Our Team: Riley Job, Vanessa Matsubara, Nicole Medearis
Our Community Partner: South Vancouver Neighbourhood House
Introduction
Our work with the South Vancouver Neighborhood House (SVNH) was focused on serving a specific community and their unique needs which we were able to do with help from our community liaison, Danvic Briones. In tandem, we were able to evaluate their current status on social media, provide recommendations, and collaborate to create a social media strategy that focused on clear communication from the organization to its community. In our meetings and touring of the SVNH facilities, it became clear to us that the organization wanted to improve and change the way that they delivered information and the markets they targeted to better support the younger members in their community.
About South Vancouver Neighbourhood House
SVNH is a community neighbourhood house part of the Association of Neighborhood BC and serves the Killarney, Sunset, and Victoria-Fraserview neighbourhoods. SVNH seeks to provide resources to its uniquely diverse community which is composed of many immigrant families who bring their own unique cultures into the community. SVNH provides a myriad of support systems to its community through workshops, food security programs, education programs, ESL services, subsidized child care, and more. They mainly seek to cater to their specific community which is primarily composed of elderly residents with a special focus on programs for young families and children.
Problems and Needs
In their introduction, SVNH wrote that they wanted to focus on promoting their new space, the Southside Hub, and the daycare program in it, Salmonberry Childcare. Because of the pandemic and COVID restrictions, the community has not yet seen the new space, separate from their existing facilities, or programs. After looking at their pre-existing social media pages, we found that they seemed to mainly use Facebook and LinkedIn. We noted that their infographics were cluttered with many elements and wanted to optimize the transmission of information. When we talked to Danvic, he said one of their goals was to reach a younger audience (11-23). As the SVNH had an inactive Instagram account that hadn’t been posted on since 2016 and contained a very different branding than that of their current style and goals we decided to start fresh and create a new account. To ensure that posts were clear and easy to read we ventured from their typical single infographics image to a multi-slide format to improve the aesthetic and not overwhelm the users. Another concern that Danvic expressed was that he wanted the posts to primarily reach members of the South Vancouver Neighbourhood instead of trying to achieve as much engagement as possible.
Solution and Implementation
We decided on a virtual tour of the South Side Hub to post on their Youtube channel so that the community could see the new space while also staying safe and adhering to provincial restrictions. Unfortunately, because of external conflicts and scheduling issues we were unable to shoot a complete tour. We created many different types of posts in templates more suitable for the Instagram platform that included event information, sneak peeks to the new facility, and so on. We made sure to keep the graphics clean and legible as we found the originals hard to digest. Because of communication obstacles, these weren’t added to the posting schedule but have been kept as references by SVNH.
Initial Post for Salmonberry Published on Instagram
As for the goal of reaching mainly members in the neighbourhood, we decided to use specific hashtags and geotags as there wasn’t a budget for promoting posts. Due to unforeseen obstacles, we weren’t able to post all of our content before the project deadline. As a solution, we have catalogued content for the SVNH that they can use going forward as they see fit.
Products Created
Salmonberry Campaign
We furthermore were able to create a full media campaign that spanned the majority of their social media platforms for the launch of the Salmonberry Childcare Centre based on the promotional materials given to us. Throughout the process of the creation of products for the Salmonberry Centre, we went through multiple proposed templates and styles and ultimately culminated in a particular style that married the traditional SVNH branding with the unique identities of the different programs at Salmonberry. We were able to create a distinctly branded series of posts that toured and highlighted key factors of the centre to create awareness of the program in the community. We focused on creating a modern design that targeted the young millennial families within their community in the launch of their new Instagram account @southvancom. As we spearheaded the launch of the account we coordinated the formal introduction of the community onto the platform while simultaneously launching the Salmonberry campaign.
Promotional Posts for Salmonberry Childcare on Instagram
Other Materials
Despite not being able to follow through with our initial goal of launching the SVNH youtube channel due to underlying factors we were still able to create the framework for the organization to launch it in the future by creating a banner that follows and utilizes their traditional branding in an eye-catching geometric design. Furthermore, we were able to aid the centre in the creation of custom-made advocacy posts which aid to provide the community information surrounding SVNH’s greater values and mission which are set to be posted in late March.
Proposed Promotional Post for Southside Hub for Facebook
Full repertoire of posts created for SVNH social media.
Impact of Products
We were not able to measure the impact of our posts due to the organization’s need for the posts to go through rigorous approval processes and decided to opt for storing their content for their use in the future. Additionally, due to the unique situation of our community partner we opted to help him create and catalogue materials in order to best suit his changing needs within the upcoming month. Therefore we were not able to gain any analytics from our content but can extrapolate from creating a new account with very weak community engagement from other SVNH affiliated accounts on Instagram accounts we can assume that the account would not reach wide audiences or receive a lot of engagement with the posts initially. Furthermore due to the demographics of the community being older building a following on Instagram would be more difficult. However, we were able to impart some of our techniques learned within this class in our suggestions for future content.
New and Improved SVNH Instagram Page
Video
Self Evaluation
Despite the many setbacks that we encountered within our project we were still able to create quality content that is valuable to the mission and vision of the SVNH. Furthermore, we were able to gain valuable experience working in a real-life setting which includes navigating the various challenges included in a non-controlled environment which allowed us to showcase our resilience and tenacity. One of our biggest strengths was our flexibility throughout the project as we had to frequently pivot our vision, content, and timeline in order to meet the frequently changing needs and actions of the organization. However, despite many setbacks we were able to use creative problem solving to create a myriad of content that accurately promotes the essence of the Salmonberry Childcare Centre and the greater SVNH organization. Despite being unable to complete some of our initial goals of creating a wider variety of content we still were able to achieve one of our main goals of creating a uniquely SVNH online presence within the South Vancouver area. Through implementing strategies, such as the use of geotags and hashtags, we helped the organization develop a stronger online presence within the desired area.
Though we cannot measure the success of our project from an analytic standpoint we were still able to create a successful campaign that launched not only their Instagram but the majority of the launch for the Salmonberry Childcare Centre. With a wide variety of posts on various posts at the disposal of the SVNH, we aided them as we were able to create unique marketing for Salmonberry that still is cohesive with the traditional SVNH branding. Additionally, through the launch of their Instagram, we were able to advise and start the initiative for targeting the younger audience that they desired to connect more heavily with. Our youth was an asset to this branch as we were able to give an educated opinion on what content is age-appropriate for their needs. However, we wished that we could have devoted more time to diversifying the content on Instagram and having a more robust catalogue of posts.
If we were to redo the project we would implement a stronger emphasis on having concrete responses surrounding formatting guidelines as, despite our efforts, we weren’t given the proper materials as soon as we would’ve liked. Furthermore, a greater emphasis on planning a timely content posting strategy would have further helped our delivery of posts and created a smoother launch of the @southvancom Instagram.