Addendum H – GSF Social Media Strategy

The goal of GSF’s social media strategy is to increase the visibility and reach of the Federation to engage with the current 17-member associations and to build and strengthen GSF’s brand reputation, which will help GSF with…

  1. Increased visibility: Increase the reach of GSF enabling us to connect with a wider audience.
  2. Brand building: Reinforce the brand reputation of GSF, increasing our credibility and influence.
  3. Improved engagement: Foster meaningful connections between GSF and its member associations.
  4. Increased event exposure: Promote registrations for GSF events (GSS Summit) and its member associations (Annual Conventions).
  5. Knowledge sharing: Facilitate knowledge sharing between GSF and its member associations.
  6. Increased membership: Strengthen GSF community by attracting associations that are not part of GSF.
  7. Information sharing: Additional vehicle to communicate happenings within the GSF and its member associations

The target group of all GSF social media activities is Member-Associations of GSF (currently 17) and Non-Member Associations.

The focus is not on catering to individual speakers, trainers, authors, etc., although GSF’s presence might help them explore their local associations. Even if individual speakers might follow GSFs social media accounts, the goal is to bring awareness to them about their member associations (redirection).

Background
GSF has accumulated a variety of unmonitored and inactive groups, pages and profiles on various platforms. Administrative roles are inconsistent and not centralized. Community groups (FB and LinkedIn) are used by individuals to promote events or post inspirational content, yet in the perception of visitors may be that these are part of GSF’s social media activities. On GSF’s official outlets the association lacks consistent posting and misses out on opportunities to engage.

Benefits
GSF can build a strong online presence, establish a positive reputation to demonstrate its value to member association, also by promoting their associations, leadership or events.

Content ideas to demonstrate the value

By taking advantage of GSF's presence in social media, member associations can

Implementation
PHASE 1 (MARCH & APRIL 2023) – CLEAN UP
PHASE 2 (MAY & JUNE) — CONTENT AND SYSTEMS
PHASE 3 (JULY & AUGUST) — MONITORING AND ADJUSTMENTS
PHASE 4 (SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER) — EMAIL MARKETING

PHASE 1 — CLEAN UP

  1. CLOSE ALL INACTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES OR GROUPS
    1. Negative image: Inactive groups and pages show a lack of attention and effort from the federation and can make GSF appear unreliable and untrustworthy to our audience.
    2. Better management: Closing down inactive groups and pages simplifies the management and monitoring of social media accounts, making it easier to maintain a consistent brand image.
    3. Wasted resources: Maintaining inactive groups and pages requires time, effort, and money. Closing down inactive groups and pages frees up resources that can be used to create new and engaging content on active platforms.
    4. Confuses audience: Inactive groups and pages can confuse GSF’s audience and make it difficult for them to find relevant and up-to-date information.
    5. Decreased engagement: Keeping inactive groups and pages reduces overall engagement and can limit the growth of active ones.
    6. Increased security risk: Inactive groups and pages can become a security risk as they can be hacked and used for malicious purposes.
    7. Decreased analytics data: Keeping inactive groups and pages can skew analytics data and make it difficult to measure the effectiveness of GSF’s social media campaigns accurately.
    8. Improved social media strategy: Closing inactive groups and pages allows the federation to focus on the platforms where our audience is actively engaged.
    9. Before closing REDIRECT existing members/followers to the new, active social media channels.
  2. SIGN UP FOR ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
    1. Protecting the brand: By owning all social media accounts, GSF can prevent others from creating accounts that might negatively impact the federation’s reputation.
    2. Maintaining control: By owning all accounts, GSF can maintain control over the content, messaging, and overall image of the federation on social media.
    3. Consistency: Owning all social media accounts ensures consistency in branding and messaging across all platforms, strengthening the federation’s image and reputation.
    4. Protecting intellectual property: Owning all social media accounts helps protect GSF's intellectual property and ensures that others cannot use GSF’s name or content without permission.
    5. Future use: Even if GSF is not actively using all social media accounts, owning them allows the federation to reserve the names/handles for future use.
  3. STANDARDIZE ALL NAMES/HANDLES ACROSS PLATFORMS
    1. Brand recognition: Consistent branding across all platforms increases brand recognition and helps build a stronger brand identity for GSF.
    2. Improved discoverability: Having the same name or handle across all platforms makes it easier for audiences to find and follow the federation, increasing the reach and impact of GSF.
    3. Improved engagement: By making it easier for audiences to find and follow the federation, a consistent name or handle can increase engagement and interactions.
    4. Better analytics: Using a consistent handle across all platforms allows for more accurate tracking and analysis of social media activity, making it easier to evaluate the success of GSF’s social media campaigns.
    5. Increased trust: Consistent branding across all platforms can increase trust and credibility, as audiences are more likely to engage with brands that have a strong, recognizable brand.
    6. Better cross-platform promotion: A consistent name or handle makes it easier to promote the federation and its content across multiple platforms, increasing its reach and impact.
  4. SUGGESTED NAME: VoiceofGSF (considering limitations of min. 5 to max 15 characters):
  5. CREATE CENTRAL EMAIL ADRESS FOR ALL SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITIES
    • Suggested email: voiceofgsf@globalspeakersfederation.com
    • Suggested admins: Shari Bricks, Michael Smith, Sylvie di Giusto (temporary)
    • Eliminate communications@globalspeakersfederation.com (unmonitored, unreachable)
    • Create a dedicated email address (voiceofgsf@globalspeakersfederation.com) that is used to administrate social media channels.
  6. REPORT IN NEXT BOARD MEETING AND INTRODUCTION OF PHASE 2

PHASE 2 — CONTENT AND SYSTEMS

Having successfully laid the foundational groundwork in Phase 1, where we streamlined GSF’s social media presence and established a unified brand identity, GSF is ready to transition into Phase 2. Phase 2 is the extension of our initial efforts and a strategic evolution as it’s designed to be the engine that drives GSF's digital transformation on the following platforms:

  1. Target Audience Identification:
    1. Primary Audience: Member-Associations of GSF (currently 17) and Non-Member Associations
    2. Secondary Audience: NOT individual members (speakers, trainers, authors, coaches, consultants) of each association, although they might be interested in following GSF.
  2. Content Design
    • Color Palette
    • Font Choices
    • Design Style
    • Logo
  3. Content Calendar
    1. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram: two scheduled (image) posts per week (Tuesday, Thursday)
    2. YouTube: when applicable
  4. Content Creation and Suggested Topics:
    1. GSF goals, vision, and mission: Promote GSF and educate on its vision and mission.
    2. GSF member benefits: Share the benefits of membership in GSF.
    3. GSF member associations: Promote existing members associations.
    4. GSF member association spotlights: Highlight member associations’ goals and local impact.
    5. GSF membership requirements: Share details about the requirements to join GSF as an association.
    6. GSF leadership: Introduce the Presidential Leadership team and Board Members of GSF.
    7. GSF history: Describe how and when GSF hast become to go-to-resource for speaker associations.
    8. GSF award winners: Introduce and celebrate past and present GSF award winners.
    9. GSF Global Speaking Fellow promotion: Describe the process to become a Global Speaking Fellow.
    10. GSF Global Speaking Fellows: Introduce past and present Global Speaking Fellow recipients.
    11. Professional Speakers Celebration Day: Promote and celebrate March 14th.
    12. GSF events: Promote the GSS and encourage associations to share and speakers to sign up.
    13. GSF initiatives: Share initiatives and programs led by GSF.
    14. Association glossary: Explain common terms that association leaders should be familiar with.
    15. Member association leadership: Congratulate new Presidents of associations and thank for their service.
    16. Member association events: Promote upcoming (annual) events hosted by member associations.
    17. Best practices: Share tips for associations and leaders (membership growth, event planning, marketing.
    18. Association resources: Share resources and information that can help associations (GSF Library.)
    19. Success stories: Share success stories from member associations, highlighting their achievements.
    20. Sponsorship opportunities: Encourage sponsorship opportunities to support GSF or the speaking industry.
    21. Ongoing stories: presidential coverage (e.g. President visits annual conventions.)
  5. Content Governance:
    1. Neutral Political Stance: cannot endorse or criticize any political parties, candidates, or ideologies.
    2. Sensitive Topics: no posting or commenting on topics such as race, religion, or personal opinions.
    3. Inclusive Language: language that is respectful regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or nationality.
    4. Cultural Sensitivity: mindful of cultural differences and norms as viewed by a global audience.
    5. No Individual Highlights: instead maintain focus on the collective goals s of member associations.
    6. Transparency: indicate the source of any statistics, quotes, or data used in content.
    7. Fact-Checking: verify all information before posting to ensure accuracy and credibility.
    8. Brand Consistency: ensure that all content aligns with GSF's brand voice, design, mission, and values.
    9. Non-Commercial Tone: no overly promotional language; focus on value, information and education.
    10. Accountability: in the event of mistakes commit to being transparent and corrections made promptly.
    11. Following individual accounts: limit GSF’s following to member associations and not individual speakers.
    12. User generated content: disallow content published by users or don’t reshare it.
    13. Content approval: centralized at GSF staff and Social media team.
  6. Content Scheduling
    • Advantages
      • Time savings: batch-create and schedule posts in single sessions.
      • Increased efficiency: streamlines the process, reduces the chances of errors and duplicated effort.
      • Improved organization: clear overview of scheduled content, making it easier to track progress.
      • Better content planning: allows planning GSFs content more effectively.
      • Cross-platform consistency: maintains a consistent brand image and messaging across platforms.
      • Better analytics: detailed and central analytics allow GSF to adjust its strategy as needed.
    • Disadvantages
      • Lack of flexibility: limits the ability to respond quickly to current events or trending topics.
      • Less visibility and engagements: platforms decrease reach when scheduled with third-party software.
      • Inflexibility in response to feedback: challenging to adjust content based on feedback.
      • Reduced authenticity: may not feel as genuine or spontaneous compared to ad-hoc postings.
      • Decreased sense of urgency: may not convey a sense of urgency compared to ad-hoc postings.
      • Sensitivity: GSF must ensure that can be paused during emergency situations, natural disasters, crises.

PHASE 3 — MONITORING AND ADJUSTMENTS

tbd

PHASE 4 — EMAIL MARKETING

Having successfully laid the foundational groundwork in Phase 1+2, where we streamlined GSF’s social media presence and established a unified brand identity, GSF is ready to transition into Phase 4 focusing on e-mail marketing.

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