Raising a Social Media Army to
Fight for Child Soldiers
Presented by:
James Topham, War Child Canada
David Jones, Hill & Knowlton Canada

War Child Canada
• Programs are focused on:
– Education
– Strengthening children’s rights
– Reducing poverty
– Fostering self reliance
• Supporting to communities in:
– Afghanistan
– Sudan (Darfur)
– Uganda
– Democratic Republic of Congo
– Ethiopia
– Sri Lanka
– Georgia

War Child & Social Media

Camp Okutta - Viral Success

Help Child Soldiers Fight

Can Lightning Strike Twice?

Can Lightning Strike Twice?

The Program

Objectives
Generate awareness and engagement for War Child Canada
• Camp Okutta was the benchmark
• Get signatures on the e-petition
Establish a War Child presence in social media
• Commitment beyond the campaign
Drive donations
• Money talks

Digital Footprint: SMNR
Objectives
• Digital news hub
• Integrated in WC site
• Integrated with Facebook
• HQ for blogger outreach

Digital Footprint:
Facebook
Objectives
• Spread awareness
• Drive to petition
• Empower the fans

HelpChildSoldiers.com

Blogger Relations
Objectives
• YouTube video embeds
• Get people talking/sharing
• Engagement and advocacy
• Petitions and donations

Twitter
Objectives
• Amplify the program
• Establish the WC presence
• Create a network

Results

Youtube
Results
• Okutta reached 107K
views in one year; Child
Soldiers reached 115K in
three weeks
• Top Featured and Top
Favourited on Youtube
globally
• 6th most discussed
nonproft video of all time in
Canada
• 1666 comments and
counting

Blogs
Results
• Who’d we pitch? • Blogger Knife Box drop
lead to features in:
• Visuals of pitch • BlogTO
•
• Screen caps of results She Does the City
• IwantIgot
• Big City Liberal
• And more! (total of 65
posts)
• Lead to 17,689 referrals to
helpchildsoldiers.com from
blogs and websites

Twitter
Results
• 38 Twitter mentions
• Reaching a influence
sphere of over 10K
members

Websites
Results
• Over 7,800 visits to
helpchildsoldiers.com
• 2,000 new memberships
• 80% increase in volunteers
• 50% increase in donations
• Warchild.ca web traffic
doubled during campaign
blogs and websites

Facebook
Results
• 16% increase in fans
• 200 new members

Return on Investment

Return on Investment
@TopsatWarChild’s twitter network grew from
900+ in 5 months
0
Add more War Child Canada staff and combined
followers now stands at well over 2000

Return on Investment
Heroes Benefit CD Twitter promo:
$1,500
200% Increase in followers
856 Twitter mentions
Influence - 150,000 members

Return on Investment
A valuable community:
• Inclusion in 12 for 12K Twitter promo -
$12,000
• Voted by community to be recipient of
mesh conference funds; those funds
were doubled by a Twitter user - $2,500

Return on Investment
Most Importantly:
• Donations up 38% from last year
($50,000 over two weeks)
• 300 requests to be volunteers
• Live Tweeting from War Zone by co-
founder Samantha Nutt
(@NuttsAtWarChild)