There are a lot of famous quotes alluding to the power of music, but here’s one of my favourites –

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” – Plato

Music is a universal language that we all understand, and that holds a great deal of power. It has truly changed the world.

Songs are such a powerful medium when it comes to translation of human emotions and feelings. It is almost wearying to simply feel emotion by glaring through lyrics on a piece of paper. This is why music is better understood with a combination of artistic translations that has influenced generations before us, and will continue to inspire the generations after. 

Musicians have changed the world, one song at a time. Here are a few examples that prove it: 

1. John Lennon: Imagine 

Widely regarded as John Lennon’s signature song, “Imagine” convey’s his wish for world peace. Initially inspired by a poem written by Yoko Ono, “Imagine” is saddening as we look to the future and work towards a world without extreme poverty.

John Lennon’s, ‘Imagine’ is statistically the most loved song of all time. The soundtrack captures John promoting a fairer world, and it captured the Beatle’s legacy within one collective effort. As the years pass by, ‘Imagine’ has transformed into a tragically appropriate translation to whatever corruption is currently shredding the world apart and, in reality, the true meaning of the track has faded away. 

2. Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On

With his 1971 album “What’s Going On”, Marvin Gaye not only voiced his opinion against the Vietnam war, but addressed issues of his time, such as drug abuse and poverty. Despite the seriousness of his album, the title track has a very impactful and inspiring message. “You know we’ve got to find a way; To bring some lovin’ here today”.
His album achieved massive and long lasting success, coming in at sixth place on Rolling Stone magazine’s, 500 greatest Albums of All Time list in 2003. 

“What’s Going On” also portrayed the violence and police brutality in America. One of the song’s writers, singer and songwriter Renaldo Benson of the Four Tops was inspired to come up with this song when he harnessed violence and police brutality while living in Berkeley, California. On May 15th 1969, Renaldo Benson had arrived with the tour bus of the Four Tops in Berkeley and saw a group of antiwar activists protesting against the Vietnam War. Benson was shocked to his core to witness the sheer amount of violence and police brutality present at the protest. 

3. Patti Smith: People Have the Power

Patti Smith has used her music to empower political activism, and strongly condemn war and disregard of human rights. She was not someone who shied away from making bold and controversial statements, in order to get her views out.  

On a more lighter note, her song “People Have the Power” is a powerful yet clear reminder to act on issues that bother us, and speak up on topics that we know is not morally inclined, for the sole purpose of protecting people’s interests and the basic freedom to voice your individual opinions.  

4. Tsunami Aid: Concert of Hope

This worldwide benefit was held, keeping the tsunami victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake in mind. In an improved and innovative way to collect funds, consumers were able to buy digital downloads of performances from entertainers including Madonna, Eric Clapton Sheryl Crow, and Roger Waters. It is estimated that the concert earned around $5 million towards the end of the broadcast. Check out Global Citizen Rewards for donation enquiries. They are still active!

5. K’naan: Wavin’ Flag

Keinan Abdi Warsame, that popularly goes by his stage name K’naan, was born and raised in Somalia. After the emergence of a civil war, however, his family feared for his safety and joined his father briefly in New York City, and later moved to Canada. While K’naan does not view himself as a political being, he attempts to use his music to paint out the situations as they seem, in his evergreen song “Wavin’ Flag” which was the 2010 Football World Cup anthem. In his original lyrics, he talks about the struggle refugees faced, while being displaced by war, and how the masses are awaiting the taste of freedom. 

In conclusion, Music has the ability to lead people together, no matter the cause or reason the artist wishes to promote. Sounds created through the instruments played by artists, create a combined interest in a particular genre of music, and who does not enjoy the spine tingling sounds of a huge orchestral band performance? We are all naturally wired to move our feet uncontrollably to the rhythm of a drum beat or singing our hearts out in support of our favourite sports team. 

Music creates social togetherness and unity. It speaks to us when words can fail, and wherever you go across the world, it is understood and felt. Music is a universal gift that holds the power to connect people, without question. It is an art form with human interaction at its epicentre.

In a digital era where various services and products are instantly available with the click of a button, learning how to play a musical instrument provides a platform for people to achieve this goal through discipline and determination. There are several skills required in order to learn how to play a musical instrument:

1. Technique 
2. Reading music
3. Expression
4. Listening

As you continue to brush up on these these skills, you build resilience.

Be it a festival, concert or even a night out at the club, people come together to enjoy the music that’s being played. I’ve had the privilege to be a part of a few big festivals in Europe, and it’s amazing to see the amount of people coming from different countries across the globe, just to take part in the experience. At festivals like Tomorrowland or Ultra Music Festival, you’ll see a lot of people from all over the world to enjoy the whole musical experience. No matter where you come from, every one is treated equally. There is something we can all learn from and experience.

I don’t think I’m the only one who listens to a particular song and immediately connects a memory that coincides with that particular song. Music allows your imagination flow and that’s definitely a positive factor for your increased creativity and good health. 

Music is also good for your memory. I’m certain that you can remember the lyrics of an array of songs much better than an article you recently came across. In nursing homes, they have begun using musical therapy in order to let the older people remember things of their past, which they couldn’t remember without listening to music. 

Whether it is to carry a political message, a certain emotion or just for the sheer happiness, musicians have used sound and music since the evolution of prehistoric man, as a way of expressing themselves and making their voices heard.

References:

• https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/music-that-has-changed-the-world/
• https://www.udiscovermusic.com/in-depth-features/how-music-changes-society/
• https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/john-lennon-imagine-real-meaning-communism/
• https://www.songmeaningsandfacts.com/meaning-of-whats-going-on-by-marvin-gaye/
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/bring-the-noise/five-reasons-why-music-is-important/zv3krj6
• https://www.mitchdeklein.com/blog/201688-reasons-why-music-is-important-to-us

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Social Media Listening

The SaGG Foundation is a non-profit organisation which seeks to sustainably empower girls and women in The Gambia through education.

The mission is to realise a Gambia where every girl is given equal access to education to reach their full potential.

Non-profit organisations are most often managed by a small team of members or volunteers, that work within a stringent budget, and therefore traditional marketing and advertising methods, or even E-marketing carried out through organic search engine optimization techniques, could prove to be a rather expensive route to take. Favourably, there are various tools and amenities made available for non-profit organizations on social media. 

Social media is a multifaceted growth strategy for organisations, covering a combination of applications, or social media platforms such as, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn being the top game players in the industry. 

The SaGG Foundation has an online presence on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, in addition to its own official website.

Social Media Audit

The present social media interaction of the SaGG Foundation is rather monotonous and disengaging in nature. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter contain the same number of posts with identical content that could prove to be disadvantageous as far as viewer engagement goes.  

Engagement Overview of SaGG’s social media platforms:

Facebook has a total of 3067 followers, the highest number of followers as compared to Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, with an average number of likes and comments ranging between 10-20 likes, and 2-3 comments per post, respectively. 

Facebook also has a higher reach (4795 users) when compared to Instagram (915 users) as of March 2022 (Appendix 1.) Whilst, Twitter has the least number of followers and engagement rate, with a total of 176 followers with an average of 15-20 likes and 2-3 comments per post respectively. 

Based on this specific information, we can conclude that Facebook brings about the maximum reach among all the other social media platforms, and Twitter bringing the least. 

For the intent of this report, we will be focusing on Facebook and Instagram, as these platforms contain the most number of followers. 

Instagram:

The SaGG Foundation posts regularly on Instagram and is up to date with the latest trends that includes story highlights and Instagram reels. 

The page also follows a constant colour theme, which translates to a more aesthetic and uniform layout design. 

However, the content used in making these story highlights and reels could be enhanced. For instance, Instagram notifies you with pop-up updates for trending songs or audio that have a high number of views, that could be used to make a reel, which translates into increased viewer engagement. 

Another customary yet highly essential feature on Intagram is the use of relevant hashtags. It can be observed that hashtags are not used in many of the posts, and if used, only 4-5 keywords are being considered for that particular post. It is always beneficial to include over 10-15 keywords as hashtags that is relevant to the content being shared and in turn increase viewer engagement. 

Additionally, a fund raiser could be launched on the Instagram page, which poses as a direct link to donation for the girls’ education (Appendix 2.) 

Below is a table showcasing the engagement rate of posts between 29^th March and 14^th March 2022.

Engagement Rate = Total Engagement / Total Followers x 100% (Keyhole, 2020).

Facebook:

The content on Facebook is identical to that of Instagram. It can be observed that the exact same posts are being shared across all the social media platforms, that could affect the overall viewer reach and engagement. 

As seen on (Appendix 3.) the age range of the target audience varies between Facebook and Instagram. 

Instagram seems to be having a younger audience as compared to Facebook, and we could also observe the difference in the gender demographic, where Facebook has a higher engagement with the male audience. 

These insights could prove to be rather essential information, as it helps in the process of content creation and design, as different target audiences have varied tastes and interests. Therefore, refraining from sharing identical posts and including different media across the two social media platforms could prove to be a boon for the Foundation. 

The engagement rate of the latest posts on Facebook is rather low. This could be improved by optimizing keywords, and keeping the captions short, quick to read, and engaging at the same time. This could capture viewers’ attention quickly and entice users to stop scrolling and engage.

Engagement Rate = Total Engagement / Total Followers x 100% (Keyhole, 2020).

Competitor Analysis:

A competitive analysis can help you learn the insights of how your competition works, and identify potential opportunities where you can improve and adapt to growing new strategies. 

For this audit, we are considering CAMFED and Actionaid, who have similar goals and objectives. 

CAMFED and Actionaid participate increasingly on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

CAMFED in particular collaborates with inspiring and well-established women that are recognised in their field of achievements, by carrying out Q&A sessions, IGTV videos and reels, in order to inspire young girls to go out and achieve their goals. 

Content like this could draw in higher engagement among viewers. CAMFED is also highly active on Twitter, and are a part of various resourceful and educational events. 

Actionaid, has over 2000+ posts on both Instagram and Facebook, while the engagement rate is rather low as compared to CAMFED. 

Actionaid is a global non-profit organization, and covers real time issues and activities. The organization shares numerous images and videos on their pages, that leave a gripping impact on the audiences. Emphasizing on the severity of the issue through multi-media content such as images, and live videos, could bring out the feeling of concern and affection among viewers, therefore directly increasing engagement time on the social media pages. 

The SaGG Foundation would benefit greatly, by including such strategies and tactics, as it shares similar or corresponding goals. 

Recommendations:

Based on the collected information, the primary suggestion for the SaGG Foundation, is to include diverse, and varied content across all its social media pages. 

(Appendix 3.) shows the distinct comparison between the audience demographic, on Facebook and Instagram which proves a very important point, which is, content choice among the viewers. Different groups, prefer different media, hence adapting to various content choices is essential. 

Based on (Appendix 4.) Facebook remains the leading social media platform used by marketers, in order to capture high engagement and interaction. Therefore posting content with optimized keywords and engaging media could prove to be beneficial to the Foundation. 

(Appendix 5.) showcases Gen-Z as a social group, of which 52% of the population donated to charities via social media. This proves that targeting Gen-Z could be an advantageous outcome for the organization. The statistics from a Business Insider survey back the known fact, showing that 65% of Gen-Z checks Instagram on a daily basis, while only 34% does the same on Facebook. 

SaGG Foundation could focus on targeting Gen-Z to a greater extent, as this particular social class is defined as the class to be more dynamic and responsive when it comes to advocating for a social cause.   

The Foundation could do this by inculcating the latest social media trends such as Instagram reels containing trending audio, IGTV, experimenting into the TikTok world, and carrying out Influencer Outreach programs that have been adopted by similar non-profit organisations as mentioned earlier in the competitor analysis section of this report. 

References:

BigCommerce. 2022. What is a social media audit? Optimize your social media for ecommerce | BigCommerce. [online] Available at: <https://www.bigcommerce.co.uk/ecommerce-answers/what-is-a-social-media-audit-how-to-do-it/> [Accessed 31 March 2022].

Keyhole. 2022. How Do I Calculate Engagement Rate?. [online] Available at: <https://keyhole.co/blog/how-do-i-calculate-engagement-rate/> [Accessed 31 March 2022].

Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. 2022. 23 Simple Ways to Increase Facebook Engagement (Free Calculator). [online] Available at: <https://blog.hootsuite.com/increase-facebook-engagement/> [Accessed 31 March 2022].

White, C., 2022. What’s a Competitive Analysis & How Do You Conduct One?. [online] Blog.hubspot.com. Available at: <https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/competitive-analysis-kit> [Accessed 31 March 2022].

Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. 2022. Social Media for Nonprofits: 11 Essential Tips for Success. [online] Available at: <https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-nonprofits/> [Accessed 31 March 2022].

2022. [online] Available at: <https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-stats-for-marketers/> [Accessed 31 March 2022].

https://www.instagram.com/saggfoundation/

https://www.facebook.com/SponsoraGambianGirl

https://www.saggfoundation.org/about-us.html

https://camfed.org

https://www.actionaid.org.uk

Appendix:

Appendix 1.

Appendix 2.

Appendix 3.

Appendix 4.

Appendix 5.

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