1. Southern CA Regional Conference - September 10th, 2016
Social Media Best Practices & Case Study
Nisha Bhatt, Southern CA Communities Fellow
Teresa Baxter Southern CA Leadership Team member FT Altadena/FTLA

2. Social Media – Questions to ask
What is your message/story?
How do you maintain consistency in messaging?
What is/are the best social media channel/s to use?
Who is your audience?
What kind of posts are most engaging to your audience?
How often will you plan to post/update?
Who will be responsible for social media from your team?
How will you measure how your posts are doing?
Who is your network?
What ideas/mission/story do you want to share consistently over time
Know your audience - Local Fair Trade consumers and business owners, people who are interested in social justice, environmental sustainability and yummy products!
What posts would be engaging - What products are available, inspirational quotes, local events, campaign achievements, your connection to the national movement, etc.
Maintain consistency in branding
Social media channels = FB, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat

3. Social Media “To-do’s Ask questions and respond to questions
Call to action – “like” “share”, comments, hashtags, events, groups
Use photos, videos and links – “A picture is worth thousand words” - Napoleon Bonaparte
Share relevant, original, unique, exclusive content
Maintain consistency in branding and messaging
Infographics - compelling data and images
Taylor posts to social media platform
Insert humor
Engage with and repost/tweet other people’s content adding your own messaging
Taylor posts - keep tweets short and sweet, Instagram and Pinterest are visual content heavy, Facebook encourages call to action

4. More Social Media “To-do’s
Metrics!
Engage with mission aligned networks
Stay informed and up to date -
Make a content calendar and schedule posts
Look into tools to help you manage several platforms – Hootsuite
Address negative posts/comments promptly
Metrics – measure outcomes of posts – FB has analytics, FB Insights button – review your likes, shares, retweets, reposts – this will help you to see what peeks your audiences engagement (
Who is your network? Always engage with local and national groups that have similar missions by liking their pages interacting with or sharing their posts. Look at who other organizations follow to build your list
Stay up to date on latest social media technologies, trends and happenings
Negative comments – you can hide negative comments, if persist reach out to the individual if comfortable, if not you can ban from your page (searchable YouTube tutorials are available
YouTube tutorials are a great way to learn methods of doing things on platforms and staying up to date!

5. Social Media “No-no’s”
Don’t use a lot of text/words
Don’t post inappropriate or offensive (according to your audience) content/images
Don’t copy others messaging/posts directly or repost/retweet to too often
Don’t be repetitive/redundant
People don’t read more than a two sentences before moving on and photos have 39% more engagement and more likely to show up in newsfeeds

6. Great posts! Consistent Branding & Messaging

7. Great posts! Call to Action/engagement
(target audience, quotes, humor, photos, links, comments & #hashtags, infographics)

10. Fair Trade Photofest
Show your love for Fair Trade and win a trip to origin!
​Week 1 (October 1 – 7) – Fair Trade Cuties
Week 2 (October 8 – 14) – Where’s the Fair?
Week 3 (October 15 – 21) – Fair Trade in Action
Week 4 (October 22 – 28) – ​Share the Fair

11. Case Study
Posting to social media platforms for Fair Trade Los Angeles (FTLA) – highlights and lessons learned - Teresa Baxter

12. Resources My contact: nbhatt@fairtradeusa.org
Searchable on Fair Trade Campaigns Website – Facebook and Twitter Best Practice Guides:

13. Resources cont.
Searchable on YouTube (FB Insights and how to hide/ban):
Other useful websites:

14. Thank you!
“They need to believe in your mission - create a consistent narrative that shares your mission” – Kate Fowler, Communications Expert, Catholic Apostolate Center
“A picture is worth thousand words” - Napoleon Bonaparte