02/08/2013
Peter Casier - AASW Social Media Coordinator
The Social Media Outreach objectives and KPI’s
The overall objectives were:
AWARENESS: Raise awareness of the AASW6 conference causes, discussions and outcomes, and document the conference.
INCLUSION: Allow stakeholders not physically present at AASW6 to virtually participate in the event and discussions, give immediate and real-time feedback
CAPACITY BUILDING: Expand the FARA social media footprint as well as empower/build capacity amongst the social reporters, in the use of social media as a social reporting and advocacy tool.
..with as measurable Key Performance Indicators:
The Key Performance Indicators for a successful AASW Social Media effort:
- Number of online webcast viewers, amount of online discussions/feedback thru the webcast page
- Amount, quality and breadth of online and social media coverage and social media content pieces produced.
- Number of interactions (discussions, feedback, comments, replies/reposts) on the social media content pieces
- Amount of online publications (external to FARA) covering AASW6 (e.g. news-sites, online magazines, blogs, other websites)
- Number of onsite social reporters, number of people in the support team, number of people outside of AASW/FARA in the social media team, diversity of team members (nationality, gender, national organisations,...)
- Number of social media trainees, level of output from the trainees, and (post-event) level of satisfaction from the trainees
- Growth in FARA Twitter and Facebook followers (specifically from our defined target audience)
- Amount of Twitter broadcasts with the #AASW6 tag, amount of Twitter replies and mentions
- Number of hits on AASW6 website, the AASW6 blog, and amount of downloads of identified core content pieces.
- Longer term take-up of social media within FARA
- Take-up of social media approach into formulation of AASW7 and adoption, into practice, with trained social media trainees by stakeholder groups
Approach
To reach the set objectives, the social media team worked closely with YPARD, CGIAR, CTA and GFAR in engaging young professionals as well as more seasoned communications specialists. We solicited their participation in the social media team as either sponsored trainees, onsite/offsite social reporters or as part of the virtual support team.
The social media support group grew to 172 social reporters from 41 countries:
- 20 onsite social reporting trainees
- 35 onsite social reporters (outside of the trainees group)
- 117 offsite social reporters and supporters
Details can be found here.
During the preparation of the conference, the team worked together virtually on a number of initiatives:
a. to get to know each other,
b. to understand the tools and working environment,
c. to grasp the content of the conference,
d. to divide tasks and responsibilities, and prepare for them, and,
e. start with the actual social media outreach well in advance, by generating blogposts as well as Facebook and Twitter traffic
The team communicated via the online discussion forum, their collaborative repository on Google Sites as well as their internal Facebook group. The internal discussions and preparations amongst the team members started on June 1.
The dynamic within the team was kickstart-ed by the YPARD members, most of which were also part of the GCARD2 social media group. Within a week, most of the larger social reporting support team engaged in the discussions and preparations. The active moderation of our internal discussions, and the feeling of “participation” in the conference content and process, made the social reporting team achieve more than its initial objectives.
Generated content, and its reach:
1. AASW6 Blog: http://aasw6.wordpress.com/
The AASW6 blog was set up from scratch, early June 2013. All trainees received a “contributor” profile so they could upload their own posts. A blog coordinator proofread all blogposts before release.
To date, the team published 170 blogposts, mostly original content, written by the social reporters.
From June 1 to July 25, the blog was visited 15,148 times from 164 countries (4 from the top 10 countries, are in Africa)
During this period, the blog received 405 comments. Blogposts were reposted about 300 times, on 30 other blogs, showing a very active engagement from the community.
The blog now has 141 subscribers to the Email updates
2. The AASW6 website: http://www.fara-africa.org/scienceweek/
From May 1 to July 25 the AASW website was visited by 16,695 different people, who read 23,323 pages.
3. Twitter: http://twitter.com/FARAinfo
As of June 1, we actively tweeted all social media content we generated (blogposts, videos, podcasts, press clips, presentations, photosets etc..).
During AASW6, we also live-tweeted all sessions.
During the period July 7-21, we sent out 11,523 Twitter updates with the conference tag #AASW6, reaching a total of 1.4 million people. The Twitter updates were sent by a total of 1,165 different contributors.
About half of the #AASW6 tweets were re-tweets by others, showing an active engagement by the Twitter community.
On the peak day, July 18, we sent 2,221 tweets, reaching 416,000 individual people through Twitter.
We also actively increased the amount of people who followed the @FARAInfo twitter account, from 503 (May 17) to 1,085 (July 25). This will give FARA a larger audience in the future.
4. Facebook http://www.facebook.com/FARAinfo
In the period June 1 to July 25, we posted 1,485 updates on Facebook: blogposts, videos, podcasts, press clips and input documents etc..
The Facebook updates were read 24,549 times from the FARA page, and 80,000 times from other pages. Links were clicked 1,441 times via the FARA page, and shared/liked/commented 819 times.
In the same period, we also actively increased the amount of people who “like” the FARA Facebook page, from 241 (May 17) to 528 (July 25). Once again, this will give FARA a larger audience in the future.
5. Webcast: (online via the FARA website)
The webcast was viewed 556 times by a total of 386 individual people.
Each “visitor” watched the webcast for a minimum of 5 minutes.
Due to connectivity issues, the webcast was difficult to follow remotely, which significantly reduced the reach amongst the online audience
6. Videos: (via the CCAFS YouTube channel)
There was no social reporting trainee with video equipment; all AASW interviews were done by a CGIAR social reporter. A total of 55 videos were produced of which 35 are already uploaded.
The AASW videos were viewed 1,121 times to date.
C.7 Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/FARA-AFRICA/
108 presentations were uploaded to Slideshare.
7. Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/groups/AASW6/pool/
193 pictures were uploaded during the conference, contributed by 26 people.
8. Podcasts: http://fara.podomatic.com
15 podcast interviews were uploaded.
A new LinkedIn group was created, on which we posted around 200 updates (blogposts and other social media updates). The group now has 113 members.
Social media and online media uptake:
One of the goals was to encourage people to write about AASW/FARA on their own blogs and online media. We kept track of these via Delicious
In total 240 AASW articles were published on other blogs and online media. Another 300 articles were cross-posted. This, by itself, is a significant indicator of the “uptake” of the event.
Mainstream media articles:
The social media team also kept track of the mainstream media articles via Delicious.
Up to date, 58 press articles were collected.
Concluding:
The AASW6 social media outreach was a success; both in the record number of people actively involved onsite and remotely, as well as in the actual amount of content pieces generated and the amount of people reached and engaging in the conference.
This effort also gives FARA the foundations for a larger footprint for future outreach campaigns.
This effort also gives FARA the foundations for a larger footprint for future outreach campaigns.
FARA is encouraged to continue re-purposing the generated content in the months to come by e.g. publishing blogposts about the individual videos, presentations and podcasts which were generated during the conference, and spreading these via their Twitter and Facebook accounts.
A word of thanks:
The success of the social media outreach was possible through the engagement and logistics support from the FARA staff, the sponsoring by CTA, the active involvement of YPARD, the momentum built already during GCARD2, and the practical support from CGIAR staff, CRPs and centers. Our heartfelt thanks to you all!
Photo credit: YPARD