How can social media help charities and nonprofits to drive change?
Specifically to help drive:
- Online traffic to hit a 10,000 pledge goal.
- In 2 months.
- Starting from a non-existent Facebook page.
That was the challenge thrown at LivingWord.
Community and family ties in Singapore are ever-changing in a high-pressure and achievement-oriented culture here. With children often at the receiving end of such pressures.
The numbers speak for themselves. The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) observed an increase in child abuse from 551 child abuse cases in 2015 to 873 cases in 2016 and 894 in 2017. Child abuse includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional and psychological abuse and neglect, or any act which endangers or impairs the child’s physical or emotional well-being.
In the past, child abuse cases in Singapore tend to be a hushed-up affairs, seen as “private family matters” and not for busy-body neighbours to interfere. But such perceptions are starting to change.
Set up in May 2013, Montfort Care’s Big Love Child Protection Specialist Centre is one of the three centres in Singapore set up by the MSF to help families with child protection concerns and improve their functioning and resilience. The key to ending child abuse is prevention.
01. Goal
To mark their 5th anniversary in October 2018, Big Love launched a campaign to drive 10,000 pledges by the public and corporates, culminating in a family carnival “It Takes A Village To Protect A Child” in Tampines.
Our role was to use social media, primarily Facebook and Instagram, to drive awareness towards child protection in Singapore and drive traffic to the Big Love’s online pledge landing page as well as footfall to the carnival.
02. Steps
The first step in the two-month Facebook marketing campaign was to first grow Big Love’s follower base in Southeast Asia. This was achieved through educational posts to drive interest and followers with a clear call-to-action to the pledge site.
We also tested different educational content around child abuse issues through a variety of GIFs, testimonial quotes, images and videos. Real-life examples were gathered from Big Love’s social workers who shared about their experiences dealing first-hand with child abuse victims. The stories were then turned into images to create more authentic and emotive storytelling.
03. Results
The 2-month social media campaign resulted in the following:
- Zero-Facebook presence to 9,000++ followers
- 2M impressions
- Over 40,000 10-second video views within the first six weeks.
- Drove website visits to contribute to the 10,000+ online pledges,
Social media was effective in “breaking the silence” on sensitive issues such as child abuse and using Facebook to reach new audiences and galvanize the community.
The use of emotional storytelling methods such as first-person case studies and heartwarming videos were instrumental in getting to the heart of the issue – children.