1. 2012 TechSoup
Digital Storytelling Challenge
Metrics + Learning

2. Intro
The third annual TechSoup Digital Storytelling Challenge took place in
February 2012, and involved:
• 3 video production webinars, led by Lights. Camera. Help.
• 1 Nonprofits Live Interactive Online Show
• 3 live Tweet Chats
• Special/dedicated digital storytelling page
• 4 Main Judges Award categories
• 9 Honorable Mentions
• 2 Community voted “Audience Choice” photo and video awards
Overall, this year’s event had a huge increase not only in the number of
entries, but also to traffic to the TSDigs page, global participation, and
community engagement. Here are some of the results:

3. Entries
There were 261 submissions for the Digital
Storytelling Challenge. Of those, 206 were videos
and 55 were photo entries. 59 came from
organizations/individuals registered with TechSoup.
For comparison, that is over double of the
submissions from the 2011 Challenge (+151%), and
almost double (+46%) the amount of participation
of TechSoup members.

4. Webinars
Although Webinar participation was strong, it was
one part of the Challenge which we saw decline.
There were a total of 911 participants across the
three webinars and one Nonprofits Live events. In
2011, there were 1,263 participants for two
webinars.
Of the webinar participants, 31 submitted entries
and 61 made donation requests. This is an increase
from last year, where only 16 received donations.

5. Storytelling Main Page
This year, we purchased “TSDigs.org” and
redirected to the main storytelling page on
TechSoup, replacing tiny.cc/tsdigs. Besides being
easier to remember, we believe this helped in
sharing. The page was viewed 10,482 times
during the month of the campaign, up from
2,763 for the campaign last year.

6. Summary
Overall, 388 registered organizations and 458 registered
individuals were involved in the 2012 Digital Storytelling
Challenge, either by attending a webinar, entering a digital
story, voting in the community Audience Choice Award or
receiving a donation after visiting a digital storytelling page or
resource.
Although the number of registered organizations decreased
from 519* in 2011, the number of first time registrations, first
time ordering, and number of donation requests increased.
Donation requests of featured products also doubled, from 21
to 47.
*The number of registered orgs participating in 2011, was also calculated differently and should not necessarily be compared “apples to
apples” to this year’s TSDigs Challenge.

7. Snapshot
2011 2012 Difference Change
Submissions 104 261 157 151%
YouTube 80 206 126 158%
Flickr 24 55 31 129%
Votes 1,216 5,314 4,098 337%
Webinar/NPLive
1,263 911 -352 -28%
Attendees
Countries 8 24 16 200%
Page Views 2,763 10,482 7,719 279%
Products from sponsors used to
make story (Of 261 Entries, 227 154 59%
answered)
Adobe 60 39%
Flip 47 31%
Flickr 32 21%

8. TechSoup Members & Donations
TSDIGS OVERALL 2011 2012 Difference %Change
1st Time Registration (Organizations) 5 18 13 260%
1st Time Registration (Individuals) n/a 47 n/a n/a
1st Time Ordering Orgs 14 15 1 7%
Any Donation Request 54 98 44 81%
Donation Request for Featured Products 21 47 26 124%
Countries 8 24 16 200%
Existing Organization Members
(submitted entries)
27 59 32 119%
Existing Individual Members
(any TSDigs involvement)
n/a 411 n/a n/a
ONLINE EVENTS
Webinar/NPLIVE attendees 1263 911 -352 -28%
Submissions 22 31 9 41%
1st Time Registration 5 11 6 120%
1st Time Ordering Orgs 6 7 1 17%
Any Donation Request 16 61 45 281%
Total TechSoup Members involved in TSDigs 2012 (individuals) – 458
Total TechSoup Members involved in TSDigs 2012 (organizations) – 388

9. Event Dates
Digital Storytelling Challenge Feb 1 – 29, 2012
Community Voting March 6 – 11, 2012
TSDigs Awards Screening/Party March 28, 2012 Participants
Tweet Chat 1 35 People
Jan 31, 2012
Mobile Storytelling 224 Tweets
Webinar 1 541 Registered
Feb 2, 2012
Pre-Production: Before You Push Record 348 Attended
Tweet Chat 2 53 People
Feb 7, 2012
Creating Impact & Effective Storytelling 425 Tweets
Nonprofits Live 75 Registered
Feb 8, 2012
Collaborative Storytelling 138 Attended
Webinar 2 455 Registered
Feb 9, 2012
Production: Capturing Your Story on Camera 247 Attended
Tweet Chat 3 42 People
Feb 14, 2012
Social Amplification & Distribution 289 Tweets
Webinar 3 509 Registered
Feb 16, 2012
Post-Production: You Have Footage, Now What? 241 Attended

10. Social Media
2012 Jan 31, 2012 Feb 29, 2012 Mar 31, 2012 Difference %Change
Facebook
5,451 5,698 5,966 515 9%
Likes
Twitter
13,401 13,926 14,498 1097 8%
Followers
2011 Jan 1, 2011 Jan 31, 2011 Feb 28, 2011 Difference %Change
Facebook
2,877 3,080 3,248 371 9%
Likes
Twitter
7592 8026 8427 835 9%
Followers

11. Twitter
Total TSDigs Mentions 2,902 Breakdown of Total Tweets
Retweets 1,377 47%
@TechSoup Mentions 962 33%
Includes Link 1,452 50%
No Link 1,452 50%
Top Days TSDigs Mentions Event
Feb 7, 2012 537 Tweet Chat 2
(Creating Impact/Effective Storytelling)
Feb 14, 2012 375 Tweet Chat 3
(Social Amplification)
Jan 31, 2012 270 Tweet Chat 1
(Mobile Storytelling)
March 28, 2012 207 TSDigs Awards Screening

12. #TSDigs
Top Keywords & Frequency Within Posts
3,500
2,902
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,350
1,500
1,000 528 678 630
392
500 166 121
-
Total Posts @techsoup digital storytelling digital digital story tweet chat 11am pt
storytelling challenge
Twitter Posts & Impressions
Total Posts Impressions
Potential Impressions
600 2,000,000
400
1,500,000
1,000,000
200
500,000
- -
2/2/12
2/4/12
2/6/12
2/8/12
3/1/12
3/3/12
3/5/12
3/7/12
3/9/12
1/31/12
2/10/12
2/12/12
2/14/12
2/16/12
2/18/12
2/20/12
2/22/12
2/24/12
2/26/12
2/28/12
3/11/12
3/13/12
3/15/12
3/17/12
3/19/12
3/21/12
3/23/12
3/25/12
3/27/12
3/29/12

13. Twitter + Community
Community Guest Tweeting
New way to involve and showcase partners
and experts.
Guest Hosting
Coordinated with #commbuild chat to host
storytelling themed chat during TSDigs and
TechSoup was the guest host.

14. Insights
• TweetChats still proved to be a good way to promote TSDigs and engage participants.
• No significant difference in rate of growth of social channels. Perhaps next year look at
ads or specific ways to drive subscribers.
• This year more focused on tweet chat theme and inviting topic professionals, vs. last
year having guest expert. Both work.
• Kept time to 11am to match the webinars, which was good for simplicity, but next
year would like to look at co-organizing with global partners or participating in at least
one different time to support broader geographic participation.
• Guest tweeting Thursday turned out to be a great way for us to involve and showcase
Lights. Camera. Help. even more and was positively received by the community and
person guest tweeting.

15. Facebook
Demographics Countries
59% Female United States
39% Male Canada
73% 25 – 54 y.o. Estonia
United Kingdom
India
Talking about Australia
TechSoup Romania
2,709: Engaged
61,678: Mentions
Cities
San Francisco
Total Reach
(Based on Unique/Day) New York, NY
137,242 Washington DC
Los Angeles
Oakland
Chicago
Tallinn, Harjumaa, Es
tonia

16. Insights
• Users seem to be more social media savvy and saw we were tagged
more in posts.
• Skewed 20% more female, last year was closer to 50/50.
• Social media seems to be reflective of offline TechSoup presence – San
Francisco represented highest, and global partners Australia and
Romania in top 10 countries.
• We did not place ads this year, and still had the comparable growth
rate.

17. Post-Event Survey (135 Responses)
How did you hear about TSDigs? What was your involvement with
TechSoup Newsletter or Email
TechSoup before TSDigs?
(eg, By the Cup, New Product
Alerts)
Email
Friend
Longtime member
Twitter
Have received donated product
Facebook
SecondLife Participated in events or
webinars
Other Newsletter or Listserve
New member (within the last
few months)
Specific site or person (so we
can thank them!)
Just learned about TechSoup
TSDigs Google Group from TSDigs
Lights. Camera. Help. Didn't attend or participate in
TSDigs, but interested in
participating in the future
Blog
Attended the TSDigs Awards
Screening in SecondLife
Community Listserve
(eg, YNPN, Progressive
Exchange, etc.)
LinkedIn
13% Learned about TechSoup through TSDigs.
Email continues to be number one way 16% New Members
people learn about TSDigs/events. 26% Received donated products

18. Post-Event Survey
After participating in the Digital What was the best or most helpful How or where will you use/share
Storytelling event, how likely are part of the TSDigs Challenge?* your digital story?
you to use the tools again? Webinars 42%
Exposure on TechSoup 33% Website 75%
Definitely 43% Prizes 22%
Very likely 39% Facebook 64%
How-To articles and blogs 22%
Forums 4% Fundraising 44%
Maybe, but need more Tweet Chats 4%
Twitter 28%
practice or training 18% SecondLife meetings &
Not very 1% interviews 3% Recruiting 19%
Would you participate in TSDigs Before TSDigs, had you Who created/produced your
Challenge again? created a digital story story?
before? Staff 64%
Yes, probably 39%
No, this was our first time 41% Volunteer 21%
Yes, definitely 36% Yes, once or twice 24%
Volunteer (Film Professional) 7%
Not sure 15% Yes, a few times (3-5) 22% Intern(s) 5%
No, not likely 10% Yes, a lot (more than 5) 13% Hired someone 4%
*Survey sent to 1000+ who participated in any part of TSDigs (webinar, entered digital story, tweet chat, forum, judge, etc.). Percentages based on 135 who
answered. Results are a good sampling, but should not be used as only indicator of effectiveness of certain TSDigs features/programs (eg,
SecondLife/Nonprofit Commons).

19. Suggestions/Comments
(from post-event survey)
“The learning opportunities were very helpful. More great trainings please!”
“More webinars on how to get best content.”
“I love Tech Soup, but often I don't feel like I can take full advantage of all it
has to offer due to too much to do, too little time.”
“The promotion to enter the contest was great and staff responded quickly.
The screening went well. The contest website, layout and voting system needs
improvement.”

20. Kudos
"Thank you for this opportunity. Kids love making videos!"
-Los Alamitos Youth Center, Inc.
"Thanks for having the contest! This was very much a
learning process for me. It was my first time using this
video editing software."
-National Forest Foundation
"Thank you so much for motivating us to tell and share
our story with the world!"
-Starfire Council

21. Thank you!
-Online Community & Social Media Team