Social Media Case Study: United Way NWLA
Social Media Case Study: United Way NWLA
United Way of Northwest Louisiana (NWLA) is a 501(C)3 nonprofit organization established in 1921 that services 10 Northwest Louisiana parishes, including Caddo, Bossier, Webster, DeSoto, Natchitoches, Bienville, Claiborne, Sabine, Red River, and Winn. Its mission and vision are to fight for “the health, education, financial stability and essential needs of every person in [the Northwest Louisiana] community” and collaboratively improve people's lives in Northwest Louisiana. The United Way NWLA values are service and community focus, integrity and respect, collaboration, accountability and professionalism, innovation and excellence. The brand’s voice is generic but genuine and passionate. The posts and information are general public announcement messages about the United Way NWLA’s programs and events and celebration posts of United Way NWLA staff, volunteers, and donors.
United Way NWLA has a decent social media presence that is quite strong compared to its largest non-profit competitor, the Community Foundation of North Louisiana. United Way NWLA’s social media voice focuses on event promotion, staff celebration, and program information. United Way NWLA’s social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok. The brand’s most significant social media problem is garnering consistent engagement despite having accounts on the most popular social media platforms. The Facebook page consists of graphic posts celebrating the staff, volunteers, and donors and posts educating the public about United Way NWLA’s programs. The Instagram page feed comprises identical posts and captions from the Facebook page and gets very little engagement. The page uses Instagram’s Reels video feature to create engaging content, using trending sounds and dances. The Twitter page has 1,641 followers but gets very little engagement. The Twitter feed also comprises identical posts and captions from the Facebook page and gets very little engagement. None of the brand’s tweets have more than three likes. The brand’s YouTube page is where United Way NWLA posts its campaign videos, videos about its centennial anniversary, and its “Virtual Volunteer Readers” series. The brand’s LinkedIn page has 260 followers and comprises identical posts and captions from the Facebook page with little engagement. The brand’s TikTok page is well-populated with videos about United Way NWLA’s successes in the community with its events and community involvement in its programs.
The source interviewed for this case study is Paige Melton (P. Melton, personal communication, April 8, 2022). Melton is the communications manager for United Way NWLA. Melton is the sole person in charge of all social media for United Way NWLA, including post creation and implementation. As a result, Melton has a unique perspective on United Way NWLA’s social media present, future, and obstacles.
According to Melton, United Way NWLA’s approach to social media is strategic for each platform “because United Way [NWLA] has a broad audience of different ages and … different generations.” Melton also has to consider the United Way NWLA’s community partners it campaigns with and who give them sponsorships for events. “Those companies are only on certain platforms, so [United Way NWLA] has to think about what platforms they will be on.” For example, United Way NWLA received a $10,000 sponsorship from Chesapeake Energy for its 2022 Day of Caring event. “So [Melton] went and looked and made sure of what platforms [Chesapeake Energy] were on first before [she] decided where [she] was going to post it, and luckily they were on everything.”
The United Way NWLA has a strategic plan to reach a specific audience for each social media platform. For example, Instagram is an aesthetic-based platform, a fact Melton considers, “but [United Way NWLA] has a lot of programs and services to get out to the public.” Although the brand’s Instagram “may not always [have] the most fun content,” Melton makes every effort “to make sure it matches the brand standards but is also eye-catching because that is a big reason people are on Instagram.” For the TikTok page, Melton created it as “purely a place that [United Way NWLA] mostly posts our wins.” United Way Worldwide has set branding standards and guidelines for ‘win’ and ‘fight’ language in social media posts. Melton explains that she uses ‘fight’ language when “asking for donations or giving a statistic about a problem in the community, such as children not being prepared for kindergarten by the time they're old enough to go in.” Melton explains that ‘win’ language is for successes, such as meeting “a huge milestone where [United Way NWLA] got enough donations to keep one of our programs going for the next five years.” For the Facebook page, Melton describes it as “where the majority of [the United Way NWLA’s] audience is” and where she posts consistently.
Melton has complete creative and administrative control over the United Way NWLA’s social media presence as the communications manager. For the social media platforms, Melton does “a lot of graphic design work mainly in Canva, and it consists of different things, whether it’s photos [or] videos.” During Melton’s first title at United Way NWLA as communications coordinator, she “would send [her] supervisor at the time everything that [she] planned to post to make sure [she] was getting it right.” However, once Melton “learned the United Way voice,” she was promoted to communications manager and is now trusted with the brand’s social media platforms. However, with “[critical] messages [United Way NWLA] needs to get out [such as] crisis communication,” Melton asks for assistance “because someone could see something that [she] potentially may have missed.”
According to Melton, the United Way NWLA’s most significant challenge with social media is the audience because generally, “non-profit work is not always eye-catching to people, and it’s not something people are always worried about then they go on social media.” Melton’s primary goal is to increase engagement and brand awareness to address this problem. Melton states the United Way NWLA’s primary focus is to “speak to the different audiences,” which she names ”the main point of being on multiple platforms because it allows [the United Way NWLA] to be able to do that.”
Melton believes social media is “absolutely” important for the United Way NWLA. The United Way NWLA’s mission is to “meet the unmet needs of individuals who live in Northwest Louisiana,” such as “health, education, financial stability, and essential needs” for its ten parish region. To achieve this mission, the United Way NWLA is “constantly developing, adapting and evolving to meet those needs because that’s something that [will never] change. People are always going to fall into crisis. There are going to be new crises, like COVID-19. That was a new obstacle and challenge, so it’s [excellent] for [the United Way NWLA] to leverage social media to keep the public updated.”
Melton identified building relationships as a primary goal and “not just [with the United Way NWLAs’] audience but also [with] our community partners and grow those relationships because essentially that's what is [going] to keep [United Way NWLA] going and increase our funding on certain things.”
Melton’s plans for the United Way NWLA’s future social media approach are to “improve [the brand’s] relationships through social media, increase [the brand’s] partnerships in the community, and […] deep dive into [analytics] and flush it out.” Currently, Melton uses the analytics provided by Facebook’s Meta Business Suite, WordPress, and the in-app analytics on the United Way NWLA’s social media platforms.
Facebook and Instagram represent United Way NWLA’s strong and weak social media. Facebook is the brand’s most robust social media platform. The page has 5,196 likes, a decent following for a regional non-profit organization, and a little more than their largest competitor, the Community Foundation of North Louisiana. The brand updates the feed with new posts every one to three days, making three to four posts per week. The feed consists mainly of graphic posts promoting events such as Day of Caring, celebrating the United Way NWLA staff, volunteers, and donors, and links to their partner SingleCare’s blog about general health information and advice. The number of post likes ranges between five and 30, with an average of 12, and the Facebook engagement rate is 0.23%. The graphic posts are created using Canva, a graphic design platform, and follow the established United Way Worldwide branding guidelines that dictate colors, tone, voice style, logo usage, and brand architecture (United Way Worldwide, 2019). In addition, United Way NWLA takes advantage of several trendjacking opportunities throughout the year to create new content. The holidays that it capitalizes on are National Reading Month and Read Across America Day, which Melton used to promote United Way NWLA’s Dolly Parton Imagination Library program. In addition, Melton used St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate its donors with a graphic stating, “We’re Feeling Lucky to Have Supporters Like You” (United Way of Northwest Louisiana, 2022). The brand rarely receives comments except for the staff and volunteer spotlight posts which are the brand’s most popular posts. With the few comments it receives, the brand only engages with replies to the comments from sponsors, donors, and collaborators such as Region Bank and Bossier Parish Libraries and only reacts with the ‘love’ or ‘care’ emoji to other comments.
TikTok is one of the United Way NWLA’s successful social media platforms due to respectable viewer counts, although there is a lower posting frequency than the Facebook page. The page has 96 followers, whereas its competitor, the Community Foundation of North Louisiana, does not have a presence on the platform. The brand’s account was started in 2020 by Paige Melton. The page has accumulated 25 videos in nearly two years. The brand updates the feed intermittently with new posts approximately once a month. The page’s most active year was 2021, when Melton posted 16 videos. The feed consists of United Way NWLA’s events and community involvement videos. The average number of post likes is 18, and the engagement rate is 18.75%. The posts rarely get comments from followers, and the most comments are from fellow United Way chapters across the United States. United Way NWLA engages with the comments by liking them and replying with thanks to compliments.
The brand’s most viewed TikTok, with 1,395 views, is about United Way NWLA’s Celebration of Impact event with food and games to celebrate the organization’s community efforts (United Way NWLA, 2022). The video showed views of the event’s setting and decoration, footage of attendees enjoying the food and festivities, clips of speeches from the staff, and thanks to the event’s sponsors. The video uses the trending TikTok sound “Love You So” by The King Khan & BBQ Show, used in 12.1 million videos (Love You So Created by The King Khan & BBQ Show | Popular Songs on TikTok, n.d.). Using trending TikTok sounds boosts video exposure. The brand’s most liked TikTok, with 99 likes, is about United Way NWLA’s annual Campaign Kickoff event with food and games to mark the organization’s fundraising season commencement (United Way NWLA, 2021). The video showed views of the event’s setting and decoration, footage of attendees enjoying the food and festivities, and thanks to the event’s sponsors. The video uses the trending TikTok sound “Send Me on My Way” by Vibe Street, used in 825.5K videos (Send Me on My Way Created by Vibe Street | Popular Songs on TikTok, n.d.).
United Way NWLA’s most successful messages on social media are its spotlights on the organization’s staff and volunteers and its virtual volunteer reader Youtube series. The brand’s staff spotlights are graphic posts introducing new staff members, celebratory graphics for staff birthday well wishes, and TikTok videos of staff talking about United Way NWLA programs. The volunteer spotlight posts are graphic posts that celebrate community volunteer involvement and efforts in United Way NWLA programs. The staff and volunteer spotlight posts are the brand’s most popular posts and garner the most engagement of likes and comments on each social media platform. These posts are successful because of the attractive graphics, and their audience enjoys seeing the United Way NWLA staff working in the community.
In 2020, United Way NWLA launched a Youtube series called “Virtual Volunteer Readers” that features community volunteers reading children’s stories. United Way NWLA started this series to share stories with children while quarantined during the COVID-19 pandemic. The volunteers range in cultural backgrounds and self-record themselves reading diverse and engaging books. United Way NWLA published 86 “Virtual Volunteer Readers” videos between two and 13 minutes. The video views range between two and 860, with an average of 36 views and a combined total of 3,169 views. The success of the series led to a partnership with their most prominent and long-time sponsors, AEP Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO). AEP SWEPCO employees and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 329 members continued the “Virtual Volunteer Readers” by reading books from the United Way NWLA’s early childhood literacy program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The partnership resulted in 12 videos ranging from two to nine minutes with 119 views.
United Way NWLA has the potential to have an excellent social media presence. However, only one person in charge of social media content is responsible for post creation and gathering analytics. It can be a laborious task to control public perception of a non-profit organization that may not be of particular interest to the public and essentially is responsible for curating the organization’s brand to attract sponsors and partnerships. However, post innovation and strategy may improve the brand’s social media presence.
Paige Melton stated that the United Way NWLA seeks to improve its brand recognition with the public. One way to do this is to create a media marketing plan with two objectives: increase social media engagement focusing on Facebook and develop and increase recognition for United Way NWLA’s programs to showcase the connection to the United Way better. There are numerous ways to implement this media marketing plan to improve the United Way NWLA’s existing messaging efforts. The brand shares posts about the United Way’s programs which can be enhanced by more attractive graphics, posting frequency, and various programs discussed. The brand can capitalize on the success of its staff and volunteer posts by showcasing the staff and volunteers working in the community to show its audience how passionate they are about making a difference in the community and to show how donations affect the United Way NWLA programs. In 2019, Facebook began boosting videos in its algorithm (Newberry, 2022). United Way NWLA can take advantage of this algorithm ranking by producing videos about the brand’s programs-how they work and how people can use them and testimonies from people who the programs have helped. Facebook Stories is another feature the brand can take advantage of to boost their posts that may get pushed to the bottom of users’ feeds. Although there are strict branding guidelines from their headquarters, United Way Worldwide, there is room for updated and innovative graphic posts. The graphic posts are currently made using Canva. To update the graphic posts, United Way NWLA can utilize dynamic free stock photos from Pexels to add more dimension and use Adobe Express, a free web and mobile app developed by Adobe Inc., to create new multimedia social media content. United Way NWLA can remodel its branding to center on children evoking a feel-good and sympathetic emotional response to connect with its audience and inspire donations. Melton identified analytics as an area that could use more focus. Google has an excellent program called Google for NonProfits for eligible 501(c)(3) organizations. There are several resources to increase engagement and check analytics in this program. One resource, Google Workspace for NonProfits, offers several business apps to help United Way NWLA’s internal collaboration and coordination. Another resource is Google Ad Grants. This resource provides $10,000 of in-kind advertising from Google each month to create text-based ads and build effective campaigns that display on Google Search when people look for information related to United Way NWLA.
United Way of Northwest Louisiana has the potential to have an increasingly successful social media presence. The most significant challenges are that the entire organization’s social media is the responsibility of one person, social media engagement, and brand awareness. United Way of Northwest Louisiana needs to implement a branding campaign to address these problems, complete with metrics and key performance indicators to evaluate the plan’s success. The most significant opportunities for the brand are to capitalize on the success of its staff and volunteer spotlight posts, innovate its graphics using Canva and Adobe Express, and apply for the Google for NonProfits Program. With a detailed social media marketing and branding plan, United Way of Northwest Louisiana has the potential to convert its audience into donors and earn a significant ROI from its social media efforts.
References
Love You So created by The King Khan & BBQ Show | Popular songs on TikTok. (n.d.). TikTok. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.tiktok.com/music/Love-You-So-6728562975734515713
Melton, P. (2022, April 8). Personal communication [Personal interview].
Melton, P. (n.d.). United Way of Northwest Louisiana. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://unitedwaynwla.org/
Newberry, C. (2022). How the Facebook Algorithm Works in 2022 and How to Make it Work for You. Hootsuite Blog. Retrieved April 24, 2022, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-algorithm/
Send Me on My Way created by Vibe Street | Popular songs on TikTok. (n.d.). TikTok. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.tiktok.com/music/Send-Me-on-My-Way-6847581036629460993
United Way of Northwest Louisiana. (2022, March 17). We are VERY #lucky to have supporters like YOU! 🍀 Happy St. Patrick's Day from United Way of Northwest Louisiana. 🌈 [Image attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/unitedwaynwla/photos/a.431184787436/10161553986567437
United Way NWLA [@unitedwaynwla]. (2021, June 4). Thank you to everyone who came to play in the rain with us for Campaign Kick Off! And a HUGE [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@unitedwaynwla/video/6970036844855561478?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7074733105328752174
United Way NWLA [@unitedwaynwla]. (2022, March 3). We love to celebrate YOUR impact! ❤️ Thank you to everyone who could make it to our first fundraising event [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@unitedwaynwla/video/7070988294149934378?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7074733105328752174
United Way Worldwide. (2019, June). Brand Standards & Guidelines. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yYClmWJas-tupnXTAFBbKn1h4y2apmgv/view?ts=62598b77