On April 20, 2016, the U.S. Department of State honored 10 outstanding young people from around the world - aged 17 - 25 - for their efforts in building sustainable peace and constructive social change in their communities. They received the first-ever U.S. Department of State Emerging Young Leaders Award in Washington, DC, followed by an exchange program that will set the honorees on paths for increased collaboration on global issues affecting youth, particularly those involved in combating extremism, empowering voices, and peacebuilding. This presentation was developed for the 10 Emerging Young Leaders to help maximize their social media presence while in the U.S. and get the word out about their award.
The Emerging Young Leaders Award is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and organized by Legacy International.
2. What We Will Cover
• Where you should be posting on
social media
• What you should be posting
• How you should be posting
• Strategies to use to tell your story
about your award and exchange
program
3. What we will not cover
• Why social media is important
• How to set up a social media
account
• How to use subject matter
unrelated to your award or
program
7. 1.59 Billion
Users
*As of December 2015
320 Million
Users
*As of September 2015
400 Millions
Users
*As of March 2015
Source: AdWeek.com
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
On April 20, 2016, the U.S. Department of State honored 10 outstanding young people from around the world for their efforts in building sustainable peace and constructive social change in their communities. They received the first ever U.S. Department of State Emerging Young Leaders Award in Washington, DC, followed by an exchange program that will set the honorees on paths for increased collaboration on global issues affecting youth, particularly those involved in combating extremism, empowering voices, and peace building. This presentation was developed for the 10 Emerging Young Leaders to help maximize their social media presence while in the U.S. and get the word out about their award.
The Emerging Young Leaders Award is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and organized by Legacy International.
We will be covering where you should be posting, what you should be posting, how you should be posting and strategies to tell your story about your award and exchange program.
We won’t cover why social media is important or how to set up a social media account. You are already active in many of the social spaces we are covering. This workshop is designed to help you get the maximum use out of your social media sites and social media marketing around your award and program.
Globally, over one-quarter of the population is using social media. That’s over two BILLION people using social media at any given time.
Source: wearesocial.net
I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you that Facebook is THE number one social network globally. You’ll see listed other popular global platforms. How many of you are using three or more of these platforms? Which ones are you using and why? Source: wearesocial.net
During your time in DC we will be focusing on three social media platforms that are popular in the U.S. This includes, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. At the time of this presentation, adweek.com reported 1.59 billion users on Facebook, 320 million users on Twitter and 400 Million users on Instagram. Source: adweek.com
Take a look at the Social Media Revolution 2016 video to see how social media is changing behaviors and impact storytelling. - 4:25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3rWAd8KQxE&nohtml5=False
You can’t start your social media strategy without a plan. First, you’ll want to identify and inspire your home-grown advocates to share your story before your program launch. It’s always a good idea to engage with your audience before you need them. Build real relationships around common interests. Target supporters or like-minded individuals who have large followings on social media (“key influencers”) who will spread your message further across their networks. Be consistent with your posts and clear about your message and objectives.
One way to tell a good story via social media is use a distinctive an unique hashtag. Hashtags allow you to follow a specific conversation across social media channels. They also help you keep track of conversations around your specific topic. The official hashtag for the Emerging Young Leaders social media campaign is #EYLeaders. Many of you have already started using the hashtag. Please continue to use it across platforms. While you may want to use one or two hashtags on Twitter and Facebook Instagram allows you to use 14+ hashtags. You may think that is overkill, but using multiple hashtags allows you to be involved in multiple conversations. Use as many hashtags as deemed appropriate to promote your award and to help share your stories. Some examples would be #YoungLeaders, #Entrepreneurs, #SocialGood, #SocialChangeAgents, etc
Here’s who was talking about the #EYLeaders right now. Pay particular attention to the branded Instagram post by Exchange Our World. What other hashtags can you use? What other conversations would you like to see yourself in? Some additional suggestions would be #DC #Leaders #SocialInnovators
Creativity sets your stories apart from others. You want to share engaging stories that will make your followers feel at ease and invested in your EYL story. The storyline should emphasize people should care about your cause AND share your cause with others.
Beautiful photos and compelling stories are what work best on Instagram. Look at your surrounds. Use your creative eye when taking a photo. Look beautiful and unusual backgrounds. Find the beauty in your surroundings. Also, be very descriptive in your Instagram posts. Use links, tag people or organizations and use those hashtags!
This Facebook post is a creative way to tell the story of EYLeaders. It makes good use of a branded image, hyperlinks and hashtags. It tells a short but interesting story of one of the Emerging Young Leaders and the U.S. Department of State and an Embassy was tagged. These tags will ensure that the message will be seen, liked and shared.
How can you inform people about your program and what you are doing without it being boring or pretentious? Personalize your stories. Often you are told in storytelling that you must deliver it as truthfully and honestly as possible, without beating around the bush. You want to get to the heart of the matter. William Bernbach said it best when he said that “the most powerful element in advertising is the truth.” The same is true for social media storytelling. People want to listen to stories that are informative and relatable. Tell a story that will inform but also pull on tug their heartstrings. Ask yourself a few questions before you begin posting. Why will people care about your post? How will they relate to it? What is the common thread that your award has to your community or communities like yours? Why will they care? Once you are able to answer those questions, you can move on to sharing.
Share real-life experience in real-time. Here you’ll see Basel’s Facebook post where he is telling a story through a group of photos on Facebook. You don’t have to be a great storyteller, you just have to tell a great story when you are sharing online.
Share your posts across platforms. If you have a website or blog, link social media posts back to your site and vis versa. Posts that consistently enable sharing will in time create large communities. Remember what works is content that is well written, emotional, information and/or entertaining. Here are some general rules when sharing content.
Ideal content lengths you may need to know (source)
Ideal blogpost length: 1600 words
Ideal Tweet length: 71-100 characters
Ideal Facebook post length: 40 Characters
Ideal YouTube video length: 3 minutes
Learn to observe the world and the people around you. The best stories are those that draw from the world around you and make people relate to the characters. Also be polite and try to find a way to create conversations
Here’s one of our Facebook What is great about the Facebook post is the use of a popular hashtag, “MotivationMonday” along with the EYL hashtag. It also takes the State Department. You all should tag your Embassy Facebook pages or Community Facebook pages when you post. Think, “who on Facebook will want to see my post or benefit the most from it.” The tweets show two different ways to inform the public about the EYLA program. Tell me why these are really good tweets.
Here is another way to tell the story with the same photo. Basel posted this photo on Instagram. Wishing an hour Basel gained 33 Likes on Instagram. I found him via the hashtag so it’s another great example of using the hashtag to follow a topic. No need to reinvent the wheel. Sam used Basel’s photo to tell his own story and did a great job of tagging other accounts.
Everyday objects and experiences can be used to tell a good story.
These are great photos. Be sure to be as descriptive as possible when posting. You have character restrictions on Twitter but you can post away and tell a full story on Facebook.
Promote your story by making it easy to understand and easy to share. Use engaging photos and conversational writing. Add pictures and video to posts. Promote often and across channels. What is most important is how you craft your content for social media. What medium are you using? What are you communicating? Do not to lose sight of the vision about your award and the story you want to tell.
Hillary also did a great job of promotion. She say the Tweet by the U.S. Embassy Malta, and took that occasion to RT them. However, she went one step further add that SHE was in the USA for EYLA and she thanked the Embassy. You should all be watching the posts from your own Embassy and if they don’t know you’re here, tell them. :-)
I think Samuel has done a great job of promoting himself, his cause and his story. This tweet of his travels set the tone for his arrival in DC. Using the hashtag for specific locations is very smart way to use a hashtag.
Repetition is OK on Twitter. In fact, it’s encouraged. Looked at the two different ways Samuel promoted this Tweet. Think about repeating your messaging.
Influencers are those people in the social media space who have a large following and large digital footprint. Make good use of the influencers who follow you and share your posts. Be appreciative when people share with you and about you. Retweet or repost people who are sharing your stories. Know how the social media influencers are in your particular area of work. Start conversations with these people. Use the influencers and become an influencer.
Here’s Nino’s Twitter feed. She’s new to Twitter but already has the hang of telling her story.
Long before Nino joined Twitter, the Twitterers were telling wonderful, heartwarming stories about her. So, be aware that even if you don’t have an specific social media account, people may be talking about you on social media. Google yourself often to see what people are saying about you online. Remember the positive comments and be sure to thank these people for their support.
You can find your influencers during the program launch by finding the people who are tweeting you, liking your IG photos or mentioning #EYLeaders via the hashtag. You are looking for people who are responding to the program in a positive way like these tweets on this slide. I say in a “positive way” because sometimes you do get the awful troll. Here’s what to do about that…
A social media troll, by definition, “is someone who creates conflict on sites like Twitter, Facebook and Reddit by posting messages that are particularly controversial or inflammatory with the sole intent of provoking an emotional (read: angry) response from other users. These messages are often distracting and take focus away from the subject at hand, sending a rational discussion down a rabbit hole of obscenities, personal attacks and jokes about your mom.”
When you are dealing with a troll, you will find the following:
Use of foul or derogatory language. Inability to listen to reason. No personal pictures and/or no profile photo. Quickly posting or replying to messages, indicating large amounts of free time with nothing better to do than start fights on the Internet. What You Can Do?
First and foremost, ignore them. People troll for both attention and the personal satisfaction of getting a rise out of someone. However, understand that this approach can also backfire. By not feeding their attention grabbing addiction, they may get even more vulgar.
If you have to respond, kill them with kindness. Respond quickly, gracefully, and respectfully. Thank the troll for his or her opinion and move on. Hopefully they will do the same.
Let’s go over the EYLA Social Media Checklist. This can be a great guide to help you see if you’ve hit all the points you are trying to make as you tell your story. Remember, the story does not end when you leave D.C.
That’s it for the presentation. Do you have any questions?
Danielle Ricks Productions is dedicated to helping individuals and organizations tell their story via social media. Please contact us at danielle@daniellericksproductions.com if you would like help developing your social media strategy.