Things are moving in UNRISD’s digital space!
After unveiling our
new website design in October this year, November marks the month in which UNRISD reaches 20,000 followers on Twitter and over 4,200 on Facebook. Our social networks are proving to be valuable strategic channels for the dissemination of the Institute’s research findings, analysis and insights.
UNRISD launched its
Twitter account in February 2010. "We wanted to be a part of a wider network of organizations and individuals with common interests, and social media has gradually shaped itself into an excellent platform for interacting with our stakeholders and presenting our work in a more dynamic, multidirectional way than a web page or email," says Jenifer Freedman, Head of the Institute’s Communications and Outreach Unit. 1,000 tweets later, UNRISD social media followers represent about 40% of its overall digital users. Twitter and Facebook have become unique pillars of the Institute’s communications, as well as useful complements to the website.
A multichannel project
Our social media strategy involves providing alternative, differently shaped content to what users can find on the website. For example, events are tweeted live on UNRISD’s Twitter feed, and videos are launched on the
Facebook page systematically, sometimes even before they are on the website.
In addition to the general purpose social media properties, we also use three content-specific platforms:, YouTube, LinkedIn and Scribd, all fed directly with content from unrisd.org.
UNRISD’s
YouTube channel page hosts our own videos, and playlists organized by theme. "The green economy video series, for example, has received more than 65,000 views and has helped to position UNRISD as a reference on this topic," says Jenifer Freedman.
LinkedIn has a more professional bias so it is routinely used to announce projects, research calls and job vacancies; and on
Scribd, users can download the Institute’s publications for free. “A few years ago, global trends were clearly moving toward more plural, social communication, in which the organization was reaching out to the individual and not the other way round. As an organization working on and for social development, UNRISD had to be there."
Click here to follow UNRISD on
Facebook,
Twitter,
LinkedIn,
YouTube and
Scribd.
Photo by Jason A. Howie via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).