Facebook & the Refugee Crisis
When it comes to informing people to what the refugee crisis is, engaging them to gain support, and spreading the word about the refugee crisis there is no better platform than social media. Social media is a place that most people find themselves engaging in, in some form or another. Facebook, according to studies, has the largest reach across demographics. I want to talk a little bit about how three organizations working with refugees use facebook.
The first is World Relief, a non-profit that works to fight human trafficking and to help make the transition into the states easier for those who have come from another country. World Relief is reaching people across many platforms. They not only have facebook, but also twitter and Instagram. World Relief has offices all over the states and even globe. On facebook each location has their own group. This reaches a wider audience because someone living in Sacramento can pull up the World Relief Sacramento page and see what is specifically happening with World Relief in their own location.
World Relief does a good job of posting content. On average they post every one to two days. They also post a lot of engaging images that make the reader want to read the blurb underneath. Another thing World Relief does well, as I already mentioned, is creating specefic groups for each location in order to create a more dynamic and interesting feel for their followers.
A couple things that World Relief could improve on in their Facebook persona is communicating back with commenters on posts. This brings a more familiar feel to an organization I think. Also, World Relief tends to write a lot with each post. This is understandable because there is a lot to be said but perhaps creating a separate blog for those posts would be helpful and then links on their facebook with just one or two catching sentences would make it a little more visually appealing. Finally, they could be incorporating their own personal hashtag to add another element to their page.
Another organization that does not deal directly with refugees but has recently done a series on refugees is Humans of New York. This group takes images of people met on the street and posts a snip bit of conversation they have with the people. Recently, as I mentioned, posts about refugees have been put up on the site and has given a more human feel to the people, creating a story behind the statistic.
This organization goes over different platforms as there is a facebook page, Instagram feed, and even book. One thing that HONY does well is their images. The images look natural but are compelling. Also, there is a post every single day so I commend HONY for consistency and often HONY will do images in parts which creates good suspense. Finally, HONY creates a platform that allows for a lot of dialogue in the comments which is great because it makes their page interactive and compelling.
A couple things that HONY could do better is montioring the comments a bit more because sometimes there can be cyber bullying. Also, creating albums with certain themes could be cool. Finally, they could create some sort of interactive challenge in getting other people to do this sort of thing to expose real people and their stories.
The final organization I want us to look at is World Vision. World Vision's reach extends to all over the world and they do a lot of refugee relief work. World Vision moves across platforms by incorporating Twitter and Instagram. Like World Relief, World Vision has specific groups for specific locations which engages a more local audience.
Something I think World Vision does well is they post very clear images. The pictures are compelling and high quality which engages the facebook user. Also, their text is a good length. It explains the picture or message while also being brief. If more needs to be said they post a link. Finally, World Vision does a great job of reaching a large audience and being specific with them. They have a World Vision Students page, a World Vision USA page, one for Canada, etc.
Somethings World Vision could improve on is posting more videos. Videos are a great way to really show what is happening in the life of a refugee. Also, because it is a non-profit a great way to gain financial support is to provide a link on their facebook page to support this non-profit. Finally, I think incorporating more interaction with other non-profits working with refugees would be a useful way to not only show unity but also gain more supporters.