Dates on the Calendar Matter, People!
How News and Important Dates Influence Charity Social Media Strategies
Summary of Task: As part of a few regular social posts I put out, I made a little carousel slideshow of the works of children who’ve submitted works for the NSI competitions and the topic was habitats being destroyed as part of National Habitat Day. This was intended to be posted on instagram and facebook.
Problem: Unfortunately it was also the one year anniversary of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and I had to redo the whole thing to remove mentions of invasions, unwelcome presences and since one of the pieces was also from a teenager from Palestine who was talking of her farms and homes being destroyed it was incredibly unfortunate to send that out on the given date.
The Charity deals with children from both sides of many conflicts so to be seen as accidentally supporting one side of the conflict would be problematic as it leaves some children out of seeking support from the charity. The children use the charity as a way to discuss conflict in a healthy, creative way in order to process the highly traumatic situations they’re growing up in.
If the first draft of the post in question went out, considering the current social issues Israeli kids would feel cut off from the resources NSI offers and such that Israel supporters would go against the charity itself so both the intended support groups and the external supporters would put the Charity in an awkward position.
Engagement and Reach: Studies or examples showing how posts linked to news topics get more attention due to trending hashtags or popular themes.
However since it is a charity, there is a lot of nuance in trying to manage the political side and supporters as there is the matter of getting funding and other forms of reach. While businesses get a lot of leeway with being controversial, the administrative restrictions placed on charities mean it’s better to stay quiet sometimes to function as an institution.
Resolution: Staying attuned to current events and important dates can strengthen a charity’s social media presence. But due to the severity of the conflicting calendar issues, Katie helped rewrite the post and it was more focused on the concept of broken vs unbroken and how those themes can help kids shape their competition submissions this year. I also had to publish the post on the Wednesday instead of the intended Monday to avoid the news that dropped so suddenly everywhere on Monday.
