FEE MANUAL
Storytelling and Social Media
FEE MANUAL
Storytelling and Social Media
Introduction........4,5
Human Interest Stories........6
Difference between news story and feature........7
Ingredients of a news story........8
A strong headline........9
A good introduction........10
Personal quotes........11
Strong visuals........12
Content in different formats........13
Example of a good news story........14
Storytelling quick guide........15
Email us your stories........16
Press release/News story - Tips........17,18
Press release example and about........19, 20
Press release template........21
Social Media: why it matters........22, 23
Tagging and sharing........24
Hashtags........25
Tone and content........26
Maximising your content and SoMe examples........27, 28 Infographics and examples........29, 30, 31
SoMe Quick Checklist........32
Content and Pages
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How to make a smart phone video........33
Why video is important and framing........34 Tips - Lighting, sound, technical issues........35
Editing and Subtitles........36
Video Quick Checklist........37
Youth Climate Strikes........38, 39
FEE social media Quick Guide........40
Who is this manual for?
This manual is aimed at our national operators, members and FEE head office staff. We would also like to reach students and educators working within our programmes, so we can inspire and encourage them to create even more engaging stories for online content and for communication advocacy materials. Good storytelling helps captivate audiences and personal stories from our network have the potential to show the impacts of FEE's work.
Making your content stronger with more compelling stories will help create better visibility and, most importantly, increase traffic and engagment on your website and your social media platforms.
Content and Pages
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Online, digital and social media are changing the way we interact, how we communicate with each other and how we consume information, news and stories.
So if digital media is changing the way we produce content and how it's consumed, what is the response? Traditional media outlets like US news agency the Associated Press require their journalists to tell a news story in 140 words, while Twitter users only have 280 characters to tell their stories. On Instagram, photos ARE the story and the words are secondary.
So in today's world of information overload, where anyone can now create content, it's becoming increasingly difficult to gain attention and engagement.
What is the FEE DNA?
Hands-on educational action
Positive action and solutions-based
Involving people and communities across the world
Empowering people to live more sustainably
So who are we talking about – we are talking about people
Introduction
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Yet
If you look at the majority of our stories in both printed materials and online content we talk about:
Our achievements - mainly awards and events
Very sincere and factual
BUT
Nothing personal
No emotional connection
FEE can reach new audiences (i.e. new member countries, expand number of programmes within existing countries or new sponsors) with more personal and emotional stories if we:
Talk more about how our achievements are affecting people
Show the impact of our work through their personal stories
Create stronger and better quality stories - more appealing and compelling to read
Create a memory bank of positive associations with FEE - our GOAL
Introduction
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In journalism, a human interest or personal story is one that discusses people in an emotional way. It presents their problems, concerns, or achievements in a way that brings about interest, sympathy or motivation in the reader or viewer.
Human interest stories can be used across all media platforms. From quotes within a press release, to a human interest news story or as the focus of a social media post.
Let us hear their story!
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Human Interest Stories
Words tell
Emotions sell
In a news story, the emphasis is on content rather than form. News stories go straight to the point, using simple and effective words to deliver the facts quickly. They usually average between 150-350 words.
Feature stories are often more wordy and include a creative structure and can be anything up to 2000 words.
Who was involved?
What happened?
Where did it take place?
When did it take place?
Why did that happen?
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Difference between a news story and feature?
The five Ws: questions that need to be asked with a news story
The main ingredients of a news story
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A strong headline
Any written content needs to have a catchy and attention-seeking headline that clearly describes what the story is about.
A headline is extremely important and can include words and thoughts designed to catch someone's eye and keep them interested.
Poor headlines
The Hotel sector must cut Carbon Footprint by 90% to meet 2-degree climate threshold (too long and technical)
National Wildlife Federation's Eco-Schools USA Introduces Two New Pathways of Sustainability (too factual)
When Plastic Bottles Meet Fun (does not make sense)
Destinations for all Summit: The Accessible Tourism world met in Brussels this week, Blue Flag International was there (too long and complicated)
Good Headlines
Ocean Baskets want to make plastic straws history
The first awarded Eco-Schools in the world
The Litter-Less Campaign - Seven Years of Positive Change
Blue Flag worldwide reaches 4,500 sites
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A good introduction
A good intro is your hook to get the reader to read to the end. The first few lines of your story must clearly explain what the main point or message of your story is.
Remember to try and keep your sentences short, and don’t just repeat your headline.
AN EXAMPLE
Poor intro - too technical
Blue Flag was represented at the Georgian International Maritime Forum (GIMF) last month by Almila Kindan Cebbari, the Blue Flag National Operator from Turkey. The purpose of the September 10-14 forum was to discuss how to balance essential shipping activities with ocean health and sustainability.
Main point of this story - Experts meet to discuss how to balance shipping activities with ocean health.
Good intro - rewritten
Experts from around the world travelled to the Georgian International Maritime Forum (GIMF) in September to discuss how to balance essential shipping activities with ocean health and sustainability. Blue Flag was represented by Almila Kindan Cebbari, the Blue Flag National Operator from Turkey.
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"I had no idea all those years ago that we were the first school in the world to achieve this award!"
Kelsie Erskine, Former Principal of Downpatrick Nursery School
Personal quotes must ALWAYS be included to either give an opinion or make the story more personal. If you ask the five Ws questions to your interviewee, then you will be able to find a qood quote from what they have said and include this in your story.
The good thing about quotes is they can be highlighted within the story and this is a great way of attracting attention to get readers to find out more.
Quotes are used with all written content but can also be used with social media posts. Please see Page 28 for Twitter example.
Personal Quotes
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Corny but true, a picture says a thousand words!
Strong visuals
Your photo should
describe in visual
terms what your
story is about.
It should be
obvious and not too
obscure or abstract.
Remember GDPR and photo credit
Consent from people and
photo credit if required
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Once you have written the story you can then extract different parts and reformat your story for different media platforms
Please see Social Media Section
Pages 22, 23
Content in different formats
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This recent story from Blue Flag about their new partnership with Total Beach Access is a great example of how a good headline and strong introduction (which includes quotes) invites the reader to keep on reading.
To read the full story please visit: http://www.blueflag.global/new-blog/2019/2/22/everyone-welcome-down-by-the-sea
Example of a good news story
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STORYTELLING QUICK CHECKLIST
Is this a news story or feature story?
Have you found the human angle (personal story)?
Have you asked your 5 W's questions?
Have you got your quotes?
Who is this for? Your audiences? Your channels?
What do you want people to do with the information you provide?
When writing your story you will need:
A strong headline
A good introduction
Personal quotes
Strong visuals (did you get their consent?)
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Always keep in mind that FEE's DNA is positive and action-based
Empty text
Please remember to send us your news and stories so we can showcase them on our FEE website and social media platforms
stories@fee.global
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A press release is really just a news story waiting to be published
A well written press release will include everything a journalist will need. Remember journalists can be lazy and overworked so if you can make your content as journalistic-friendly as possible, then journalists are more likely to pick up your story. If you have made it easy for them, then all they will have to do is cut and paste your content, maybe add an extra quote from an outside source, put their name on their written version, give it to their editors and take all the credit.
PRESS RELEASE (News Story)
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CALL TO ACTION
Simply producing a press release or news story doesn’t mean that you’ll get media coverage. It has to be well-written and newsworthy.
PRESS RELEASE (News Story)
Tips to remember:
Research
Know your local media, by getting to know the type of story they print and how they talk about what is happening in your local area. Identify which media covers your local area, this is most likely to be your local newspaper, TV or radio station.
Build a Relationship With a Journalists
Once you have identified your media, it is a good idea to target journalists who are writing about issues relevant to your organisation. Try and build a relationship with them by emailing them stories you think would be of interest to them or by following them on social media. You can always email them to ask what kind of stories they are looking for.
To craft effective press releases, keep these tips in mind:
Know your audience
What would you like to achieve? What is your goal by publishing this press release/news story?Maybe to find new audiences? Inform people about your event or new initiative or just to target a particular audience?
Be relevant
If your press release coincides with a current hot topic or trend, it is more likely to be picked up by media sources. This is because, in theory, more people will care about the story. Also, if the data or solution you are discussing addresses a major problem, it can increase relevancy.
Remember - the data and information you provide needs to be your own and provide value. You will be asked to back up your claims and statistics.
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Press release example
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ABOUT
Remember to include information at the end of the press release about FEE and your organisation or partnership.
(In this case the Wrigley Company Foundation)
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Once press release is sent delegate a colleague to be the point of contact and ready to answer the phone from journalists
Journalists want to talk to a person not a voicemail
Press release template
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Social Media
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Why does social media matter?
Social media is a powerful tool that can increase the visibility and credibility of your organisation. Social media can be particularly useful for nonprofit organisations because it allows direct contact with a wide audience with minimal resource investment. In other words, you don’t need to have a large communications budget to harness the powers of social media!
If used correctly, social media can be your most effective outreach material. It is a way for your organisation to engage directly with stakeholders and create interest in the work that you do. This can result in everything from more participants in local volunteer events to interest from potential funding partners. Think of social media as a way for your organisation to market itself to the people who could help it grow.
It is important to look at other similar organisations for inspiration to see how they are engaging audiences online, to see how often they publish and what kind of content they share.
A note on social media platforms
Most nonprofit organisations (including FEE members) use Facebook as their primary social media channel. Facebook still has the largest global reach among social media platforms, so we strongly recommend that all of our members have a Facebook page and use it regularly! Yet Instagram is the most popular with Generation Z (birth dates starting from mid-1990s to mid-2000s) so we also recommend having an Instagram account if you have access to great photos. FEE Instagram account will be launched this Spring.
Please note: As Facebook has evolved into more of a paid marketing platform than an organic one this link below gives you 15 smart tips to increase your organic reach.
https://www.falcon.io/insights-hub/topics/social-media-strategy/increase-organic-facebook-reach-tips/
Other popular social media channels include (in order of number of global users): YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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Tagging and sharing
Tagging is an effective way for FEE and our member organisations to expand our social media networks. Tagging other pages on social media “links” them to your post. This sends the other page a notification that they have been tagged in a post. If you tag FEE or one of the programme pages in your post, you guarantee that we will see the story and potentially share it with our global network!
Tagging also allows your audience to go directly to the page of the tagged organisation by clicking on the tag link. It goes both ways, and FEE will tag you if we post a story about your organisation. Tagging is an easy way for the members of the FEE network to support and promote one another!
We ask you to please tag both FEE and the appropriate programme in every relevant post.
Here are the tags for the FEE and programme pages:
Sharing posts (called retweeting on Twitter) has many of the same benefits as tagging.
Sharing posts benefits both FEE Global and our members by drawing attention to our pages and expanding our potential audience.
Please note: If you are sharing or reposting a Facebook story remember to include a few lines of original content or thoughts on top of the repost. This will signal to Facebook Algorithm that there is engagement with the original post and so will help improve visibility.
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Hashtags #
Why should you use hashtags in your social media posts? Hashtags are for your organisation to join the conversation and expand your potential audience! When you tag your posts with an appropriate hashtag, your post will show up when users search for that hashtag keyword. Likewise, users who see unfamiliar hashtags in a post are likely to click on them to learn more about that topic. Using popular hashtags that organisations with large followings use is a great way to get more people to see your posts.
These are the hashtags we would like you to always* use when posting about FEE and our programmes:
#FEEGlobal
#EcoSchools (not #Eco-Schools because then the hashtag will only link to “Eco”)
#LEAFGlobal
#YRE
#GreenKey
#BlueFlag*
*use #FEEGlobal in every post, then select the appropriate programme hashtag(s)
These are some other relevant hashtags that attract a lot of social media traffic:
#GlobalGoals or #SDGs
#ESDor #EducationforSustainableDevelopment
#Sustainability
#SustainableDevelopment
#ClimateChange
#BeatPlasticPollution
#CleanSeas
#SustainableTourism
These are just a few examples; there are endless hashtags out there that might be right for your organisation. Create new hashtags for your organisation’s own campaigns and projects, and join in the conversation by participating in environmental day hashtags (#EarthDay, #WorldTeachersDay, etc.).
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Hashtags can be used on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
Empty text
We have just created
#YesFEECan for FUN
Tone
FEE DNA - always keep in mind FEE is positive and action-based
There is plenty of “doom and gloom” information out there, but that is not what FEE is about! Therefore, social media posts about the FEE programmes should have a positive tone and showcase what we are doing to solve problems. It is important to educate your audience about environmental issues, but it is equally important to show what you are doing to address them.
Content
While it is very important to keep your social media pages active, what you post is just as important as how often you post. High-quality content will increase audience engagement and bring more attention to your page.
Remember to keep posts relevant, and emphasize quality over quantity.
If you post too much low-quality content, you risk your audience “tuning out” your organisation because they are not interested in what you post. When deciding what content to post, think about what your audience will find most interesting. Include details in your posts that give them a human touch.
For example: if a new Eco-School is awarded a green flag, show some of the projects that the students completed to earn it. Is there a new Blue Flag beach in your country? Include pictures of children enjoying a day at the beach in addition to the standard picture of the award ceremony.
Convey a sense of fun and everyday life so that your audience feels more personally involved.
Video is increasingly seen as a way for grabbing attention and is expected to make up 80% of all traffic by 2020.
(Please see the smartphone video section from Page 33
for more information)
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Maximising your content
Each social media platform requires original content. The good news is once you have written your original content you can then extract particular sections of your content to highlight for the different platforms. So first write your original story and then adapt to social media.
Each of your original posts on social media should include a link to your original content, which should be found on your website.
The next page will show you how this article has been customised for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
.
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Using the same content for different social media platforms is a common mistake
CALL TO ACTION
Our overall goal is to
drive social media traffic to
our FEE website.
The first awarded Eco-Schools in the world!
It is truly a family affair at Downpatrick Nursery School in Northern Ireland. This year marked a landmark moment for Eco-Schools when Downpatrick Nursery School, the first school in the world to be awarded an Eco-Schools Green Flag in 1994, became the first school to be award its 10th Green Flag making it a national leader in sustainable education.
Read full story: http://www.ecoschools.global/news-stories/2018/7/20/dfdfdf
"I had no idea all those years ago that we were the first
school in the world to achieve this award!" Read more about
the first ever awarded Eco-School in the World.
#EcoSchools #EcoSchools25 https://bit.ly/2H3xQCW
Rewind back to 1994 and the first ever
Green Flag awarded Eco-School in
Northern Ireland #EcoSchools #GlobalGoals
http://www.ecoschools.global/news- stories/2018/7/20/dfdfdf
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These infographics and examples offer more in-depth tips for optimising your social media content:
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These infographics and examples offer more in-depth tips for optimising your social media content:
Bitly - simply put in your link
and it will be automatically
shortened for you
https://bitly.com/
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These infographics and examples offer more in-depth tips for optimising your social media content:
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SOCIAL MEDIA QUICK CHECKLIST
Remember to tag the person or organisation so they will get your notification.
Have you tagged the relevant FEE programme and included the correct FEE hashtag?
If you are reposting on Facebook have you added your original comment on top of the post?
Have you included a photo or video?
Have you used different content for each social media platform?
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Remember to share any original content that FEE posts with your networks
Empty text
How to make smart phone videos
Why video is important
Video has the power to make the public more aware of FEE is and what we do. We want people to get to know us and feel a personal connection with your work.
Did you know
The rise of vertical videos
A vertically-oriented or portrait-mode video is the one that is taller than it is wide. It takes up the entire screen on the phone, focusing the user’s full attention on the video being played. Not to mention that smartphones were designed to be held vertically. Mobile owners hold their phones upright 94% of the time, and they want to consume content without having to rotate their phones 90 degrees.
Advice
Horizontal (landscape) is more pleasing
to watch on computers and YouTube,
whereas vertical (portrait) videos work
best for mobile viewing and social media
platforms like Instagram actively promote
portrait filming. So you will need to decide
if your video is specifically to be shown on
social media platforms or for computers
and YouTube.
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Tips for shooting videos on a smart phone and/or video camera
Lighting
Natural lighting is best – so can be shot outside as well
If you have to turn the lights on then it’s the wrong room to be filming in
Investing in film lighting equipment will give you great opportunities to film in more places
Avoid backlighting any interviewees
Sound
This must be clear and audible and on mic - so if using the smartphone inbuilt microphone you need to make sure filming is very near to your interviewee - unless you have a portable camera microphone. If you have an SLR video camera please be encouraged to use this
Regarding background sound – please be aware of this as filming near a busy road or heavy rain outside or people talking in the background etc. will distract the viewer
Technical
Do not use digital zoom, as this decreases the image quality, get closer to the subject instead
To prevent shaky videos, hold the phone with two hands and tuck in your elbows
If you have a newer phone with built-in image stabilization, make sure that it is turned on
Invest in phone accessories like tripods or stabiliser rigs
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Editing
Free smartphone editing apps
Subtitles
We recommend that all videos include subtitles as many people watch videos while they are on the go and in a public space.
Subtitles will allow viewers to engage with the video without sound.
Check out Kapwing- a simple subtitle maker for captioning your videos
https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles
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QUICK VIDEO CHECKLIST
The quality of a video can be as important as the content
Remember vertical v horizontal framing
Film a dummy run first - this will show you if you have the lighting and sound levels correct
Remember to consider your background noise
If you don't succeed the first time try and try again
Remember not to have a shaky hand while filming
A well-edited film will be more likely engage viewers
Have you added subtitles to your video?
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Youth Climate Strikes
A good example of raising awareness and getting media attention is the ongoing school strike for climate (also known as Fridays for Future, Youth for Climate and Youth Strike 4 Climate). School children are taking part in this international protest movement to demand action to prevent further global warming and climate change. FEE has been following the strikes and covering these days of action on our different social media platforms.
If you are asked what FEE's view is on the climate strikes, here is a message from our FEE President Lesley Jones and CEO Daniel Schaffer that you can share.
"Our goal is to support students from all over the world in their personal and professional growth, encouraging them to take a leadership role. The essence of FEE is to provide them with knowledge and practical tools to live a more sustainable life, strengthening their adaptability and resilience to future challenges. We are pleased to see young people take a stand and we strongly agree with their demand on making climate change education a higher priority."
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#youthstrike4climate
A new phenomenon and a new narrative has arrived. "We have 12
years to climate change catastrophe," warns the UN and the youth
are now taking matters into their own hands - with clever slogans,
school strikes and demanding climate action now.
Are your students or schools taking part?
Share your action with us.
Remember always use #FEEGlobal in every post,
then select the appropriate FEE programme hashtag(s)
- check on Page 40
To join the conversation please add:
#climatestrike
#fridaysforfuture
#schoolstrike4climate
#youthstrike4climate
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CALL TO ACTION
higher priority for climate change education within learning institutions
QUICK REMINDER TO TAGS AND HASHTAGS
Quick guide to tags and hashtags that you should always* use when posting to social media about the FEE programmes:
Tags
Hashtags
These are the hashtags we would like you to always* use when posting about FEE and our programmes:
#FEEGlobal
#EcoSchools (not #Eco-Schools because then the hashtag will only link to “Eco”)
#LEAFGlobal
#YRE
#GreenKey
#BlueFlag
* always use #FEEGlobal in every post, then select the appropriate programme hashtag(s)
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