMCA of Metro Chicago launched Facebook pages for each of its 65 locations with a team of 4 people managing content for 50 authors across 15 Facebook pages. They developed a strategy with staggered deadlines and a one-day boot camp to prepare the authors. By the end of the boot camp, authors had created initial content and promotion plans. On launch day, all pages had at least 25 fans and initial content posted. Engagement grew over subsequent months as promotion expanded beyond staff to members. The YMCA saw the launch as the start of their online presence strategy.

1. YMCA of Metro Chicago
Jumps into Social Media
A Case Study

2. How do you get
50 authors prepared
to manage
15 Facebook pages
in less than
2 months
with a team of
4 people?

3. Overview
During the launch of
our Facebook pages we
faced challenges similar
to other orgs and
thought it would be
helpful to share our
experience. The
following presentation
is an overview of our
process.

4. YMCA Overview
The Y is Chicagoland’s
leading nonprofit
strengthening
communities through
youth development,
healthy living and social
responsibility.
Through its 65 locations and more than 100 extension sites,
the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago helps
children learn and grow, teaches young people to lead, brings
families closer, and encourages individual health and well-being.

5. Goals
Our objective is to have successful, responsible and
sustainable social media sites that are managed as
part of the YMCA's overall business strategy.
• Facebook page for each membership center
• Focus on establishing a presence
• Build a foundation quickly
• Primary audience is people interested in our
membership facilities

6. Our Challenge
Our members and communities connect with their
individual center and want information from them. But
there are numerous obstacles in allowing our
membership centers to own their Facebook pages:
Limited staff
time
Minimal
Social Media
experience
Struggle to
create content
Staff size is
small

7. Our Metro Challenge
Our Metro office had challenges of its own to
overcome:
Limited staff
time
Manage the
brand
Ensure success
of center pages
Manage risk

8. Our Strategy
The key to our success was the readiness of the authors, not
the mechanics of the page. So with seven weeks to work with,
we decided the key was to establish staggered deadlines for
the authors to meet and a focused one-day boot camp.
Ready
(now- July 30)
Before July 15
Application Due to IT
July 22
Attend kick-off webinar
Before July 30
Collect communication list
Set
(Aug 11 or 12)
Aug 11 or 12– Attend All Day
In-person Boot Camp:
• Content Creation
• Facebook Administration
• Replying to Comments
• Comment Escalation
• Metrics
• "Take Home" Assignments
Go
(Aug 12– Aug 23)
Before Aug 18
Finish setup and content
Before Aug 20
Plan promotion of Facebook
Aug 23
Launch Facebook Pages

9. Our Author Strategy
Ready
(now- July 30)
Set
(Aug 11 or 12)
Go
(Aug 12– Aug 23)
The authors were given
tasks on a regular
schedule to ensure their
readiness. The goal was
to find ways to prepare
them without creating
unnecessary work.

10. Our Metro Strategy
Ready
(now- July 30)
Set
(Aug 11 or 12)
Go
(Aug 12– Aug 23)
While the authors were busy preparing their materials,
Marketing and IT collaborated to get the Facebook pages
configured and designed for all of the centers.
Setup pages
identically
Create editing
guidelines/
directions
Established
readiness
checkpoints

11. 2010 Timeline
Pilots
(May -July)
Ready
(July 6 - 30)
Set
(Aug 11 or 12)
Go
(Aug 12– Aug 23)
Facebook pilots launched for
•YMCA Black & Latino Achievers
•YMCA Safe Kids campaign
Prepare for Facebook launch for our centers
•Centers submit applications and select authors
•Webinar to kickoff process and inform authors
•Homework assigned
One-day boot camp for Facebook authors
•Homework assigned
Final preparation and Facebook launch

12. Our Materials
• Social Media Author Acknowledgement
• Comment Escalation Resources
• Content Tips
• Page Administration Guidelines
• Marketing Calendar Template
• Links to Articles on Privacy
Our centers have primary responsibility for managing
their page with limited support from Marketing and IT.
So we needed to be very purposeful in providing authors
with the appropriate resources:

13. Our Kickoff Agenda
• Overview of Facebook launch
• Facebook Configuration
• Your Role as Authors
• Next Steps
• Q&A
Ready
(now- July 30)
Set
(Aug 11 or 12)
Go
(Aug 12– Aug 23)
Our boot camp was only one day, so we needed our authors to
get a head start before coming. To that end, we assigned some
pre-work and started with a kickoff call.

14. Training was a critical part of our plan
The following slides are
overviews of those trainings

15. Ready
(now- July 30)
Before July 15
Application Due to IT
July 22
Attend kick-off webinar
Before July 30
Collect communication list
Set
(Aug 11 or 12)
Aug 11 or 12– Attend All Day
In-person Boot Camp:
• Content Creation
• Facebook Administration
• Replying to Comments
• Comment Escalation
• Metrics
• "Take Home" Assignments
Go
(Aug 12– Aug 23)
Before Aug 18
Finish setup and content
Before Aug 20
Plan promotion of Facebook
Aug 23
Launch Facebook Pages
We Spent Time Explaining the Timeline

16. Talked About Facebook Configuration
Each center will have their
own page, plus one for
metro.
Each center will have their
own page, plus one for
Metro. Marketing (with IT) will be doing all of
initial setup and design of the page.
Some Association-wide content
will be pushed to your page.
Design shared at Boot Camp

17. Authors
Content
-posting
-planning
Moderate
-comments
-fan posts
-interaction
Manage
-added tools
-metrics
Plus Author Expectations

18. Each Center Was Assigned
Next Steps Before Boot Camp
Create Flickr account for your center
Get comfortable with Facebook functionality
Homework
1. Write 2 status updates
2. Gather communication samples
3. Marketing calendar for September
Attend one-day boot camp

19. Boot Camp Agenda
• Overview of Facebook
• Content Creation
• Facebook Administration
• Replying to Comments
• Comment Escalation
• Metrics
• "Take Home" Assignments
Ready
(now- July 30)
Set
(Aug 11 or 12)
Go
(Aug 12– Aug 23)
Then came Boot Camp, our one day to equip our
authors to represent the YMCA on Facebook.

20. A Quick Facebook Page Demo

21. Then on to Creating Content
Recycle existing content
Some content will be pushed from
Association page
Build your content in bulk; serve a piece at a time Integrate with all marketing efforts

22. Content Tips
• Focus on goals and audience with a purpose
• Short, professional style with personality &
context
• Provide a call to action
• Use images
• Provide a link
• Tie to events or themes

23. Content – Have a Plan
• Plan ahead on content
• Don’t leave it to one person
• New content weekly
• Actively reply and monitor
• You will make mistakes; plan to react
• Trying something new? (Recruit some ringers)

24. We shared the
Air Force Blog
Assessment to
talk through how
to reply to
comments on
our pages

25. Comment Escalation
But we also needed a deeper plan than just
replying in specific scenarios.

26. We Walked through Facebook Insights
Why have metrics?
• Measure of impact
• Indicator of growth
What to measure?
• Fans, posts, views and
interactions
• Qualitative?
Act on metrics
• Use metrics to make decisions
• Experiment

27. Our Metrics Reporting
Seizing the opportunity to show digital
engagement as a whole, our report includes
email, Facebook and website information.
Digital Engagement Metrics - September 2010
Reach Data Engagement Data
Center
Overall
Change
Rockstars!
Active Adults
% email address for
adults (*1)
Unique Website
Visitors Facebook Fans (*4)
Email Open Rate
(*5)
Email Click
Throughs (*2)
Avg. time on
website (*6)
Facebook Page
Views (*3)
Facebook Likes &
Comments (*3)
(Goal 45% of adults) (Goal 45% of emails) (Goal 28%) (Goal 4%) (Goal 2:20) (Goal .5% of Fans) (Goal 2.5% of Fans)
Count % Change % % Change Count % Change Count % Change % % Change % % Change Time % Change Count % Change Count % Change
Austin YMCA
Buehler YMCA
Elmhurst YMCA
Foglia YMCA
Grayslake YMCA
Greater LaGrange YMCA
Hastings Lake YMCA
High Ridge YMCA
Indian Boundary YMCA
Irving Park YMCA
Kelly Hall YMCA
Lake View YMCA
Lattof YMCA
Leaning Tower YMCA
McCormick Tribune YMCA
Rauner Family YMCA
South Chicago YMCA
South Side YMCA
Wabash YMCA
West Communities YMCA
Metro
Association Totals
Association Average
Goal(*1) Variance Goal(*4) Variance Goal (*4) Variance Goal (*2) Variance Goal (*5) Variance Goal(*3) Variance Goal(*3) Variance
Performance Against Goals 45% 45% 28% 4% 2:20 0.50% 2.50%
A Rockstar is a
center with
improvement
across all
engagement
Rather than just reporting stats, we also set goals:
*1 Goal derived from sampling of national YMCAs
*2 Goal derived from average stats from eBenchmark Report 2010
*3 Goal derived from average stats from 2010 NonProfit Social Media
Benchmarks Study
*4 Goal is same ratio of member to email counts (45%) but based on fans to
email counts (20.25% of member counts)
*5 Goal derived from Nonprofit averages from leading email service
provider
*6 Goal derived from Google Analytics benchmarks

28. Facebook Promotional Plan
• Aug 23 – Recruit 25 fans for each page
• Aug - Sept – Employee Launch
• October – Launch to members
• November – Incorporate in all marketing
materials
Phased approach to build
experience, content and base of fans

29. Assigned Homework
1. Prepare 2 welcome posts
2. Complete October Marketing calendar
3. Decide your center’s process and roles
for replying to comments
4. Prepare for expected repliescomments
5. Talk about Facebook
6. Tell people
7. Download & send metrics 6th each month
8. Sign Author Acknowledgement

30. Pre-Launch Decisions
A few centers were not able to
complete all of the readiness process.
In the end, we decided to postpone the
launch of a few pages to ensure
sustainability.
Facebook
announced page
changes planned for
Aug 23
(our launch date),
we planned
contingencies
but continued as
planned

31. Our Launch – Aug 23, 2010
By the end of the day we had over 25
fans for each page and secured our
vanity URLs.
50 Trained Authors 15 Facebook pages
Welcome content posted

32. Our Outcomes
Aug 23 we launched our pages!
Promoted pages
To staff
Added button to websites
Full promotion plan
to all audiences
starting Oct 2010
By the end of August 2010:
• 1100+ fans across the pages
• 116 wall posts by authors
• 1500+ unique page views
•Growing engagement (via metrics)
•Authors excited to connect
By the end of August 23:
• 25+ fans for each page
• Vanity URL secured
• First content posted

33. Our Outcomes
October 2010 Stats!
Full promotion plan
to all audiences
Started Oct 2010
• 2285 fans across the pages
• 191 wall posts by authors
• 2618 unique page views
• 396 likes & comments on our posts

34. What’s Next
Facebook pages are just one part of our long
term online presence strategy. Our next
projects include a website redesign, digital
content strategy, mobile tools and more.

35. Contact Us
For more information:
www.ymcachicago.org
Contact: IT Department
Phone: 312-932-1200
Email:
ymcachicagoit@ymcachicago.org
facebook.com/YMCAChicago
twitter.com/YMCAChicago
YMCA of Metro Chicago IT Blog