Case Study Building the YMCA Brand Digitally:

Setting the

Stage and Setting it Free Marc Hill @mhill Digital Giants

Who Are You?

My commercial

Agenda

•  Case Study •  The Challenge •  8 Part Solution •  Outcomes •  Questions

THE CHALLENGE(S)

•  One of the largest YMCA’s, with a vast portfolio of service provision: •  8 Membership Centres •  Over 75 Child Care centres •  Geneva Park - Leadership Development/Conference

centre •  Camp Kitchikewana residence camp, 8 day camp

sites •  Government supported services (Employment,

Newcomer, Youth and Literacy) •  Partnership with the YMCA of Sierra Leone •  A fairly recent amalgamation process that created

the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka

Embrace Change •  Communities feeling that each was special, unique, different •  Speaking with individual voices “chirping” to their specific

community •  YMCA not recognized as charity, donations were dropping

•  Well known but not known well

•  No web presence, competitors were stealing leads

•  We had to change!

Barriers

Giant Solutions

1. Align your Communication/Digital Plan to your Strategic Plan

MyY Goals

•  To be better communicators;

•  To be better listeners;

•  To tell Y stories.

2. Common Visual Guidelines

3. Translate your verbal identity into the digital space

Brand Personality and Tone of Voice:

Determined, Genuine, Welcoming, Hopeful, Nurturing

and Fun

4. Supply the Right Tools

YMCA Digital Engagement Survival Guide contains:

•  90+pages of digital goodness •  What’s acceptable content? •  Personal vs Work Accounts •  Tips and Tricks for Good

Shareable Content •  A Decision Making Tree for

when to escalate issues •  Child Protection •  Lists of other Supporting

Websites

5. Community Connectors

•  Find your champions

•  Recruit and train a group of staff who are the eyes and ears of the organization online and offline

•  Connected to the community and representatives for each department

•  Lead by example, train the trainer approach

6. Build Your Web Presence

•  New website – optimized for local search and for each line of business and for conversions

•  Digital marketing strategy -  search, social and content marketing strategies

-  Official Social Media Spaces -  Central editorial calendar

•  Blogs - Organization, CEO, International, Employment with more to come

•  Google Grants advertising

7.

www.ymcaofsimcoemuskoka.ca

To read more stories click on a letter.

www.MyY.ca

INSERT VIDEO

8. Celebrate Success

$325,000

$345,000

$365,000

$385,000

$405,000

$425,000

$445,000

Fiscal Year 2010 Fiscal Year 2011 Fiscal Year 2012 Fiscal Year 2013

annual campaign (net)

Achievements

•  One of the most digitally engaged YMCAs in Canada

•  Social Media and website now the communication channel for staff and members

•  Increases between 2012 & 2013: – Unique website visitors: +54% – Blog page views: +128% – Referrals to website from social media:

+67%

Impact •  The impact can be measured in so many

different ways, not just likes or retweets or goal completions.

•  They can be measured in expressions not just impressions. – Experiences form impressions. – Impressions become expressions

as they’re shared. – Expressions form new impressions.

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou

Stay in touch! Marc Hill marc@bedigitalgiants.com www.bedigitalgiants.com Twitter @mhill LinkedIn ca.linkedin.com/in/marchill/