Case Study with iGEM Toronto
How to Run a Successful Social Media Campaign With Student Volunteers During a Pandemic
Why you want to read this:
As a student organization, we face a struggle known to many: we rely on student volunteers who juggle competing obligations from school and work. In this article, we want to demonstrate how we could run a successful campaign by optimizing volunteer power.
Team introduction:
This case study features the Web and Graphics team at iGEM Toronto (iGEMTo), an undergraduate research group focused on utilizing synthetic biology to address real world problems. The Web and Graphics team is responsible for the content creation across multiple social media platforms, including Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and the iGEMTo website.
Our success relies on two simple rules:
Hire team players who demonstrate initiative and passion for science communication;
Develop a clear but flexible plan that demonstrates our research in accessible ways.
Recruitment process:
As iGEM Toronto is a synthetic biology research team, the primary objective of team recruitment is to find members for the Wet Lab, Dry Lab, and Business and Ethics team. As such, the number of applicants to the Web and Graphics team is often limited.
To get graphic designers' attention, we posted recruitment information at a nearby art university OCAD. For the web developers, we posted on both Linkedin and Facebook. Moreover, we reached out to existing networks in the computer science and the engineering departments about recruitment; some of them joined the team, the others recommended their friends. We also entered the Piazza and Discord channels of a web development course in hopes of recruiting volunteers here.
Although we did send out offers to people from outside of UofT, the people that ended up comprising our team in the end remained local to this university. This is likely due to similar course/exam schedules and commitment and knowledge towards this particular organization.
Interview process:
As the team lead, I designed the interview with the previous graphic designer Christina Wong. We decided to host remote group interviews as we wanted to see how the applicants collaborate with each other. For the web developers, we asked them to create a static web page together (which turns out to be a bit chaotic); for the graphic designers and the videographer, we asked them to present a piece of their work in front of other interviewees and us.
In retrospect, the group coding interview was chaotic because I used what I learned from last year's team without knowing if it applies to this year's applicants. Last year, each web dev team member contributed to a component of one web page, but this year's applicants are experienced developers who are more used to completing the web page on their own.
We sent out offers to nine people; four of them dropped out before the project started in May as they have other commitments (work, summer school, other clubs), but it turns out the workload is manageable for the current team.
Current team composition:
2 people was on iGEMTo previously, 1 person was referred by someone who was on the team, 4 people was never part of iGEMTo.
Conceptualization:
After the team has been assembled, I developed a three-stage plan for the team:
User research
Brainstorm and design
Develop and deploy
As we are creating content for social media platforms that have different functionalities, Adam Lam, a member of the Web & Graphics team, analyzed our user data and created user personas for each of the platforms. We then presented our research to the execs, especially Mariam Mahboob who is in charge of social media, and developed brand strategies for each platform.
Additionally, we also communicated with the execs and the Business and Ethics team about project-specific details. The graphic designers then created a moodboard based on our project direction.
User personas research:
🟦 Facebook:
Our followers are UofT students who have some knowledge in synthetic biology; age ranges from 18-24 years old. They are looking for research/work opportunities. Our most engaging Facebook posts confirm this finding: information regarding team recruitment. Thus, we plan to post information regarding recruitment and open house sessions with catchy graphics and an open call to action.
🟪 Instagram:
Similar to Facebook, our followers are mostly UofT students; however, in contrast to the most engaging post on Facebook, the most engaging post for Instagram is of two past members sharing their experience working with us. This confirms our finding: posts with human elements are more popular than those without. Another difference is that people tend to have a shorter attention span when they are on Instagram. A typical scenario would be a student browsing through Instagram during a study break as a downtime. Thus, we plan to post light and creative content and direct the viewers to our other sites for in-depth reading or discussion.
🟧 Twitter:
Our most engaging post on Twitter is a panel talk on synthetic biology. According to our research, posts such as insightful content linked to events or papers would also be popular. Thus, we would also share project updates and journal club discussions with a link to the paper. Nonetheless, Twitter has many more potentials to be explored, for example, interacting with other iGEM teams and professionals in synthetic biology.
🟨 Linkedin:
We don't have much user data on Linkedin. According to our research, the most popular content would be around professional development and solutions for problems. As our first LinkedIn post, we hope by sharing our experience managing student volunteers in remote projects, we can provide an insight to people who are trying to figure out the same thing. We also plan to share project updates on our plastic degradation research and the discussion at journal clubs.
🟥 Youtube:
Like Linkedin, we don't have a lot of engagement on youtube. This year we will collaborate with the research team on content creation. We plan to set up three channels for the sub-teams, who will be sharing videos regularly. For each video, we will do clickbait titles and catchy thumbnails. We hope to reach people outside our current community and expand our impact.
⬛ Tiktok:
Similar to Instagram, Tiktok is used during downtime, but its delivery is videos instead of graphics. Thus, we plan to create fun but informative short videos on synthetic biology. We hope to reach people outside our current community and expand our impact.
We hope our experience can be insightful in helping your group to run a social media campaign during the pandemic successfully. We have finished the website mockup and usability testing; we also developed a color palette with font choice as well as a character sheet for the five anthropomorphic characters representing our five sub-teams. We plan to release our mockup and other materials on Behance soon.
Stay tuned for updates, and comment below if you have any questions!
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