Social Media Dissemination

Set measurable smart goals. Smart stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound goals.
Identify your audience (i.e., decide who you are talking to). You cannot be all things to all people, and everyone is not interested in what you are doing, so be clear about who you are really talking to.
Break down where you will find your target audience – what social media platform, when is a good time to post on that platform, what type of content do you want to publish, what is your brand’s voice (tone and style) and what information should you share on your profile
Understand your target audience’s needs
Be real, be human and be authentic.
Seek relationships not just followers. Relationships require give and take, and people in a relationship respond to each other. (Don’t just retweet some one’s tweet, be polite use their @name when responding, answer questions, thank people for sharing your content, and reply so that you are able to start a conversation.
Once you know when it is a good time to post on the platform you have chosen, go one further and create your social media content calendar so your content remains fresh, authentic, and interesting.
Add value to the world. Provide a benefit.
Have a dissemination strategy and or plan for each research project. What is the biggest goal you want to achieve – you want to tell people what you have done and why it is important and how it will change the world.
Don’t blurt it all out in one message. Then you have nothing more to say. One thought per message (just like one thought per paragraph in academic writing, and one message per advertisement in advertising).
Use different message strategies – short messages, long messages, bullet points, essays, competitions. Have fun with it and keep changing the message presentation and content.
Do not post the same thing over and over again – it turns people off. If you must say the same thing again, say it in a different way.
It is possible to automate and schedule your response, but it is not really a good idea and you are building a relationship.
Digital platforms are not sales platforms, but they were built to help people, to inform and educate people, so think about how the information you are sharing is able to help people, offer solutions to problems, think about what knowing the new information changes, and share in the most helpful way possible.
A picture is worth a thousand words. This is especially true on social media, but avoid stock visuals or visuals that do not emphasise your point. Be original. Infographics work well.
Cross promotion across social platforms will assist you to develop your channel
Be active. This means you should not arrive and leave like a tornado – in a flurry of communication and then nothing. Relationships take time and consistent effort.
Piggyback on the trends of the day. (Hashtags on trends can get you noticed).
If you are talking to adolescents you need to go where they are, speak about what they want to speak about, use age-appropriate language and speak your friends’ language.

Target audience

10 – 14-year-old

Many social media platforms have age restrictions. For instance, Facebook and Instagram require that you are 13 years or older. Other require content producers to state whether the content is suitable for certain age groups.
Parental supervision is probably high in this group.

15 – 18-year-old

Interactive features – games and quizzes.
Poor readers – multimedia content (videos)

19 – 24-year-old

Interactive features must serve a purpose
Strong readers
Sensitive to topic
Sceptical of information
A relationship is built over time.
Social media is not saturated with a message outreach.
Social media posts are interesting and relevant to the audience.

Other things to consider:

Safety of the target audience

Content risk: Exposure to inappropriate or upsetting content, which is mean, aggressive, violent or contains sexual comments or images, terrorist sites, fake news and harmful content about drugs, self-harm, suicide or negative body image.
Contact risk: Never ask adolescents to share personal information with strangers – for example, phone numbers, date of birth or location – as this will put them at risk or vulnerable to predators.
Conduct risk: behaving in inappropriate or hurtful ways, or being the victim of this kind of behaviour – cyberbully is real, sex-texting messages, misuse of passwords, unauthorized purchases, signing contracts, identity theft and fraud.

BY YOLISWA NTSEPE (MA, PhD)
ADOLESCENT PROGRAMMES MANAGER

UPDATED NOV 22, 2023

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