Case Study: The Nature Conservancy

Sector: Nonprofit / Sustainability  
Project: Social Media Audit, Chapter Communications Consultant

Our partnership with The Nature Conservancy included a comprehensive audit of its global social media program. Through interviews, we helped the organization hone in on a clear vision for the evolution of their program. We identified the resources that needed to be in place to accomplish those goals and helped troubleshoot the roadblocks that stood in the way of success.

Chapter Communications Consultant 

As part of our work, we reviewed 150 social media accounts and gave tailored feedback to field offices across the U.S., as well as several other countries. Each report contained an overview of the chapter's social media accounts, comparing it against industry best practices and the organization's overall goals. As a chapter communications consultant, we used this data to make tailored recommendations for areas of improvement.

The Challenge

The SBS team was thrilled to partner with the Conservancy to support and amplify its powerful message of the importance of protecting nature.

We were eager to tackle the challenge of developing an efficient, cost-effective process for conducting a full-scale social media review of a complex global program.

​Goals for the audit included assessment of the organization on multiple points:
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  • Assess the social media of field offices, in different states and regions, against national and global strategy
  • Assess current challenges, workflow, and professional development needs
  • Assess vision, goals and objectives
  • Assess program against competitors and peers
  • Assess execution against best practices
  • Assess opportunities presented by field offices

The Idea

At the heart of the process was feedback from the hardworking, passionate Nature Conservancy staff. The goal was not just to provide an objective critique, but also to listen closely to the needs and wants of staff members and to understand their unique talents so that we could share that knowledge across teams. With that in mind, our strategy unfolded:
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  • We reviewed background documents, interviewed key staff, and surveyed 60 social media administrators to evaluate the workflow between the global team and field offices, and to assess staff challenges, goals, roadblocks, and successes.
  • We assessed performance against industry and competitor benchmarks, and assessed brand positioning as an entire program.
  • We evaluated 150 social media accounts against a range of audit criteria and delivered individual reports for each account.

We presented our findings in an executive summary to the global marketing team and included recommendations for moving the social media program forward. Informed by our knowledge of trends, we suggested channels the organization should be a part of and what they could emphasize and de-emphasize. We also provided individual reports on each account. 

We identified organizational strengths and opportunities, helped prioritize the activities that would make the biggest impact, and answered questions unique to the organization.Throughout the process, we checked in with staff as we made discoveries so that they would not have to wait to receive our full recommendations to begin planning for the coming year.

We additionally worked with global staff to create and a deliver a presentation to the organization's broader team of social media account administrators.

The Results

  • As a result of the audit, the Nature Conservancy now has refined goals and a new vision statement for their global social media program.
  • We suggested social media opportunities and strategies that the Conservancy could use to their advantage. We surfaced, prioritized, and developed a plan for how to meet challenges and staff needs (e.g., a new working group and professional development series).
  • It is common to discover additional accounts during an audit of a large organization, and the Conservancy was no exception—while they estimated 140 accounts, over 200 were discovered. We developed an accurate list of social media accounts and identified and celebrated current successes of the program.
  • By looking at the engagement rates and account growth rates across the organization, we were able to evaluate social media accounts against internal, competitive, and channel-specific benchmarks. We then delivered tailored feedback to individual social media administrators that they could use to improve their accounts.
  • Megan Sheehan, Associate Director of Content for The Nature Conservancy, described our partnership as "a professional highlight for 2016...this was something that we were very happy and proud to lead for the rest of the organization."

"The word 'audit' doesn't typically conjure up feelings of excitement, however we're brimming with excitement after Sarah Best Strategy's social media audit of The Nature Conservancy's channels! Sarah and team reviewed our organization's approach to social, clarified our social vision and outlined a step-by-step process for realizing that vision. The audit has helped us create more strategic content and refined our channel strategies."

- Madeline Van Tassel, Associate Director of Digital Content Strategy for The Nature Conservancy

"You know when you play sports against a team that's better than yours, and rather than feel discouraged, you realize that their presence is making you a better player? That's how I felt every time I talked with Sarah, listened to her present her findings, or read her reports. She's so incredibly knowledgeable about social and digital media that I wish I could keep her on retainer!"

- Megan Sheehan, Associate Director Digital Content, The Nature Conservancy