AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

COMMUNICATIONS HIGHLIGHTS 2017

Mark WalkerHead of Marketing & Communications

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

Growing Our Reach and ReputationA new AbilityNet communications team was created in 2016 and has started to grow AbilityNet’s reach and reputation across all its service areas, using a combination of tactics:• News and Blogs• Social Media• Advertising• Tech4Good Awards• Outreach

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

Our strategy is focused on producing and sharing blog posts and related content that is of interest to our audience – to keep them informed and help them achieve their goals.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Slideshare are the main social media platforms we use - with varying degrees of success in reaching the many audiences we target. As most people are discovering Facebook is taking over for most forms of communications - it’s not just about personal contacts now it can be used to promote business as well.

But organic reach is very limited on all of them – you may have lots of friends and followers Facebook is getting richer and richer because you have to pay to reach even the people who follow you. This is why we have started paying for advertising.

SOCIAL MEDIA & BLOGSEarned attention

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AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

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News and blogs are the best way for AbilityNet to build a variety of content that attract attention and answer questions for the very varied audiences that we target. Some get an instant hit – our biggest being a story about Microsoft that was linked to by Microsoft and spiked at 1000 views the day after it was published.

However the bread and butter we’re aiming for is posts that continue to attract attention over time, such as a post called Five Golden Rules for Alt text that remains in the top five for the year despite being posted in February 2014.

Our team now aims for 1 or 2 new posts a week including topics from our content calendar, Robin’s blog posts and topical stories that catch our eye.

News and Blogswww.abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

21% Increase in Pageviews29,299 Dec 14 - Nov 1535,665 Dec 15 – Nov 16

32.5% Increase in Average Time on Page Dec 2015: 2 mins 0 secNov 2016: 2 mins 39 sec

The chart below shows the power of the relationship with Microsoft.The huge spike in March is when they shared our post about their new browser. Because of NDAs we have been cautious about similar opportunities, but will be seeking more of this activity in 2017.

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News and Blogswww.abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs

21%

32.5%

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

Slideshare is an important way of sharing our expertise, as well as a great way of attracting attention and positioning ourselves as experts.Note how the activity in the chart below reflects the attention we get from webinar activity. Webinars ran Jan-June but when they stopped the monthly views halved.

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Slideshare www.slideshare.net/abilitynet

25% 25% increase in viewsTotal views 2015 = 16,845Total views 2016 = 21,141

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

13% increase in total video viewsTotal views 2015 = 14,520Total views 2016 = 16,407

This year we have produced 20 high quality videos in-house. They are a great way for people to meet our clients, staff and volunteers and to share information about what we do.It is worth noting that only one of the videos from 2016 appears in the top 7 videos by views. This shows that as well as promo style videos we MUST build useful content that people will use over time.

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YouTube www.youtube.com/abilitynet

Top videos of 2016 by views viewsDyslexia simulator (2012) 2,993What every HR Professional needs to know about disability and reasonable adjustments - webinar 14 10 2014

2,062

Dealing with Dyslexia in the Workplace - Abilitynet Webinar, 4 November 2014

1,493Toys for Kids with Disabilities 6 – Shrek (2011) 1,029Accessible Apps: Building the Barclays Mobile Banking App (2015) 987

Visual Impairment and Computing: AbilityNet Webinar 9 June 2015

958AbilityNet: How Disabled Student's Allowances (DSA) can help students achieve their goals (2016)

903

13%

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

66% increase in Page Likes in 2016Total likes Jan 16 = 964 Total likes Dec 16 = 1609

275% Increase in Ave Organic Reach/Post in 2016Ave reach/post in Q1 = 265Ave reach/post in Q4 = 994

£3,503 Total Facebook Ad spend since June 2016We have to pay to reach people

Eg 29 Nov 2016: Paid reach on that day = 19,840 Organic reach on that day = 4,114

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Facebookwww.facebook.com/abilitynet

66%

£3,503

275%

Facebook is a great way of reaching all sorts of people, including our B2B audiences. We have improved the reach by improving the quality of what we post and by posting at least three or four times a day. This is driving up the engagement with audiences – the clicks and likes and shares we get.

But Facebook’s business model now requires us to pay for advertising to reach people – and this now massively outweighs what can be done organically.

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

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What a successful organic post looks like1725 people reached, 404 video views, 33 likes, 4 link clicks This is a post about a BBC news video not our own content

What a successful paid for post looks like3,990 people reached, 83 clicks on the links, 136 likes£60 spent in 2 days

This is a link to a blog post on our website

Facebookwww.facebook.com/abilitynet

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

1280% increase in impressions/monthJan 2016 = 11.4k Nov 2016 = 157k

261% increase in mentions/monthJan 2016 = 31Nov 2016 = 346

95% increase in profile visits/monthJan 2015 = 862Nov 2016 = 1683

Twitter remains our largest social media audience but like many marketers we are seeing diminishing returns on our posts because of the volume of tweets being posted.The strategy for 2017 is more tweets more often to help cut through the noise…

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Twitterwww.twitter.com/abilitynet

1280%

95%

261%

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

44% increase in followers1 Jan 2016 = 5781 Dec 2016 = 834

LinkedIn remains the least valuable of our social networks – despite various attempts to increase engagement we still have very few interactions, such as shares or like, and little traffic generated as clicks through to our site.We will focus more on LinkedIn next year but as with Facebook the most obvious problem is that paid for promotion reaches much further than any organic posts.

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LinkedInwww.linkedin.com/abilitynet

44%

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

TOTAL Factsheet Downloads 2016Based on 1 Dec 2015 – 30 Nov 2016

8% Decrease in total downloadsDec 14 – Dec 15 = 29,876Dec 15 – Dec 16 = 27,236

10% Increase in monthly downloads in Nov 2016Nov 2015 = 2,416Nov 2016 = 2.667

The downturn in downloads in February and March reflect the work we did to sort out our Google Adwords Account. This showed that much of the advertising was not correctly set up and that a lot of the traffic to the site was likely to be based on advertising the wrong things to the wrong people.

The best example was that we were using our grants to pay for ads related to alternative keyboards. However, as well as non standard assistive technology we were also advertising Persian keyboards which was attracting thousands of hits every month.

We have now removed much of this noise and regained the levels of downloads.

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Downloads: Factsheets

29,876

-8%

10%

Top 3 Factsheets 2016Keyboard and Mouse AlternativesDyslexia and ComputingCommunications Aids

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

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11% increase in monthly site usersDec 15 = 41,713Nov 16 = 56,278

56% increase in monthly pageviewsDec 2015 = 62,335Nov 2016 = 97,109

At the current rate of growth total pageviews will top 1,000,000 for the first time…

The AbilityNet website is a core part of our services, providing a base for accessing expert resources learning about our services and contacting us. The biggest project of the year has been the redevelopment of My Computer My Way, which is now being combined with the AbilityNet website. A key outcome of this project is the development of an AbilityNet API (Application Programming Interface). This will provide a more effective way of sharing MCMW and our other expert resources and is an exciting marketing opportunity for 2017.

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AbilityNet Website

29%56%

1,002,000

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

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Our marketing strategy is to be found where people look for help. In many cases this means Google, which is why our SEO and blogging strategy is so important, but it also means other organisations, especially those who offered related advice and support.

This year we have built a new relationship with SCOPE, the largest pan-disability charity in the UK. Having worked with their information team they have published a new technology section based on our factsheet content.

This helps people directly on the SCOPE site but also leads them through to our site to get more detailed information.

The development of the AbilityNet API will enable us to automate these sorts of relationships in the future – for example we could share the visual impairment information with RNIB, or the dyslexia-related information with British Dyslexia Association.

These are valuable charitable activities that also enhance our commercial promotion.

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Partnership and Outreach

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

PRESS AND PRSelected coverage 2016

We have two main stars when it comes to getting attention.

Robin Christopherson is an amazing Ambassador for AbilityNet, speaking at a huge range of events and getting calls from various national journalists including Guardian and BBC

The AbilityNet Tech4Good Awards provide all sorts of opportunities for press coverage and featuring on BT/com is great for domain authority

But we are also pleased to be bringing some of our staff into the limelight, such as Raph and Adi who wrote about VR and Accessibility in TechCrunch in October – just about the most important tech title on the planet!

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AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

AbilityNet Tech4Good Awards30,000 votes cast in Tech4Good People’s Awards 2016 – on Twitter and Tech4Good website

250 entries – the entries were of a more consistently high standard than previous years

25% increase in traffic on Tech4Good website2015 = 31,677 users2016 = 39,446 users

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30,000

250

25%

Click on the image above to watch the highlights video on YouTube, including nine-year-old Arnav who was a double award-winner.

We have now secured support from Comic Relief for 2017 and will launch again in March 2017. Visit www.tech4goodawards for more info.

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

AbilityNet Tech4Good Awards30,000 votes cast in Tech4Good People’s Awards 2016 – on Twitter and Tech4Good website

250 entries – the entries were of a more consistently high standard than previous years

25% increase in traffic on Tech4Good website2015 = 31,677 users2016 = 39,446 users

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30,000

250

25%

Click on the image above to watch the highlights video on YouTube, including nine-year-old Arnav who was a double award-winner.

We have now secured support from Comic Relief for 2017 and will launch again in March 2017. Visit www.tech4goodawards for more info.

A big highlight of this year’s amazing

TechGood Awards Ceremony was the moment that

Liz Williams of BT surprisedRobin Christopherson

and announced him as the winner of the

Tech4Good Special Award 2016

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

BBC Ouch!(Est.) Monthly Visits: 569M (Est.) Coverage Views: 24.1K Domain Authority: 100

EXTRACT: Driverless and sightlessBlind, visually impaired and other disabled people could benefit hugely from the new breed of automated cars that we hear such a lot about. But will this group of people be automatically permitted to drive them when the cars are legally allowed on the roads?

These and other questions are discussed in this edition of Inside Ouch featuring AbilityNet's Robin Christopherson and Hugh Huddy who considers policy at a big charity which supports visually impaired people.

Read more at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p040vhb1

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AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

Campaign(Est.) Monthly Visits: 1M (Est.) Coverage Views: 2.9K Domain Authority: 80

EXTRACT:What accessibility means for creatives in our digital worldDigital creatives must be attuned to put accessibility at the forefront of their ideas. Robin Christopherson, the head of digital inclusion at tech and disability charity AbilityNet, spoke at the Accessibility through Digital Inclusion event held earlier this summer at SapientNitro, where he outlined the enormity of the challenges faced by large sections of the population for whom technologies and communications were aimed solely at the able-bodied.

Read more at http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/accessibility-means-creatives-digital-world/1408537#D8wRMg4jLfvWSF2s.99

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AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

Techcrunch

(Est.) Monthly Visits: 44.7M(Est.) Coverage Views: 45.4K Domain Authority: 93

EXTRACT:

Crunch Network

VR and inclusivity

Oct 21, 2016 by Raphael Clegg-Vinell, Adi Latif, AbilityNet

A billion-dollar industry is taking off, and we are excited that it has the potential to transform the lives of disabled people. But whatever the promise of this amazing tech, the industry has to move quickly to understand the needs and abilities of a full range of people and make sure it can offer a great experience for every possible user.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/21/vr-and-inclusivity/

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AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

BT.com

(Est.) Monthly Visits: 23.9M(Est.) Coverage Views: 57.5K Domain Authority: 80

EXTRACT:24 July 2016

Making lives better through technology: Tech4Good winners unveiled An app that helps the partially sighted travel, a board that cuts hospital admin time and an asthma help kit were among the winners at the 2016 awards organised by AbilityNet and supported by BT.

The winners of the 2016 Tech4Good awards have been announced at a ceremony at BT Centre. Now in its sixth year, the awards celebrate technological innovation that makes the world a better place.

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/tech-news/tech4good-winners-2016-11364072085649

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

Whodunnit?AbilityNet communicates with all sorts of people every moment of every day. All our staff and volunteers have role to play in sharing useful information with people in need and projecting a positive image of the organisation.

As part of this the Communications Team leads much of the outward-facing communications - on the internet, in events, by email, on social media, in print.

Having more capacity for our communications team means we have been able to engage more of our staff and volunteers, helping to tell their story as well as using their knowledge and expertise to boost our reputation.

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AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016

Catherine Grinyer, Big Voice CommunicationsPress, PR, outreach, events, planning, social media

Sophie Shearer, Marketing OfficerVideo Production, DSA Promotion, Social Media

Alex Barker, Advice and Information WorkerBlogs, social media, events

Claudia Cahalane, journalistBlogs, social media, data

Robin Christopherson, Head of Digital InclusionPublic speaking, blogs, AbilityNet ambassador

Mark Walker, Head of Marketing & CommsPlanning, website editor, events, blogs, social media, branding, tech4goodawards, reporting

Having a comms team means we can do much more together but that’s only possible because we have been given amazing support by a great network of colleagues and partners:

• AbilityNet Assessor Team

• AbilityNet Accessibility Consultants

• AbilityNet Free Services Team

• AbilityNet IT Can Help Volunteers

• AbilityNet Admin Team

• AbilityNet Sales Team

• AbilityNet IT Support Team

• Kate Russell, Caitlin @BT, Pranav, Harriet and all the Tech4Good Awards judges and partners

• Pleece & Co

• SCOPE

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The Comms Team Thank you