GUIDELINES
Social media campaigns
Implement with volunteer power
Practical knowledge for your organization

Before a social media campaign can be developed together with volunteers, it first needs a clear goal or a specific topic to be brought into focus by the campaign. There are hardly any limits to creativity. Each organization can choose a suitable topic from its field of activity. However, content that has a current relevance, such as an ongoing project or a socially relevant political debate, is particularly useful. Such topics generate more attention and reach. In addition, it is advisable to fall back on areas in which the organization already has in-depth expertise.

For our campaign, we have decided to focus on the topic of fake news about the climate crisis. This focus arises for two reasons: On the one hand, we are observing how dangerous and widespread disinformation about the climate crisis continues to be. On the other hand, as an organization that deals intensively with climate policy issues, we can use our expertise to tackle this misinformation in a targeted manner.

The climate crisis is a threat to all of us. However, the spread of fake news and disinformation is hampering much-needed policies that could help contain the crisis. Therefore, it is our concern to counteract this disinformation with scientifically sound and reliable information. We are convinced that we can make an important contribution to raising awareness of the urgency of the climate crisis and fostering fact-based discussions.

Of course, a successful campaign together with a social media volunteer team requires a lot of planning. It is necessary to identify people in your own organization who take care of the project and the volunteers, it needs a clear framework for the campaign and a target group to be reached.

2.1. Setting the roles

So that there is no confusion about the responsibilities in the project, it is advisable to clearly divide the tasks within the campaign. We have planned the following capacities for the campaign:

Management, with about 5-10 hours a week: Overall overview of the necessary steps of the campaign and support on administrative and strategic issues.

Assistant to the management, with about 5 hours a week: Support for administrative tasks in the campaign, e.g. room bookings.

Speaker for press and public relations, with about 5-10 hours a week and a student assistant with 10 hours a week: Development of the campaign narrative and campaign content together with the volunteers, with the support of the volunteers mainly provided by the student assistant, development of the guide and coordination of the external consultants.

2.2. Roughly define the time period and milestones in the campaign

A successful social media campaign requires a clear period of time to prepare and play the campaign content, milestones in the project and SMART goals (specific, measurable, attractive, realistic and scheduled) that make the success of the campaign visible.

In our case, we have timed the preparation and playout of the campaign as follows:

June – September 2024: Volunteer search, application for the position of a student assistant in the project and search for experts who can supervise the campaign as externals.

September 2024: Onboarding of volunteers and student assistants. Workshops with external consultants to prepare the full-time and volunteers for the campaign and to establish an “institutional readiness” in the organisation.

From November 2024: Play the campaign postings. Kick-off was a joint face-to-face weekend in which the full-time employees and the volunteers came together.

June 2025: Completion of the campaign

2.3. Defining the target group

In order to be able to think about who should be addressed when creating the campaign content, it needs a clear idea of who the target group of the campaign is.

With our campaign, we wanted to address two different target groups:

PowerShift Well-Being: People who are open to our topics and our work, who are convinced of the man-made climate crisis and who we have not achieved through our work so far.

Slightly sceptical: People who have some doubts about facts about the man-made climate crisis or who have open questions about the topic, but who are fundamentally (still) open to being exchanged about it.

For these two target groups, we have created personas that have helped us understand how we need to shape our communication in order to achieve it. The personas have also helped us tailor our social media ads.

2.4. Set SMART goals

We have set the following goals for our social media campaign:

2000 Instagram followers until the end of the campaign

125 new Instagram followers per month

An increase in our engagement rates on Instagram by 10 %

We have set the goals especially for Instagram, as we realize that we hardly experience organic growth on Facebook and we want to build our community on Instagram in the long term. We think that here are more the people we want to reach for our work. Nevertheless, we have also played the posts on Facebook, as we can reach the target group of the slightly sceptical here.

In some areas of the campaign, we have consulted externally if we did not have sufficient knowledge or capacity for the respective task. We organized the exchange with our consultants in digital calls, which took place frequently and relatively regularly once a week with the respective consultants at the beginning of the project. Later we switched to a joint monthly Jour-Fix. In addition, we were in exchange via Mail, the messenger service Signal and Slack. The consultants among themselves were also networked in a joint Signal group.

3.1 Communication advice: Focus on community management

In our normal social media work, we experience only irregularly that people critically comment on our posts. Since we wanted to reach new target groups with the posts of the campaign, it was expected that more critical comments will be written on our posts. In order to prepare ourselves and also prepare the volunteers – who should support community management on our channels – we have sought external advice from two experienced communication consultants.

3.2 Organisational development consulting: Focus on how the organisation achieves institutional readiness

Working with volunteers requires a lot of prior knowledge. Since we do not have much experience in this field, we have brought in an experienced organizational development that has prepared our organization for cooperation with volunteers. Several workshops dealt with questions such as the insurance status of volunteers in our organisation, how volunteers can be well involved in processes, how volunteers can be kept “on a whim” in the long term or what structures are necessary to shape the cooperation.

3.3 Social media advice: Focus on social media ads and increasing reach

In order for the campaign to reach as many people as possible from our target group, we have brought in social media advice from an experienced social media ads manager.

3.4 Advice on communication critical of racism

Although we are trying to change this, our organization is little diversified, so is our social media volunteer group. To ensure that we do not involuntarily reproduce stereotypes in our communication, we have sought advice on non-discriminatory language and imagery. In two four-hour workshops, we dealt with the question of how we can communicate without reproducing stereotypes.

In order to find enough volunteers for our project, we searched for suitable volunteers via our social media channels and our website early on (about eight weeks in advance). Also via relevant e-mail lists.

In the call for tenders, we clearly described what the tasks of the volunteers will be, what the prerequisites should be, what the cooperation will look like and what they can expect in return for their commitment – namely, in addition to experience, contacts and a certificate for their voluntary work, also an expense allowance of €10 per hour.

We have also made it clear that we are happy about a diverse team.

Successfully working with volunteers requires a clear process in which volunteers get the opportunity to get to know the organisation, the project staff, the project and the campaign without being beaten up by too much information at once – but also activating it in such a way that they directly feel like they are part of a great project and can get involved.

On applications that seemed suitable to us, we replied promptly with information about the project and the offer to call in case of questions. We had already set up a signal group in advance, in which we added the volunteers after their approval.

The group agreed on the dates for the first online meetings and set a regular zoom plenary date using the when2meet.com tool. A bi-weekly rhythm and a one-hour duration was determined in advance by us.

In the first meetings, we introduced ourselves and the organization, talked about the expectations and wishes of the volunteers as well as possible role distributions. We prepared the meetings on a Miro board and used the tool for brainstorming during the meetings.

We also defined a framework for cooperation: We drafted voluntary contracts with clear task descriptions, confidentiality clause and framework for possible terminations of cooperation by both sides.

Informal arrangements were made with regard to regular participation: We pointed out to the volunteers that we would like to participate in at least every second plenary session and otherwise a cancellation. The contact person for this was the hired working student. A person holding the minutes was appointed in each plenary session. We put the link to the continuous protocol pad in the description of the signal group.

In order to promote the exchange, in addition to the protocol pad, we also created a pad for collecting climate change-related fake news and a pad for collecting relevant links and also linked them in the description of the Signal group.

In order for the volunteers to remain motivating in the long term and feel like a relevant part of PowerShift’s work, it was important for us to create a sense of togetherness – between the volunteers, but also between the volunteers and PowerShift.

For this purpose, we organized a face-to-face weekend at the beginning, during which workshops took place, but there was also time to get to know each other informally. Travel, accommodation and food costs were covered by us.

In order to get to know each other informally and strengthen the sense of community, there was also the offer of a regulars' table in Berlin at irregular intervals.

At the end of the project, we organized a farewell workshop and a joint farewell dinner. Certificates of participation in the project were also awarded on this occasion.

In order to involve the volunteers in the organization, we invited them to events such as the in-house Christmas party.

In addition, the Plena was regularly attended by employees of the organisation in order to present themselves and their work priorities.

In order to be able to develop a clear roadmap for the campaign and the content in the campaign, and to spin a tension arc in the narrative of the campaign, it was important to us to develop a clear content strategy for the campaign in advance.

In the first plenary session with the volunteers, we brainstormed on topics such as “What climate fake news have you encountered on social media?”. The brainstormings took place on Miro, input to its construction had previously given us an organizational consultant.

Within the team, we sorted and divided the collected fake news and discussed how a PowerShift reference could be produced.

We chose three thematic blocks over two months each on the topics of raw materials policy, energy policy and mobility, as well as a rhythm and a number of posts in the blocks (1-2x/week).

Based on these and previous decisions (e.g. regarding the target group), we wrote a campaign narrative, which we presented to the volunteers in the following plenary.

For a clear and effective cooperation, it is important to define common tools for them and to ensure that all parties involved can deal with them. Some of the volunteers had no previous experience with some of the applications. We offered these volunteers training in a separate setting.

In addition to the tools for sharing and collecting ideas, we agreed on two to create and plan the posts: Notion as editorial planner and Canva for creating posts.

In Notion, based on the collected and structured fake news, we created eight posts in the first topic block, which we presented to the volunteers in the following plenary session.

We created a start post within the team, but also discussed it with the volunteers.

We divided the first four posts of the campaign among the volunteers.

Since we wanted to reach people who are rather skeptical about the climate crisis with the campaign, we have prepared ourselves to have to deal with headwinds to the campaign. In order to absorb this headwind well, it was important to set up a handling and a process for our community management in advance.

In-house, with the support of our communication consultancy, we created a netiquette for dealing with comments on social media and linked them to our website in order to be able to point out comments.

In the Netiquette We have summarized who we are and what our organization is committed to. We also defined what constitutes a good communication culture for us, what we imagine in factual and factual posting and how we deal with conflicts, attacks and discrimination.

Among the volunteers, we asked if two people could imagine getting involved in community management.

In order to plan the campaign well and to get an overview of the pending posts, we have created an editorial calendar that gave us the opportunity to schedule the posts of the campaign.

We divided the first posts in such a way that 1-2 posts would appear each week until the next plenary session. We asked the volunteers to send us their finished designs for acceptance at least two days in advance. The posts were then accepted by the main officials. If there were any changes, they were returned to the volunteers.

We started to publish the first posts and put ads on them.

In order to bind the people we reach via social media to PowerShift in the long term, we regularly linked our website to the posts. For this purpose, we have created a landing page for newsletter registration.

Since we focused on a lot of interaction during the campaign, it was important to us to set up a good process for community management.

In order to organize the community management well, in addition to the plenary appointments, a three-hour moderation training with communication trainers took place, who accompany us in the process. Subsequently, other volunteers also expressed an interest in participating in community management. We met a quarter of an hour earlier and distributed the entrances.

On Facebook, we added the accounts of everyone interested as people with task access. Initially, we only gave Instagram access to two volunteers. Account security should be ensured by a password process: Only two volunteers get access, a new password is set every two months and the first login to the account is accompanied by a 2-step authentication process. We agreed on community management sharing processes (in our case, every Monday in a Signal group set up for this purpose, we ask which two people will be responsible for community management this week).

To ensure that we really achieve our goals and target groups, we monitored and evaluated the campaign throughout the course.

In order to have an accurate picture of the results of the posts and the corresponding advertisements, we asked our external social media consultant to provide input on the analyses of the posts and advertisements at the monthly jour fixes with our external team. We mainly looked at whether our call-to-actions were implemented, e.g. how many clicks there were on the landing page for the campaign, but also the general reach of the posts and the interaction rates. If we were not satisfied with the results, we adjusted the structure of the posts and the setting of the advertisements accordingly.

For example, after the first post, we adjusted the advertisement on Meta, as the first post had obviously reached a group of climate change deniers that were too critical for us, which was particularly noticeable by denying the climate crisis as a whole and which was hard on conspiracy narratives. After adjusting the ad, we better reached our target group of light skeptics, with whom we could discuss better in the comment columns.

In a campaign, especially if it goes on for so long and if it is set up together with volunteers, it is of course also important to celebrate the successes. Milestones in our campaign were celebrated, for example, as part of our Christmas party, at the joint kick-off weekend and at regulars' tables in Berlin.

If we did this campaign again, we would do things differently. We recommend that other organisations first develop a complete concept of the campaign and then start looking for volunteers. In our campaign, this process sometimes ran parallel to each other.

When searching for volunteers, wishes for cooperation by the volunteers, such as regular participation in Plena, should be clearly communicated. The responsibilities and participation of volunteers and all stakeholders should be communicated as early as possible in the process and very clearly – in writing and orally – in order to make expectation management realistic.

If possible, a personal get-to-know weekend with external workshops should take place at the beginning of the cooperation, the date could also be set in advance and communicated in the call for tenders.

The dates for all other face-to-face weekends should also be set as early as possible. For a smooth running of the workshops during the weekends, a close consultation with the workshop organizers, for example with regard to the periods and contents, is essential. It should start as early as possible a few weeks in advance. In our case, the scheduling was sometimes more difficult because the dates were not already set at the start of the cooperation.

If we were to carry out the project again, we would also include, in addition to organisational support, substantive input on the topic of the campaign – in our case, fake news/disinformation and its elimination.

We would also plan a greater focus on graphic training. On social media, it is also a lot about a visually appealing appearance. A greater focus would certainly have made sense here.

In general, we noticed during the campaign that working with volunteers yields great results, but can also be more time-consuming and challenging at times than initially assumed. In our view, this does not have to exclude cooperation with volunteers, but it should definitely be taken into account.

Through our additionally hired working student, we had the capacity to take good care of the group of volunteers. Those who are unable to deploy these capacities in their own organization should consider which roles and tasks can really be taken over by the volunteers. With a low capacity for content support, it might be more appropriate to hand over tasks to the volunteers who need a lower level of support and preparation, such as publishing the posts, brainstorming and gathering ideas together, initiating collaborations or recruiting the volunteers as sparring partners for the design of the campaign.