Alicja Dańkowska, Kalina Dobrowolska and Vedika Luthra
Our successes and challenges in creating a social
media awareness campaign
Coming up with a
social media campaign within a week sounds easy. As millennials, using sites
like Facebook and Instagram become routine, habitual. So how hard could it be
to share a couple videos, write up a few excerpts and post a few memes? Just ask
the fellows. Creating a campaign isn’t quite as easy as it appears.
For starters, where do you even begin?
Because our group was given the category of “others”, it was up to us to come
up with our own topic to explore and raise awareness towards. This proved
especially difficult given the vast range of subjects that could potentially be
chosen. In the end, we settled with people with disabilities, as we felt that a
campaign pertaining to those with disabilities would be beneficial.
Once we chose a topic, narrowing down
became the next struggle. Initially, we wanted to explore the idea of creating
a campaign that promoted equality among all individuals. Then, we thought about
promoting the idea that it is the environment that makes us disabled. However,
we struggled with the ambiguity of both concepts and, with the help of Kasia Bierzanowska
(a translator by profession and founder of Nie-Pełnoprawna, an social
initiative dedicated to advocating for rights of people with disabilities) and Magda Szarota (board member of HIA Poland
and advocate for people with disabilities), we eventually settled upon raising
awareness towards making the internet more accessible for people with visual
impairments.
This topic was narrow enough to make
several memes, posts and videos about, and we named it Internet Inclusive, so
to make the internet a place for everyone.
Creating a campaign and using social media
as somewhat of a marketing tool was difficult, in that we spent most of our
budget promoting the page all at once, when we should have been spending a
small amount each day on different posts. Furthermore, for sites like Facebook,
it is imperative to post multiple times a day, over the span of several hours.
In the beginning, we posted more frequently within a given time, which means
that Facebook may have thought we were spam. However, we quickly learned to
space out our posts.
Furthermore, when we first began, it was
difficult for us to determine what layout of graphics we should use. Several
times, we changed the format of our design, settling on a simple black and
white theme in order to make it easier for visually impaired individuals to
enjoy. In addition, because we do not have such disabilities ourselves, it was
especially difficult to try and research from the perspective of someone who
does. Therefore, we took into account feedback that we received on our page and
actively listened to others.
Considering our time frame, however, we did
fairly well, acquiring approximately 190 likes and reaching almost 6000 people.
Our hope is that the campaign has played role in making the internet more
inclusive, no matter how big or small.
Overall, creating a social media campaign
was enriching. Not only did we learn about how social media can be used as an
effective tool to spread positive messages, we also learned how difficult it
can be to start and run a campaign. For us, the key struggle was choosing a
topic. However, once we decided upon Internet Inclusive, it was not difficult
to find and come up with content. Because we knew many of the pages we
challenged, this too, did not prove to be too difficult. Furthermore, we worked
incredibly well together, listening to each member’s input and coming up with
compromises when necessary. What was difficult was the marketing angle -
posting often and at the right time. Creating “viral content” is never easy,
which is why it was challenging to obtain 200 or more likes in the given time
frame.
Furthermore, creating a campaign
was a learning experience for us. After starting our Facebook page, we decided
to change the layout of our graphics in order to make it more visible for
people with sight impairments, as we found that our original graphics may not
have been friendly for people with visual disabilities. Also, we fixed the
descriptions of our graphics after one person had written us a message with
some recommendations about how to improve the quality of our initiative.
Regarding the organizations
we’ve challenged, none of them rejected but we still haven’t come up with
effective ways of encouraging our existing partners to keep the job done - and
the potential ones to accept our challenge. Overall, we perceive our campaign
to be fairly successful, although not all goals have been fully reached.
In
the process, we have learned a few key lessons:
1)
Always ask for feedback - do it on every stage of a project, try to consult it
with as many various people as possible,
2)
Do not be afraid of deleting all your previous work and starting all over again
with a fresh idea - even if it happens just before the deadline of submitting a
subject,
3)
Reach out to many organizations and people interested in your topic in order to
spread the news about your initiative,
4)
Stay open to new ideas coming along an implementation process, learn through
experiments and have fun!
Link to Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/InternetInclusive/
Link to videos on YouTube channel:
Link to Website:
http://internetinclusive.weebly.com
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