Young Scot Engaging Young People with Health Information through Social Media Kirsten Urquhart, Information Services & Lorna Maciver, Information Services Officer
Registered charity, based in Edinburgh Established for over 30 years Supporting young people aged 11 – 25 Supported by Scottish Government, Local Authorities, National Agencies, Voluntary Sector, Business community Key partner: young people Who is Young Scot?
It is our aim that the services we provide will enable all young people to: –Make informed decisions and choices –Turn their ideas into action –Take advantage of the opportunities available to them –Have the confidence and knowledge to take their place as active citizens in their communities- locally, nationally and globally. Who is Young Scot?
Why Social Media?
Social media is at the core of Young Scot services Integrated into our websites Part of our direct engagement practices with young people Social Media at the Core...
Why Social Media? to promote our services > marketing to connect young people to our information & services to engage young people with digital information content to build an online community to stay relevant with the issues effecting young people to raise awareness of the impact we make to partners, funders, etc to encourage peer recommendations > sharing to have a conversation with our stakeholders to monitor our reach and impact
Young Scot Social Media Reach Young Scot have a direct reach of over 15,000 young people through social media channels alone This does not take into account our potential tweet reach from user/stakeholder sharing
building community
enquiries
Facebook Interaction
promotion
campaigning
raising awareness
Monitoring Social Media for Information
monitoring: TweetDeck
monitoring: Google Trends
monitoring: What The Trend (Hootsuite) What the Trend helps you find out what's trending on Twitter and why. When a new topic becomes popular on Twitter, it's listed as a "trending topic.“ These topics may take the form of short phrases or hashtags#
Responsive
Relevant and Responsive Emerging #cutforbeiber trend on twitter in January encouraging young people to self harm until Justin Beiber stopped taking drugs* (*alleged drug use) Young Scot created content on the website in response to this worrying trend and tweeted out using controversial hashtag This allowed Young Scot to engage in the discussion
Relevant and Responsive Hollyoaks storyline about Esther and Online bullying: Feature article on website Asked FB followers to give advice for esther/friends who are being bullied and included one in the article. Tweeted during the programme
Relevant and Responsive MTV UK programme called Catfish Young people forming relationships online Feature article on website Tweeted during programme
Performance Management
Performance Management: Google Analytics
Performance Management: Facebook Insights
Paid Performance Tools
Some things to consider...
Getting Started What are your objectives ? Who is your target audience ? Which tool is best for you? Do you have the resources to commit? How will you evaluate the success? Are there any barriers e.g. company policies?
Remember... It’s long term – Don’t expect immediate results It takes effort – You must be willing to engage It’s a conversation – Facilitate conversations between you and members If you want your members to spread your message you have to trust them Make an informed decision on using it Monitor your performance and evaluate
Thank you for listening! Any questions? Kirsten Urquhart, Information Services