hailey johnson | mary brechtel | marissa adams | taylor … · 2016-04-26 · ms. mayer seeks to...

Hailey Johnson | Mary Brechtel | Marissa Adams | Taylor Somerville | Paula DeReuil

Description Capital Area Cour t Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Association is the Baton Rouge program of CASA, a nation-al 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that serves as a liaison for children navigating the foster care system. CASA services are provided by appointed volunteers who serve as a constant adult presence for children removed from homes due to abuse or neglect. CASA volunteers not only advocate for the best interests of children in cour t, but help to secure safe and permanent homes for abused and neglected children (CASA BR).

MissionThe mission of Capital Area CASA is to ensure that abused and neglected children in the local legal system have a competent and caring adult volunteer advocate (CASA BR). The mission of National CASA is to give every child who has been abused or neglected and oppor tunity to thrive, and establish permanence with quality advocacy from a Cour t Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer (CASA For Children).

Funding Capital Area CASA (known hereafter as CASA) is a tax-exempt non-profit organization that relies on the service of volunteers, membership and charitable donations from private individuals and corporations. CASA holds the annual fundraiser Casas for CASA, which increases public awareness and provides funding for services provided by CASA through a silent auction, raffle and sponsorship options. Services provided by local CASA volunteers are valued over $1.8 million (CASA BR).

1 | Organizational Overview

CASA must compete with other local non-profit organizations that provide services for children. While there is no direct competition, CASA vies for monetary donations and volunteers along with other organizations such as Boys & Girls Club of Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge Youth Coalition and Junior Achievement of Baton Rouge.

CompetitionCASA and CASA volunteers serve as the voices for foster youth going through the court systems. The volunteers

serve as mentors to the children and represent the children in their court hearings.

Relevant Publics

State of Capital Area CASAThe first CASA in Louisiana was star ted in 1986 in Orleans Parish. Since then, CASA has spread into 55 parishes within Louisiana. Capital Area CASA serves East Baton Rouge Parish. In 2012, 3,480 children were served in Louisiana alone (Louisiana CASA).

Nationwide, CASA has over 75,000 volunteers each year. While there are dozens of volunteers within the Capital Area CASA, the organization is looking to find more male and African American volunteers to enable better relationships between the mentors and mentees.

CASA par tners with several organizations within Baton Rouge to help raise awareness and gather more volunteers for their organization (CASA BR).

Public Relations Efforts Jennifer Mayer is the current Recruitment Coordinator and handles the Capital Area CASA Public Relations effor ts. Currently, Ms. Mayer is working to recruit more males and African Americans within the organization.

Today, 80 percent of the children needing a CASA volunteer are African American, yet only a third of CASA volunteers are African American. CASA hopes to reach out to develop a more diverse group of volunteer so the children can better identify with their mentor. Ms. Mayer seeks to maintain public awareness about the Capital Area CASA in hopes of maintaining a sufficient amount of volunteers (CASA BR).

2 | Organizational Overview

CASA communicates through their website and social media networks including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They also sends out a quar terly newsletter to communicate progress the organization has made throughout the year. Local media outlets feature ar ticles about volunteers, the board of directors, and CASA’s Be The Man campaign. Such outlets include The Reveille, The Advocate and 225 Magazine. CASA is also reaching out to audiences via local TV and radio stations, which is a traditional tactic that is working for them; many of its male volunteers noted that they heard about the program from radio station announcements and adver tisements. While CASA has an online presence, their social media content is lacking, which leads to low engagement and follower interaction. It is evident they are unsure of how to post, when to post and how to gain meaningful engagement.

Efforts

CASA distributes a quar terly newsletter to subscribers through MailChimp. Visitors can sign up to receive the newsletter via a link on the website homepage or simply read the contents of the current newsletter. The newslet-ter contains follow buttons for CASA’s Twitter and Facebook pages, and an option to forward the newsletter to a friend. In addition, an impor tant call-to-action, a “Donate Now” button, is at the top of the first page. The “Vol-unteer Viewpoint” section of each newsletter highlights a par ticular foster care story, as told by CASA volunteers. The first page of the newsletter can be found below.

Quarterly Newsletter

3 | Communication Analysis

CASa’s newsletter


CASA uses traditional media relations to broadcast messages through newspapers such as The Advocate and The Daily Reveille. While the value of new media is undeniable, the benefits of traditional print media should not be overlooked. Newspapers have spent years cultivating their widespread audiences and remain a trusted source for factual, balanced information. CASA stories in local newspapers feature news and announcements, but always mention the need for volunteers and information about how to get involved. Below are some samples of recent newspaper ar ticles from The Advocate and The Daily Reveille.

Newspaper

Pictured above: Advocate write up about CASA”s newest board members.

Pictured Below: Daily Reville write up about Kendra scott jewlery event.

CASA’s website can be retrieved via http://www.casabr.org. Their website is basic, but functional. It includes icons that link out to CASA’s social media platforms and follow buttons to subscribe or read the newsletter. The top panel includes calls to action, including “volunteer” and “donate.” An update of the landing page with more contemporary font and condensed information would enable the visitor to more fully engage with the page without having to scroll. In addition, the site would benefit by including a press tab, where visitors could read press stories. Lastly, linking out to par ticipating sponsors, such as Kappa Alpha Theta, Terracon and Kendra Scott would allow for more engagement and cross-promotion. The homepage of the website is pictured below.

Website

5| Communication Analysis

The Capital Area CASA website can be found at http://www.casabr.org/default.aspx

CASA’s Facebook page has almost one thousand followers. They post sporadically with content relevant to their organization, such as tying in MLB Opening Day or Child Abuse Prevention Month. They tag other organizations in posts and include photos, links and videos. However, there is very little organic engagement on any posts, likely due to their small following. In addition, the stock photos they use look and feel unauthentic. The tone of the page is professional and enthusiastic, likely trying to remain upbeat about a serious topic. Below is the CASA profile page and some recent posts.

Facebook

FACEBOOK PROFILE PAGE

6| Communication Analysis

General Facebook posts with limited engagement and activity.


TwitterCASA has 1,400 Twitter followers and almost 900 tweets. They retweet, post photos and links, but the main issue is that the content is exactly the same as their Facebook content. While the organization performs best on Twitter, the posts are still sporadic and receive little engagement in terms of likes, retweets and mentions. Below are some of their most recent tweets.

InstagramThe CASA Instagram page has only 129 followers and 46 posts. Similar to their Twitter profile, CASA uses identical information from their Facebook posts on their Instagram page. While the Instagram page does incorporate slightly more authentic posts, they mostly use stock photos and announcement-style posts. They rarely use any hashtags at all, and if a hashtag is used it is usually an uninteresting word placed in the middle of the caption (i.e., #volunteer). They do not receive many likes or comments on photos, usually between four and 10.

Recent Instagram posts

Recent tweet found @CASA_BR

Recent tweet found @CASA_BR


MessagesCASA typically communicates messages about events, seeking volunteers, training classes and par tnerships. The most messages communicated are messages seeking volunteers and promoting their events. They are not receiving much engagement or interactions with publics using these messages.

InteractionCASA’s posts are usually generic and automated, which leads to minimal, one-way interaction. The interaction is from the followers and is limited to comments only. CASA needs to interact more with their followers, as well as create more engaging content that would lead to greater audience interaction.

POST WITH UNENGAGEING STOCK PHOTO

Recent post with limited engagement


Content SummaryThe tone of most posts is promotional and transparent. Content includes photos, event text and announcements, but posts are not emotional or engaging. Responses and engagement are limited.

Generic post with limited engagement

Add Authenticity: The main issue we saw with CASA’s social media effor ts are the lack of authentic posts. While the legality of using photos of actual foster children in the CASA program is a major par t of this, we think some improvements could be made while staying within the law. Making a genuine and inspirational connection with CASA’s audience is an impor tant par t of gaining volunteers and garnering donations. Real community children interacting with real volunteers would add authenticity; instead of using stock photos, holding some photo shoots with other community children/models or getting permission to photograph children whose cases have successfully closed may be more successful.

Networking: As a nonprofit group, CASA has limited resources and should utilize those in their networks. For example, encouraging and organizing Terracon to reach out to their diverse and large audience to promote the golf tournament would benefit both brands. Additionally, he CASA New Orleans website is much more user friendly and easy to navigate than the Capital Area CASA website. It includes some videos of people involved in the foster care system advocating for CASA and their need for volunteers. The website for CASA Baton Rouge is more focused on who they are while the New Orleans website centers on getting involved and donating. The easier it is to navigate the website, the more likely people are going to volunteer, donate and get involved.

Ways to Improve


StrengthsCapital Area CASA is the only organization in the area that appoints legal advocates for foster children navigating the legal and social systems.Capital Area CASA has suppor t and trickle-down funding from Louisiana CASA and National CASA.CASA is established and active on many of the major social media channels. Donating is fairly simple and easily accessible from all of their social platforms.Media relations is strong with local outlets.152 volunteers actively par ticipated in cases in 2015.Siblings’ cases are advocated together by one volunteer.Par tnerships with other organizations and companies include Kendra Scott, Kappa Alpha Theta, Terracon and Impeccable Pig. Be The Man campaign highlights the successes of their current male volunteers and aims to recruit new male volunteers. Orientation sessions for new volunteer mentors are frequently offered.Volunteer Viewpoint section in the newsletter, and shows how willing volunteers are to tell their stories. Includes past mentees’ viewpoints/stories. Overall they have strong recruitment skills.

WeaknessesCASA’s social media posts are sporadic, especially on Instagram. CASA has under one thousand Facebook followers. That is less than half of the numbers other non-profit competitors such as Boys & Girls Club of Baton Rouge boast. Over 80% of the children CASA serves are African American, while only one third of volunteers are African American.Potential volunteers may be wary of the time-consuming nature of the legal system and choose to donate their time with a less intense charitable causeThe use of stock photos on social media channels limits interest and empathy that could be garnered from their posts. Overall, CASA’s social media channels receive low engagement including low likes, retweets and follow-backs. They do not capitalize on the unique positioning oppor tunities that they have (discussed below). CASA does not respond to all interactions, and usually only replies to negative interactions. Their sites include only one-way conversation and they rely heavily on large par tners for promotion.CASA has a substantive volunteer recruitment effor t year-round, but need to improve on community awareness. Awareness and interest by community members will eventually lead to increased donations and volunteers. The CASA website is not very user friendly which causes it to be unhelpful to potential volunteers and donors. CASA Baton Rouge is missing a male presence in their volunteers. Kids need strong male and female mentors in order to be most successful once they leave the program.

OpportunitiesCASA has many oppor tunities to increase their engagement on social media. Middle-aged women, especially mothers, are especially active on Facebook. In addition, this group has the highest likelihood of becoming involved with CASA. Targeting posts to these women would help boost engagement and even encourage more of them to volunteer.CASA par tners with many larger and well-known organizations. Capitalizing on the outreach would allow for great promotion of their events through social media. If par tnering companies star t promoting CASA on their social media channels, it would likely boost CASA followers and engagement organically.To overcome the possible legal issues that come with using photos of children in their programs, CASA needs to promote pictures of their events and volunteers. They have been using stock photos, which has not been very effective. Photos of authentic moments during actual Capital Area CASA events are going to be much more effective in receiving shares, likes and retweets on social media.The organization should also attempt to capture photos, videos and other media using children whose case has successfully closed to use on social media sites. Diversification of volunteers would greatly benefit, as a more diverse volunteer pool would allow children to identify with their mentor. A wider racial and ethnic range of volunteers will better serve the children in the CASA program.

CASA needs to work on targeting the groups they want to volunteer, especially black men. As males listen to a lot of radio, creating a radio adver tisement, ad spot or endorsement for popular radio stations would be beneficial to getting the word out about the organization.


ThreatsCASA is not legally not allowed to use photos of any kids going through their programs. Because of this, they often use stock photos from the Internet in their social media posts.

The diversity of volunteers is problematic for CASA and the children served.

CASA needs male volunteers, and men are less likely to volunteer for programs or organizations such as CASA.The number of open cases outweighs volunteers. In 2015, 208 children entered the CASA program In 2015, there were 330 open cases in the CASA programThe general public has misconceptions about foster care and foster children. .

Typically, people are more inclined to engage in something that looks real, which their current posts do not.

Approximately 80 percent of CASA BR children are African American, while only one-third of their volunteers are. If the children have trouble relating to the volunteers, they will not be receiving the benefits the pro-gram is designed for.

Many people believe kids in foster care are misbehaved, disrespectful or did something to deserve to be in the system. Breaking these stereotypes is a hurdle that must be crossed for suppor t and increased volunteer effor ts

We chose the following relevant publics to target, as they are the most likely to become involved with Capital Area CASA. According to a 2015 Corporation for National and Community Service survey, white, educated women aged 35 to 44 years are the most likely to volunteer for a non-profit organization. Additionally, CASA is specifically recruiting men aged 25 to 34 and African Americans to volunteer. Parents are more likely to engage in volunteer activities associated with youth services or mentoring. Lastly, almost half of volunteers who par ticipate in non-profit organizations are those asked to become involved. Specific calls to action will be key to increasing volunteer effor ts from these publics.

Target Publics

OutcomesMost impor tantly, we want to increase community awareness of CASA and understanding of CASA’s contributions to the Baton Rouge community. We hope that more community awareness of the CASA programs will lead to in-creased interest and more people getting involved by volunteering and donating.

We also want to gain more engagement on social media posts and a stronger online following. We also plan to use social media to suppor t our other goal of increasing community awareness. We hope to see an overall increase in involvement of volunteers and sponsors on both social media sites and at events.

Impact Objectives

To garner $15,000 of additional funding by women aged 35 to 44 years by December 31, 2016.

To increase awareness of the “Be the Man” campaign among African American men aged 25 to 34 years by 10% by December 31, 2016.

To eliminate common misconceptions about the CASA program’s representation and involvement in the foster care system by assessing and reassessing sentiment after December 16, 2016.

12 | Social Media Action Plan

To create a favorable opinion of the CASA program among 80 percent of its Facebook followers.


Objective 1To increase awareness of the “Be the Man” campaign among African American men aged 25 to 34 years by 10% by December 31, 2016.

Engage with male par ticipants for the 2017 golf tournament to boost recruitment. Launch Instagram photo contest in April of 2017 to win golf gear from local retailer Edwin Watts.Encourage par ticipants to post interesting Instagram photos throughout the tournament to show genuine suppor t of the cause from day of golf tournament to three days after.

Gain attention with celebrity endorsements. Produce video clip of Shaquille O’Neal promoting the “Be the Man” campaign by suggesting volunteering as the way to be the man by July 15, 2016.

Encourage O’Neal to share videos with his 2.7 million Instagram subscribers.Interview Jimmy Graham about positive male role models while in foster care by July 29, 2016.

Encourage Graham to share videos with his half a million Facebook followers.Utilize #BeTheMan in video clips throughout July 2016.

Rebrand the 2017 Terracon golf benefit as the Terracon “Be the Man” Golf Tournament.Promote new brand through co-branded social media content from January 2017 - April 2017.Promote new brand through deliverables beforehand/in tournament biddy bags March 2017 - April 2017.

Flyers, visors, bumper stickers, koozies

Strategies & Tactics for Objective 1

Twitter post sample with campaign video. Find video at http://bit.ly/1QoFqzE


sample Instagram posts

sample Twitter postsabout the golf tournmaent

Objective 2To eliminate common misconceptions about the CASA program’s representation and involvement in the foster care system by assessing and reassessing sentiment after December 16, 2016.

Intrigue people to seek accurate information online.Utilize social media channels to share infographic by August 17, 2016.Share and link out content to credible websites through Facebook and Twitter posts by August 31, 2016.

Implement a social media campaign to spread awareness about foster care misconceptions and truths - September 2016.

Promote infographic on social media channels by September 3, 2016.Create and utilize #FosterCareTruths throughout the month of September 2016.Facebook/Twitter Fun Fact Fridays and Truthful Tuesdays throughout the month of September 2016.



sample Infographic

Continued


Objective 3To create a favorable opinion of the CASA program among 80 percent of its Facebook followers.

Establish consistent messaging to tell a positive story and build excitement.Email campaign through January 2016 to December 2016.


Past mentee spotlights in quar terly newsletters and share on Facebook two weeks after the newsletter is published.

sample facebook posts

sample facebook text posts.#TruthfulTuesday

#funFactfriday

Objective 4To garner $15,000 of additional funding by women aged 35 to 44 years by December 31, 2016.

Plan and execute a fundraising gala for November 2016.Promote on social media and influential Baton Rouge mommy blogs from September to November of 2016.

http://batonrouge.citymomsblog.com


Create Facebook event by September 15, 2016.Target existing MailChimp newsletter subscribers through Facebook Power Editor custom audience list through September to November.

Kappa Alpha Theta LSU Alumni Brunch Fundraiser in May 2016.Promote through Alumni magazine from March 2016 until day of event.Promote on Kappa Alpha Theta National Facebook from March 2016 to day of event.

Facebook Event Mock Upsample InSTAGRAM post


sample Facebook post

Before, during and after implementation of the social media action plan, social media managers will use Tracx social media software to evaluate social media analytics.


Tracx has scheduling, listening, engagement and influencing capabilities, and can measure a campaign from star t to finish. Through Tracx, social media managers can plan social posts for the upcoming campaign as well as identify potential social influencers based on existing engagement across social media platforms. During the campaign, Tracx can listen to what followers are interested in and talking about. The listening capabilities will enable social media managers to understand the entire conversation taking place around the brand, not just focus on mentions. The real-time capabilities of Tracx to monitor all the engagement, sentiment and rate of interactions, will allow social media managers to better respond to both positive and negative conversations surrounding their brand. Once the campaign has ended, managers can use Tracx to measure the final analytics of the campaign, identify the highest-performing channels and how they compare to CASA’s competition. In addition, managers can evaluate how the social media campaign affected their bottom line in terms of donations and volunteers (Tracx).

Below is a breakdown of each objective’s measurement plan:

Objective 1To increase awareness of the “Be the Man” campaign among African American men aged 25 to 34 years by 10% by December 31, 2016.

Evaluation for objective 1To measure awareness, we will evaluate African American male engagement on social media channels before and after the golf tournament. We hope to notice an increase in followers, engagement and male volunteers. In addition, we will analyze the success of the Instagram photo contest by measuring how many people par ticipated and the demographics of par ticipants.It will also be necessary to analyze the success of celebrity endorsements, by evaluating social media engagement and volunteer effor ts and donations before and after each the celebrity videos are released. Once the golf tournament is rebranded as the “Be The Man” Terracon Golf Benefit, we will evaluate the change in engagement, volunteers and donation and compare it to the benchmark numbers from before the campaigns. Additionally, it will be helpful to measure the amount of posts containing text or visuals about the new golf tournament merchandise.

Objective 2To eliminate common misconceptions about the CASA program’s representation and involvement in the foster care system by assessing and reassessing sentiment after December 16, 2016.

Evaluation for objective 2Using Tracx listening features, we can establish a benchmark online sentiment before and after #FosterCareTruths, #TruthfulTuesday, #FunFactFriday. Assessing weekly peaks in engagement will help plan future campaigns. By analyzing engagement with the infographic on social media platforms, we can assess positive and negative sentiment, likes/retweets/shares, peak times/days for engagement to more effectively plan future campaigns.

Objective 3To create favorable opinion of the CASA program among 80 percent of its Facebook followers.

Evaluation for objective 3Using Tracx, analyze all sentiment toward CASA on Facebook and determine positive vs. negative sentiment surrounding the brand before and after implementation of the campaign. Analyzing audience response to past mentee spotlights and noting any increase in volunteer or donation effor ts following the campaign will be impor tant.Following the implementation of the email campaign, note any change in followers, engagement and changes in positive or negative sentiment on social media platforms.

Objective 4To garner $15,000 of additional funding by women aged 35 to 44 years by December 31, 2016.

Evaluation for objective 4Attendance, especially of women aged 35 to 44 years, at the gala will indicate people’s’ interest in CASA’s cause. Additionally, noting changes in followers, online engagement, volunteers and donations surrounding the fundraising gala will be useful. The number of donations toward the fundraising goal of $15,000 can be easily measured.Evaluating the successes and failures of the event itself can be done by measuring attendance, donations, engagement and sentiment at the event.


It is our hope that Capital Area CASA gains more volunteers and donations after implementing the social media action plan that we developed. After obtaining the objectives and broad outcomes that we set, CASA can do even more to influence their position in the Baton Rouge community by implementing a stewardship campaign. CASA should maintain and promote relationships with cases that successfully close, whether the children return home or are adopted. Inspirational stories will lead to better content, and will encourage more community members to get involved with the organization.

(n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2016, from http://louisianacasa.org/about/mission.aspx

Capital Area CASA Association - Baton Rouge. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://www.casabr.org/

CASA New Orleans. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://www.casaneworleans.org/

National Cour t Appointed Special Advocate Association - National CASA - CASA for Children. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2016, from http://www.casaforchildren.org/site/c.mtJSJ7MPIsE/b.5301295/k.BE9A/Home.htm

Social Media Analytics | Social Media Management Platform | Tracx. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2016, from https://www.tracx.com/platform/insights/?utm_source=google

Volunteering in the United States, 2015. (2016, February 25). Retrieved April 18, 2016, from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm


“CASA - Be the Man”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bPiCHa5uM0

hailey johnson | mary brechtel | marissa adams | taylor … · 2016-04-26 · ms. mayer seeks to...

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