I conducted my interview with a friend of mine, Jenny Bell, who is a professional “Mommy Blogger”. My first question was why she didn’t use her name, or her children’s names on the blog. Her answer was that it was a safety precaution. She didn’t want a stalker or some harmful person to have that personal information. What’s on the internet is for everyone to see. I found out that she is not just a blogger on a website, but she also maintains a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Her work is consistent through all her social media channels, meaning that her content is only about her “mom” status. Every social media platform is different in terms of what specific content is posted. Twitter has either quick facts or retweets from other mommy bloggers, Facebook has medium-length stories of her daily life or links to articles, and Instagram usually features a “mommy of the week” and some quick tips. We talked about the importance of hashtags with her social media. She said that hashtags brought in a lot of followers (for example, a woman was searching for #ClothDiapers and the post about cloth diapers from the mommy blog would show up). In a basic overview, she said that knowing your audience is the most important thing and how to maintain that audience is key to success.

I would like to create a strategy for the American Diabetes Association. I interned with the ADA in the summer and fall semesters and I remember social media being a weak spot for the organization. They post regularly (once a week- every other week), but the material they are posting is not gaining any traction. I think they can benefit from a campaign and the use of hashtags. Right now, the ADA only has a Facebook, but I think they can benefit from an Instagram and/or Twitter account to reach younger audiences.

Project Proposal and Interview Summary

Brand/Persona Analysis

The American Diabetes Association Western PA chapter only has a website and Facebook as their social media. Their Facebook page is updated on average every 2-3 days. Since the organization does not currently have any events coming up, most of the content posted on social media is informational about diet and exercise while managing diabetes. The organization does have a brand new event coming in the fall, it’s a combination of a walking, running, and biking. The event is called the Tour de Cure. I only saw one post about the Tour, but the organization should definitely be posting about it more. The Tour is a combination of all of their large fundraising events, therefore, this one event needs to bring in a large profit. Awareness and understanding of the new event is necessary for people to fundraise and attend.

November was national diabetes month. There was a lack of Facebook posts during November. The ADA launched a campaign called “Dear Diabetes” which encouraged anyone to write a letter to diabetes. The Western PA ADA only posted about the campaign once and did not provide any examples of what this letter could look like. It lacked in information and delivery and the campaign did not take off well because of that.

The Facebook posts do not get a lot of likes. 974 people like the Facebook page, and 952 people follow the page. The rating for the organization is 4.4/5, which isn’t bad. However, the posts typically get between 0-5 likes, which could mean that the content isn’t good and the information is not being shared by the followers.

The American Diabetes Association’s brand is informational, helpful, nutritional, healthy, lively, motivational, encouraging, and positive. Their brand voice is professional; probably too professional for social media, meaning that their tone isn’t conversational. Visually, they use a lot of images of families or diabetes supplies. The brand on social media is one sided, they don’t post content that invites others to want to share their thoughts or ideas.

Competitor Analysis

The main competitor of the American Diabetes Association is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). JDRF provides resources and research for juveniles, typically who are affected by Type 1 Diabetes, compared to the American Diabetes Association who benefits all types of diabetes and all ages.

JDRF only has a Facebook page, like the American Diabetes Association. Their rating on Facebook is a 4.7/5. 1,949 people like the Facebook page and 1,875 people follow the page. On average, JDRF is posting every 2-3 days. The average likes on the posts is between 1-6, with a few posts reaching 15 likes. This is slightly higher than the average likes for the American Diabetes Association.

JDRF’s posts are a lot more personal than the American Diabetes Association. JDRF posts pictures of their participants and employees. They share stories of their survivors which provides a sense of community. JDRF also posts a lot about their upcoming events. They promote events, encourage people to volunteer, and send out a thank you message after events. Throughout the promotional time of events, JDRF posts congratulatory posts for teams that raise a significant amount of money.

JDRF did post some research articles about the advancement in Type 1 diabetes management. In November, there wasn’t any mention of national diabetes month, but they did post extra stories of their survivors.

The JDRF brand is young, lively, current, educational, helpful, healthy, positive, encouraging, and personal. The voice of the brand is conversational. JDRF has a conversational tone in their posts and make their content personal by adding pictures and stories about the people directly associated with that chapter of the organization.

Content Examples

For a second example, I also picked a post from the JDRF Facebook page. I think that this is an example of good content because it is a personal post. One of the people that JDRF serves wanted to share their story about how they overcome diabetes and this helps to build a sense of community and understanding. With organizations that deal with health-related issues, it’s important to be sensitive and create a community in which people who are affected feel as if they aren’t alone.

For the first example, I chose a post from the JDRF Facebook page. I think that this is good content because it shows how appreciative JDRF is for their participants to be fundraising. Nonprofits are run by fundraising, so it is important to make sure people are helping raise money for events. This post is good content because JDRF took the time to appreciate the people who took time out of their day to support and raise awareness for the organization and its upcoming event.

For my last example, I chose a Facebook post from my favorite company, Top Hat (a marketing consulting group based in Pittsburgh). While the brand of Top Hat is very transparent and blunt, there is a lesson to be taken from their content. They introduced a new member of their group to their community. In today’s society, people respond better when they know who is working in a company. This works as an employee spotlight, just some quick personal facts about who is working with the organization. It helps to build a community and sense of belonging because you feel like you know the employee.

Social Media Policy

This social media policy is for all employees of the American Diabetes Association to use on all social media platforms. These platforms will include a website, Facebook page, Instagram, and Twitter. The material to be published on the social media platforms include, but are not limited to, newsletters, posters, posts, tweets, and other promotional material.

The American Diabetes Association is:

funny but not insensitive/rude
educational but not “know-it-all”
helpful but not overbearing
in need but not needy
evolving but not different/new
fun but not unprofessional

Principles:

Be personable/conversational
Be friendly
Be informational, but not forceful of information and activism
Understand that some of your followers do not understand medical terminology. What does the information mean for their loved ones and for the organization?

Voice and tone:

Speak as a young adult (around 25-30 years) and be knowledgeable of diabetes.
Be knowledgeable of the disease and is determined to find a cure for diabetes.
Believe in education and exposure of the cause.

Grammar:

grammar should be correct and a relaxed-professional style (think of a business casual email).
Abbreviations should not be used (for example, “thank you” versus “ty”).
Contractions are acceptable as long as it flows with the sentence.
Hashtags will be used for promotions of events and campaigns.
Do not use hashtags with every post.

Social media accounts:

Primary: Facebook

Secondary: Instagram and Twitter

Tertiary: Website

Web Style:

Keep formatting simple and easy to read
- Do not use fonts that are confusing and difficult to read
- Keep colors consistent with the brand colors (Red, white, black, grey)
- Highlight key points (such as statistic numbers) with bold font or underlining

Goals/Outcomes & Alignment with Business Goals

My goal is to increase engagement and response to the American Diabetes Association’s Facebook account as well as establishing an Instagram and Twitter account. I would like to focus on increasing followers, likes, and shares on Facebook since it is the main social media platform that the ADA has and functions best for nonprofits. The number of followers will be measured biweekly and likes and shares will be measured monthly.

Helpful aids to achieve followers, likes, and shares:

Post surveys and polls that relate to the organization and upcoming events
Post giveaways as encouragement to participate on social media
Post about every 3 days

I will be focusing on engagement and reach to determine if these efforts are successful. The purpose of surveys and polls will be used to better understand what the target market will respond to and how to gear content towards them. This style guide should be updated frequently, changing with the audience’s needs and wants.

Strategy Distribution Plan/ Timeline

My strategy for the American Diabetes Association is geared to optimize follower exposure to the brand and opportunities to volunteer and fundraise with the organization, as well as reach a new and younger demographic. For example, Facebook does not have a character count and allows different media forms such as photos and videos, therefore, longer texts can be shared on the platform in various different forms. These posts can be in great detail and include a visual aid. The use of Twitter is to reach a younger demographic that is new to the American Diabetes Association. The content will be short (due to the character count on the website) and be informative.

Facebook:

Time of posts: On average 3 times a week. The only exception to post more will be the month(s)/week(s) of or leading up to an event. This will increase to aid viewers in remembering to fundraise and register for the event.

Content of posts: One post (minimum) per week about recent research or advances in the organization. Two posts (one post minimum) per week about upcoming fundraisers/events or tips how to fundraise

Twitter:

Time of posts: 1-2 times a week.

Content of posts: pull content from one of the weekly Facebook posts, narrow down the content to a sentence or two, try to include a link for more information.

This plan will help meet my goals by not being overbearing with the current posting system on Facebook. As of now, the American Diabetes Association posts every other day on Facebook. This can cause content to be overlooked (causing viewers to go “blind” from overexposure) and lost in our viewers timelines. This strategy, in terms of just Facebook, will weed out unnecessary content and push the organization to share the most important information. With Twitter, it will reflect what is seen on Facebook, but will reach a younger audience. The short post style and limited post time will not be overbearing and will hopefully gain more attention to what is most important to the organization that week.

Measurement Plan

The way I will measure the success of the strategy distribution plan will be through likes, shares/retweets, and increased participation at events. We will be looking at the number of likes, and shares/retweets to see if the posts are considered “good content” by our followers. If the numbers are higher than they are right now, then I estimate an increase in event participation and donations, which is the overall goal for the organization.

Likes: currently the ADA does not receive more than 5 likes on a Facebook post. More often, the Facebook posts receive between 1-3 likes each. This number is significantly low and is hurting the reputation of the organization. It is possible that the frequency of current posts is causing the likes to be so low. This is why I have chosen to make the decision to decrease the amount of posts per week. This will not allow our viewers to become “blind” to our content, meaning they just skip over our posts because they see the name too much. I hope to see a 25% increase in likes within the first month of implementing this strategy distribution plan. The likes on the posts will tell us that the content is interesting, informative, and viewers are reading about the organization.

Shares: the ADA currently does not receive more than 5 shares on their Facebook posts. I want to use shares because when someone shares a post, the content is shared with that person’s network. This will increase the public’s exposure to the organization and help spread the word about upcoming fundraising events. I hope to see a 25% increase in shares within the first month of using the new strategy distribution plan. Increasing shares will hopefully increase attendance at fundraisers and bring in more donations. The same concept applies to retweets on Twitter.