Joe Downie leads the Digital Communications Team at WaterAid, an international charity bringing clean water, safe sanitation and improved hygiene to millions of the world’s poorest people. To date WaterAid has reached more than 15 million people in 27 countries.
The team are currently putting in place a content strategy and resolving content governance issues for the launch of a new website in 2013, we well as planning ongoing events and campaigns.
Here Joe shares how WaterAid markets its cause on social media including publishing a Pro Paper.li.
Set the scene for us. What makes WaterAid different from other water-related non-profits?
We were founded by the UK water industry, which means we have a strong tradition of engineering and technical knowledge. This helps ensure our projects on the ground are sustainable and suitable for the local area. While many organisations focus on water, we also include improved sanitation and hygiene education in our project work, which is a much more effective and joined-up approach.
What are you working on at the moment?
Developing our new website, which will launch early next year. We are also planning for World Toilet Day on November 19 – put it in your diary! – and our seasonal appeal. We’re developing a new e-commerce product, and recruiting people online to take part in sporting events including the Brighton Half Marathon and the London Marathon.
What is unique about marketing a nonprofit?
The sector is surprisingly competitive. While there is a lot of sharing of best practices and useful tips, when it comes to competing for the public’s attention, many charities use ‘water’ as their hook. The challenge for WaterAid is to ensure that when people think of water, they think of us. We need to establish ourselves as the credible, authoritative leader in our sector.
Where does your Paper.li Pro fit in to your communications strategy?
By ‘publishing’ a weekly Paper.li we can share via social media the latest stories from our sector. In this way we establish some degree of ownership over water and sanitation issues. By having the added control that the Pro version offers, we can more effectively control and curate what we publish – for example, putting a WaterAid story into the ‘headline’ slot.
We’ve found that ‘regular is good’ on social media. The weekly round-up of content from the sector in our Paper.li is a really good way of summing up what’s been going on during the previous 7 days, including any notable achievements or events involving WaterAid. It keeps us in people’s minds.
How can nonprofits best leverage social media and publishing tools?
Select the tools that will best support your strategic aims, rather than because they look cool, new or fun (or because everyone else is using them). Once selected, stick with them for a while – the results won’t always be felt straight away.
Let your supporters know about your social media channels, and involve them as much as possible. Finally, make contact with the people who run the social tools to see if there are outreach or case-study opportunities.
Can you share something unusual or unique that worked for WaterAid on social media?
One thing we tried last year was something called ‘WaterAid24′. We tweeted ‘a day in the life of WaterAid’ for 24 hours, starting in our office in Australia, moving across our country programme offices in Asia and then Africa, and then onto our fundraising offices in the UK, Sweden and, finally, the US. The aim was to give a unique insight into all the different things an international development charity does in a single day.
More recently, we have been using Instagram to tell the stories of people from two villages in rural Malawi, as part of a 3-month fundraising campaign called The Big Dig, which has already raised more than £1.8million.
You’re launching a new website in 2013. What are your goals next year?
To develop lots of powerful, engaging new content for the site that tells ‘the water story’ in a bold and fresh way, and then make sure as many people as possible know about this amazing new content through a variety of the most appropriate social, sharing and more traditional marketing tools.
We have ambitious income growth plans, matched by expansion in the number of people we will be helping directly (through our project work) and indirectly (through our lobbying and influencing work). We want to do more digital fundraising and campaigning, and we want to work more closely as ‘one WaterAid’. We’re going to be putting a lot of effort into improving our brand recognition and people’s understanding of what we do and why it matters.
On a personal note, what keeps you working in non-profit marketing?
The knowledge that the work we’re doing matters and makes a difference to the lives of some of the poorest and most marginalised people in the world. You can forget this sometimes, working in a normal office dealing with day to day issues, but occasionally a guest speaker, visitor from one of our country offices, or a video or photo will catch you unawares, and remind you why you do it and why we’re all here.
Main photo: WaterAid/Rindra Ramasomanana
Have you done something innovative in non-profit marketing? Do you have tips or ideas to share? Questions for Joe? Leave a comment.
