#terryfoxfoundation

General Overview

The Terry Fox Foundation does a relatively good job in maintaining the integrity of their message and goals throughout their various social media channels. Based on the activity present on Facebook and Twitter, the primary goal of the organization currently is to encourage the public to donate to the organization. The Terry Fox Foundation also launched its redesigned website on April 3rd so a good portion of their recent social media activity has been dedicated to spreading the word about its existence.

Facebook

The Terry Fox Foundation is on Facebook under ‘The Terry Fox’ and uses the handle @TheTerryFoxFoundation. On Facebook, the organization does a great job of inviting, maintain and promoting the interactions of potential donors.

The majority of the posts have upwards of 10 comments per posts. The amount of photography used goes towards humanizing the foundation and making it a bit more approachable. The tone of voice is warm, inviting, inspiring and accommodating. This is essential to their success on the platform by maintaining a consistent voice, they are effectively building the Terry Fox brand and creating brand recognition within their target market. (Bernhart, 2018).

With these factors in mind, it is clear the organization uses Facebook as its primary social media platform. Facebook would be the only platform I’d say that should maintain its level of activity and quality of content.

Twitter

The Terry Fox Foundation on Twitter, under the handle @TerryFoxCanada, is very focused on the organization’s financial goals as well as the promotion of cancer research and development. This can be observed with the frequency of retweeted posts from the Terry Fox Research Foundation. The posts from the Terry Fox Foundation are well designed, all containing a message, a call-to-action, and driving towards a specific goal.

The general frequency of tweets is enough, but the organization doesn’t do a great job of interacting with users on Twitter. (Bernhart, 2018) In fact, the vast majority of posts have no tweets in reply to them. This could mean that their social media strategy is working really well, and viewers are clicking through, or it could mean that the strategy is weak and needs to be updated to encourage interactions.

Strategy to Improve

Currently, the foundation on Twitter doesn’t post content inviting a reply or conversation to take place on the platform. To potentially improve engagement the foundation should begin posting content that sparks a discussion or conversation. This can be in the form of a question, a quiz, a poll or something to that effect.

Instagram

The Terry Fox Foundation on Instagram, under the handle @terryfoxfoundation, is more focused on positioning the organization as one of the communities. The posts limited to various national and observed holidays, as well as pictures from events being held around the world. This strategy keeps the foundation in the minds of potential donors; effectively demonstrating that people from all walks can be affected by cancer. The Instagram account is also peppered with posts depicting Terry Fox during his run. These images, used in a variety of ways, is used as a tool to evoke an emotional response from any and all followers. The intent here is to inspire a donation.

Strategy to Improve

The Instagram account is the least active and as such, a major area to improve would be the frequency of posts. The engagement is high on other social platforms so the foundation could simply repurpose a small amount of the content currently posted to Facebook to increase the engagement on Instagram.

References

Contributor, 10 Ways Small Businesses Can Improve Their Social Media Presence, Digital Marketing Institute (Online). Accessed 2 April 2019 via https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-ca/blog/10-ways-small-businesses-can-improve-their-social-media-presence