It’s been LGBT Fostering & Adoption week this month, so I’ve decided to create a post on using Facebook for creating awareness and reaching out to people to bust those common ‘fostering myths’.

First of all, let’s take a look at the most common misconceptions about who can foster:

– ‘I’d love to foster, but I am gay’ 1 in 3 people are under the assumption that if you are gay you can’t foster. Whether you are straight, gay or lesbian, you can foster.

– ‘I’d love to foster, but I think I am too old’ 44% of the nation think that if you are over 55 you cannot foster, however, the only age requirement is that foster carers are over 21.

– ‘I’d love to foster, but I am male’ A fifth of people believe that if you are a man you cannot foster, however both men and women can foster.

– ‘I’d love to foster, but I am single’ There are no marital status requirements to foster, you can be single.

(Action for children, 2014)

These common fostering myths are threatening to cause a fostering crisis in the UK, a crisis which can easily be prevented (Burns, 2013). It is, therefore, fundamental that local authorities and councils work hard to diminish these common misconceptions and show people that they can foster.

How? This is where creating awareness through Facebook advertising comes in.

Facebook advertising is becoming increasingly popular for raising awareness and encouraging users to become part of a form of beneficial behaviour (Thackeray, 2012). This is because it enables organisations to reach out to a wide amount of people (Danker,2014), whilst increasing the chance of reaching out to the right people through specific targeting options (Hollis, 2005).

In order to understand how organisations can effectively create awareness through Facebook advertising, let’s take a look at a recent high performing, awareness raising social media campaign:

Action for Children Fostering Myth Busting Campaign

Action for children, a UK children’s charity, ran a campaign in September 2014 as part of a drive to tackle incorrect fostering beliefs. The fostering campaign focused on the lives of 15 foster carers who were once among the large amount of people who are drawn away from enquiring due to the common misconceptions.

(Source: Action for Children, 2014)

Facebook advertising for the campaign got 786 users talking, created 1,027 stories through these users liking, commenting on and sharing the content, reached 55,175 users and gained 155 new page likes (Action for Children, 2014). Besides a huge amount of engagement, the campaign resulted in 734 fostering enquiries, a 204% increase on their last recruitment campaign (Action for Children, 2014).

What were the key reasons for such success?

Of course, it is important to remember that Action for Children is one of the largest UK children’s charities so has the advantage of a strong brand name and Facebook fan base, but to gain 734 new fostering enquiries shows that the way in which the charity advertised through Facebook was extremely effective.

The key reasons that I think the campaign was such a success was the implementation of content around real-life stories and the use of clear call-to-actions. Social media users like to be able to relate to the content that they are being shown, therefore by the charity telling stories of foster parents, it allowed users to form emotional attachments and  increased the likeliness of engagement (Rauniar et al, 2013). The charity also focused specifically on telling users what to do through clear call-to-actions. Research suggests that people are far more likely to engage with an organisation if they are being told what to do and if what they are being told to do is perceived as simple (Marketing Week, 2015).

It should be understood that these are not the sole reasons for the campaigns success, but the use of real life stories and clear call-to-actions are likely to be incremental factors which increased the number of users who chose to engage with the campaign.

Why should local authorities and councils use Facebook to raise awareness?

The campaign results for Action for Children imply that consumer behaviour towards brand messages has changed from being “passive” receivers of content, such as TV and radio advertising, to becoming co-creators and multipliers of brand messages, enabling viral effects and opportunities for online word-of-mouth marketing (Jahn & Kunz, 2012). In a way, social media converts users into marketers based on the fact that they are able to share, like and comment on content; if they find the content interesting, they are likely to engage and share the messaging with their online peers (Roberts & Kraynak, 2008).

Potential limitations

In light of the Action for Children campaign, it is important to remember, however, that not all content received through a Facebook awareness campaign is going to be positive. The opinion of the public varies, so local authorities and councils need to ensure that they have a skilled workforce available to respond to any negative comments in order to diminish the chances of tarnishing the brand .This has the potential to provide both timely and costly as increased training and labour may be required (Rogers, 2014), however, the benefits of doing so are likely to outweigh the costs.

If you would like to read more about the Action for Children Myth Busting campaign, please click the following link: http://bit.ly/1CmyP6S

References

Action for children. (2014). The myths of fostering. Available: <http://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/fostering-and-short-breaks-service/about-fostering/who-can-foster/the-myths-of-fostering&gt; [accessed 21 March 2015]

Action for Children (2014) Myth Busting Campaign [Online] < http://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/fostering-and-short-breaks-service/why-choose-action-for-children/our-latest-recruitment-campaign/september-myth-busting-campaign&gt; [accessed 21 March 2015]

BBC News (2013) Foster care myths threaten crisis, claims charity BBC News, 9^th September 2013 [Online] <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23987900&gt; [accessed 21 March 2015]

Danker, S. (2014). BRAND: Identity, Image and Relationships. Art Education. 67 (1), 41-51.

Hollis, N. (2005). Ten Years of Learning on How Online Advertising Builds Brands. Journal of advertising research. 45 (2), 255-268.

Jahn, B. & Kunz, W. (2012) ‘How to transform consumers into fans of your brand’, Journal of service management, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 344-361 [accessed 21 March 2015]

Marketing Week (2015) ‘Four essential tips to digital marketing optimisations’ Marketing Week, 26^th February 2015 [Online] < http://www.marketingweek.com/knowledge-bank/white-paper/four-essential-steps-to-digital-marketing-optimisation/?cmpid=knowb_942187&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=mw_knowledgebank&gt; [accessed 21 March 2015]

Rauniar, R., Rawski, G., Johnson, B. & Yang, J. 2013, “Social Media User Satisfaction – Theory Development and Research Findings”, Journal of Internet Commerce, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 195.

Roberts, R. R., and J. Kraynak. 2008. Walk like a giant, sell like a madman. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Rogers, A. (2014). Managing the Gaps in Health Care Digital Marketing. Marketing health services. 1 (2), 1.

Thackeray, R. (2012). Integrating Social Media and Social Marketing. Health Promotion Practice. 13 (2), 165-168.