AbilityNet communications highlights 2016

AbilityNet Communications Highlights 2016
COMMUNICATIONS
HIGHLIGHTS 2017
Mark Walker
Head of Marketing & Communications

Growing Our Reach
and Reputation
A 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

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 & BLOGS
Earned attention
3

4
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 Blogs
www.abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs

21% Increase in Pageviews
29,299 Dec 14 - Nov 15
35,665 Dec 15 – Nov 16
32.5% Increase in Average Time on Page
Dec 2015: 2 mins 0 sec
Nov 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.
5
News and Blogs
www.abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs
21%
32.5%

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.
6
Slideshare
www.slideshare.net/abilitynet
25%
25% increase in views
Total views 2015 = 16,845

13% increase in total video views
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.
7
YouTube
www.youtube.com/abilitynet
Top videos of 2016 by views views
Dyslexia simulator (2012) 2,993
What 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 1,493
Toys for Kids with Disabilities 6 – Shrek (2011) 1,029
Accessible Apps: Building the Barclays Mobile Banking App
(2015) 987
Visual Impairment and Computing: AbilityNet Webinar 9
June 2015 958
AbilityNet: How Disabled Student's Allowances (DSA) can
help students achieve their goals (2016) 903
13%

66% increase in Page Likes in 2016
Total likes Jan 16 = 964
Total likes Dec 16 = 1609
275% Increase in Ave Organic
Reach/Post in 2016
Ave reach/post in Q1 = 265
Ave reach/post in Q4 = 994
£3,503 Total Facebook Ad spend
since June 2016
We have to pay to reach people
Eg 29 Nov 2016:
Paid reach on that day = 19,840
Organic reach on that day = 4,114
8
Facebook
www.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.

What a successful organic post looks like
1725 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 like
3,990 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
9
Facebook
www.facebook.com/abilitynet

1280% increase in
impressions/month
Jan 2016 = 11.4k
Nov 2016 = 157k
261% increase in mentions/month
Jan 2016 = 31
Nov 2016 = 346
95% increase in profile
visits/month
Jan 2015 = 862
Nov 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…
10
Twitter
www.twitter.com/abilitynet
1280%
95%
261%

44% increase in followers
1 Jan 2016 = 578
1 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.
11
LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com/abilitynet
44%

TOTAL Factsheet Downloads 2016
Based on 1 Dec 2015 – 30 Nov 2016
8% Decrease in total downloads
Dec 14 – Dec 15 = 29,876
Dec 15 – Dec 16 = 27,236
10% Increase in monthly
downloads in Nov 2016
Nov 2015 = 2,416
Nov 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.
12
Downloads: Factsheets
29,876
-8%
10%
Top 3 Factsheets 2016
Keyboard and Mouse Alternatives
Dyslexia and Computing
Communications Aids

____
11% increase in monthly site users
Dec 15 = 41,713
Nov 16 = 56,278
56% increase in monthly pageviews
Dec 2015 = 62,335
Nov 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.
13
AbilityNet Website
29%
56%
1,002,000

____
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.
14
Partnership and Outreach

PRESS AND PR
Selected 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!
15

AbilityNet Tech4Good Awards
30,000 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 website
2015 = 31,677 users
2016 = 39,446 users
16
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 Tech4Good Awards
30,000 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 website
2015 = 31,677 users
2016 = 39,446 users
17
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 surprised
Robin Christopherson
and announced him as
the winner of the
Tech4Good Special Award 2016

BBC Ouch!
(Est.) Monthly Visits: 569M
(Est.) Coverage Views: 24.1K
Domain Authority: 100
EXTRACT: Driverless and sightless
Blind, 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
18

Campaign
(Est.) Monthly Visits: 1M
EXTRACT:
What accessibility means for creatives in our digital
world
Digital 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
19

Techcrunch
(Est.) Monthly Visits: 44.7M
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/
20

BT.com
(Est.) Monthly Visits: 23.9M
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

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.
22

Catherine Grinyer, Big Voice Communications
Press, PR, outreach, events, planning, social
media
Sophie Shearer, Marketing Officer
Video Production, DSA Promotion, Social Media
Alex Barker, Advice and Information Worker
Blogs, social media, events
Claudia Cahalane, journalist
Blogs, social media, data
Robin Christopherson, Head of Digital
Inclusion
Public speaking, blogs, AbilityNet ambassador
Mark Walker, Head of Marketing & Comms
Planning, 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

AbilityNet communications highlights 2016

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