The SAGG (Sponsor a Gambian Girl) Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to educating young Gambian girls who have lost their school sponsorship as a result of the Covid Pandemic.

This blog is about social media listening. And the comparison between SAGG Foundation and its competitors along with the recommended changes and steps based on the data that SAGG Foundation can make.

SOCIAL MEDIA LISTENING

According to the insights it could be seen that SaGG Foundations has been able to reach a total of 4.91k people with only 54 posts made across their social media channels. The total engagement is at 251 which has also increased as compared to the previous year by 52.1%. The most engaging forum for them has been Instagram so far. Whereas, the most engaging post on both Facebook and Instagram has been about one of the girls – Rubi Sowe who actually got sponsored and graduated from university in March 2022. Another post that got the most engagement was on Twitter where the engagement rate was 33.9% and there were 30 retweets as well. This means that the post was targeted on the right social media channel and caught the eye of the people creating a buzz of engagement. Facebook and Instagram can mainly amplify the effect and also gain higher engagement as well if directed towards the right audience. (ISELI, 2021)

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

COMPETITORS

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS – AUDIENCE

According to the insights are given above it could be seen that new social media handles were added to SaGG Foundation. Taking the competitor average it is evident that the competitors’ audience was an average of 114k while SaGG Foundation was only at 4.91k. CAMFED was the leader in gaining the most audience of 226k; with Twitter being the highest social media channel. According to the insights given below, it could be seen that new social media handles were added to SaGG Foundation.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS – ACTIVITY

SaGG Foundation posts about 13 times per week but they could work on this and increase the posts per week to increase their reach. Also, their posting on social media channels has increased in the last year by 107.7%. Whereas, the competitors have only increased by 17.2%. The goal for Gambia’s posting on social media handles has decreased by 33.3%, which means that SaGG Foundation is doing much better in this era. Our charity has a good online presence, Frequent posts, and updates on multiple Social media platforms.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS – ENGAGEMENT

The total number of engagements that our charity has been able to achieve till now is 287. SaGG Foundation has seen the biggest increase in total engagement on Twitter by 73.9%. While on the other hand, the competitors have grown only 10.2% on average; on Facebook. Even though SaGG Foundation has lesser engagement than its competitors it still has grown the most than them. Their best social media channels are Instagram, Facebook, and Instagram. If they focus more on these channels they can actually beat their competitors and ultimately gain much more engagement than they currently have.

Few of the Twitter account posts got a retweet by a person. In, one of the posts got commented by a Twitter verified account, which has 151k likes and 42.8 k retweets. So, the reach for that particular post (About Charity Awards for the education).

Based on the social media audit, for Instagram SaGG Foundation had a total of 224 posts while CAMFED posted only 60 posts. CAMFED has the lead in the total number of followers with more than 15k followers while our charity only has 1.6k followers. We had a very low engagement level coming out to be only 15 when our competitor had it at 125.

The top posts by CAMFED focused on sharing success stories of the girls’ who have benefitted from the sponsorship. It received a whopping total of 710 likes on Instagram. Also, they have grown over the past month and have gone up to 15k followers in March 2022.

The best sort of post for them was in the form of an image while we had more views, likes, and higher engagement on the posts that had video content in it.

Looking at the more engaging and formal social media channel – Twitter it was seen that Goal for the Gambia has the lowest number of posts with an average engagement of only 1. CAMFED once again taking the lead has more than 181k followers while our charity has 177.

The top post that gained the highest amount of engagement was for SaGG Foundation where they tweeted about a girl in need, looking for sponsorship. It got 97 retweets and 58 likes. Unfortunately, SaGG Foundation has been unable to grow its followers in the past few months.

For all the three charities the best way to engage the audience has been by tweeting in text format and not in the form of videos or pictures. Engaging the sponsors is highly important and it can be achieved via constant trial and error. (Spinks, n.d.)

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

Not-for-profits saw mediocre commitment rates across all social media channels this year and posted about double the time on Facebook and Twitter.

Ideas for Non-profits:

• Make it a point to play with posting to duplicate these stellar interaction rates with fewer posts.

• Photographs truly assisted non-profits with recounting to their accounts this year, so this is

a decent post type to look in the year ahead keeping in view the carousel posts as well.

SUGGESTIONS

CTA AND LINKS ON SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

SaGG Foundation can improve on the social media front if they include a call to action and backlinks to their website. This would derive more traffic not only to their website but also to their social media channels creating more engagement and reach which will ultimately benefit the charity and its aim.

Also, as said before a comment from a verified user had a great reach and engagement but it was not traced back to their website so they lost a lot of traffic resulting in more opportunities to sponsor and lead generation lost.

INCREASE IN POST REACH VIA INSTAGRAM LIVE AND WEBINARS

The charity has a potential reach for their posts if they consider doing more internet activities like Instagram Live and Webinars for creating awareness about their aim and goal which is providing quality education to the girls in the Gambia. Also, about the background of the girls, success stories will result in lead generation.

VIDEOGRAPHICAL CONTENT

As analyzed most of the content in SaGG Foundations’ social media is based on text. So, it might be of benefit to them if they provide quality video graphical content instead of textual videos.

TAGGED POSTS

As seen in the image above the tagged post on Instagram had the best engagement similar to earned media promotions. So, doing similar content to the tagged post might have a higher chance to get much more engagement and reach.  

USE OF ARTWORK

When doing the research, we stumbled upon one of the profiles which had artworks related to SaGG Foundation. Acknowledging those products will help not only the foundation but also the artist as both the parties get a new perspective and line of reach. To make the content stand out and more appealing it is necessary to use the desired purpose and also value. (Zimmerman and Ng, 2021)

SAGG ARTICLES

This article about the SaGG Foundations can only be viewed with a paid subscription so making articles like these public will help their potential sponsors to know more about their foundation before they donate.

HASHTAGS

Hashtags have gained a lot of popularity on Facebook and Instagram in the past decade. According to the rival IQ report on the non-profit organization, the hashtags like #education and #equality on Instagram have a higher range of engagement on the current social platforms.

CAROUSEL POSTS

According to Statista for a non-profit organization carousel posts had a higher engagement. So, it is evident that the use of the carousel format of posts will provide and kick-start a better engagement for the social media channels.

REFERENCING

ISELI, F., 2021. SOCIAL MEDIA MEDIA FOR SMALL BUSINESS. Wiley.

Zimmerman, J. and Ng, D., 2021. Social media marketing all-in-one. 5th ed.

Spinks, D., n.d. The business of belonging. Wiley.

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Sponsor a Gambian Girl (SaGG) Foundation is a charitable organisation that focuses its efforts to change inequality in terms of education and gender in The Gambia, helping girls to complete their school education.

Through its website and presence on social networks, the SaGG Foundation presents competitors, such as Abaana, “charity set up for the benefit of less privileged people in Africa” and ​​Plan International UK (PIUK), that “work with girls and boys growing up in some of the world’s poorest communities”. 

We will see how foundations handle social networks and interact with their target market. SaGG foundation and Abanna are similar in social media size, but PIUK is a bigger foundation so we will compare their social media to see the reason why they perform better. 

Social Media Listening

First of all when you google search for the keyword “Girls education charity gambia”, both Abaana and ​​PIUK are up in the paid search, and SaGG Foundation is the first in the natural search, which reflects a correct use of SEO.

On the SaGG Foundation’s and Plan International’s webpage there is an active blog, which is very positive for creating relevant content around the situation and the institution. Abanna also presents a news section which is a very good way to keep informed and reflect on the impact of their work.

Facebook and Instagram are the most used social media channels in general. Despite all having the number of followers shown above, and being active, posting almost 1 daily post, they are all low on reactions and engagement. They have few likes and comments on all the publications.

SaGG has low-quality content; The photos and videos don’t look professional, and it’s difficult to read the text in it. Abaana in this sense presents better quality pictures. The two present too much text in each publication, so in general, both should reduce the text to short explanations and create better quality content.

On this matter PIUK does a better job creating actualised content with a short text, having a simple and clear call to action, always anchored to the link to donate.

The focus and tone of voice used by the SaGG Foundation are for a female audience; making them protagonists they only use female faces in addition to pink and other strong colours in most of its publications, unlike the other two institutions that have slightly more sober or standard colours, appealing to the help of a more general public, and focusing on the general problem and not on gender.

All of them are active with Instagram stories. They have good profile stories explaining the foundation, what they do and what is achieved, with a cheerful and hopeful message. Showing a positive story will make the viewer feel hope and that this situation can be reversed. 

On Twitter, SaGG Foundation publishes every 1 or 2 days, so it remains quite active. The problem is that the images and content are similar to the channels mentioned above. Anyway, the message contains a call to action and the text is shorter. Abaana has been inactive since 2018 on this social media and PIUK correctly focuses on publishing attractive and simple videos and images and leaving the text more than anything to the call to action.

Sagg Foundation has some videos on YouTube but the potential of this channel has not been exploited. PIUK presents a wide variety of videos (more than 100 videos), showing different news, children’s situations and insights related to the importance of the problem under discussion and the foundation.

In the case of LinkedIn, the SaGG Foundation uses the appropriate number of words, since in this social network there is the possibility of posting something a little longer. PIUK also correctly takes advantage of this channel to thank the contributions and demonstrate that the help is not in vain, generating interaction with users.

Building Trust in the Foundation

No one would give a large amount of money to an institution that does not know specifically where those funds are destined or that is transparent in its use. “Trust in charities has decreased significantly since 2016 from 51% to 48% agreeing that they believe charities to be trustworthy.” 

Source: (CAF, 2019)

“Successful organizations overcome cynicism by proactively working to build trust. They make it clear that donations are helping beneficiaries, by openly sharing their accomplishments, especially the important outcomes for each year.” (Rees, 2021)

To whom should charity be directed?

People of different generations have motivations and emotional attachments to different current problems. Statista 2021 states: “People that were over the age of 75 were the most likely age group to give to charity in England and Wales in 2020. By contrast, those aged between 16 and 24, the youngest age group surveyed, were the least likely to give to charity, at 50 per cent.”

Source: (Clark, Statista, 2021)

They also say: “In 2021, approximately 67 per cent of women in England advised that they had given to charity, compared with 59 per cent of men. Throughout this provided time period, a higher share of women gave to charity than men.”

Source: (Clark, Statista, 2021)

Institute of FundRaising made a study where they concluded that “the only area where men showed greater support was in the sum donated, with an average gift of £29 compared with £23.” (Plummer, 2017) 

Elders on social media

What channel to use to generate a relationship or attract the attention of this age group?
In order to reach out to them, we need to create content on their most used social media, Facebook and Youtube.

Source: (Social Media for Older Adults | Senior Tech Club, 2022)

Recommendations

• Generate appropriate content for Facebook. By increasing the quality of the pictures and videos the user will engage better and believe in the institution.
• Content diversification. More content pillars in each network, but also differentiate one network from another according to its potential.
• Giving more information and results will show transparency in the institution, so people will feel safe giving money.
• The current blog could be written by external collaborators and also promoted on other social networks.
• Add a Newsletter on the website to keep the people involved informed.
• Focus on the older age range, as they are the ones that give more money to charities.
• Women are indeed more involved in charities than men, but when men donate, they donate more, that’s why they shouldn’t be discarded from the targeting.
• Develop more content for Youtube, as it is one of the most used social media of this target group.
• Youtube videos can be used for advertising on the same channel and also on other platforms, showing quality content.

Finally, we leave you with a video proposal, which is mainly intended for Facebook and YouTube. The idea is to show the story of one of the foundation’s girls so people can see the results achieved with the contribution, and in this way, it seeks to promote awareness to our target customers, for them to feel attracted and then engage them.

Below is the video proposal following all the ideas raised above:

References:

https://www-statista-com.uow.idm.oclc.org/statistics/1234458/number-of-children-out-of-school-in-africa-by-country/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/525663/age-structure-in-gambia/

https://www.cafonline.org/docs/default-source/about-us-publications/caf-uk-giving-2019-report-an-overview-of-charitable-giving-in-the-uk.pdf?sfvrsn=c4a29a40_4

https://getfullyfunded.com/why-people-give/

https://www-statista-com.uow.idm.oclc.org/statistics/292936/giving-to-charity-in-england-by-age/

https://www-statista-com.uow.idm.oclc.org/statistics/292929/giving-to-charity-in-england-by-gender/

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The Sponsor a Gambian Girl (SaGG) Foundation has requested WBS Social Media Clinic to execute a social media audit, and based on the findings and data collected present different social media and content recommendations. Predominantly, there was developed a principle in journalism that aims to provide structure, tangibility, and answers to a number of important questions known as the Five W´s; Who, What, When, Where and Why. Nonetheless this principle is also applicable when conducting a social media audit, and will be used for guidance when performing the audit for SaGG, in addition to looking into engagement.

1.1 SaGG Social Media Audit

(Table 1.1. Social Media Audit for SaGG)

Sponsor a Gambian Girl has an online presence on five major social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. A key takeaway from the audit is the social media platforms uniformity and identicalness. There was little variation in content across their platforms, where content and captions are one and the same. Posting the same content everywhere is a bare minimum strategy where companies know they need to get content out but they don’t know what else to post to stand out (Chen, 2021).  The audience is not the same across all channels, and therefore, it is significant for companies to tailor the content according to the platform’s audience to maximize the performance. The engagement rate calculated for SaGG is at 1,86% which by industry standards is considered average/ok.

1.2 Assessment of Competitors Social Media Presence

(Table 1.2. Social Media Audit for SaGG competitors)

When conducting a social media audit for a brand it is important to also look into its competitors. Two main competitors for SaGG are Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) and Africa Educational Trust who is now a part of Street Child. First, CAMFED has a similar social media presence to SaGG with the use of photos, hashtags, links, videos, infographics etc., their frequency of publishing content, and purpose. They also have a significantly larger following, and an engagement rate of 2% across all platforms which is meaningful in their quest. Second, African Educational Trust (AET) uses the same social media platforms as SaGG, though their content is tailored to meet their audiences’ expectations by differentiating content across their platforms. This differentiation might be the reason why AET has the highest engagement rate out of all three organizations with a score of 3.5%.

1.3 Investigation of Consumers/Donors´ Social Media and Content Habits

In a report provided by Co-Founder of SaGG, Annetta Paps-King, the intended target audience for the organization are females in the ages between 20-40 years old. Demographics preferred platform and usage vary depending on their gender and age group, therefore, from SaGG choosing their priority platforms to conducting market research, demographic data is key to understanding which platforms, content and potential campaigns they should implement (Sprout Social, 2022). According to recent reports by Statista Research Department, the top social media platforms SaGG´s target audience use is Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Instagram is primarily used by the 20-29-year olds, Facebook is primarily used by 25-35-year olds, Twitter is primarily used by 20-40-year olds, LinkedIn is primarily used by 30-64-year olds, and YouTube is primarily used by 15-55-year olds. After uncovering which social media platforms the target audience use, the next step is to discover what type of content they prefer. As previously mentioned, each platform´s audience has different expectations and tailoring content to each platform will help SaGG excel. See table 1.3 for consumer´s social media & content habits.

(Table 1.3. Social Media Audit for Consumer´s Social Media & Content Habits)

A large part of creating interesting and engaging content is to follow and keep up with market trends. For SaGG that means to obtain knowledge on the latest news related to charities, global crisis, or anything that will affect the organization on social media. There are several trends that could impact charities in the upcoming year, as; a lingering uncertainty post-pandemic, rapid inflation, cybersecurity related to threats and fraud, a continued decline in donors, and the fundraising environment evolving (Charities Aid Foundation, 2022).

2.0 Social Media Goals

2.1 Social Media Recommendations

Based on the data and insights collected in part 1.0, it is clear that SaGG needs to focus on differentiating their social media content. There was little to zero variation in content across the platforms, which is perceived as a lack of understanding of what the different platforms can offer. As shown in table 1.3, there is a detailed list of what consumers content habits or preferences are for each platform, and this can help SaGG navigate what type of content they should implement for each platform to optimize their content. For example, SaGG will not reach 20-year olds with the same content intended to reach 40-year olds. See part 2.2 for content recommendations that will optimize SaGG´s content, and noticeably enlarge their future engagement rate.

Another social media recommendation is to focus on SaGG´s YouTube channel. A large part of the foundations intended target audience use this platform on a daily basis, and YouTube has the ability to connect SaGG to a global audience. The platform allows brands to create playlists around specific topics that are relevant to SaGG´s target audience (Business, 2020). With well-optimized videos, SaGG can have a massive reach to help them achieve the foundations marketing objectives (Business, 2020).

2.2 Content Recommendations

2.2.1 Social Media Content Calendar

In the audit it is uncovered that the foundation publishes content every 2-3 days, and sometimes twice a day. Therefore, the first recommendation for SaGG will be to establish a social media content calendar to organize their upcoming content, and strategize which platforms to use. A social media content calendar is considered the best way to plan and organize upcoming content (Hootsuite, 2021). Below is a suggested content calendar for SaGG for the upcoming week 4^th of April until the 10^th of April.

(Table 2.1, Social Media Content Calendar for SaGG)

2.2.2 Instagram Infographic

The second recommendation is an infographic for SaGG´s Instagram. In table 1.3 it was identified that consumers enjoy educational and inspirational videos, texts or photos, and therefore, it is suggested that SaGG will launch a monthly, regular infographic focusing on a girl who has been sponsored through SaGG. The goal is to show followers the impact SaGG has on the girls in The Gambia. The infographic will be no longer than 60 seconds, and follow a sponsored girl in a day in her life at school, with friends, and doing homework, in other words simply being a child.

2.2.3 LinkedIn Post

The final recommendation is a LinkedIn post. LinkedIn is a phenomenal platform to create awareness and reach potential sponsors due to its professional audience, and similarly to Instagram, the audience on LinkedIn prefer educational and inspirational content. There are numerous of foundations that SaGG can partner with to create interesting and educational content for LinkedIn. For instance, The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) briefly highlighted how girl’s education can prevent child marriage. The recommended content is to either interview the foundation or quote the report on the importance of girl´s education.

3.0 References

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/additions-to-the-five-journalistic-ws#:~:text=In%20journalism%2C%20the%20%E2%80%9CFive%20′,should%20be%20able%20to%20answer

https://www.cafonline.org/about-us/blog-home/charities-blog/2022-trends-that-could-impact-charity-sector

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/what-to-post-on-each-social-media-platform/

https://info.lse.ac.uk/staff/divisions/communications-division/digital-communications-team/assets/documents/guides/A-Guide-To-Social-Media-Platforms-and-Demographics.pdf

https://promorepublic.com/en/blog/what-is-a-good-instagram-engagement-rate-in-2021/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/376128/facebook-global-user-age-distribution/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/248769/age-distribution-of-worldwide-instagram-users/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/296227/us-youtube-reach-age-gender/

https://www.business.com/articles/every-brand-should-have-a-youtube-channel/#:~:text=YouTube%20connects%20you%20to%20a,you%20achieve%20your%20marketing%20objectives

https://hbr.org/2015/11/conducting-a-social-media-audit

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