Social Media
Strategy & Design
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Background
GaiaConnect is a social impact startup based in France that provides mentorship and resources to people who want to transition to a sustainable career. In this case study, I will explore my role in developing the social media strategy and designing content for GaiaConnect’s debut on LinkedIn and Instagram.
I also exercised UX/UI Research and Design in order to re-design their website. Explore that case study here.
Objectives
As a brand new startup, GaiaConnect had 3 main objectives for their social media strategy. This included increasing brand awareness, drivinng traffic to their website, and converting their audience of sustainable job seekers into dedicated mentees in their program.
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Understanding our Audience
Research
GaiaConnect’s intended audience is made up of people in France who are mid-career and want to transition to a more sustainable career. As discussed on our team, these are people who may have ditched their plastic straw for a metal one, regularly sport their tote bag, and recycle as much as they can, but are now wondering, “now what?” We used User Research tactics to refine user personas and spent time understanding their goals and paint points. Using Typeform, we gathered data from our audience to better understand what their goals were in transitioning to a sustainable career and what their biggest barriers were in doing so.
Drawing Our Audience to Life
Using the personas and insights from our research, I illustrated GaiaAvatars to represent the station and goals of each persona. For example, “GaiaPerdu,” (GaiaLost) is feeling unfulfilled in their current job and dreams of a sustainable career, but does not know where to start. “GaiaIntrapreneur,” on the other hand, wants to stay in their company, but wants to learn how they can work with their colleagues to begin a sustainable initiative. Each avatar was sorted into three categories based on an element. These personas assisted our cross-functional team in speaking about the needs of our audience, and served as a fun way for our potential mentees to understand their situation.
What's stopping you from pursuing a sustainable career?
"I just don't know where to start."
Insight
“I want to switch to a sustainable career,
but I have no idea where to start.”
Air avatars
are floating as they do not have a defined path. They are in a state of dreaming and discovering new possibilities.
Insight
“I am passionate about this field, but
I need help preparing to switch careers.”
Water avatars
are ready to take the plunge into a new
opportunity, career, or field.
Insight
“I want to start a new organization, but
I need help to figure out my next steps.”
Earth avatars
want to cultivate something new from the ground up, either within a company or as a founder of a new organization.
(yes, I am an Avatar the Last Airbender fan)
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Project Management and Organization
Content Management in Notion
In order to meet the needs of our cross-functional, remote team, I used Notion to create a content manager portal, where we were able to brainstorm content ideas, assign tasks, track and manage the content production process, and visualize our content calendar.
Strategy & Design in Figma
Figma was my design tool of choice in both the planning and designing phases. The platform’s collaboration capabilities made it easy to request comments and votes from team members, and made presenting designs a breeze.
Nearly 70% of employees say they wouldn’t work for a company without a strong purpose.
Porter Novelli Purpose Tracker 2020
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From Strategy to Design
LinkedIn was chosen as our first platform. Because GaiaConnect is career-oriented and our team’s existing professional network, this platform offered the ideal community in search of what we had to offer.
With the goal of expanding GaiaConnect’s brand awareness, building a brand universe, and addressing the pain points of our community, I identified three content buckets to guide content creation:
1) Education
2) Information
3) Inspiration
After a content brainstorming session, each content idea was mapped based on its value and effort. Because GaiaConnect was a new startup that valued constant ideation and design thinking methodology, mapping the content allowed us to strategically choose to implement ideas that had the most potential for impact.
Screenshot of concept from brainstorm session: ‘3 misconceptions about switching to a social impact career’
Educate
GaiaConnect had the opportunity to educate their audiences about the world of sustainability with insider news, infographics with digestible versions of need-to-know topics, and highlighting resources that they could to help them on their journey. For example, our AirAvatar community members have no idea where to start in the world of sustainability, and this carousel post explained the concept of the circular economy, a key sustainability concept, with in an accessible, digestible way.
Screenshot of carousel educating about the circular economy.
Inform
Our research also indicated that there was a gap between our audience and the information that they need to pursue a career in sustainability. In response, GaiaConnect had the opportunity to be a messenger. For example, our WaterAvatar members may be ready to plunge into the their next career move, but they needed to find opportunities. GaiaConnect’s weekly social impact job roundups made it easier for social impact job seekers to find the opportunities they were looking for.
Screenshot of our weekly job roundup. Typically, 5-6 jobs were chosen each week.
Inspire
Our last content bucket involved inspiring our audience to take action. GaiaConnect wanted to encourage their audience to engage with their mentorship program, which would help them on their journey to a sustainable career. The GaiaMentors were featured each week, sharing their insights, stories, and motivation with the GaiaBuddies (mentees) through engaging posts, graphics, and webinars with the GaiaConnect founder. Because our Founder is a serial entrepreneur and heavily involved in impact initiatives, leveraging his LinkedIn network was crucial to reaching our audience.
Mentor Stories
Each week, we highlighted a GaiaMentor in our network by sharing their story and some advice they offer to those looking to switch to a sustainable career. These posts were most successful, regularly receiving enthusiastic comments and engagement.
Webinar Growth 🚀
As part of our goal to inspire and inform, GaiaConnect hosted free webinars on LinkedIn with the GaiaMentors. Our Founder joined each mentor in conversation about their career journey and advice to those looking to switch to a sustainable career. Engagement increased dramatically by our second webinar.
Over twice as many reactions, over 8 times as many comments, and almost triple as many attendees.
Screenshot of our first webinar with Julie Jendrzezak
Screenshot of our second webinar with Guillaume de Lustrac
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Conclusion
The GaiaImpact!
Over the course of my 6 months with GaiaConnect:
- Overall LinkedIn engagement increased by 32%
- We gained a network of over 100 mentors
- We converted mentees to our mentorship program, resulting in over 500 mentorship exchanges
- Our quarterly revenue tripled
- I was crowned the Beyonce of design 👑🐝
Personal Reflection
Because GaiaConnect was a brand new startup when I joined the team, I had the exciting opportunity to craft a social media strategy with a blank slate. I appreciated the teams’ design thinking approach, which enabled to constantly test and iterate new ideas.
Our main social media platform for GaiaConnect was LinkedIn, which offered an opportunity to learn the difference in strategy on a platform that is all about your network.
As GaiaConnect grows, I can imagine GaiaConnect expanding their communications strategy from LinkedIn to including podcast episodes (possibly drawn from webinars), downloadable resources offered to email subscribers, and even an insider newsletter for social impact career seekers.
