The Agitator

OK, summer is over, you’ve had a week to get back into work mode, and so The Agitator is ready to offer some heavy lifting this week. We’ve been saving up some important stuff on social media. First up is a new report from the Pew internet Project, called The Internet & Civic ...  Read more

As reported here by MediaPost, Forrester Research, a leading marketing and media research outfit, has released an extensive study on U.S. usage of social media. At this point, four out of five U.S. online adults report using social media at least once per month. Half participate in sites like ...  Read more

Here is ENGAGEMENTdb, a study of the top 100 global brands (as rated by Business Week/Interbrand) and their use of social media, done by two firms that specialize in the space, Wetpaint and Altimeter Group. I’ll jump right to the conclusion: "… the most valuable brands in the ...  Read more

Many thanks to Abny Santicola at Fundraising Success mag for pointing us to the latest usability testing on nonprofit websites by design guru Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen is the best at this. His methodology is to observe in realtime how visitors actually use websites, read e-newsletters, etc. I wish ...  Read more

C’mon, you really wanted to correct that headline, didn’t ya?  And it’s just that schoolmarm tendency in folks that makes for so much bad direct response fundraising copy. That’s the conclusion I draw from a fascinating dissertation by Frank C. Dickerson, Ph.D. as ...  Read more

At the heart of usage of online social networking is one’s attitude toward sharing personal information. Here’s a chart from a new study of the ‘Gen Next" (Gen Y, born 1977 or after) by the Pew Research Center. 62% of under-30s believe that sharing personal information ...  Read more

That’s the question asked by Steve MacLaughlin, Director of Internet Solutions at Blackbaud, in a recent blog post. He’s talking about the fact that, on average, online fundaising appeals get less than a 1% response rate … indeed, the average is less than 0.2%. Steve looked at ...  Read more

Regular readers of The Agitator will know how impressed I am with the research and analysis provided by Pew Research, especially with regard to online trends, media habits, and the confluence of media and politics/advocacy. But you don’t need to rely entirely on The Agitator to get this ...  Read more

The Pew Internet Project has come up with a new typology for users of information and communications technology (ICT). Pew sorts folks into ten groups, distributed within two main buckets. The chief determinant of which bucket you fall in is your attitude toward and usage of mobile ICT ...  Read more

Last Wednesday the headline in a New York Times story proclaimed “Study Shows First-Time Online Donors Do Not Return.” Sort of a ‘dog bites man” headline since, truth be told, neither do first-time direct mail donors. That aside, Stephanie Strom’s NYT piece is worth ...  Read more