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Introduction

Social media has been changing the communications landscape and requires us to

adjust our communications products. Whereas in the past, communication was

largely a one-way street where only privileged individuals such as journalists and

institutional donors had a chance to ask questions and talk back, social media is

about engaging audiences through dialogue: Being accessible for the audience and

showing the human face of an organization are fundamental steps towards success

through social media. Achieving these goals requires a change in tonality - a

humanizing of UNICEF’s voice.

With close to 840 million users worldwide and a rapid growth rate throughout all

demographics, Facebook converted itself into the biggest player in social networking,

rapidly replacing local platforms like Orkut in Brazil or Mynet Eksenim in Turkey. At

the same time Facebook becomes more and more relevant in developing countries

reaching a 165% growth rate in Africa since July 20101 and over 3.4% of monthly

growth on the Asian market2.

Being represented on Facebook is an essential component of every modern

communication strategy. If you do it right, the platform provides you with the

opportunity to reach out to UNICEF relevant demographics in a highly cost efficient

way. However there are some basic concepts for communication through Facebook

that need to be explained in order to improve your performance.

This document will provide you with basic concepts and strategies on digital

storytelling; we will also dive deeper into detail as we explain different types of social

media posts and what they can do for you. To make sure that your posts reach the

social media sphere without any flaws, we created a checklist of points for you to

bear in mind when preparing a post.

Basic story telling strategies for Facebook

1. Focus on digital storytelling

A large part of the audience that you can reach through Twitter, Facebook, Youtube,

Google+ etc. is interested in an emotional connection with UNICEF. At the same

time many social media users are looking for a genuine, authentic voice rather than

institutional language. Therefore your social media posts should be free of jargon

and focus on the human angle. We encourage you to find interactive angles to your

content such as a question or calls to action.

1 http://www.oafrica.com/statistics/facebook-user-growth-rates-in-africa-june-2010-december-2011/

2 http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/412-asia-growth-on-facebook-asia-will-be-the-largest-facebook-

continent/

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One of the main challenges identified in a 2011 audit of UNICEF communications

products was “formulaic content reflective of a culture that does not emphasize

creative content generation and risk-taking”. At the same time, the audit highlighted

that UNICEF is in an ideal position to tell engaging stories through social media. This

means, rather than telling the story of the organization, tell the story of the people

who are UNICEF and what we do to fulfill our mandate.

Photos and videos play a particularly important role in digital storytelling: Of the 100 posts with the widest reach on UNICEF’s global Facebook page between 1 January and 15 April 2012, only one did not contain a photo or video – and that was a post about working for UNICEF. If you post links, make sure that the linked piece contains photos or videos, these will then automatically be displayed in the preview of the article on your Facebook feed.

2. Produce social media specific content

Don’t use your social media assets only to reproduce already existing content. Produce special pieces like info graphics, photos or videos taking into consideration the nature of the medium that you distribute the content on and the audiences you are directing it to.

3. Talk with your audience, not at your audience

Asking your audience to look at a photo gallery or watch a video is not enough. Rather than treating your fans and followers as passive recipients of your message, engage them by asking their opinions and feedback and respond to their questions and ideas - this also means being transparent about mistakes.

4. Don’t be boring!

There is always a temptation to post a certain amount of ‘boring content’ from a

user’s perspective, to make internal stakeholders happy. In the case of your

Facebook page, this can have serious negative consequences because the level of

user engagement such as “likes”, shares and comments has a direct impact on the

likelihood of your content being shown in your fan’s newsfeed. Users will normally

engage with your content through their newsfeed and not directly through your page.

The more users engage with your page, the more likely it is that your content is

included in their newsfeed. Or to look at it a different way: if you frequently post

content that your followers find boring, then your updates will no longer be shown in

your fan’s news feeds and your page will slowly become invisible.

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11 Types of engaging Facebook posts

1. Pictures: Pictures, images and photo albums are rather popular with the fans.

One of the top five Intel Facebook posts of 2011 wasn’t even technically a post; it

was the photo album featuring images of the new Intel museum in Santa Clara. The

post was liked over 17,000 times and with over 1,000 comments. And it isn’t the only

example.

2. Fill in the blank: Let fans share their own perspective with you. Example would

be “I love technology because _____” Again, one of the highest performing posts.

3. Questions: Asking fans to share their story or point of view is one of the most

effective ways to increase engagement on your page. Though simple, this type of

post is often overlooked by community managers. “What do you think?” “What is

your story?” etc.

4. Trivia: Your real fans as well as those who are not very well acquainted with you

would appreciate a little bit of trivia or sharing of historical company facts. Example:

“In how many countries is UNICEF active?” Make sure that you will follow up with the

correct answer.

5. Quotes: Quotes are a great way to link UNICEF to celebrities or historical figures.

The quotes don’t necessarily have to be about UNICEF and can still be connected.

Combining quotes and photos has presented itself as a successful strategy in the

past. Example: “Action expresses priorities” - Mahatma Gandhi

6. Videos: Videos are always welcomed by fans. Rich media like pictures and

videos are also one of the most shared formats on Facebook. Make sure to post

dynamic and short videos that work well with the fast paced nature of social media.

The 2 Lives: 2 Miles Apart series created by the UNICEF Social and Civic Media

section is a good example for social media apt video content.

7. Weekend wishes: Show the human side of UNICEF by wishing your fans a great

weekend and enquire about their plans.

8. Celebrate milestones and say thank you: Did you reach an important

milestone? Celebrate with the fans! When you reach a certain amount of fans, you

can celebrate with them by changing to a custom profile picture and thanking them

for being a part of your community.

9. Call to action: If you want your content shared or your posts to be liked or

commented on, ask! Simply incentivize your audience to for example “Like [or share]

this post if you want to help”. Careful: don’t overuse this resource.

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10. Use Polls: Polls are an excellent way to measure the sentiment within your

community. Use them to include your followers in the decision making process or

just to get feedback about recent projects or general topics.

10. Give insights: Offer behind the scenes videos or making of videos or posts that

will give your fans exclusive inside scoop on what’s happening within your country

and office. A very interesting option is to ask UNICEF staff in the field to document

their experiences.

Source: ClickPointChronicles

Checklist: Things to take into account when publishing on

Facebook

Make sure that you spell names correctly. Wikipedia is a great source to

check spellings. We suggest using the name of the person as known by the

general public (i.e. Pelé instead of Edson Arantes do Nascimento in the case

of the famous Brazilian football player).

News from external sources has to be cross checked with three reliable

and credible sources.

Make sure to use short links through the website http://bitly.com/.

When referring to a person or organization with a Facebook profile/page, try

always to link their profile using @Nameofperson. Your post will then be

displayed on their profile and read by their followers. Note: links are not

automatically displayed, once you start typing the name of the person that

you want to link, a drop down menu shows up. Use this menu to choose the

appropriate link. Often you will have to ‘like’ a page or profile first before

being able to link it. Should you not be able to link the page properly, we

recommend that you use the website http://mention.spreadlab.com/. You will

find a comprehensive tutorial on how to link profiles on the site.

Always make sure that links work properly opening them in a new browser

window.

Make sure to remove the link from the body of the post, once the automatic

preview is displayed by Facebook.

If you want to edit the preview, you can double click on title or text and

modify it.

Unless otherwise indicated, ALL photos must come from the UNICEF photo

library or must be published under Creative Commons license.

When using a photo from UNICEF’s photo library remember to ALWAYS

include the credits as established in the photo guidelines. Example:

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-2077/Marco Dormino

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Haiti, 2011

For more information visit: http://uni.cf/ypeMrE

Photos under creative commons license have to be credited according to

the specific creative commons agreement. For more information visit:

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

Examples from the global UNICEF Facebook page (01 Jan

– 15 April 2012):

Clicks: 17,433 / Talking about this: 3,643 Why it works: Cute photo; Goodwill Ambassador with

global fan base

Clicks: 14,002 / Talking about this: 4,827 Why it works: Photo that makes viewers curious;

Facebook fans were asked to share the image

Clicks: 11,198 / Talking about this: 2,309 Why it works: Direct engagement of Facebook fans

Clicks: 9,070 / Talking about this: 2,434 Why it works: Cute image, direct engagement of fans

Clicks: 9,470 / Talking about this: 2,212 Why it works: Unusual photo (black and white); direct

engagement of Facebook fans

Clicks: 5,052 / Talking about this: 3,015 Why it works: Video-thumbnail that makes people

curious.

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Clicks: 3,579 / Talking about this: 2,610 Why it works: Video about children directly affected

by the disaster. Note that 73 % of the people who clicked on the post started talking about it.

Clicks: 3,553 / Talking about this: 2,386 Why it works: Video about children directly affected

by the disaster. Note that 67 % of the people who clicked on the post started talking about it.