Elja Daae, social media trainer, keynote speaker, and author, shares what’s trending on social media and why all of UNDP needs to use digital channels to tell their story.
Social media is a game-changer. But, the impact of sharing on social media is not limited to only communications teams. Social media is useful for everyone at UNDP. Elja Daae, a social media expert based in the Netherlands, encourages us to use social media channels to find our community, share our work, and learn more about what’s happening around you and the world. In this episode, we explore how following the latest social media trends can open up our worlds and transform how we communicate in this digital age.
Elyse:
Welcome to Digital What?, a podcast series where we join UNDP personnel and experts in conversation about the digital communications questions you’ve always wanted to know, but were afraid to ask.
Today we speak with author, keynote speaker, and social media educator, Elja Daae. A lifelong writer, Elja’s childhood dream was to write a book, she just never thought it would be about social media.
We caught up with her on a sunny afternoon at her home in the Netherlands, just outside of The Hague.
Elja:
Well, I live in this tiny little square and it has a huge willow. You know what's called a weeping willow? And there's a ton of cars. In the Netherlands all the streets are very narrow. And the cars are getting bigger. Yeah and there's spring flowers in the grass, blue sky.
Elyse:
Ejia’s connection to the natural world is undeniable. I scrolled through her instagram and I saw how much she enjoys the outdoors and appreciates the beauty of the landscape around her, so I was especially curious how she got into this digital world.
Elja:
I discovered Twitter basically. I was an expat and I moved to the United States and I didn't know anyone. I mean, literally no one on the whole continent. And I decided to try Twitter and it opened my world to different people with the same interest. I was very interested in blogging at the time and I found all these bloggers and it all sort of went from there.
Elyse:
After realizing how she could become friends with complete strangers on social media, Elja started training people to do the same. Today, she encourages businesses and people to use social media as the foundation of their communication strategy.
Elja:
People will want to connect. They want to communicate. And that's the part of digital communications that social media offers. It's digital marketing and digital communications, but it's interactive and that's so important about social media compared to other forms of online marketing.
Elyse:
Elja’s right. People spend so much time on social media because it’s how we can instantaneously connect. Everything is changing in response to this human need. Just think how social media has evolved over the past years.
Elja:
To begin with, of course, we just had static websites and some people started blogs which were basically ways to make online presence, more interactive and more social. And those evolved to the social media apps that we know today. Like it did for me. It has opened up the world to everyone. Everyone who has a story to tell, everyone who is looking for information can find that on social media. When you look at social media in the landscape of digital marketing, it has grown enormously. Especially looking at an organization like yours that is basically looking to reach the whole world .
Elyse:
So I asked Elja, what is trending these days?
Elja:
One of the most important trends I see is that the algorithms that decide this side what we will see when we open those apps are favoring interactive content and community. So compared to previous years, these algorithms are becoming smarter and smarter and they want to see the connection between your followers and your page or your account. This has huge impact on the way we communicate through social media companies because it used to be OK to just share a link on Facebook or post a picture on Instagram and you would reach a large percentage of your followers. But nowadays, the algorithms want more. They want to really see people engaged with your posts and with your content. And that's quite hard for many organizations.
The big challenge that an organization like UNDP has is that there are so many subjects to talk about. And that makes it very hard to actually grow an audience because there is an audience on Instagram that's extremely interested in, for instance, women's rights or agriculture or sustainable development or whatever it is. And they might like your post, but if the next day you're talking about something completely different, they may not like your post and that makes it very, very hard for the algorithm and the platform to understand which of your followers to show your content to. So one of the really important things for UNDP is to build niche channels. It's just very hard to build a community if your account is too broad and there's too many subjects, so that's a really big trend that UNDP I think have to deal with.
Elyse:
So, when sharing content, be intentional. The more consistent and focused you are, the easier it is to build a community. One way to do this is through thinking about individual interaction.
Elja:
So one of the things that is very important right now, mostly because the algorithms are forcing us to do it, is one to one communication on social media. So if you imagine Twitter, you have an account to send out a tweet. All your followers will see it. And you know, that said you've broadcasted your message. Great. But what the algorithms want to see is interaction between your account and individual users. Maybe because they're responding to your tweet and you will be responding to their tweet or their Facebook comment. For instance, Instagram really likes to see direct messages. It's like an inbox, like almost like a personal email that you can send to anyone on Instagram. But of course, in practice, this is very difficult because it means that someone at UNDP will have to sit down and answer individual messages. But that is what algorithms really, really like to see, because that's what people really like. People really love to be able to communicate with organizations one to one.
Elyse:
Something that is also changing, is the way we gauge how well we’re reaching people
Elja:
When it comes to metrics, everyone used to be focused on growth numbers. So number of followers mostly and those have become less relevant lately, because if you have no engagement, then you will have hardly any reach. So it doesn't really matter how much followers you have. What really matters is how many of those followers you are able to reach without paying to reach them. Organic reach, we call it. That's a huge change in how we used to look at social media metrics. It used to be all about the follower numbers and right now it's all about how many people have you actually been able to reach by creating really engaging content. So that's a huge change.
Elyse:
Storytelling is also growing in importance.
Elja:
When you think of a book you read, obviously when you think of storytelling relating to books, you have a whole book, right, to set up your story and to tell people about the characters and to really take people with you on a journey through this book as a writer. On social media, you literally only have seconds to grab their attention and and make a point or engage them or get them to respond or whatever it is you want to accomplish. And that makes storytelling really important. You need to be really good at doing sort of condensed storytelling. You need to be able to take an Instagram post, a picture and some words, and tell your story that way.
Elyse:
So if social media is still growing and changing, where is it taking us?
Elja:
If only I could see into the future, right? Then I could be very successful. I am not completely sure, but what I do see is that it keeps evolving. There will always be social media platforms, I think. Some will decline. Some will appear like right now TikTok is a huge social media platform and two years ago, no one really saw that coming. The great thing about social media from my perspective is that you never really know. So you have to be smart about investing in a certain platform, but also keeping your eye out to see what users are doing on other platforms.
Elyse:
Although we do not have a crystal ball to tell us the future of social media, there are some clues Elja pays attention to, such as looking to the top downloaded social media apps
Elja:
One of the best indicators of change is where young people are going on their smartphones. And this is not so easy because, of course, look at Facebook. It's very well known. We've all invested in our Facebook pages. And it's very hard to now say "listen, we all need to be on TikTok because young people are on TikTok. It's easy to not take that seriously but it is an important sign. If young people are on the platform or leaving the platform that's always a sign of change coming.
Elyse:
Telling your story in a matter of seconds is challenging, but with experience it comes more naturally. Like storytelling, social media is for everyone.
Elja:
There's three good reasons for any of your colleagues, not just people in marketing and communications, to be aware of social media and find a platform that suits them and use it. One is that whatever you do, you're bound to want to reach a certain audience. All those people are bound to be on social media. You have to figure out which social medium is suitable to reach these people.
The second reason is that as UNDP, I think you're always trying to make people aware of the development goals, of what UNDP does, and anyone at UNDP can contribute to that just by being active on whatever social media platform suits them. And finally, social media is not just a place where you need to give content and information, it's also a place where you can get information. There is so much to learn, to share, people to have conversations with, just for your professional development. Social media can be very, very helpful. You don't have to be on all these platforms. But it does make sense to find out which platform suits you and to invest some time to see what it can bring.
Elyse:
At UNDP, we should all give social media a try. Simply start by connecting with the people and organizations that you’re interested in. Interact with them. Discover what content resonates with you the most. And consider what stories you want to share with them.
In our next episode, we’ll scale up and think more globally by exploring how an organization like UNDP can effectively achieve a Digital Transformation.
This episode of Digital What!? is produced by Oscar Durand and myself. Our theme music is by Lemon Guo, and additional music is by Chris Zabriskie, and sound design by myself. Special thanks to our social media expert, Elja Daae, author of Super Social, for taking the time to speak with us.
To listen and subscribe go to wherever you find your podcasts or DigitalNow DOT UNDP DOT org.
I am Elyse Blennerhassett. Stay with us.