‘SM4D: How Others Do It’

This summer the DevComm Network tackled the topic of social media for international development by hosting the event: ‘SM4D: How Others Do It’ with panelists from a range of development organizations including The ONE Campaign (advocacy), the World Bank (international institution), Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and Mercy Corps (implementer).

As panel moderator, UN Dispatch’s Mark Goldberg kicked it off with the basics of how do you (and your type of organization) use social media to further causes in international development? As the event progressed, the discussion ranged from general tips and tools, to what works and what doesn’t, to how different orgs are using the same tools for very different outreach goals: See the questions and video clips below!

Some highlights:

Melinda Wuellner with CFR talked about how – as a think tank – CFR uses social media as another device in the communicators tool box to push out CFR materials and to help create a brand for their experts. Her challenge is to stay neutral and to ensure it’s clear that although experts have opinions—CFR as an institution does not.

Malaka Gharib with ONE talked about the ways in which social media allows her to share interesting materials from a wide range of development organizations. Her tips for the audience included using materials from other organizations (with permission of course!). Need a pic? Ask an on-the-ground org like Mercy Corps or CARE.

Salma Bahramy with Mercy Corps offered a unique perspective as a communicator for an organization that is really a network of development providers doing on the ground work in high risk regions. She explained how Mercy Corps’ social media presence provides a channel for sharing their stories and cluing their members in to what is going on in a particular region. To keep up-to-date content MercyCorps sends communications folks wherever they can to document with social media, photos, videos and blogs.

Jim Rosenberg with the World Bank gave some of the most overarching advice to all of us social media development folks—he emphasized that social media is successful because it provides and open dialogue. Jim said being flexible and responsive to your followers shows engagement, and that steady consistent action on Twitter and Facebook is also key to keeping your audience tuned-in. He also talked about how these platforms form a digital layer of our lives—the personal and professional mingle, and it’s a good idea to have clear guidelines and standards to know how to act online.

Want to ‘see’ the answers to our burning questions?

Q: How do you manage your Twitter accounts and how many do you manage?

A: See panelists respond: Click here.

Q: Is the strategy different for Facebook and Twitter? What is “worth” more?

A: See panelists respond: Click here.

Q: How do you handle the often personal yet professional nature of Twitter?

A: See Jim Rosenberg with the World Bank answer: Click here.

Q: How do you deal with emerging criticism online or through social media?

A: See Malaka Gharib with ONE unpack how they handled recent criticism against Bono: Click here.

Q: How are you handling new and emerging social media platforms like Google+?

A: See panelists respond: Clickhere.

See and Share the Full Video here:

Still Want More Tips?

Frequency and Timing of Posts. Twitter users should tweet as much as possible as a means to increase visibility (6+ times a day!). It is unlikely an organization will lose followers for tweeting frequently; on the other hand people are likely to start following an organization that is active. It was also suggested that tweets be spaced out throughout the day. Between 5:00-6:00PM is one of the best times to post important information, as many people check their Facebook and Twitter during the evening commute.

Facebook vs. Twitter. The audience on Twitter tends to be professional whereas Facebook speaks to a broader audience. In general, a Facebook “like” holds more value than a retweet. Since Facebook is more personal, a “like” indicates a greater level of engagement. Because of the personal nature of Facebook, it is wise to limit to three postings per day. Photos and links are key.

Media Outreach. Tweeting has a number of advantages over traditional media outreach. For example, composing a tweet is far less time consuming than composing a traditional press release. Additionally, important points can be repeated frequently over Twitter, whereas the impact of a press release fades quickly. Panelists also highlighted the appeal of social media in terms of engaging with the audience; one panelist pointed out, “it’s harder for people to hate you if they know who you are.” So branding is really important on Twitter—and is one reason why personal Twitter accounts are more fun to follow!

Content of Posts. Panelists mainly use social media as tool to deliver news to their audience. Think tanks in particular are careful to never put opinions in tweets. On the other hand, advocacy organizations use social media to push campaigns. One interesting point was that most panelists agreed that social media wasn’t effective for fundraising, and that email campaigns remained more effective for some outreach objectives.

New Forms of Social Media. Panelists briefly discussed the utility of Google+. Several panelists admitted to experimenting with it, but will wait to see if it catches on before they decide to get involved. One interesting function of Google+ that was mentioned was the Hangouts option, which is essentially a videoconferencing application. This has the potential to be a great way to engage with audiences, although some type of moderator function would be needed before that could work effectively.