01: The Power of Social Media on SURGE Missions

With Janthomas Hiemstra, Dania Darwish and Mehmet Erdogan

Listen on Spotify → https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/e12p0s4

In this episode of SURGE Voices Podcast, UNDP Crisis Bureau’s Janthomas Hiemstra talks with Communications Specialists Dania Darwish (UNDP Palestine) and Mehmet Erdogan (UNDP Climate Promise) about leveraging social media as SURGE Advisors and they explore the following questions:

• What are Dania and Mehmet’s favorite social media platform?
• Why is it important for UNDP crisis professionals to act like journalists?
• If you’re doing incredible work and haven’t tweeted it, did it really happen?
• What social media posts were significant in the crisis settings Dania and Mehmet have worked in?
• What are Dania and Mehmet’s tips for using social media to create impact on SURGE missions?

Tweetables

Pithy, shareable, less-than-280-character statements you can tweet.

• “If you’re doing incredible work on the ground and you haven’t tweeted it, did it really happen?” — @mehmeterdoganIV on using social media for impact in #SURGE #crisis missions. #SURGEvoices @SURGE_UNDP https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/e12p0s4
• Dania Darwish’s, @UNDPPalestinian, advice to #SURGE Advisors using social media on #crisis missions: “Be human…avoid UN jargon…know your message and simplify it as much as possible.” #SURGEvoices @SURGE_UNDP https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/e12p0s4
• @UNDPTurkiye doubled followers on Instagram and caught the attention of the mayor through a highly successful day-long campaign with @mert__firat on #Syrian refugees. https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/e12p0s4
• “We do it to showcase the resilience of the families and their hope for better living conditions, for better livelihoods, for improved life there. That is the main objective of any communications work that we do.” @UDNPPalestianian’s Dania Darwesh in #SURGEvoices @SURGE_UNDP https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/e12p0s4

Mentioned in this Episode

• Twitter: UNDP Palestine
• Twitter: UNDP Turkey
• Twitter: UNDP Eurasia
• Twitter: Mert Firat (influencer)
• Instagram: UNDP Turkey
• Instagram: Mert Firat (influencer)

Transcript

Janthomas: Welcome to the SURGE Voices Podcast — where we talk about how UNDP supports countries in crisis. My name is Janthomas Hiemstra and I lead the Country Support Management Team in UNDP’s Crisis Bureau. Social media has democratized the ability of us to use communications and in a totally new way, with the phone in hand, we can be journalists. In today’s podcast, we will discuss the power of social media for SURGE missions and for SURGE Advisers. And with us, we have two very highly accomplished comms experts. Dania Darwish from the Palestinian program. We were both on SURGE mission to Syria a while ago, I think. SURGE Advisor and has been leading from the Country Office in Palestine, the communications work. And Mehmet Erdogan, who is currently the communications lead in the Climate Promise team in BPPS, but also was doing the communications work for UNDP Eurasia and Turkey previously, from where we have also collaborated. Welcome, Dania and welcome Mehmet. Welcome to the first episode of SURGE Voices Podcast. Dania, welcome. What’s your favorite social media platform?

Dania: Well, Janthomas, I don’t exactly have a single favorite one because it all depends on the audience that I want to reach and the objective of my message. If I’m, for example, reaching the Palestinian local community or the Palestinian audience and institutions, then my first option would be Facebook, since it’s the most frequently used social media network in the country. That is then followed by Twitter for my global audience and medium, then Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

Janthomas: Mehmet, what is your favorite?

Mehmet: Hi Janthomas. Thanks for having me. I guess in a personal capacity, I probably spend most of my time between Instagram and Twitter. And then when it comes to work for UNDP-related communications — in trainings,

Mehmet: I always encourage people to use either Twitter and/or LinkedIn because these two, to me, are the most public and professional networks.

Janthomas: And you are two communications professionals, right? We would expect you to be on those platforms, but I am increasingly, of course, all of us are invited, particularly, for example, when on the surge mission to start contributing to our work, to our communications profile. Why do you think it’s important for us development professionals and SURGE Advisors to also start feeling and behaving like a journalist, Mehmet?

Mehmet: There are so many reasons. I can just maybe get started with one or two of them. The first reason that we should be on social media is for the organization. When we are on social media and speaking out on behalf of the organization, we’re helping to position you UNDP. So, let’s say that people are searching for topics in areas that UNDP works, such as climate change, gender equality, human rights — you want to make sure that UNDP’s name comes up in those important conversations and that we’re looping ourselves into those important conversations. As the saying goes, if you’re doing incredible work on the ground and you haven’t tweeted it, did it really happen?

Janthomas: If you didn’t tweet it, it might not have happened?

Mehmet: Right. It’s important to put out those messages about our work that are clear, concise, and easily understood by audiences so that we can also motivate and mobilize them too. And that brings me to my second reason we should be there — it’s really to bond with audiences to move and motivate them. When we tell stories with humans at the center, we win people to our cause. That’s been my experience and all of the work that UNDP has done on storytelling and — you know, our cause is the cause of making the world a better place. And I think in an age where multilateralism is in danger, the UN agencies should really make the most of all digital tools in our hands to help audiences bond with its mission. And that’s possible for free if we do a good job of telling great stories using social media.

Janthomas: Well, I remember, Dania, when we went to Syria, people were telling us, please do tweet because I mean, people need to know that UNDP still in Syria. Right? We sometimes have forgotten about it — all the refugees coming out of Syria and still UNDP has been there all along, right? Even that news is really important. So, Dania, you have some other reasons why we all should?

Dania: It’s a great tool for us to present a human face to the work that we do on the ground. So our stories, our blogs, our photos and so forth. It’s key to our positioning — not just for us, but for our partners as well, providing them with a platform to show the work that they’re doing as well in partnership with UNDP to share our core messages. It’s important for us to engage with our community, to listen to their needs, to correct any type of misinformation that is there. To address any negative perceptions that they might have against the UN or against UNDP. Inform the public about what’s happening on the ground. In a nutshell, it makes UNDP relatable to anyone, and that’s very important for us.

Janthomas: Just going to a concrete example here, Dania. Can you walk us through one social media post or a series of posts that you believe were significant for UNDP in crisis?

Dania: Yes, Janthomas. The social media post that comes to mind relates to providing dignified homes to around 92,000 people through the construction and rehabilitation of over 13,000 housing units that were damaged during the hostilities in Gaza. This was done with support from the Saudi Fund for Development. Basically what we did is we organized a Twitter campaign highlighting the project’s results through testimonials from some of these families. The first tweet that we posted received over 4,600 retweets.

Janthomas: Mehmet, what is your most favorite example?

Mehmet: Yeah, I think in my case, it wasn’t a specific post, but it was actually a whole day of outreach through Instagram stories, which is something we haven’t tried until then. For that day. I was working with our UNDP Turkey office and they had just launched, with European Union, a new project to strengthen Syrians and host communities in southeastern Turkey. $50 million for each program. And they were supporting Syrians with job creation, municipal services, Turkish language trainings, and a community center for women with child care. So there was a lot to show and to showcase the people. Instagram stories really helped us kind of transport people to a scenic setting. They got to see a different city, a different region of Turkey. They got to meet the refugees face to face. A community that’s vulnerable and marginalized and often misunderstood by most communities. Impact was incredible. We doubled our Instagram following on the same day. Like, within one day of doing this, we doubled our numbers. And even the city mayor told the story through our Instagram channel, invited us to his office to meet and then amplified our messages through his Twitter account. So it was overall a very, very successful approach.

Janthomas: Syrian refugees in Turkey. I mean, both of you are describing impact and success of such Twitter or Instagram campaigns. We’re talking about followers, retweets, and likes. Is that what we do it for?

Dania: We do it to highlight the change that we’re making on people’s lives. We do it to showcase the resilience of, in our case for example, the families, the hardships that they’ve gone through. And at the end of the day, their hope for better living conditions, for better livelihoods, for improved life there. That is the main objective of any campaign or any communications work that we do. And what UNDP does on the ground. If we’re looking at how is it impactful, I think that’s at the human-level at the beneficiaries level, if I may say. But from an organizational perspective, it strengthens our positioning, our partnership, opens doors for more resource mobilization opportunities.

Janthomas: The followers, and the likes, and the retweets, they are just proxies of us actually reaching people with good news, right, on UNDP? Mehmet, in your perspective, what were the ingredients to the particular success that you were talking about? What went so well?

Mehmet: The visual aspect of it — and being able to transport people to a new setting and showing them the sights, sounds, smells of a community, of a whole new community that maybe they haven’t met before.

Janthomas: I think as far as Gaza is concerned, this could be very similar, Dania, right? I mean, not many people are setting foot in Gaza these days so the transportation of your audiences to such a stark, small, overwhelming setting — it’s an art in itself, I suppose.

Dania: Yes, yes, it is, as you said, transforming them into a location that most probably they will not be able to visit is important. It transforms them into a location that most probably they will never visit. It highlights people’s lives. Real lives. How they’re living, what they’re seeing, the challenges that they’re facing.

Janthomas: Telling individual SURGE Advisors, “You can do this!” Why don’t you go ahead with it? Is this something somebody can just pick up on his own? It doesn’t sound like that.

Janthomas: And, Mehmet, if it is, what tips and tricks would you have to tell our SURGE Advisors how to get going on actually doing this?

Mehmet: Thanks, Janthomas. This is a really important question and a distinction that we must make. We don’t want to give the false impression that communications can be done by just one person. It is absolutely teamwork and it does require resources and it does require a whole team. But that being said, there’s also change that you can affect just on an individual level with Twitter, for example, or LinkedIn, it is possible to share your experiences, your stories, what you’re seeing through your eyes. Of course, keeping it in line with the corporate messaging, but then adding your voice and humanity on top of that can be really, really impactful. And for that, I would have several tips. The most important one, perhaps, is always to write in a language that — I say to people — write in the language that your best friend will understand. So this is a best friend who doesn’t work in UNDP and who’s reading on the other end of the phone or their screen, and they’re not having to think themselves, “What did this person just tell me?” To be able to do that, what you need to do is to really unlearn what it means to be a bureaucrat, which a lot of us, unfortunately, have internalized through many years of working within the UN system. So really simplify what you’re trying to say. The other tip I would give is don’t overpromise the world. Don’t portray things in a simplistic light. What I mean by that is — people are smart. They are reading great journalism every day. So if you are exaggerating accomplishments and achievements on the ground, it will absolutely come across. So don’t overpromise what UNDP is doing, but be real and honest and also don’t be afraid of nuance. Don’t portray things in a black and white matter. It’s not like the situation is horrible, UNDP comes on the ground, and now the situation is wonderful. The real world does not work like that and people know that. And that’s OK. And my final tip, I guess, would be — and I don’t really know the best way to put this, but I guess I would say try to avoid kind of this colonialist — this trope of saving victimized people. We’re not saviors and we’re not saving victimized people from themselves. We are supporting people who have agency but who are facing structural inequalities. And we need to be really careful about the way that we portray them — both in pictures, but also in our language with the words that we use. So these are the three most important things to pay attention to.

Janthomas: Well, that’s already very rich. Dania, what can you add?

Dania: Be human. Be consistent, be timely with your messages, understand the context that you’re working in, engage with your colleagues, with the community. Be aware of your surroundings if you’re taking photos or videos. Avoid the UN language and jargon. At the same time, know your limits and be transparent about them. Know what you want to say. What is your message? And simplify it as much as possible. If you have the opportunity to have quality photos, infographics, videos — by all means. If not, your own statements, your own photo on the ground or the testimony would suffice.

Mehmet: Yeah, I just wanted to add on this great point that Dania made about limits. And I think we also have to talk about the ethical aspects of this and the security aspects of this, especially if you’re working in a crisis setting. Make sure that the person that your photographing or telling the story of already knows and has consented to this. We don’t want to put people in further danger when their story is out there with their face on it. So really be careful about that and always make sure that you receive consent for that.

Janthomas: Ladies and Gentlemen, this was our first episode. For SURGE Advisors and development practitioners hearing this: be proactive, take pictures, collaborate with your comms colleagues and avoid jargon, write in a language that your best friend will understand. That’s it for SURGE Voices today. To find out more about UNDP’s signature solutions for crisis response, check us out at Twitter @SURGE_UNDP. We’ll see you in the next episode.

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