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Nonprofit Guide to the 2016 Internet

I meant to publish this on January 2nd. But I’m glad I waited.

I had every intention of posting this with gusto on January 2nd. I’d come out with my bold “predictions” for 2016, unleashing a wave of creative new campaigns and forever altering the course of nonprofit tech. People would finish reading, shake their heads, and quietly mutter, “wow.” Or something like that.

Forty-four days later, I’m glad I waited. Across social media platforms, recent small improvements mean big things for nonprofits. Like Instagram debuting account switching. Or Periscope streams playing natively within the Twitter app. These changes add up.

I missed my window to throw my “predictions” about the future into the air. It’s mid-February, after all. Instead, think of this as a list of ideas that you and your organization should keep in mind throughout the year.

And like the menu at your favorite diner, there’s a little something here for everyone — whether you care about websites, media, design, social, or video.

Onward!

Web

Shift to responsive sites mostly complete

• All major and mid-level sites are now responsive and seeing anywhere from 15–50+ percent traffic on tablet & smartphones; laggards will catch up with next redesign. No website development company should give you the option of a non-responsive site. Bonus if they show wireframes/prototypes/designs for all major screen widths.
• Google algorithm changes favor responsive sites for mobile searches (or put another way, your site will now be penalized in search results if it’s not responsive). This is reason enough to start planning a redesign.

Designs focus on content and simplicity

• Typography and whitespace continue to grow in design importance as sites look to declutter for mobile users while retaining their own unique style.
• Powerful images at high resolution are key for web and social media. Retina-class displays are now standard. Find one “signature image” for each piece of content, and make sure it’s got the pixels.
• Clunky first-generation techniques to make sites work better on mobile — big frozen menus, left-right swipes for next page, oversize click targets — are going away in favor of elegant and slim navigation that accounts for larger average smartphone screen sizes with built-in navigation gestures, and lets the content shine through. One increasingly common approach is “progressive disclosure,” or menus and functions that appear only when needed (h/t Zeldman). Altogether, you can think of it as Responsive 2.0.

The Year in Design

Single-use sites for launches, events and more

• Toolkits, campaign landing pages, report pages are easier and cheaper to create than ever. Because when the solutions to all of our problems could live in PDFs that no one reads, it’s definitely time for a new approach. Look at your roadmap of content and explore whether any would be more successful with its own online home (where nothing distracts from key content and the main call-to-action).
• The simple-yet-powerful CMS space is growing, with Squarespace, Wix and Shopify beginning to eat the bottom end of the market previously dominated by WordPress. While generally less powerful and customizable, Squarespace could be perfect for your next photo-centric single-use site (e.g. what Mark Maron did to document his Obama visit).
• Launch landing pages continue to play a role in turning excitement for an upcoming something into email signups and social shares with light upfront effort. If you’re talking about it publicly, you should build one. (See these great tips from Kickoff Labs; also explore Unbounce and Launchrock.)

Content strategy works when it’s visual, personal and useful

• Whether it’s on your website, blog, or Medium presence, high-quality, long-form content that provides value and answers questions will continue to generate organic traffic and social sharing. I love the detailed reporting in this piece on “What to make of social impact bonds” and the I-wish-I-had-thought-of-that! practicality of “How to build a press list that gets you coverage.”
• Optimize key content pages for social with custom card images and descriptions. The metadata that all the big social networks pull in automatically is as (more?) important than your accompanying message. High-quality photo, short enticing title and descriptions are critical. Use a plugin like Yoast to customize for your Wordpress site.
• Meanwhile on social, personal photographs with powerful story captions are working well on Facebook and Instagram and may thrive on Twitter once character count expands. Inspiration: The Greater West Hollywood Food Bank.

Media and Advertising

Instant articles and a focus on speed

• There’s a website “obesity crisis” in progress, with page weights and load times growing unchecked. Finally, we’re seeing pushback.
• Instant articles on Facebook dramatically reduce page load times and keep users on the platform (and will open to all publishers in April). Again, design getting out of content’s way. Apple News is less established, but has the same goal. Publishers are putting concerns about control and revenue on hold and tentatively wading in. For now, it has the potential to be a big win for user experience.
• Assess your own content using Google’s PageSpeed Insights to get a score out of 100 and targeted suggestions for improvement.
• Ad block debate will rage on, and the first round of solutions from publishers — think pop-ups nag screens, paywalls — will hurt usability. Meantime, installing Purify on your iPhone is like the upgrade from 3G to LTE (reducing NYT load time from 11.6 seconds to 2.6 in testing).

More lightweight interactives and data sharing

• While we’ll still see the major feature interactive stories from large, creative media, nonprofits can focus on more simple maps, graphics, and interactive elements that support storytelling and work well on mobile and in social feeds.
• Explore the last five years of NYT interactives to see this transition in action (2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015).
• And a reminder for the next time you have powerful data as part of a story you’re pitching to media: think as hard about the data CSVs you have as you do about the press release. More and more, journalists have capacity to take raw data and produce charts, maps and interactives to support their stories. Make it easy for them!
• Here are some more examples to explore: Vox’s standardized, interactive charts; NPR dev team’s open-source dataviz tools; DataKind’s work with nonprofits; Urban Institute’s new(ish) focus on data viz.

Sponsored content not just for big brands

• This deserves its own post, but know that the major players, from NYT to Buzzfeed, and smaller niche publications like CityLab are creating partnerships with all kinds of organizations. It’s growing fast and there’s opportunity for nonprofits to find a right content/audience/cost match.
• Listen to this podcast episode from Gimlet’s Startup for a great overview.

Podcast networks building loyal audiences… and happy advertisers

• Speaking of podcasts, consider pitching your experts as interview subjects to relevant podcasts with a proven niche audience. Since podcasts are often long form and often led by subject experts for a relevant audience, there’s potential for substantive discussion that you can then distribute widely.
• If budget allows and your audience is well represented by a podcast, consider advertising as well. You can start with major podcast network Gimlet and the advertising service Midroll. For major budget projects, consider sponsored podcast content that goes beyond an ad to support the content of a full episode (or series). And if you want to go deeper on the ethics of the line between story and sponsor, read this.

Social

Instagram: It’s like Facebook got a do-over and nailed the little details

• With the right project — i.e., one that has highly visual content to share and is active on social media generally — go all in.
• User base continues to grow and get older. Engagement is through the roof — 59 percent of users open the app every day (Pew).
• Creative advertising opportunities are available (set up using the Facebook Ads Power Editor) with carousels of images, video and direct action buttons. Remember that ads are a newish thing for users — make your ads feel native to Instagram. No ugly crops, limit the text, use excellent photos that have depth of field.
• Bonus round: You can now manage multiple accounts from within the iOS Instagram app. Keeping your organization’s account active just got a lot less fiddly.

Twitter is still highly relevant and useful

• #Twitter10k is coming, and no one knows exactly what the impact will be. Signals from HQ suggest that the interface will still encourage brevity while allowing for longer posts after a “read more” action. So, think headlines with either a link OR the content itself. Photos and videos will continue to see high engagement.
• First movers who do creative things — particularly storytelling — with the expanded platform will get attention. Read this helpful piece from Prichard to get ready and start thinking about how to adjust your strategy. And here’s what 10,000 characters actually looks like.
• Following the lead of media outlets, nonprofits and foundations will finally see their presidents, experts and other internal leaders surpass the main organization in followers and influence. This is a good thing! Encourage your leaders to join and start using Twitter as part of their routine. Do they have a peer/friend/colleague who is active? A little guidance and healthy competition can spark action!
• Investor hand wringing about the network will continue to brew as an interesting story. For users, the main effect will be more features (like Moments), integration of services (like Periscope videos that play directly in your feed), and a few changes to the core functions of Twitter (see: Slow move away from pure focus on chronological timeline).
• For now, there’s no better second screen to life than Twitter. But watch this space — if media, entertainers and policymakers start to publicly leave the network, it will be in trouble.

Facebook is still huge — and its users love your stories

Hard to summarize everything we’re watching with this massive platform, so here’s a snapshot:

• Nonprofits have an unfair advantage — use it. People care about the work you are doing, so find those stories that highlight your voice, your impact, and the people whose lives you touch.
• Remember always that people will keep sharing what makes them look the way they want to feel about themselves. If your content helps them tell a better story about themselves, it’ll succeed.
• Use ads strategically, boosting what is already doing well organically. Stop any follower campaigns.

Medium is breaking the op-ed habit, poised for a huge 2016

• I’m high on this platform and its potential for nonprofits. I did my best to explain why in a piece I wrote a couple months ago: Medium for Nonprofits, Explained. For a skeptical boss or client, this Politico story is the piece to send.

Medium for nonprofits, explained

• 2016 will be the year of the Medium annual report. Why create something custom and expensive when you could do it faster and more beautifully — for a wider audience — on Medium? Example: Heritage Foundation.
• Explore what organizations are doing with custom publications (with your own URL!). We’re tracking New America’s “Context” and the fantastic “Bright,” among others.
• Integrating medium posts into your website bridges the gap between the network and your online home, and helps convince skeptical colleagues.
• Watch for: Medium rolling out sponsored content and publications this year to help authors build a revenue stream and to bring brands into the fold.
• For more background, it’s worth listening to the CommNet webinar with Medium’s Gabe Kleinman, “How to be good at Medium.”

Snapchat pulls in media and major nonprofits

• Are you trying to reach a younger (sub-25) audience? Do you have a team in place to regularly generate creative content? And do the people on that team regularly use Snapchat personally? (Can they keep up with this guy’s sister?) If you’ve answered yes, start exploring how organizations like Vox, CNN, WSJ, Dosomething.org, and more are diving in.
• Disclaimer: yes it’s hard to use and makes me feel old.

Video

Live streaming forks into professional and mainstream

• Professional events keep getting more professional and interactive. Production values will continue to go up, with break time during events used for ad hoc conversations and interviews with semi-professional host talent. As a nonprofit event host, your goal should be making the streaming experience at least as satisfying as watching it from a chair in the room. And for people there in person with bagel and coffee access, look for ways to better integrate real-time social media into the event given that everyone in the audience has at least one connected device — think polling, questions, live note-taking, projections and more.
• Meanwhile, casual streaming is getting new players, Periscope continues to mature, and a mainstream audience tunes in. The biggest change? Facebook opened live streaming in late January to all its iOS users in the USA, public figures, and verified pages (if you’re not verified yet, here’s a good reason to get the process started!). Here are some 101 tips on Facebook streaming.
• And on Twitter, a small change could make a major difference. Periscope videos are now playable in your feed in real time and during the 24-hour playback window (iOS only for now, but coming to all Twitter platforms). Suddenly, your audience doesn’t even need to know what Periscope is to watch your live stream. That’s yuge.

• Hybrid live-action/data graphics videos continue to gain polish, popularity. With so much video content consumed via auto-play on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and often on mute, content that conveys a message without sound continues to grow in importance. Use captioning and integrate visuals, and please lose the 5 second logo/title roll-in to your stories.

360 video and VR stay in beta

• More interesting projects, like the 9+ stories the NYT has published, will emerge in 2016, but I suspect none will break into a mass audience yet. It’s still an amazing technology in search of a killer app. That said, I’m fascinated by research into how VR can be used to build empathy through “shared” experience. As Tim Cook says, “In terms of VR, I don’t think it’s a niche. It’s really cool and has some interesting applications.” So there you have it: we’ll all be walking around with iPhones strapped to our faces in September.
• My colleague Steve Johnson would probably argue this one with me, but it’ll have to wait until he returns from Norway with his 360 degree rig of GoPros!

Using AutoPano Video Pro to stitch #360video together from #Iceland, #London and #Norway this week…

Big Conclusion

I just dumped a lot of information on you. The crazy thing is how much has changed between when I started drafting this post at the end of 2015 and today. Across every major digital platform, significant changes have been announced and small tweaks launched — and they will all rumble and shake the landscape for nonprofits in 2016.

For your organization, the answer is probably to order the blue plate special. Take a look at the menu with your communications goals in hand. Focus on a few areas that best align with your overall strategy. And don’t be afraid to take some “lowercase ‘r’ risks.” It’s going to be a great 10.5 months ahead!

As always, I hope you found this guide helpful and learned something new. Give it a recommend and send it around to your nonprofit friends if you find it useful! Many thanks, @alexfield.