United Nations World Food Programme: Social Business Strategy - Term Paper Example

United Nations World Food Programme: Social Business Strategy Author’s Name Course Title Institution Tutor Date Table of Contents Organizational Overview………………………………………………………………………….3 Organisations Current Social Media Assets………………………………………………………4 Executive Summary.. ……………………………………………………………………………..6 Current Social Media and Mobile Technologies Strategy………………………………………...7 Future Strategy.. …………………………………………………………………………………..8 Target Audience.. ………………………………………………………………………....9 Social Media Goals.. …………………………………………………………………….10 Value-Adding Content…………………………………………………………………...11 Campaign-Specific Content ..............................................................................................13 Channel Assessment and Strategy…………………………………………………….....13 Action Plan Channels................................................................................................................14 Action Required……………………………………………………………….....15 Priority…………………………………………………………………………...16 Frequency………………………………………………………………………..16 Measuring Success and Effectiveness…………………………………………………...16 References………………………………………………………………………………………..18 Appendix A…………………………………………………………………………………........21 Appendix B………………………………………………………………………………………22 Organizational Overview The World Food Programme is a branch of the United Nations that deals with food assistance globally. It is also the largest humanitarian organisation tasked with addressing hunger issues as well as promoting food security (Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada. 2013). Averagely, WFP provides about 90 million people with food annually with 58 million children making the bulk of this number. Its headquarters is in Rome and it has over 80 offices in other countries all over the world. The organization was established in 1961 after a proposition by George McGovern, Food for Peace director, to form a multilateral food aid program after the 1960 Food and Agricultural Organisation Conference. WFP was then officially established in 1963 by the United Nations General Assembly on a trial basis up to 1965, after which it was decided that it should be a continuous programme. The organisation is governed by an Executive Board consisting of representatives from member states with the European Union being a life-long observer. As at 2011, WFP had a staff population of 11,799 with 90% of this number working in the field (Gibson 2012, p. 12). WFP’s main mission is to eliminate hunger and malnutrition with its principle objective being the elimination of people’s need for food aid. Since its establishment, WFP has hoped to reach the following objectives (World Food Programme 2014): 1. Save lives and livelihoods during periods of emergencies 2. Mitigate food security risk factors affecting communities, individuals and nations by helping them meet food and nutritional demands. 3. Reduce cases of malnutrition by breaking generational cycles of hunger. Organisations Current Social Media Assets According to the organization’s website, the organization acknowledges the important role that social media has played in offering a broad array of benefits to people and organisations working in the development field (World Food Programme 2014). The website further social media has offered a cheap but very efficient way for humanitarian organisations to monitor projects in real-time and also to connect directly with people from all over the world. As such, WFP has a number of social media platforms with the major ones being, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Freerice, and Zero Hunger Challenge. 1. Facebook : The official Facebook page for WFP can be found at https://www.facebook.com/WorldFoodProgramme?utm. As at April 8, 2014, the page had 394,963 likes with 9,861 people talking about its activities. 2. Twitter :WFP’s Twitter handle is @WFP with about 645,000 followers. Though not as popular as Facebook, WFP’s Twitter platform has managed to connect with people from all over the world. 3. YouTube: The main purpose for WFP’s indulgence in YouTube is to post videos of the programmes it is carrying out. The latest video is on the economic status of the Central African Republic nation. It can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/WORLDFOODPROGRAM. The organisation has over 1000 videos with each video garnering an average of 1,500 views. 4. Zynga : Zynga is a social gaming company that partnered with WFP following the Haiti earthquake in 2010 (World Food Programme 2010). Through its huge social network base, Zynga has managed to raise funds, in addition to awareness, on behalf of WFP by engaging its 240 million active users. Proceeds from campaigns such as Farmville and ChinaGame have seen Zynga donate 100% of the proceeds to WFP. Executive Summary This paper clearly articulates social media channels that United Nations World Food Programme currently uses in an effort to achieve its overall mission and the organisation’s goals and objectives. At the moment, WFP is adequately applying social media techniques via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Freerice. However, the organisation has not realized the potential that lies in the power of social media to attract a huge number of volunteers and followers. These people will help advocate the organisation’s goals, values and activities. A strategy for future growth in the social media world is well outlined. It describes how the organisation will manage to cast its net wider to get more people to follow it through the different social media platforms. Creating awareness, increasing commitment and brand name are the organization’s goals that this social media strategy aims to achieve. The organisation should take advantage of the huge fan base it has on its Facebook page and look into improving its interactions in Twitter and YouTube. At the end, an action plan has been created giving clear direction on how WFP will achieve its social media goals effectively and at low costs. This Action Plan can be found in Appendix B. Another important part that can be found in this report is on ways the World Food Organisation can measure the success and effectiveness of social media strategy provided in this report. Current Social Media and Mobile Technologies Strategy The past three years has seen WFP revolutionize its operations by incorporating social media in an effort to achieve its objectives (Haydon 2012). Its presence on the web has ramped up and has even changed the way in which the organization communicates. Through its Social Media Impact Internship program, the organisation has continued to offer students between the ages of 18 to 24 an opportunity to be part of the fight against hunger. The chosen interns then are given an opportunity to give their personal views on the subject of hunger and engage with other students to create a strong voice in fighting hunger (Haydon 2012). By using social media, the interns will encourage their individual networks to pay attention to the impact of the whole issue of hunger and then take action. To do this, WFP has encouraged the designing of social media plans that engages social media audience in the hunger challenge plan (Buhr 2011). Interns are then expected to create 2 blogs that will be posted on WFP.org, WFP’s student blog, daily tweets, and Facebook posts. Further, they are expected to develop an individual online project that raises awareness about hunger on behalf of WFP. WFP’s new website coupled with increased online presence has seen the organisation get a passionate community behind its back and has been experiencing a steady increase in online funding (Buhr 2011). Through the Facebook and Twitter platforms, the organisation has made it its obligation to let the public know that it would just cost US$0.25 cents to feed a child in school. Such initiatives have raised awareness to the human nature o forgoing a cup of coffee and a snack just to donate a $1 towards WFP in order to give an unfortunate child a meal in school (Buhr 2011). Over its YouTube platform, WFP has leveraged on the availability of internet connection to most people and has been posting on any hunger related issues all over the world. Viewers are able to get first hand information about food crisis in war torn countries such as Syria and the Congo as well as economically unstable nations such as Central African Republic. The public does not have to wait for international news agencies to report on these matters because with just a click in WFP’s YouTube search page, one is able to watch relevant videos and clips on global hunger issues. As at 2010, according to Mr. David Galipeau, a social media expert in the UN, there were no guiding principles as to how UN bodies were using social media. He further stated that the ICRC, UNICEF and WFP were the only groups that were appropriately and effectively incorporating social media in calling people to take action and supports and rescue efforts that were ongoing on the ground (Buhr 2011). During times of emergencies such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis, WFP through its parent body, the United Nations, has used social media platforms to reunite family members that have been separated from each other. Future Strategy Over the past few years, there has been a growth in WFP’s social media foundation. The organisation’s presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has provided it with over 130,000 networked supporters who have been of great assistance in the organisation’s objective of creating awareness and raising funds (Murphy 2013). However, despite this, it is has become clear that before committing to WFP, an individual will go through several pathways. There are individuals who after reading an online article or on a website press release about WFP’s activities will make a donation or join the organisation’s newsletter. There will also be those individuals who follow WFP on Facebook and Twitter as well as on other social media platforms, and then decide after a while to make donations and/or subscribe to the organisation’s newsletter. WFP has to contend with the fact that not everyone who interacts with the organisation’s social media platforms and the contents in it will commit to the organisation’s goal (World Food Programme 2008). The main challenge thus faced is how to cast the net wider while at the same time refining current steps used to carry social media users from one phase to the next. The strategy thus will be to create ways and means that will enable WFP keep users’ engagement and commitment levels high so as to increase awareness as well as funding. The diagram in Appendix A one shows the different stages of engagement with WFP’s social media platforms (World Food Programme 2008). Target Audience The target audience for future WFP social media strategy will be mainly the organisation’s volunteers and social media users who show little commitment towards WFP’s activities. For the organisations volunteers, from around the globe, the strategy will focus on giving teaching them on ways to develop relevant content that they will be posting on their social media network platforms (Fine, Zuckerberg & Kanter 2013, p. 54). It is important to note that social media content for WFP is what drives conversation on its core values and activities. Thus by volunteers making sure that they post catchy and relevant content, conversations will be directed towards engendering engagements as well as commitment. The second target audience will be social media users with little commitment on WFP’s activities. Here, the strategy will be to reduce the duration of time they take to make decisions regarding donations or subscribing to WFP’s newsletters. The fact that they are already followers or friends of WFP on the organisation’s social media pages, shows that with a little bit of engaging, they will be driven to reach the commitment phase faster, willingly and voluntarily. By casting the content net wider to cover this group of fans, it is possible for WFP to achieve its mission without having to put too much effort. Committed fans and volunteers will make sure that the organisation’s values and goals are echoed far and wide via fan advocacy Social Media Goals Any organisation or individual that wants to prosper has to set goals, either short term or long term (Lardi 2013), p. 22. Such goals have to be SMART in nature whether simple or grand. Social media goals have to be treated in the same way (Mooney 2010). WFP has not been left behind and several social goals will have to be created to ensure success. One of WFP’s social media goals, and the major one, will be to increase the organisation’s own brand awareness. By doing this, it is more than likely that the public’s level of engagement will increase (World Food Programme 2008). This will be measured through the number of links directing users back to the organisation’s own site, online chatter; retweets and WFP searches, and the consumption of WFP’s content on its social media pages. Level of brand awareness will also be measured by number of people who visit WFP website from social media World Food Programme 2008. The second goal will be to increase engagement on the part of the public. Once one reaches the engagement phase, it becomes easy to convince him/her to get through to the commitment phase where their donations are on a voluntary basis World Food Programme 2008. The number of Facebook fans, twitter followers and newsletter subscribers will give a clear picture of the level of engagement. Comments or interactions will also show how the target market is engaging with WFP content. The third and last goal will be to increase the overall commitment of the target audience. The organisation’s mission to eradicate global hunger will only be achieved if the whole world’s population commits to WFP goals World Food Programme 2008. This is only possible if the target audience is convinced to commit towards this mission and making it a lifelong commitment. If this is achieved, donations and advocacy will be made voluntarily on behalf of the organisation. The notion that the world is a global village will have to be applied here World Food Programme 2008. These goals will be useless unless effective and efficient steps towards their achievement are taken. Just going through haphazard plans with no direction at all won’t help the organisation. Appropriate steps towards their achievement will thus be taken and this will be outlined in another section of the paper. Value-Adding Content Ideally, social media marketing should be about adding value that will enable an organisation to optimally achieve its goals and objectives (Friedrichsen 2012, p. 279). This is basically done by sharing insight, knowledge as well as views with the public. Most social marketers would agree that word of mouth marketing cannot be forced and the only way to get people talking and sharing is to do things that the public will find important and share. This is done by identifying initiatives that are valuable and original and then letting the public know about it (Friedrichsen 2012, p. 282). Another rule of thumb in giving value-added content is correctly identifying the target audience because this is how organisations get a following and fan base on social media. Posting content must be strategic and focus on the target audience, otherwise all the hard work will be meaningless (Friedrichsen 2012, p. 291). What has been the norm in most organisations is that social media content is left to the marketing department whether or not they have expertise in this field. However, for WFP, a social media experts exists in the many different branches under the UN with David Galipeau being the lead social media expert for the entire United Nations (Mooney 2010). This coupled with the WFP.org Social Media Impact Internship program will see to it that content posted to social media is rich. Just posting loads and loads of content on social media by WFP will not do the organisation any good (Casterton 2012). This content has to make sense to the target audience and it is the work of WFP to make this happen. WFP gets information about hunger from volunteers all across the world and posts this on its website and social media platforms. However, to give these contents value, the organisation has to validate every type of information that comes its way before posting (Casterton 2012). Otherwise, if this is not done and the public finds out that information posted on WFP social media page is unreliable or haphazardly researched; its reputation will be in jeopardy. Validation of information thus adds value to content (Casterton 2012). Campaign Specific Content For WFP, a value addition in its content may take the form of incorporating weekly asks via the organisation’s status updates, links and tweets to campaigns. These weekly asks will be requesting for funds or even requesting friends and followers to invite their friends to join WFP in what may take the form of a contest. At the end of the contest seek to find fans and followers with the most invited friends may be asked to join WFP in any one of its overseas missions. This will definitely get the public participating with a cause in mind thereby adding value to the organisation’s online content. Another possible campaign that would assist the organisation reach its objective would be to make its videos and pictures easily consumable so that they can be compatible with all social media channels. This will facilitate sharing and the target market will easily access such media. This can be made possible by making videos and photos easily downloadable and uploadable without the need to do this on WFP’s main website. Specifically, the organisation should make their videos on YouTube directly downloadable because at the moment, YouTube videos cannot be downloaded directly on the social site. It WFP manages to do this, then its video and photo content will mean something to its target audience. Channel Assessment and Strategy The various channels of social media have to be assessed by WFP to ensure that they are optimally used to derive the benefits that they harbor for the organisation. It is important for any organisation to know how its different social media channels are performing. This assessment will thus help the organisation know which channel is the most effective for its target audience and if it needs to tweak other underperforming channels. For WFP, this assessment will produce a report as to why Facebook is its most active and interactive social media platform than the rest. Channels This part of the paper will look at the various social media platforms that WFP has at its disposal and those that it should continue using. Facebook Given the nature of Facebook’s fan base, it should come as no surprise why WFP has a huge following here compared to other social media channels. With over one billion users, Facebook may be WFP’s main channel of communication after its website (Facebook 2014). It can thus use its Facebook page for posting important and urgent updates even before posting them on the organisation’s official website. The large number of people using Facebook can also work to WFP’s advantage as it can solicit for more social media volunteers without added costs. WFP should aim for approximately 120 fans per day in order to exponentially increase its Facebook growth. Twitter Since the inception of twitter, the social media channel has gathered over 700,000 followers and this number is still rising (Smith 2014). Although its growth is not the same as Facebook, WFP can still use its steady growth to cast its target audience net far and wide. What makes Twitter different from Facebook is the hashtags and retweet features which makes this channel easy for specified searches. WFP can thus take advantage of these two features to echo its activities worldwide by encouraging retweets. The hashtag feature comes in handy because once the organisation puts a hashtag in any of its update or content, then this update will be viewed by every single person in the social media world who does not even follow WFP. This ensures that the organisation reaches million of people worldwide thereby passing its message across YouTube This is the world’s largest video social media channel to date, although other audio-visual channels have emerged lately (Smith 2014). Various genres of videos are posted every other minute with viewing hitting the 1 million views mark very week. With the world taking the global village form where each person’s problem affects the other person, WFP global cause will auger well within YouTube. Today, people are willing to offer help once they see for themselves the extent of suffering people in various parts of the world go through. Videos are more effective in getting people to act as compared to just reading of a calamity in social media, online or via newspapers. Thus, posting easily consumable emergency videos on YouTube will get people all over the world acting and helping WFP achieve its goals. Action Required All of WFP social media channels need an action plan for them to work and benefit the organisation. Social media pages and accounts need regular actions for them to remain relevant in the social media world (Lardi 2013, p. 79). Required actions will take the form of status updates, tweeting, retweeting, editing previous posts and uploading videos. This will ensure that the WFP remains active in social media and keeping its target audience engaged. Priority As with any other type of task, priorities should be set so that tasks that WFP may deem important and urgent are tackled first and then less urgent tasks follow. Setting priorities is very important as it shows the level of commitment the organisation has towards achieving its objectives (Lussier 2008, p. 184). Frequency This refers to the rate at which different tasks within an organisations social media action plan should be taken (Lussier 2008, p. 192). Within WFP, different tasks have to be performed frequently so that the target audience is made kept updated on what is happening. Depending on how important a task is for the operations of an organisation, frequency may be refer to by-the-minute actions, hourly actions, daily actions, weekly actions or fortnightly actions. Measuring success and Effectiveness Measuring the success and effectiveness of a given strategy is very important as it gives an organisation the opportunity to maintain, review or change a particular strategy (Delahaye 2011, p. 16). For WFP, its strategy applied to achieve its set social media goals will be measured using various tools. The brand awareness goals will be measured by creating metrics that will look into variables such as volume, exposure and the organisation’s message amplification. Measuring its goal to increase engagement will focus around the number of tweets, retweets, comments, and replies. The third goal, increase commitment of target audience, will be measured by tracking contributors to the social media channel and the influence that they have; knowing participants and their impact on WFP social media channels. All these metrics will need the use of KPI analytic tools such as woopra and SocDir. References Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada. (2013). Key partners: World Food Programme. Retrieved from http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/acdi-cida.nsf/En/NAD- 1131453-QDQ Gibson, M. (2012). The Feeding of Nations: Redefining Food Security for the 21st Century. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press World Food Programme. (2014). About. Retrieved from http://www.wfp.org/about World Food Programme. (2014). Our Work. Retrieved from http://www.wfp.org/our-work World Food Programme. (2010). Zynga and WFP Fight Hunger. Retrieved from http://www.wfp.org/zynga Haydon, J. (2012, October 10). World food programme: Using Social Media to End Hunger. Retrieved from http://razoofoundation.org/2012/10/how-the-world-food-programme-is- using-social-media-to-end-hunger/ Buhr, S. (2011). Presenting WeFeedback: A New Social Media Fundraising Platform from the World Food Programme. Retrieved from the United Nations-Business website: http://business.un.org/en/documents/9452 Murphy, T. (2013, July 29). Why WFP is Making a Facebook Push to Raise Awareness. Retrieved from http://www.aviewfromthecave.com/2013/07/why-wfp-is-making- facebook-push-to.html Wold Food Programme. (2008). WFP Strategic Plan 2008 - 2013. Retrieved from http://www.wfp.org/content/wfp-strategic-plan-2008-2013 Mooney, M. (2010, March 4). Social Media: Does it Drive Social Responsibility? Retrieved from http://www.telono.com/fr/nos-articles/social-media-does-it-drive-social- responsibility/ Fine, A., Zuckerberg, R., & Kanter, B. (2013). The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass. Lardi, K. (2013). Social Media Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building your Social Business. S.l.: Vdf Hochschulverlag Ag, A. Friedrichsen, M. (2012). Handbook of Social Media Management: Value Chain and Business Models in Changing Media Markets. Berlin: Springer Verlag. Casterton, D. (2012, April 4). Social Media - WFP - How? Retrieved from http://www.contactcenterworld.com/blog/WFManagement/?bid=5632eefd-4355-4e50- ba3f-bddb9ac4db98 Facebook. (2014). Company Info. Retrieved from http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/ Smith, C. (2014, March 23). By the Numbers: 138 Amazing Twitter Statistics. Retrieved from http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/march-2013-by-the-numbers-a-few-amazing- twitter-stats Smith, C. (2014, March 23). By the Numbers: 138 Amazing YouTube Statistics. Retrieved from http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/youtube-statistics/ Lussier, R. N. (2008). Management Fundamentals: Concepts, Applications, Skill Development. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning. Delahaye, P. K. (2011). Measure What Matters: Online Tools for Understanding Customers, Social Media, Engagement, and Key Relationships. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. APPENDICES Appendix A Interacting with social media takes one through different stages depending on the level with which one deeply interacts with the different channels. The chart below shows the different stages users of WFP social media channels have to go through before finally committing. Appendix B Action Plan This appendix shows the action plan to be taken by UN-WFP towards achieving its social media goals via the three social media channels at its disposal. Facebook Action Priority level Action Details Frequency Tracking Means Content posting 1 Validate information. Post and share. Ongoing Number of likes, comments. Facebook platform Respond to posts 2 Respond to messages, enquiries, and public’s posts/comments Ongoing Number of satisfied users. Facebook platform Editing page information 3 Review page information to ensure accuracy Ongoing Number of page and posts edits Facebook platform Twitter Action Priority level Action Details Frequency Tracking Means Tweeting original content 1 Tweet WFP current activities, emergencies, asks. Ongoing Number of retweets, shares. Twitter Account Retweeting content 2 Gather followers and let others know what your followers are talking about Ongoing Number of retweeted retweets Twitter Account Response to tweets 2 Answer to followers tweets, inquiries and FAQs Ongoing Number of responses Twitter Account Updating content information 1 Continuously updating content for validity and reliability Hourly Number of updated content Twitter Account YouTube Action Priority level Action Details Frequency Tracking Means Uploading original videos 1 Recording field videos, validation, editing and then uploading Ongoing Number of views Number of downloads Number of likes YouTube page Uploading 3rd party videos 2 Receiving videos, validation, editing, acknowledging and uploading. Daily Number of likes Number of shares YouTube page Updating page content 1 Uploading related videos as activities are carried on Ongoing Number of comments YouTube page Read More