We’re Surrounded by Technology—No Kidding. Use It!

They’re tuned in; are you telling them anything? Every day we see irrefutable evidence that global society is interconnected digitally so it behooves NGOs, nonprofits, civil society and even the private sector to compose timely messages for neighbors and stakeholders. We Are Social crunched the following numbers that paint a telling picture about how you should communicate your messages:

As of this month, the world’s population is 7.2 billion people, up 1.6% from the previous year. There are 3.01 billion active Internet users, up 21% from 2014. Active social media accounts number 2.07 billion, up 12% from last year. There are 3.649 billion unique mobile users, up 5%; and 1.685 billion active mobile social accounts, up 23%.

There are ready eyes and ears for your messages. It’s up to you to satisfy their brains.

As for mobile usage as an outreach, email and purchasing tool, that’s also increasing much to the benefit of NGOs. Brandon Granger wrote in “5 Myths of Mobile Fundraising, Debunked” that naysayers had believed that no one buys memberships on mobile devices. However, 12.3% of the membership purchases come from smartphones or tablets. Moreover, 17.2% of memberships are purchased on mobile when the nonprofit’s website is responsive. 

Another myth that Granger debunked stated that no one really registers for events on mobile. In reality, 19.6% of events registrations come from mobile units. That’s almost 1 in 5 of event registrants. Across the board, supporters are almost twice more likely to register for an event than make a donation on mobile (though donations have also been falling into coffers via mobile phones).

Finally, there was a belief that few donors read emails on mobile. But statistics show that 49% of all emails were read on mobile across the web during December of 2014.

Some may think that electronics is the bane of society. However, electronics, the Internet, social media, mobile phones may help your organization outreach to stakeholders near and far.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.