This month in Facebook virtual challenges… November 2022

Observations of what’s going on in the world of Facebook virtual challenges

Time for the last of these before I get into the big look back on 2022 as a whole…

Just like in 2021, December has once again proven to be the quietest month for virtual challenges. Many charities are understandably focussing attention on Christmas appeals, or other activity as people become increasingly short on time and disposable income in the lead up to the end of the year. That doesn’t mean that there’s nothing going on though!

While there were half the Groups that I saw in November, it was only 15% fewer than the second quietest month of the year (January), and a big increase on what I saw for December challenges last year. However, only one of this months challenges broke the 5,000 Group member mark (the fewest of any month this year), and average Group membership has been the lowest I’ve recorded (1,500).

Fitness challenges have continued to make up the largest set of Groups I’ve seen this time around on Facebook, adapting well to being indoor during these colder wetter months. There’s been a noticeable drop in crafting challenges after a popular November, potentially as many people decide to use any crafting time for Christmas gift making rather than as challenges. Football-related activities have also been subbed off now that the World Cup is already underway and existing challenges have capitalised on the pre-tournament excitement and build up.

Looking into January and the first challenges of 2023, and already I can see a few springing up as organisations try to capitalise on resolutions.

It’s not been an easy month for those with challenges live, with multiple issues being experienced by many charities on the Facebook fundraising platform impacting donations. While Meta are working on solutions, it will be interesting to see what, if any, impact there is with supporters and their donors’ trust in the platform and its functionality following their frustrations.

Next month, I’m excited to go through data I’ve collected over the whole of 2022 and share an overview of this year in the Facebook virtual challenges space. Let me know if there’s specific stats and analysis you’d be interested in either in the comments here, over on Twitter or LinkedIn, and I’ll do my best to work it in to what is likely to be the final blog post of this series focussing on the space.

As always, if you’ve missed any of the previous entries you can go back and read them here: October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, and February.