On the 21st of September 2022, the INERELA+ Acting Executive Director Munya Mandipaza and the Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Advisor had an opportunity to share with one hundred and fifty UN Women-funded grantees how INERELA+ use social media as a communication channel, for engagement, advocacy and to communicate results. The duo managed to shed light on the use of social media as an information channel which INERELA+ uses to share key information about their work and to raise awareness to the wider audience on ending violence against women and girls through the website, reports, and knowledge products. As a medium for engagement INERELA+ uses social media to engage stakeholders through important calendar dates and hashtags in order to take a stand on violence against women and girls. Through campaigns, INERELA+ uses social media to advocate for transformational change at all levels that guarantee women and girls’ rights to live free from violence.
Considerations in developing communication content were shared by the INERELA+ Acting Executive Director. She emphasised that it was important to look at the target audience, the channels of communication that the target audience accesses most in their context, and the times that they regularly use those platforms. It was noted that cultural values and norms also play an important role when developing communication content. The need to use appropriate messaging is central to content development.
To maintain an online presence the INERELA+ Acting Executive Director stressed that it is important to use briefly written texts with key statistics to keep on inspiring the target audience. A communications calendar with important dates guides INERELA+ in the type of content to develop and the timelines for posting it. In overall INERELA+ keeps on referring to its strategic plan and the overall goals and objectives which are part of the strategic plan.
In order to track what has worked and what has not worked INERELA+ uses the monkey survey to interact with the target audience and to solicit feedback on their personal experiences after a campaign, social media engagement, and offering of services. Use of ongoing analytics on INERELA+ Facebook pages and interactions via Twitter. The target audience assists INERELA+ by assessing the content for our communications.