Executive summary

Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) is a nonprofit animal shelter based in Austin, Texas. APA!’s mission is to rescue animals most at risk for euthanasia and give them a chance at the life they deserve. APA! depends on donations to operate, and their social media strategy is crucial to their fundraising efforts. Austin Pets Alive! social media channels also include their national outreach and education division, American Pets Alive!, and collaborative pilot project, Human Animal Support Services. Before APA! partnered with Khoros, they used native social media tools and the services from a different social media software provider. Their software partner started to drop scheduled posts, accounts would sometimes disconnect and fail to reconnect, and important data would be lost. APA! knew they needed a better system. While in the process of evaluating several software partners, APA! was nominated for the Khoros Social Responsibility (KSR) Program. The KSR Program provides nonprofit and social good organizations with free and/or discounted access to Khoros software and services, with an emphasis on those owned by or in direct service to underrepresented groups who would not otherwise have the capacity to invest in our offerings.

Many different people contribute to APA!’s social media strategy, but before Khoros, APA! didn’t have a central location for their copy, schedule, and metrics. There was no simple way to achieve a bird’s-eye view of the team’s activity. Now, APA! can see every draft and post in one place, and the whole team has access to the schedule. They can see which team members scheduled which posts, making it easy to adjust content or schedules whenever they need to. This helps them ensure everything goes out when and how it should to maximize engagement (and donations!).

Previously, APA! had to manually pull reporting data, but with Khoros labels, their social media team can automatically create any type of report they need. One of the most valuable parts of the Khoros platform for APA! is the ability to create reports that track how much attention each one of their programs receives so they can be certain they’re adequately highlighting every program and meeting fulfillment requirements for their partnerships, cause marketing endeavors, and events.

Since partnering with Khoros, APA! has been tracking the performance of their donation posts. Using Khoros analytic data, APA! adjusted posting times to get those key donation posts in front of more eyes, substantially increasing their donations. The social media team can now handle up to 250% more content and communications with the same amount of staff, and Khoros customer support helps them quickly fix any roadblocks that arise. There’s very little that APA! does without the need for a direct result, and with Khoros, they can analyze every piece of data to streamline their strategy and get everything done with the resources they have available.

APA! plans to work with Khoros to get their Inbox up and running. With Inbox, APA!’s social media team will be able to access communications from their most-used platforms all in one place, streamlining workflow and time management for the social media team, volunteers, and interns. APA! will soon begin product coaching for several topics, including custom analytics and parameters.

“Other social media platforms I’ve used just don’t stand up to the volume that APA! needs to put out, and I honestly wouldn’t be able to do my job without the tools Khoros offers.”

— Heather Stout, Social Media Specialist, Austin Pets Alive!

Results

APA! is extremely ROI-focused and they don’t have a post to spare — everything they do on social media must produce a result. APA! currently tracks impressions, engagement, and reach, but soon they’ll use labels to create weekly reports with in-depth analytics. With Facebook and Instagram’s native tools, APA! is now raising between $10,000 and $20,000 per month — no small piece of their fundraising strategy. Since partnering with Khoros, APA! has realized 50K in cost savings, and they’ve increased their monthly posts by 148% without adding strain to their social media team. At any given time, ten-plus team members might be simultaneously working within the Khoros platform adding post copy and drafts, uploading collateral, or scheduling posts. Khoros makes it easy for everyone on APA!’s social media team to effectively and efficiently communicate and keep everything running smoothly.

Created

social media post drafts within the Khoros platform to eliminate the need for separate spreadsheets and calendars.

Scheduled

posts based on analytic data to maximize engagement.

Viewed

all posts from all contributors in one place to ensure an effective posting cadence.

Implemented

weekly reporting to measure the performance of all campaigns and events.