From becoming more multilingual to hiring dedicated staff, our panel offers 14 ways to make social media work for development
**Dustin Andres, social communications specialist, **TechLab at FHI 360**, an NGO in Washington, DC. **@ICTforAg**
*Adopt a 'mobile first' approach:* Producing responsive and specifically tailored content designed for the mobile phone, taking into account smaller screen sizes and short user attention spans, is bypassing "web first" as a development outreach priority.
*Flexibility is key:* The typical three- to five-year project communications strategy doesn't work in today's social media environment. The fast pace of change on social platforms, applications and user behaviour requires new tactics, strategies and platforms.
*Don't ignore gender barriers*: We know that there are gender disparities in access to income-generating activities and new technologies. Social media is no exception: in sub-Saharan Africa, 45% fewer women than men have access to the internet. We need strategies to engage specifically with women.
**Silke von Brockhausen, social media specialist, **United Nations Development Programme** New York, US. **@svbroc**
*Bring together all development actors*: Social media represents a shift in power from traditional top-down media to the individual. Anybody in the world (given access to the technology and literacy) can potentially make their voices heard, form online communities that can translate their power to offline action. This is a great opportunity for the development community to get feedback for projects, collaborate better but also advocate better for its causes by showing the human side of development – from the people that receive aid to the development professionals.
*Expand multilingual networks*: The limitations to the use of social networks don't stop at access to the technology or lack of literacy. To be able to communicate with all development partners, it's crucial for organisations to expand their multilingual social networks by providing information in languages other than their own.
*Resource:*
Social media helps us open our events and communicate our messages worldwide while engaging with those interested in development. Our key lectures, panels and events are live streamed on www.undp.org/live and live tweeted on @undplive.
**David Girling, lecturer, School of international development, **University of East Anglia**, Norwich, UK. **@socialmedia4D**
*Hire dedicated staff*: Social media responsibilities in non-governmental organisations often fall onto interns or junior staff with little expertise in the area. Chief executives must invest in social media properly by hiring specialist and dedicated staff.
*Resource*:
The World Bank has released an interesting report on maximising mobile technology
**Ruth Aine Tindyebwa, **freelance journalist and blogger**, Kampala, Uganda. **@ruthaine*
*
*Use social media to engage citizens in policies that affect them*: The minister of health and the prime minister in Rwanda hold 'Tweetups', and answer people's questions and queries via Twitter and Facebook. This means a lot to young people who feel they haven't had much stake in society.
*Social media can't solve everything*: While social media can improve development programmes, it's important to acknowledge that not all challenges can be tackled with social media. For some initiatives, social media may not be the answer.
**Rebecca Shore, communications specialist, **Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs**, Baltimore, US. **@Rebecca_Shore** * *
*Measure your impact*: The best uses of social media down the road will be the ones that have actual impact. Measuring that impact has to go beyond counting re-tweets and clicks to finding out how the information was used. The problem with these large advocacy campaigns is that our audience is infinite and measurement is often difficult and/or expensive. One way to measure impact is to use a call to action. Ask your audience why they are passionate or make a quiz or sign-up form. Taking the ask offline is often a really great way to see if people are actually listening to your message.
*Resource:*
To engage more in the debate about social media and global development, sign-up to the Social Media for Global Health knowledge gateway.
**Mike Lee, **Mike Lee Storytelling**, London, UK. **@mikeleenews*
*
*Make videos count*: Many non-profit and development videos are excellent at laying out the facts about development or a not-for profit mission. But several critical things are usually missing. Videos often lack coherent story structures, and don't give viewers compelling reasons to engage in the campaigns. Simply telling audiences that you have a great idea, or that helping your project is the right or sensible or economically responsible thing to do is no longer enough. You are competing within a social medium where audiences expect you to give them value, before they give something to you.
*Resources*:
Serial Storytelling is a serious new approach to social media. It is real-life stories, told in gripping video episodes, containing viral triggers that tempt social media audiences to keep returning to your website to find out what happens in each episode. A curious and devoted "repeat audience" increases your odds for more clients, more donations or more openness to development projects.
**Rachel Collinson, director of knowledge sharing and innovation, **Engaging Networks**, London, UK. **@rachel_shares** **
*Play the long game with technology and partnerships*: It's easy to get sidetracked by technological trends, but it's important to focus on technologies that allow you to build long-term, personal relationships with people. This means investing in technologies that allow you to tell great stories without hindrance, test and measure the response and own your data. For some, this will mean forming partnerships with technology experts who can learn your needs and recommend the priorities and methods that would meet them.
*Watch, listen and respond to your audience*: The roots of successful social media use will always remain the same: watching, listening and responding to your audience with stories that resonate. If you can develop a quick way to test whether something works for you, you can drop the stuff that's flash-in-the-pan and get first-mover advantage on the progress that lasts.
*Resource*:
Some Wazimba Youth in Kenya hacked Bluetooth to create an ad hoc social media network among young people with phones. For more, see this video.
**Anne Jellema, chief executive officer, **World Wide Web Foundation**, Cape Town, South Africa. **@afjellema*
*
*Journalists should be trained in social media*: Training professional journalists to use information and communication technologies, including social media, will help them do their jobs better. The African media initiative, for example, is working with established media outlets to improve journalists' ability to report on issues of critical public interest via different platforms.
*Develop more voice-based apps*: Not everyone is functionally literate enough to be comfortable using text-based platforms. Among rural women and minority language speakers, the percentage of mobile phone users who send and read SMS messages can be as low as 10%. But when my organisation tested voice-based platforms that allow people to interact with one another on the web through a simple voice call, we found a high interest in getting information and posting views in this way.
*Resource:*
Unicef's uReport project in Uganda has built a community of almost 90,000 youths using SMS to inform other Ugandans and take action on issues of shared concern.
*This content is brought to you by **Guardian Professional**. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up free to become a member of the **Global Development Professionals Network* Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
**Dustin Andres, social communications specialist, **TechLab at FHI 360**, an NGO in Washington, DC. **@ICTforAg**
*Adopt a 'mobile first' approach:* Producing responsive and specifically tailored content designed for the mobile phone, taking into account smaller screen sizes and short user attention spans, is bypassing "web first" as a development outreach priority.
*Flexibility is key:* The typical three- to five-year project communications strategy doesn't work in today's social media environment. The fast pace of change on social platforms, applications and user behaviour requires new tactics, strategies and platforms.
*Don't ignore gender barriers*: We know that there are gender disparities in access to income-generating activities and new technologies. Social media is no exception: in sub-Saharan Africa, 45% fewer women than men have access to the internet. We need strategies to engage specifically with women.
**Silke von Brockhausen, social media specialist, **United Nations Development Programme** New York, US. **@svbroc**
*Bring together all development actors*: Social media represents a shift in power from traditional top-down media to the individual. Anybody in the world (given access to the technology and literacy) can potentially make their voices heard, form online communities that can translate their power to offline action. This is a great opportunity for the development community to get feedback for projects, collaborate better but also advocate better for its causes by showing the human side of development – from the people that receive aid to the development professionals.
*Expand multilingual networks*: The limitations to the use of social networks don't stop at access to the technology or lack of literacy. To be able to communicate with all development partners, it's crucial for organisations to expand their multilingual social networks by providing information in languages other than their own.
*Resource:*
Social media helps us open our events and communicate our messages worldwide while engaging with those interested in development. Our key lectures, panels and events are live streamed on www.undp.org/live and live tweeted on @undplive.
**David Girling, lecturer, School of international development, **University of East Anglia**, Norwich, UK. **@socialmedia4D**
*Hire dedicated staff*: Social media responsibilities in non-governmental organisations often fall onto interns or junior staff with little expertise in the area. Chief executives must invest in social media properly by hiring specialist and dedicated staff.
*Resource*:
The World Bank has released an interesting report on maximising mobile technology
**Ruth Aine Tindyebwa, **freelance journalist and blogger**, Kampala, Uganda. **@ruthaine*
*
*Use social media to engage citizens in policies that affect them*: The minister of health and the prime minister in Rwanda hold 'Tweetups', and answer people's questions and queries via Twitter and Facebook. This means a lot to young people who feel they haven't had much stake in society.
*Social media can't solve everything*: While social media can improve development programmes, it's important to acknowledge that not all challenges can be tackled with social media. For some initiatives, social media may not be the answer.
**Rebecca Shore, communications specialist, **Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs**, Baltimore, US. **@Rebecca_Shore** * *
*Measure your impact*: The best uses of social media down the road will be the ones that have actual impact. Measuring that impact has to go beyond counting re-tweets and clicks to finding out how the information was used. The problem with these large advocacy campaigns is that our audience is infinite and measurement is often difficult and/or expensive. One way to measure impact is to use a call to action. Ask your audience why they are passionate or make a quiz or sign-up form. Taking the ask offline is often a really great way to see if people are actually listening to your message.
*Resource:*
To engage more in the debate about social media and global development, sign-up to the Social Media for Global Health knowledge gateway.
**Mike Lee, **Mike Lee Storytelling**, London, UK. **@mikeleenews*
*
*Make videos count*: Many non-profit and development videos are excellent at laying out the facts about development or a not-for profit mission. But several critical things are usually missing. Videos often lack coherent story structures, and don't give viewers compelling reasons to engage in the campaigns. Simply telling audiences that you have a great idea, or that helping your project is the right or sensible or economically responsible thing to do is no longer enough. You are competing within a social medium where audiences expect you to give them value, before they give something to you.
*Resources*:
Serial Storytelling is a serious new approach to social media. It is real-life stories, told in gripping video episodes, containing viral triggers that tempt social media audiences to keep returning to your website to find out what happens in each episode. A curious and devoted "repeat audience" increases your odds for more clients, more donations or more openness to development projects.
**Rachel Collinson, director of knowledge sharing and innovation, **Engaging Networks**, London, UK. **@rachel_shares** **
*Play the long game with technology and partnerships*: It's easy to get sidetracked by technological trends, but it's important to focus on technologies that allow you to build long-term, personal relationships with people. This means investing in technologies that allow you to tell great stories without hindrance, test and measure the response and own your data. For some, this will mean forming partnerships with technology experts who can learn your needs and recommend the priorities and methods that would meet them.
*Watch, listen and respond to your audience*: The roots of successful social media use will always remain the same: watching, listening and responding to your audience with stories that resonate. If you can develop a quick way to test whether something works for you, you can drop the stuff that's flash-in-the-pan and get first-mover advantage on the progress that lasts.
*Resource*:
Some Wazimba Youth in Kenya hacked Bluetooth to create an ad hoc social media network among young people with phones. For more, see this video.
**Anne Jellema, chief executive officer, **World Wide Web Foundation**, Cape Town, South Africa. **@afjellema*
*
*Journalists should be trained in social media*: Training professional journalists to use information and communication technologies, including social media, will help them do their jobs better. The African media initiative, for example, is working with established media outlets to improve journalists' ability to report on issues of critical public interest via different platforms.
*Develop more voice-based apps*: Not everyone is functionally literate enough to be comfortable using text-based platforms. Among rural women and minority language speakers, the percentage of mobile phone users who send and read SMS messages can be as low as 10%. But when my organisation tested voice-based platforms that allow people to interact with one another on the web through a simple voice call, we found a high interest in getting information and posting views in this way.
*Resource:*
Unicef's uReport project in Uganda has built a community of almost 90,000 youths using SMS to inform other Ugandans and take action on issues of shared concern.
*This content is brought to you by **Guardian Professional**. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up free to become a member of the **Global Development Professionals Network* Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.