Tag Archives: social media

Don’t call my family slack!

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My name is Richenda and I *love* slacktivists.

I hate the title “Slacktivist”… and Mashable’s  suggested term “Social Champion” doesn’t feel right either. To me, they are family. The World Vision family.

Working at World Vision USA and more recently World Vision Australia, I have built and engaged online communities of substantial scale. With this experience in mind, I will try to answer the questions raised by Weh in his recent blog post: Is it possible to engage slacktivists in more worthwhile causes, or should NGOs focus their energy elsewhere?

These are not easy questions to answer. 

Is it possible to engage slacktivists in more worthwhile causes?

Yes, without a doubt!

People that  “like” or “follow” your organisation to their network and/or choosing to receive communications from you! At World Vision, we call these people our “online family”, not slacktivists! They are new, current and prospective supporters who are happy to interact with us on a daily basis.

Mashable’s feature of The Dynamics of Cause Engagement study by Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication and Ogilvy Worldwide showing that slacktivists are more likely to take meaningful actions is no surprise to us.

Years of rigorous tracking and analysis has shown us that investment in our online family delivers consistent financial and non-financial returns. In addition to the activities listed above, we are also learning about the positive impact social media communication has on our long term relationships. This is important to us because our main product, Child Sponsorship, relies on long-term commitment to regular giving  to support complex, often misunderstood, community development.

An example of how we share content that aims to increase understanding of community development and affirm the commitment of sponsors

Not everyone in our family sponsors a child, recruits friends or rallies their local member of parliament. We know that some of our community will “like” a status once, while others contribute to content regularly and more meaningfully.

Some are silent readers, while others bring me to tears with their stories and their personal passion for social justice! (Tears from our team are not an uncommon response to these amazing stories!)

One of my favourite cross-channel advocacy examples. From WV Facebook, to a personal blog, to twitter. Love it!

Some share stories to entice friends to become involved, while others may never publicly share content but will personally click through to make a donation.

The level of commitment within the community varies from person to person, and is influenced by the content, opportunities and conversations you give them access to. Your online community will quickly discover whether the stories you tell, the opportunities you provide and the conversations you have are valuable. Which brings me too….

 Should NGOs focus their energy elsewhere?

Yes and No

Cultivating and mobilising online communities takes tremendous amount of time and resource. Any investment in this area should be well thought out, strategic and long-term. Honestly, there is no point investing in social media unless you  have a solid foundation. Before investing in building an online community, an NGO should be asking:

  • Is our website in good health? Are people using it to find out more about us or make donations?
  • Do we utilise website tracking to understand the behaviour of visitors to our site?
  • Do we have access to meaningful stories and multimedia?
  • Do we have communication that explain what we do?
  • Is our media team able to respond to difficult questions and criticism?
  • Does our organisation see a need to stay in dialogue with supporters?
  • Does our leadership understand social media and are they willing to invest in it?

If you answered “no” to any of these above questions – you should focus your energy there, instead of, or before, building a social media community. Without these fundamentals, you will find it  challenging to create effective content, understand the impact of your community and engage in authentic meaningful conversations.

If you answered “yes” to all of the above – go for it! Start by building a social media strategy that aligns with your organisation’s goals for engagement and target demographic. Your strategy should drive your tactics -  directing how you build your online family and the style or personality you use to engage them. To help you on your way, I have started a blog series to help demystify social media strategy and give you some practical advice.

Critics may tell you social media will produce no return. I think you will produce no return..if you are doing it wrong.  If you’re doing it right, your online family will take their passion or ‘slacktivism’ into the real world.  You will grow to love and respect your ‘slacktivists’ for what they really are: passionate people keen to make a difference. Trust me, I’m that annoying person on facebook that says …

@USArmy twitter #fail

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Anyone notice this tweet over the weekend?The US army received hundreds of mostly negative responses. Many were outraged, some responses got nasty:

I’m not going to discuss what’s inherently wrong with the content of this tweet however what’s clear is that this communication drummed up significant negative sentiment towards the US Army and made the content trend for the wrong reasons..

Trending negative sentiment  = Social Media Fail.

I found this social media fail surprising because the US army are embracing social media with an appetite that makes some brands blush. Earlier this year they launched a robust Social Media Policy with easy to use handbook to assist soldiers and their families, they recently garnered press attention for recruiting a social media communicator for a post in Afghanistan and they even have a Twitter Strategy.

How could an entity headed in this direction make this mistake? My guess…

  1. It’s a simple mistake by a new communicator without guidance or training from more seasoned staff with a pulse on media sensitivities
  2. The tweet actually reflects the culture and vernacular of the US army and communications staff, who are oblivious to external perceptions.
  3. There are no guidelines or protocols to adequately guide the tone, style and “personality” of the content created

Sadly, the US Army did not give a response via twitter or blog, instead they have deleted their tweet and are happy to pretend it never occurred. Three days later the outraged retweets have simmered down, which may encourage the US Army to use this mute option as the best way of dealing with this kind of situation in the future. That said, a carefully communicated explanation and “lessons learned” could have mobilised advocates and changed perceptions of those confused and disgruntled (as opposed to those outraged and unwavering).

Some free advice for the US Army

  • Work on a social media strategy that addresses cultural components of your content. Your current “5 day social media strategy” template is actually not a strategy but a content plan.
  • Bring on some “old skool” Media relations staff to train your social media young guns on media sensitivities
  • Create a risk mitigation assessment similar to your mates at the US Air force

So what do you think? Am I being too hard on the US Army? How would you have handled the situation? Eager to hear your thoughts

Lusaka lock down

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After 5 intense days of travelling and seeing World Vision’s projects we are back in Lusaka putting together vlogs. Everyone has spent the day locked in their rooms … a hot, beautifully sunny day. Vloggers were done by 6pm when World Vision Zambia staff, Pamela came by to view them before they loaded. Pamela was incredibly encouraging and kind, giving the vloggers detailed, insightful feedback. Mind you this was after I cried (twice). It’s safe to say tonight was a love fest. I am so proud.

Unlike the vloggers, I finish at mid-night. For the first time I am trying my hand at editing and it’s been a long process. I feel like I have gained a new understanding and respect for both the vloggers and my incredibly talented videographer boyfriend. Despite contemplating begging Kyle put it together for me (since it would take him about 20mins), I am proud to say that I didn’t get any help, I did it all myself :)

So here it is, let me know what you think…

First blog entry of an alleged “expert”

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Confession #1

For a while now I have felt pressure to blog.  I am the alleged “social media expert” at one of the largest NGOs in the world.  How my blog strategies and analysis get praise is beyond me, do they assume I have a blog?  Maybe its just a different skill set. To analyse and strategise is different then to effectively blog. No. If that were the case I need to stop shooting down the Facebook advice I get from strangers who think they know what our thousands of fans want to hear without actually interacting with them.

Lets just call it luck that I have gotten away with this so far.

But here I am, blogging. Scared.

I have things to say but if your a social media personality for a company, your identity is public and tied to their image. This usually means your “on-line” persona must be 89% boring and 100% politically correct.  I don’t want to be boring and political correctness is something I have learned to tolerate in the US, but cant bring myself to apply.

Blogs also have to be focused to hold viewership. However,  the thought of having a 100% blog on non-profit social media advice (ala Beth’s blog) may sound appealing for me to read but to write… blah, boring.

So I am just going to be me. If you like what I write, keep reading. If you dont,  I hope you find someone your more compatible with.