FINAL: Assignment 5 - Analysis of Breast Cancer Society of Canada’s Social Media Presence
Executive Summary
This study on the Breast Cancer Society of Canada’s (BCSC) social media aims to help improve the organizations online presence and grow their audience. It is crucial to the BCSC that they expand their reach as breast cancer is a disease that effects 1 in 8 women (The American Cancer Society, 2019.) Currently the BCSC runs a website as well as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube pages. Frequent posts are made to each page and they all have a respectable number of followers. However, their day to day engagement with posts is very low. It is recommended that the BCSC update their visual profile to be more captivating and encourage user interaction with the organization. Through using a digital marketing strategy, they can reach a younger and wider demographic to educate women about breast cancer early on in their lives.
Introduction
Purpose of Report
Thesis:
The goal of the BCSC is to end a disease that effects a large percentage of the population. Improving the BSCS’s online presence by aiming to reach a wider audience and increasing the quality of content in posts will aid them in achieving this goal. The following report will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Breast Cancer Society of Canada’s online presence and provide suggestions pertaining to how the organization can improve in this area.
Rationale:
Breast cancer effects 1/4 of all new cancer cases in women and 13% of all female cancer deaths (Breast Cancer Society of Canada, 2019).
BCSC’s online platforms can do more to effectively reach people whose lives have been affected by breast cancer.
Our report aims to identify critical areas for BCSC to target for improvement.
Auditors of this report:
Kaitlin Janes, Elly Lapp and Jamie Luchenski are WRIT 240: Writing For Social Media students who have learned to view social media profiles through a critical lens to provide recommendations for improvement.
This team has learned about the successes and downfalls of effective social media communication and are qualified to apply our knowledge to improve the online presence of BCSC.
About the Breast Cancer Society of Canada (BCSC):
Objectives:
Raise money to fund patient-focused research for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of breast cancer.
Mission:
To Save Lives through Breast Cancer Research
Vision Statement:
An End to Breast Cancer
Perceived Target Audience:
Women aged 18-65
Brief overview of BCSC’s current ONLINE presence
BCSC’s Current Online Presence
Information is as follows: Platform Name, Link, Reach/Following, Average number of hits/post (data taken from the last 30 posts). Data as of April 2019
Website
https://bcsc.ca
Data not available.
Data not available.
https://www.facebook.com/breastcancersocietyofcanada/
6.4K likes
Average of 10.1 likes per post
https://www.instagram.com/breastcancersoc/
4.5K followers
Average of 17 likes per post
https://twitter.com/bcsc
10K followers
Average of 7 engagements (likes and retweets combined) per tweet
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/user/BreastCancerSociety/featured
Subscriber data not available.
Approx. 598 views per video
Literature Review
Current literature shows us what potential target audience members look for in an organization’s online presence:
Educational topics are lowest-performing topics on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Social media users tend to prefer content that plays to their emotions whether this be humorous or warm & fuzzy.
An example of this includes a comparison of the CBCS’s YouTube videos which focus on research, to videos posted on the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) which follows one patients’ story and their battle against cancer. Click here to view the CBCS’s video and here to view the CCS video (importantly, note that the CBCS video has about 100 views while the CCs video has about 850 views).
Recent posts include “How to tell your kids you have cancer” or “Mother’s Day Walk” fundraisers. Although breast cancer rates rise as women get older, it is important to educate young women on risk factors early on (Age and Breast Cancer Risk, Komen).
To appeal to a wider demographic, the BCSC should vary who they cater their content towards. The younger demographic uses social media much more than their older counterparts, making them the perfect target for digital marketing.
The following chart is taken from statista.com and demonstrates the reach social media platforms are capable of having on young adults. (Statistics are from the United States in this study).
(U.S. Teens: Most Popular Social Media Apps, 2017.)
This research highlights that the BCSC should primarily focus on their Facebook and Instagram content if they hope to expand their audience demographics.
Methodology
In order to assess the efficacy of BCSC’s online presence, we used the following methods:
Comparison with Competition/Other Charities of Same Size.
Reach of each online platform.
Finding an average number of engagements per post.
Analysis of public opinion of BCSC using Social Mention and Twitter Search.
Findings
BCSC’s Strengths
Website
Clear tabs at the top of the page helpful for those not familiar with the website or organization
Involvement and interaction with the organization is encouraged through multiple “register now” and “learn more” buttons
Easy and direct buttons to donate with effective “call to action” style captions (ie: “Yes! I want to help end breast cancer and save lives! Donate Now!”)
Email sign up for “staying up to date” easy to access on Home page.
Social media links are shown in a button at the top of the page
English and French options
Facebook Page
A response time of a few hours to direct messages
This meets user’s expectations for response time (Cox, 2018).
Quick responses results in users to view the organization more positively and recommend the organization to others (Cox, 2018).
Automatically starts a direct message window for any questions the viewer may have
Shows user friends who like the page (encourages engagement)
Content aligns with BCSC’s objectives
Often showcases how the successes with their fundraising initiatives.
Engaging Captions
Includes a link to their website in their bio
Frequent use of related hashtags.
At least one hashtag used per post.
Good use of multimedia (not just text-only tweets).
Youtube
Good featured video on home page
Affectively showcases the BCSC’s mission.
Fairly consistent uploading
Overarching
Branding is consistent across all platforms
All social media platforms and website have same colour scheme, logos, fonts and cover photos.
Logo and visual identity are concise and put together. Looks professional but also includes colour and frequent images which suit their target audience.
Consistent but not overwhelming posting of new content
New content is posted every couple of days.
Avoids use of jargon.
Accessible to all users.
BCSC’s Weaknesses
Website
A timeline of the organization and the effect they’ve had would be a great professional touch to provide buy-in from potential donators (could clearly identify where their money would be used).
Facebook Page
“Research Milestones” under “5 Year Research Plan” does not have a set year associated with them. Would be nice to see updates on the home page of how these goals are coming
Average number of likes per post is just over 10. With 6.4k likes on their page, more traffic should be generated.
Posts containing videos, success stories, or worldwide news regarding breast cancer have performed better than generic posts about research. This content should therefore be incorporated more frequently.
Content in posts is not optimal for this social media platform.
Content includes links (which do not work on this platform).
Text-heavy images.
Spacing often off or awkward.
Instagram biography does not reflect the organization’s mission and is not engaging.
Current mission on Instagram is: "We are a charity funding patient-focused breast cancer research. #ResearchMatters"
The use of the word “we” comes off as unprofessional.
Try instead “A charitable organization dedicated to funding breast cancer research. Click below to learn about current news, upcoming events, and how to donate #ResearchMatters”.
Does not use Twitter to respond to tweets from Twitter users.
Platform is currently used as one-way communication, not an interactive experience between user and organization.
Youtube
Page features predominantly older women.
Include a mix of demographics to engage all ages and spread awareness to younger generations.
Content is research or fundraiser based.
Including personal stories or interviews with survivors would be a great way to create an emotional connection with subscribers and allow them to feel loyal to the organization.
Overarching
The BSCS primarily uses social media for introducing new research efforts and promoting fundraisers.
By creating a diverse array of post styles (personal stories, fun photos, contests, etc.) consumers are more likely to have a positive experience with these pages and be more interested when a news story does come up on their timeline (since this will be a less frequent occurrence).
Social media is not used to promote donations from users.
Content focuses on events that have happened and not how users can get involved and/or support BCSC in the future.
Shows that the BCSC does what it proposes it will do for customers.
Media not fit for all platforms. The content is very text heavy, which is well-suited for Facebook, but less ideal for Instagram or Twitter. By curating content specifically for each platform, users will engage with it better.
Although the visual identity is very uniform which is great, the graphics need to be more engaging. By sticking to the same graphic format, consumers get bored. With more visually appealing posts, the BCSC may see more engagement in the future.
Discussion
Relevance of findings:
Through an in-depth analysis of the BCSC’s digital presence, it can be determined they are not using their platforms to the fullest potential. Although they are doing a fantastic job posting consistently, the quality of their posts can be greatly improved. To create a connection with their online community, the BCSC should create more visually interesting graphics, as well as expand the content’s subject matter to be interesting to a wider demographic.
How our findings fit with other with other research in the area:
Our findings showed that BCSC’s weaknesses tended to align with current researcher demonstrates does not work for a successful online presence.
Conclusion
Overall, the Breast Cancer Society of Canada has found successful ways to create an online presence using a combination of social media platforms. A BCSC website is in effect, as well as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube pages which clearly outline the objectives of the organization and provide followers with useful information regarding research and fundraisers. Despite these successes, several areas of improvement have been identified including appealing to a younger audience and including a wider variety of content in posts. Making improvements to these areas will increase the BCSC’s web traffic and result in more user engagement with posts.
Recommendations for Action
Use social media platforms to engage with users and encourage them to donate to BCSC.
Make users feel that by interacting with you online, they are having a positive impact.
Add links to posts where users can donate directly.
If BCSC decides to maintain a strictly educational online presence, the focus may be shifted from simply providing facts to starting conversations.
Again, makes users feel like they are having an impact.
Add a call to action educational posts. Ex: talk to a friend about getting a check-up, what is one tip you can take away from this article and implement today?
Create a more visually appealing online identity to engage all demographics and keep them coming back for quality content.
Cater posts to specific platforms.
Create emotional connections through posts to build a digital community.
