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Social Media Report

Updated: Nov 21, 2020

By: Jessica Matthews


After meeting with Girl's Lobby's Communications Director, Brooke Hansen Lund, we created a plan of action for social media to advertise this year's program's season. Within this plan, my role was to help create content for social media. With this in mind, Brooke and I decided on several moving parts.


Logistics

The first was the logistics for the "Refer-A-Friend" strategy. This plan of action helps advertise the Girl's Lobby program by allowing enrolled participants to invite their friends to participate. This word of mouth broadcasts the outreach of the Girl's Lobby legislative program. However, there were several thing to figure out. A) How do we reward the participants for referring? B) How do we give a discount to those referred? and C) What will be the most stream-lined direction to ensure that all parties, including Girl's Lobby, are best set-up for the occasion.


Several ideas were thrown around, including refunds given after payment (from many sources: cash, card, Venmo, check, etc.) and that the information would be handled via codes through email after the registration period was closed. However, these methods did not ensure that the participants who referred would receive compensation for their work, but did ensure that Girl's Lobby was in for a headache. After two meetings, we finally reached a solid conclusion--Those who referred individuals would be given merchandise, while those who were referred would receive a $5 discount from the original cost to enroll. All payments and referral information would go through Google Forms. This stream-lined the process allowing for happy parties on all fronts.


Program Advertising

The second moving part was the advertising of the "Refer-A-Friend" strategy. For this, I created two digital art pieces that could be posted to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter inviting those to register and to refer others. Although I am not an artist, I decided to tackle this challenge as I knew that the most effective tool we could use in advertising was media. I first looked over their social media accounts to get a feel for the style of Girl's Lobby. I wanted to ensure that any and all work created would blend seamlessly with their approach and message. From this research I learned 3 important things:


Representation & Equality

At the heart of Girl's Lobby is the goal that each and every girl be represented. This meant creating pieces involving different ethnicities and drawing in a style that allowed everyone to take part. Representation as a characteristic inspired me to include different ethnicities. I consciously made the effort to include a variety of backgrounds and to show them working together equally, so that anyone and everyone can be represented.


Impartiality

Tied closely with representation and equality was the idea of impartiality. High school is a time of impressionability. It is the time when individuals start to come into their own while from every direction there are influences telling them how to be. They tell them how to talk, how to walk, and even how to breathe. From perusing previous posts, I could see the conscious effort taken in the artwork to not include specifics. Physical characteristics were left out so that body type, personality and style could fit anyone. It was truly impartial. Within the artwork, I chose a simplistic style so that message rather than physical characteristics dictate the artwork so that every single girl was free to exist and step into the piece without being told how to be.


Action

Girl's Lobby's mission statement is a simple phrase that focuses on action: "Take Power. Give Back." Within the promotional materials, I wanted to show action being taken. To inspire action, sometimes you need to show examples of how action can happen. With one image, I wanted to show real effort and was reminded of an olympic passing of the torch. For the other, I wanted an easy, relaxed action. An everyday aspect of effortless action. Taking power doesn't always have to be powerful but can be done in quiet moments. This way the images could inspire their participants to take power and give back.


With these lessons in mind, I help further their digital footprint. I tried a few different ideas but settled on two images. The first image shows two girls huddled around a laptop sharing and for the other, two girls passed a flag like a baton. Each image incorporated the four points (Representation, Equality, Impartiality, and Action) while adhering to Girl's Lobby Color Theme Guidelines. The first image was completed on November 10th and posted on November 18th while the second was completed on November 14th and will be posted the week of Nov. 22nd-28th. Overall, it was a painstaking process to teach myself how to draw digitally but the efforts proved successful, as the simple eye-catching designs can be used to further promote the this work's organization.


Testimonials

The next moving part was obtaining testimonials from previous participants. During our meetings, Brooke and I discussed the importance of sharing the experience of Girl's Lobby and the power of hearing about it from a peer. She had previously reached out to participants and had a difficult time getting a hold of them. With a list of 25 participants from last year, I contacted each personally to see if they would be willing to film a video of themselves talking about Girl's Lobby that we could post to Social Media. Below, please find a copy of the message sent:


"Hey _(name of participant)_! This is Jessica with Girl's Lobby. I'm reaching out to ask about your experience this past year. We are looking for testimonials that we can post on Social Media. Would you be willing to participate? It would be a 30 sec-1 minute video about what you enjoyed about Girl's Lobby and could include something you learned or a cool experience."


Every participant was contacted on Nov. 10th. To date, there have only been two testimonials sent to us, because of these efforts. As I continue to follow up with the participants, I am hopeful that more testimonials will be submitted. The two testimonials can be found below. They have been sent to Brooke at Girl's Lobby and she will be posting one to Instagram this week and the other should be posted next week.

Social Media Giveaways

The next moving part was the orchestrating the Social Media Giveaways. For this, Brooke and I decided that the best situation would be to hold it over instagram and have participants tag friends to be entered. This way, Girl's Lobby's reach could be amplified. In our meetings, we discussed two types of giveaways: SWAG and scholarships. We planned on doing at least one of each but we were hopeful that we would be able to do more.


Unfortunately, these plans were waylaid as we had to wait for the products to arrive. It took a few weeks for confirmation that the merchandise (t-shirts and other Girl's Lobby materials) had been received. Once they had arrived, Brooke requested photos so that we could start the giveaways. Sadly, we still have not received the photos. In our last meeting, Brooke decided that she is going to go pick up the products and take photos of them herself so that we can get this show on the road. I will be following up with her in our next meeting and we are tentatively planning a giveaway for next week and/or the week after.


Q&A Zoom Meeting Advertising

The final moving part is still in motion. We are still working on advertising for this zoom meeting. The meeting code has been created, along with the QR Code image. This has been sent to Brooke and can be posted on Social Media. The meeting is scheduled for the 1st of December and in the days leading up to it, Brooke and I will work together to generate content that can be posted, as well as content following up on it after. We will be meeting again this following week to plan more details, but the posts will be falling between November 22nd - Dec. 5th.

I will continue to finish out the parts that are still in motion: Social Media Giveaways, Q&A Zoom Meeting Advertising, and following up on the testimonials. If my schedule next semester allows, I will happily continue to volunteer with Girl's Lobby and help further their efforts. As someone who doesn't ever use social media, I loved learning how to use it for a purpose and everything that went in to generating content. Although I didn't do a lot of writing for this project, I was surprised by how much thought went into each image used and how much I learned and enjoyed the process. Social Change can come in a myriad of forms and I thoroughly enjoyed this learning process of how it can come from Social Media.


Below please find a receipt of what has already been posted to their Instagram Account:


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