The team of Proper media supports the Listen Up Foundation with training and mentoring for Facebook reputation management
We at Proper Media are truly fortunate to help various businesses and organizations better represent themselves and their activities on social media and online in general. Recently we were approached by the girls and boys from "Listen up". They are a group of young people, some of whom are deaf. Their mission is to build a bridge between deaf people and all communication and information services. A bridge that will give them equal access to better education and professional development.
Someone had convinced Ashod and his colleagues that the Deaf could not cope with maintaining the organisation's Facebook page and they wanted us to help them. They came with a specific request that we donate subscription support for the page.
We decided to have a meeting to find out what resources they have and how we can solve the problem together. At this meeting we found that we all believe in the maxim that it is better to teach a hungry man to fish than to catch his fish. And because this principle guides their work at Listen Up, they trusted us and together we decided that instead of subscription support for the Facebook page, Proper media would give them training and mentoring.
Thus began our common tale with "Listen up"! We're still writing it together, but here are some difficulties and decisions we went through, in the hope that they might help you do better in Facebook.
Problem 1: We don't have a good copywriter. Deaf people write with mistakes.
One clarification. Very often deaf people make spelling mistakes, not because they are illiterate, but because in their world the words joy, joyful, rejoice, rejoice (for example) are the same word. They have a gesture for it, and in their everyday life they do not distinguish between the different forms of this word. This makes the writing in them a bit peculiar. I wouldn't call it "wrong", though it's really outside the rules of the English language.
Solution: We agreed that their marketing manager (Joanna, who is not deaf) would post all official announcements. She doesn't have the time to devote entirely to maintaining the page, but when there is something special that she has been working on anyway, she will post it. Other posts will be made by Sasho and Janka, who are deaf (and sometimes make mistakes). They will be more casual, everyday posts that don't require complex language and tolerate slight inaccuracies. Plus, we thought they'd use the page to tell everyone about this feature of Deaf writing so that more people know that it's not illiteracy, but a charming feature 🙂
Problem 2: Everything is a big mess. We don't know what to post and what not to post.
They couldn't even explain what exactly the problem is - on the one hand they want their communication to be aimed at the deaf, on the other hand they need to reach out to the hearing community to raise their awareness of the problems of the silent community. How does one message fit with the other?
Solution: In business, we also have different audiences: customers, employees, partners, etc. We decided to identify a few themes that target the different audiences of Listen Up. So we outlined: 1. fundraising, 2. raising awareness of Deaf issues, 3. inspiring and building role models for Deaf people themselves, 4. informing Deaf people about interesting and useful events/resources, 5. news and more from the Listen Up team. To make it easier for the team, we have decided that each week we will post at least one thing about each topic. This way we have 5 days with 5 diverse topics and reach all audiences in a sustainable way.
Problem 3: The team also does many other tasks, we can't provide a person to post content on "the right times".
Solution: Yes, it's true that posting times matter, but we professionals, we admit, often stare at them too much. The advice we've given the Listen Up team is to focus on the substance and value of the content and not worry about the time they post. Of course, it's not good to post official announcements at 3am, but they confirmed that there is no such danger anyway 🙂 !
Here below are a few more tips that got "Listen Up":
- To keep track of who their most active audiences are and to strive to provoke and sustain dialogue with them;
- To share content from other sources - colleagues, partners, and content that any of their audiences find useful, even if not directly related to the organization's activities (significant achievements of deaf individuals, for example);
- Be active in groups or other places online on behalf of Listen Up where their audiences are present;
- How to navigate the admin panel and use it for planning;
- And other specific technical and content tips 🙂
We, in turn, received great recognition: "We had a lot of people come through our office social-media specialists, but for the first time in my head sorted out the things about social networks. Thank you to Miryanka for the time, energy and passion she gave us!"
You can follow along with us and enjoy the successes of Listen Up on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/zaslushaise
Or if you need advice, training or other help with getting your organisation on Facebook, contact us: Facebook | LinkedIn | office@proper.media
