Evaluation

This blog analyses how UNICEF uses social media to communicate to its users.

UNICEF is a non-profit organisation that protects children rights. It was established by the United Nations in 1946 to provide help and support for children affected by World War II (Grimsley, no date). According to UNICEF their mission is “to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential” (UNICEF, 2003:online).

Blog entries observes different types of UNICEF Facebook posts, how effective they are, what strategies does organisation use to engage with their audience and how successful it is, posts that get higher and lower engagement are compared. Different themes are identified within blog entries and each of their performances are evaluated.

UNICEF as non-profit organisation has high reputation as they received the highest ratings of 97/100 for accountability and transparency from Charity Navigator (Charity Navigator, 2019). UNICEF have five core values that are: care, respect, integrity, trust and accountability (UNICEF, no date), and these values are clearly reflected in their social media posts. UNICEF is very active in different social media platforms and is one of the most successful organisations on social media. In 2016 its’ global Facebook page became the largest non-profit entity (UNICEF, 2017).

This blog analyses UNICEF’s Facebook account because it is the biggest social networking platform with almost 2.5 billion monthly active users as of 2019 (Statista, 2020), UNICEF actively uses it and out of other social media platforms it has the most followers on Facebook. This organisation has 12,5 million very international and supportive followers on Fscebook.

There are a few intended audiences that includes governments, local authorities, donors, international organisations and institutions, however they also seek to engage more with millennials (15-34 years old) who are supposed to hold continuous support for UNICEF and middle class that consists of educated, socially conscious people who have the opportunity to become a supporter\donor (Orlov, 2017). By looking at the comment section in UNICEF’s Facebook platform communication between the organisation and its’ followers is minimal, as UNICEF rarely replies to comments and does not invite its’ followers for discussions, but sometimes they respond to comments that affect community or question organisations initiatives, UNICEF provides them with more information about the project that person is concerned about. Comparing most of UNICEF’s comments, it can be seen that they always prioritise responding to positive comments by appreciating positive feedback and encouraging people to support.

It is understandable that UNICEF does not interact with its audience as much. Most of such big, international organisations do not interact with their followers due to the reputational risks, loss of control, limited time, resources and lack of knowledge (Kalsnes, 2016). UNICEF’s tone of voice is inspiring and strengthening the emotional bond people have with this organisation. In style of communication this organisation tries to avoid institutional language and uses simple human language, because most social media users expect brands or organisations to act like human. Warmth or human language is one of the main factors that encourages people to engage with organisations on social media (Aggarwal and McGill, 2007). According to UNICEF brand strategy guidance, UNICEF must highlight emotions such as passion, boldness and be inspirational, because it may help audiences relate better to the organisation (UNICEF, no date).

The general social media use by UNICEF is broad, as they use all of the most popular social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. The most active is UNICEF’s Facebook page having 12,5 million followers and 8 million likes on the page, second is their Twitter account with 8.1 million followers, then Instagram with 5.1 million followers and finally Youtube with 311 thousand subscribers. According to UNICEF, their Facebook page was the most liked of all international organisations and their Twitter account was the second most-followed by world leaders (UNICEF, 2017). UNICEF has different countries’ pages on Facebook, but they are not as popular as the global UNICEF page. In July 2016 the Department of Communication created a Media Desk in order to implement a rapid-response and in that way improve UNICEF media coverage and to respond to trending issues that are relevant to the UNICEF operational objectives (UNICEF, 2016).

The purpose of UNICEF using social media is to encourage people share their posts so more people would see problems that children have around the world and it increases the chance to get more supporters and people who are able to donate. Other purpose is to inform and raise awareness as not everyone knows that so many children are suffering from violence, bad living conditions or diseases. Another purpose is to attract important people’s attention, such as governments or organisations and encourage them to support or to act and stop the violation of children rights. And from people’s supportive comments and recommendations (one of Facebook’s functions where people can express whether they recommend to follow this organisation or not) it can be said that UNICEF’s social media presence is successful.

UNICEF’s content on Facebook is one of the most important factors that stimulates the growth of their community/followers. Seeing the posts that UNICEF shares, audience can follow the progress of organisation’s projects and see what exactly it does to help vulnerable children. At this time UNICEF shares from 6 to 8 posts a day, however it is more than usual, because of Covid-19 virus as UNICEF shares information on how to protect ourselves during this period daily, normally UNICEF shares exactly 5 posts every day. They post mix of links and information posted directly to Facebook. Usually posts on the same day or sometimes in a period of 2-3 days are similar, posted in series, for example a few posts in a row can be about the same story, but with more information provided in each post. An example is this girl’s story that was posted 3 times over the period of 6 days, it shows that UNICEF keeps their followers updated:

Moreover, every time there is a special day to celebrate on the calendar, UNICEF shares post related to that day, for example Education day, Mother’s day or International children’s day.

Media content is very strong in UNICEF’s social media pages, they share a picture or a video with every post, and most of the time they use strategy “show, don’t tell”, “ It’s one thing to share the message that every child deserves a safe route to school; it’s another to illustrate this with an image” (Marlowe, no date). Usually the success of the post depends on the content, it must be some great photo or interesting video (Orlov, 2017). As most of the stories shared by UNICEF are emotional and devastating, a strong image is added to supplement the story, it is clear that emotional content attracts much more attention that other posts in UNICEF’s Facebook page. One of the the strategies to communicate for humanitarian purposes is to use a shock effect, in this case organisation uses the images portraying human suffering which triggers audience's emotions and converts them into an action (Orlov, 2017). On the other hand, shared link does not show such great performance and usually gets the least likes or shares from the public, that is because social media users want to get information immediately instead of looking for it in further website that is provided in the post.

The main theme that can be identified looking at UNICEF’s Facebook page is that most of the time they share a personal story of a child that is in danger, and the post speaks from that child's perspective, he/she shares his experience and living conditions so the readers of the post would understand the struggle and support UNICEF in helping such children. Another theme is the use of use hashtags in almost every post, all of them are repeated in similar content posts, for instance, in every post that tells a story of children who are affected by war or conflicts such as in Syria, #ChildrenUnderAttack or #ForEveryChild hashtag is used. Another strategy that this organisation uses to increase followers engagement in the comments is to share interactive posts where they expect people’s opinions, for example on 27th December, 2019 they shared a statement that has to be continued “My wish #ForEveryChild is______” and this post received much more comments than usual post. UNICEF have many supporters and some of them are celebrities, therefore UNICEF make a collaboration with them, shares a video or picture with them in it and tag them, so in that way UNICEF uses famous people popularity on social media to spread the information across the world and gain more supporters and followers. UNICEF collaborates with such famous people as David Beckham, Bill Gates or TikTok celebrity Charli D'amelio. According to UNICEF spokesman, they maximise post’s performance by tagging people involved in post and it increases the chances to get more likes, shares and broader reach (Orlov, 2017).

Even though UNICEF is one of the most successful organisations on social media, still some improvements could be made that would increase page's performance.

As UNICEF in non-profit organisation, it relies only on voluntary donations, however, most of the time they do not provide any information on how people could support or donate. Another recommendation is to share only directly to Facebook and add the link that takes readers to their website for more information if there is a need for it. They also could post more interactive content, such as polls, or "continue the phrase" type of posts, because it highly increases follower’s engagement in the post.

In conclusion, by seeing how successful UNICEF’s social media pages are, it is clear that they understand how to engage with constantly changing digital world and effectively respond to its’ changes in order to improve their performance on social media and effectively communicate with their followers.

Reference list:

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Bullas, J. (2012) 10 Powerful Tips to Increase Fan Engagement on Facebook. Jeff Bullas. [online] [Accessed on 1st April 2020] https://www.jeffbullas.com/10-powerful-tips-to-increase-fan-engagement-on-facebook/

Charity Navigator. (2019) UNICEF USA. [online] [Accessed on 3rd April 2020] https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4617

Clement, J. (2020) Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 4th quarter 2019. Statista. [online] [Accessed on 3rd April 2020] https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

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Social Samosa. (2016) UNICEF uses David Beckham as the voice of #ForEveryChild. [online] [Accessed on 1st April 2020] http://www.socialsamosa.com/2016/12/unicef-david-beckham-for-every-child/

UNICEF. (2003) UNICEF's mission statement. [online] [Accessed on 3rd April 2020] https://www.unicef.org/about/who/index_mission.html

UNICEF. (2016) UNICEF Division of Communication Annual Report 2016. New York: UNICEF.

UNICEF. (2017) For every child, Results. New York: UNICEF

https://www.unicef.org/media/49591/file/UNICEF_For_Every_Child_Results_May_2017_ENG.pdf

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