The affordability of smartphones and mobile data plans is allowing more people to get online than at any other time.

A new report called 2018 Global Digital from marketing agency We Are Social and Hootsuite reveals that the number of internet users worldwide topped 4 billion last year. “Smartphones are the world’s preferred choice for going online too, accounting for a greater share of web traffic than all other devices combined,” writes report author Simon Kemp.

All organizations are better poised than ever to reach people online all around the planet via mobile devices.

“Social media use continues to grow rapidly too, and the number of people using the top platform in each country has increased by almost 1 million new users every day during the past 12 months,” says Kemp.

While it may be tempting to pull your focus away from Facebook, considering its News Feed change that de-prioritizes brand pages, it’s important to keep in mind that Facebook users grew by 15 percent last year to nearly 2.17 billion at the start of this year.

The study notes that organic reach on Facebook has dropped by more than 10 percent year over year. Engagement also took a dip. But despite these decreases, “these numbers will be valuable benchmarks for marketers everywhere—especially because they offer insights into the number of brands using paid media.”

Improve Your Digital Team

Our digital teams research is in Stanford Social Innovation Review today: What Makes Nonprofit Digital Teams Successful Today? (SSIR) https://t.co/yMWcOUdxNg

— Jason Mogus (@mogusmoves) February 6, 2018

Digital is a vital component of a nonprofit growth strategy, but many nonprofits are struggling with structuring their digital teams.

“Our report found that three-quarters of digital teams have been restructured within the last three years—and almost a third more than once,” researchers who conducted a survey about the state of digital teams in the advocacy nonprofit world write in Stanford Social Innovation Review. “Yet only 11 percent said the way their organization manages digital is highly effective.”

The study finds that organizations with highly effective teams have a few things in common: senior management-level digital expertise, digital leaders generating new campaign and initiative ideas, and empowered hybrid or independent digital teams.

“Unfortunately, the practice of empowering digital teams is far from standard,” write Jason Mogus and Austen Levihn-Coon. “Almost half of the organizations we surveyed either merely consult their digital teams on new initiatives or inform them of decisions after others have made a plan.”

Other Links of Note

We’ve all made dumb mistakes at work. Colleen Dilenschneider, writer of the Know Your Own Bone blog, shares the valuable lessons she learned from her errors.

Do you know your donors as well as you think you do? The Agitator offers up a bunch of ways to brainstorm donor identities.

Make sure your team is always on the same page. Daily stand-up meetings can save you hours of wasted work, according to Inc.

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