How can we best use social media to meet the objectives of the European Year for Development

The workshop on the role of social media at the EYD2015 stakeholder meeting on the 19th of June put forward interesting suggestions on how we can make the best out of social media. 

The participants, most of them communications experts working for EU institutions, Member State governments and development agencies, as well as for CSOs  and the private sector, tackled the following questions:

• How can we better use social media to reach young people?
• What development themes and subjects are particularly suitable for social media use?
• More than a “like”. How to build a two-way conversation using social media?

They put forward the below recommendations:

On content

• Keep in mind the target audience(s): short attention span, low tolerance for jargon; levels of prior knowledge, interest and support for EU development cooperation may vary among different sub-groups; 
• Track hashtags on social media to have constant feedback during EYD2015 and adjust efforts as needed
• Do not preach to the converted, but try to inform/raise awareness among EU citizens  not yet familiar with development policy goals, challenges, impact, explaining why EU citizens should care and how they can make a difference 
• Focus on a small number of key messages that are brief, simple and expressed in lay terms, which the EYD2015 stakeholders can adapt as suitable to them and integrate in own communication activities
• Keep content short and simple:  no EU jargon, no development jargon, no long articles, no long videos; avoid branding content as  belonging to any specific institution
• Provide content and hooks with which the general public can empathise and which incites curiosity (for example provocative questions, storytelling);
• Use storytelling to put statistics into perspective and to provide context; enhance content with audio-visual material (Storify could be useful)
• Keep it positive, for example by first highlighting what success looks like /can look like, with examples, then explain challenges/elements of complexity and call for action/critical thinking. Communicate what needs to be done as much as what has already been accomplished.
• Make content relevant to citizens, for example by highlighting the connection between people in developing countries and EU citizens in the interdependent global world. 
• Illustrate through stories, infographs, audio-visual content and other creative materials why citizens/youth should care about development cooperation;  focus on explaining how development cooperation benefits/affects us all; combat stereotypes about development cooperation.
•  Highlight the contribution of local EU communities towards development goals
• Interactivity: Do not simply inform, offer target audience an opportunity to engage  through social media and act. For ex explain what citizens/the youth can do to be a part of development policy and management (e.g. petitioning their MEPs, volunteering, spreading specific messages through social media and their networks etc).
• Good audio-visual material, interactivity and an emotional approach can sell almost any topic
• Do not use stereotypical types of stories, but humorous, provocative, emotional exciting material
• Capitalise on existing volunteering activities and ask participants to communicate back on their experiences (Reward best submissions!)

On channels of engagement

• Focus on mainstream platforms ( Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Storify) but use as many social media as possible and define clear purposes and objectives for each mainstream platform
• Complement social media outreach with engagement via other channels of communication (radio, TV, print media etc) and via real networks (for example reach out to the youth  via student associations and university networks/platforms as well as via social media)

On strategy:  

• Support synergies between EuropeAid EYD2015 communication efforts and exsting partner communication activities. Stakeholders would be willing to voluntarily align their social media activities with EYD efforts at least on an ad-hoc basis. To tap into this possibility,  stakeholders would need guidance on the following:
  • the target audience
  • overarching goals and tangible  objectives for the social media engagement
  •  indicators for success to measure communication activities against objectives
  •  core messages, but leave creative freedom for stakeholders
  •  channels and platforms to focus on
  •  specific  facebook and twitter accounts to link to
  • list of suggested hash tags and suggested tweets
• Engage stakeholders and citizens by inviting THEM to create content and post it on social media and the EYD2015 site 
• Keep in mind that NGOs and national-level opinion leaders such as popular bloggers can act as multipliers for awareness raising efforts by tagging and re-posting content shared by official EYD channels and MS
• EU delegations can play an important role in the EYD2015 by extending the social media outreach beyond Europe (90 out of 150 are using social media)
• Keep in mind that social media is most effective in reaching a broad audience, while events can help engage with development policy experts and practitioners
• Focus on two way partnerships to tap into the resources of organisations that already have significant audiences engaged
• Give stakeholders the possibility to contribute/share projects and stories via the EYD website
• NGOs are willing to participate/advise the EC in informal focus group discussions on how they and the EC could work together on social media, in very concrete and practical terms