WEEK 9

Week in Review:

  • Collaborated on drafting and refining Mozambique and UN Think Tank pagers at Regent's University, emphasizing teamwork and peer feedback.

  • Revised communication pagers based on supervisor feedback, ensuring alignment with project goals and deadlines.

  • Developed a comprehensive guide for creating a charity page on Facebook, demonstrating proactive problem-solving and resourcefulness.

  • Researched and applied best practices for writing YouTube descriptions, enhancing the organization's online promotional strategies.

  • Created and presented social media content ideas for World Water Day, incorporating current trends and engagement metrics.

  • Finalized communications pager drafts in collaboration with the FfP supervisor and Baringa representative, focusing on action-oriented and succinct content.

  • Successfully posted a promotional video on YouTube and attempted to create a new charity Facebook page, addressing technical issues with Facebook support.

  • Demonstrated adaptability, thorough research, and clear communication in completing tasks and contributing to long-term projects.

Reflection:

This week began with a productive work session at Regent's University, where my classmates and I worked on creating drafts of the Mozambique and UN Think Tank pagers. Despite not being at the Football for Peace (FfP) offices as initially planned, our group demonstrated resourcefulness and teamwork by using this time to collaborate on the drafts. The focus was on creating succinct and persuasive content that effectively communicated the impacts of Football for Peace to potential stakeholders. This exercise highlighted the importance of peer collaboration and constructive feedback in producing high-quality work. The drafts were then sent to our supervisor for review, ensuring we were on track to complete our weekly objectives.

Tuesday was a day of revisions in the Football for Peace offices. Upon receiving emailed feedback in the morning from our FfP supervisor, we promptly began amending the communication pagers for review later in the day. In our afternoon meeting, our supervisor provided clear directives: the UN Think Tank pager needed revisions by next Monday, and the Mozambique pager was put on hold pending further data that will be collected during the raining season. This is because visual aids, such as before-and-after photos from Mozambique's Niassa province, will be instrumental in showcasing the tangible impacts of our work to stakeholders, thereby encouraging their support and donations.

Mozambique Pager_Draft 2 by molly mclaughlin
UN Think Tank_Draft 1 by molly mclaughlin

During the meeting, we also discussed the challenges of creating a charity page on Facebook. Despite not being able to create the page due to administrative uncertainties on Football for Peace’s end, we provided our supervisor with a comprehensive guide we had developed in Week 7. This proactive approach ensured that the organization had the necessary resources to move forward once a decision was made. It also demonstrated our commitment to contributing to long-term projects beyond the scope of our work with Football for Peace.

In addition to revising the communications pagers, we were tasked with creating a description for a video the organization plans to post on their YouTube channel. This task involved researching best practices for writing YouTube descriptions for promotional videos. In doing some research and looking at other NGO’s Youtube channels, like United Nation Water, these were my main takeaways for creating a solid Youtube video description for a company:

  • Clear and Concise Summary: Provide a brief overview of the video's content in the first few lines. This helps viewers understand what to expect and improves searchability (Google, 2019).

  • Keywords and SEO: Use relevant keywords naturally within the description to improve the video's search ranking. This includes using terms that viewers might use when searching for content like yours (Chen, 2021).

  • Call to Action (CTA) : Include a CTA to encourage viewers to like, comment, share, and subscribe. This can be as simple as writing "Don't forget to like and subscribe!" or “Comment x emoji down below!” at the end of the description as this drives engagement and the Youtube algorithm (Sweatt, 2022).

  • Links and Social Media: Add links to your social media profiles, website, and other related videos or playlists. This helps build your online presence and keeps viewers engaged with your content (Sweatt, 2022).

  • Timestamps: If your video is long, include timestamps for different sections or topics covered in the video. This improves the viewer experience and keeps them engaged (Sweatt, 2022).

  • Hashtags: Use a few relevant hashtags to make your video more discoverable. Place them at the end of the description to avoid cluttering the main text (Chen, 2021).

This research not only expanded my knowledge of multimedia communication but also reinforced the need for companies to create detailed and user-friendly content when trying to engage an online audience.

On Thursday, the focus shifted to developing social media content ideas related to World Water Day and general water education. This task required understanding current social media trends and their engagement metrics, highlighting the importance of research in creating relevant and impactful content.

In my research, I found that to create impactful, education-based social media content, the content should fall into several different categories.  One of the most analytically engaging being influencer collaborations such as question quick fire round interviews, daily water-saving routines, and social challenges which leverage influencers’ reach and relatability to engage audiences (Hootsuite, 2024). Educational content like infographics, myth-busting videos, and Instagram carousel posts convey important information effectively in a visually appealing way (Landslide Creative, 2018). User-generated content encourages community participation through water conservation stories and photo contests which are incentivized by a prize or the possibility of being reposted to the companies main page. Creating interactive content for your followers to participate in such as polls, quizzes, live Q&A sessions, and interactive infographics fosters engagement, community, and learning (Brame, 2023). Engaging visuals such as before-and-after posts or short form, documentary style video series provide compelling, visual narratives on water issues. Storytelling through personal and community narratives humanizes water issues, making them more relatable. (Landslide Creative, 2018). Partnerships with sustainable brands enhance reach and reinforce conservation messages (Hootsuite, 2024). Themed days like World Water Wednesdays and Throwback Thursdays keep the conversation ongoing and engaging weekly (Landslide Creative, 2018). Finally, interactive tools and resources like a water footprint calculator and DIY tutorials empower followers with practical conservation steps that can easily be taken by followers (Jacques, 2020).

These ideas will be presented to the team during our final work days, emphasizing the culmination of our efforts in providing valuable contributions to the organization's social media strategy. 

Design by molly mclaughlin

On our final days at Football for Peace the following week, we had a final meeting on Monday with our Football for Peace supervisor and the Baringa representative to finalize our communications pager drafts. It was in this meeting that the Baringa rep advised our FfP supervisor to not wait for more data for the Mozambique pager but rather utilize it now by highlighting the desired outcomes for the Mozambique water aid project so that when when they get the data to back this up after the raining season next year they can just add that statistics to back the already existing potential outcomes. Other than that we were just advised to change the verbiage to be more action focused and succinct so that stakeholders can read the information quickly. We spent the rest of the work day making these edits.

On Tuesday, our final day at Football for Peace, we had one last meeting with our supervisor alone to run over the tasks from the previous week. In this meeting they responded with positive feedback about the list of the social media content ideas and also gave the greenlight for the youtube video description. After giving us the login information, we successfully posted the video to Youtube. 

UN Think Tank Pager_Final by molly mclaughlin

Click on the picture to watch the video on Youtube

On Tuesday, our final day at Football for Peace, we had one last meeting with our supervisor alone to run over the tasks from the previous week. In this meeting they responded with positive feedback about the list of the social media content ideas and also gave the greenlight for the youtube video description. After giving us the login information, we successfully posted the video to Youtube. 

We also were given the go ahead to create the Facebook which we attempted but unfortunately due to some technical difficulties with Football for Peace’s old facebook that they are locked out of and unable to delete. The Facebook software detected the new account as fraudulent and prevented us from applying for the charity application. We sent a request form for this error to be reviewed by Facebook, but in the meantime, we advised our supervisor to email a Facebook representative for assistance as this appears to be an internal problem with their servers that will probably require help on a Facebook admins end. 

Our final meeting was with our supervisor and the Baringa representative. In this meeting we went over the final perfecting points just tweaking the colors between the two pagers to make them more cohesive in branding. Below are our finished products: 

Mozambique Pager_Final Draft by molly mclaughlin

Overall, this week reinforced the importance of thorough research, clear communication, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. These skills are crucial not only as we finish out our time at Football for Peace but also in any future professional endeavors.

Reflection:

Brame (2023). 25 Interactive Post Ideas To Engage Your Target Audience | Brame. [online] brame.io. Available at: https://brame.io/blog/interactive-post-ideas/.

Chen, J. (2021). 11 Tips for Writing YouTube descriptions. [online] Sprout Social. Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/youtube-descriptions/.

Google (2019). Tips for Video Descriptions - YouTube Help. [online] Google.com. Available at: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/12948449?hl=en-GB.

Hootsuite (2024). Create Engaging and Effective Social Media Content. [online] Hootsuite. Available at: https://help.hootsuite.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403597090459-Create-engaging-and-effective-social-media-content#know-your-post-anatomy-0-0.

Jacques, J. (2020). 5 Ways to Use Social Media to Promote the Value of Water. [online] WEF Highlights. Available at: https://news.wef.org/5-ways-to-use-social-media-to-promote-the-value-of-water/.

Landslide Creative (2018). 17 Social Media Post Ideas For Nonprofits. [online] Landslide Creative. Available at: https://landslidecreative.com/social-media-nonprofits/.

Sweatt, L. (2022). YouTube Video Descriptions: How to Write Them Better In 2024. [online] vidIQ. Available at: https://vidiq.com/blog/post/youtube-video-descriptions/.