Creating A Community for AFS-USA Returnees

AFS-USA Social Media Strategy Proposal

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Helpful Social Media Downloads

I'm part of the Social Media Marketing group on Linked In, and I just got a message with this link to lots of helpful free downloads for social media marketing professionals. It seems like a great resource, though I believe many of the downloads are time-sensitive: http://changetheworld.tradepub.com/category/marketing/1211/

Monitoring AFS-USA: Conclusions and Recommendations

Updated Observations

Since my initial observations of AFS-USA, I have done a bit of follow-up.

The following Twitter conversation caught my eye because it reflects some confusion about the AFS-USA brand and who it serves:

AFSUSA did a good job of responding on the same day to @Batinamilk, which means AFS is both listening to and talking with the groundswell – at least on a basic level. AFS-USA’s ability to respond swiftly to Twitter questions is further exemplified in the following conversation, which gives some indication of where AFS-USA plans to go with its blog aggregator:

Another interesting development in AFS-USA’s social media strategy is its “AFS Host Family Appreciation Award.”

The award is a badge that AFS-USA encourages its returnees to post on their host families’ Facebook walls in order to show their appreciation. This altruistic message also serves to spread the word about AFS-USA – a great example of the organization’s efforts to energize its followers.

Socialmention.com revealed that, for the last month, AFSUSA has had the following statistics:

Compared to the last snapshot from Socialmention in mid-March, strength went down by 1%, sentiment went from 49:1 to 42:0, passion decreased by 3%, and reach decreased by 16%. Overall, AFSUSA’s social media presence decreased in the past couple weeks. Though none of the decreases are detrimental, the slow decline indicates that AFS-USA is not growing in the social media world.

Conclusions and Recommendations

AFS-USA listens to, talks with, and engages the groundswell on a maintenance level. It occasionally acknowledges its Twitter followers and asks them questions, it responds promptly to concerns, and it provides various forums for prospective and current AFS students to interact and learn from each other. Its “Host Family Appreciation Award” and the Ask an AFSer Facebook group are examples of how AFS-USA is beginning to branch out to energize and embrace the groundswell further. By asking AFS students and families to take initiative in spreading the word about AFS-USA through social media, they are taking advantage of their passionate supporters. Still, in the world of social media, there is always room for improvement.

One simple improvement would be to make the AFS blog readily accessible on AFS-USA’s main homepage.

AFS-USA's Current Homepage - The social media links are at the bottom and the blog is nowhere to be seen!

Also, AFS-USA’s brand awareness has some inconsistencies. So far, AFS-USA has not defined exactly what its name is in social media. Should social media users search for “AFS-USA,” “AFS USA, or “AFSUSA?” I based my searches on what yielded the most relevant results, which was AFSUSA, but the others also led to some AFS-USA-related data.

Additionally, the Facebook pages and group related to AFS-USA (Study Abroad with AFS-USA, Hosting with AFS-USA, and Ask and AFSer) are not entirely consistently branded either.

Because AFS-USA is a relatively common acronym and is part of a large umbrella organization with many different subsidiaries, some confusion is inevitable. One way to attempt to unify the brand, however, would be to brand specific social media campaigns separately and have them sponsored by AFS-USA. Study Abroad with AFS-USA, for example, could have its own corresponding Twitter account called “StudyAbroadAFSUSA”, sponsored by AFS-USA, and all blogs related to studying abroad with AFS-USA could have their own “Study Abroad with AFS-USA” blog aggregator. This could also help AFS-USA target specific sections of its broad audience. This branding strategy could extend to AFS-USA’s social media targeting of host families, parents, and especially returnees.

AFS-USA plans to reach out to returnees with its Returnee Initiative, but as of right now, it does not have much of a social media presence with AFS returnees besides its LinkedIn groups (AFS-USA Returnee Initiative and AFS Intercultural Program Returnees), which target an older demographic. Most user-generated content that references AFS-USA comes from people anticipating studying abroad or those who are currently abroad, not from returnees As AFS-USA forms its returnee social media outreach strategy, it should keep brand consistency in mind.

AFS-USA is actually in a good place to take risks with social media. AFSUSA’s low strength in social media could work to its advantage, because it can control and shape its brand without upsetting a large network. Most blogs, photos, and videos posted about AFS-USA are either posted by AFS-USA or are aggregated by them. Once AFS-USA feels confident about its social media brand strategy (or strategies), the organization can begin to aggressively tap into its passionate followers.

One way AFS-USA could use its followers to its advantage would be to establish a rating system for each AFS-USA study abroad program.

After following the link to each program, browsers could see immediate feedback from other people who went on the program with ratings and reviews

When prospective students decide on programs, they essentially “shop” for their best fit. By creating a venue for returnees to rate programs and for prospective students to see those ratings as they browse their options – not unlike the rating on Amazon.com or ebags.com – AFS-USA would take a major step toward energizing the groundswell and allowing it to help itself. Not only would a rating system give prospective students word-of-mouth feedback they could trust, it would also re-engage returnees and give AFS-USA first-hand feedback about its programs directly from the groundswell. Yes, AFS-USA would risk negative comments and the ratings would require heavy monitoring, but isn’t that what successful social media campaigns are all about?

Raising Up the Wikivangelist

When reading chapter 11 of Groundswell: "The Groundswell Inside Your Company," I paid the most attention to the Avenue A/Razorfish case study about collaborating on a wiki. As the AFS-USA Returnee Initiative Communications Group Intern, part of my responsibility is to maintain and energize the Returnee Initiative Wiki Page on the AFS Wiki.

For anyone who does not know what a wiki is (hopefully everyone in my social media marketing class already does), I have turned to Wikipedia for a definition (a site not meant for academic citations, but given the circumstances I feel it is an appropriate resource):

"A wiki (ⁱ /ˈwɪki/ WIK-ee) is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor.^[1][2][3] Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used to create collaborative works. Examples include community websites, corporate intranets, knowledge management systems, and note services. The software can also be used for personal note taking." - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Want a little more clarification? Watch this:

Before my internship with AFS, the only wiki pages I knew of were Wikipedia and WikiHow. I never stopped to think that a wiki could be used for internal collaboration in a company. Now, of course, it makes so much sense. As Li & Bernoff suggest, a wiki is a fantastic venue for a "full-fledged collaboration environment" (p. 220). For AFS, as for Avenue A/Razorfish, an internal wiki is a great way for a complex organization to share, communicate, and collaborate internally.

Courtesy of http://parcepsocialmedia.wikispaces.com/Social+Media+101

The AFS Wiki is relatively advanced and developed already. Its main page includes its logo and banner, AFS' mission, and a relatively clear layout of where to start on the wiki: "Resources for Host Families," "Major AFS Functions," "AFS News," and "Other Menus." These basic directions, as with all well-built wikis, then lead users through a series of linked and connected pages.

The AFS Wiki Main Page

Through the search function, one can find the Returnee Initiative page - my jurisdiction.

My "Wiki-Territory"

As you can probably see, the Returnee Initiative page is not exactly snazzy. That said, it has a lot of potential for improvement and elaboration. I'm looking to Avenue A/Razorfish for inspiration.

Avenue A/Razorfish is one of the largest interactive agencies in the world, according to Groundswell, and its internal wiki has been incredibly successful.

The following slideshare by Shiv Sing describes the Avenue A/ Razorfish Wiki and some reasons why it was so successful, including its reasons for implementation, its features, and its results.

Avenue A | Razorfish Wiki Introduction

View more presentations from Shiv Singh

Besides its well-developed people and project pages, feeds, portlets, and blog features, one reason for the Avenue A/ Razorfish wiki's success is its level of engagement.

Avenue A/Razorfish knew a wiki would benefit its employees, but it didn't force it. As Li & Bernoff suggest, coercion does not work when attempting to engage employees in a wiki. Instead of mandating employees to participate, Avenue A/Razorfish encouraged employees to participate by recruiting "wikivangelists" in each department (p.228).

As Li & Bernoff rightly say, "Just as in external groundswell applications, you have to start by thinking about the relationships, not the technologies" (p.224). That is what Avenue A/Razorfish did with its wikivangelists. Wikis have to be intuitive and encourage participation before they can launch into an effective business tool. Avenue A/Razorfish recognized that its employees were bogged down and created a space where collaboration was easy and transparent. The wiki became the easiest place to communicate and share, and its wikivangelists spread the word organically.

AFS is already doing this in many ways, but in order to further encourage a dynamic wiki page, it will take more than fancy graphics (though I'm sure those would help too). Just as Avenue A/Razorfish created wikivangelists, so should AFS. And maybe I'll just have to be one of them. 

We Crave the Cute

Sometimes, nothing hits the spot better than a cute animal. Most people reading this probably already know that, or else you wouldn't have clicked on this post when you saw the thumbnail picture of the kitten and "mouse" (see below, if you haven't already scrolled down just to look at all the pictures and swoon).

The groundswell is crawling with animals (pun intended).

In 2008, a simple live video stream (Puppycam) of Shiba Inu puppies exploded on the internet. People went wild over watching the furry fluff-balls interact and be, well, puppies. Their cuteness was enough to draw in millions of views. If only marketers could be that cute, right?

Passion for animals is enough to drive huge traffic in social media. Pet owners and enthusiasts post on message boards and chat rooms like pethobbyist.com and terrificpets.com to brag about their perfect pets, ask for advice, and look for support. Some of these enthusiastic pet owners have also taken their pet-obsessions to social networks, where they have created profiles just for their animals. For the most dedicated animal-lovers, Facebook provides apps that include Dogbook, Catbook, Horsebook, and even Ferretbook, according to LJworld.com's article. A little excessive? Maybe. But a great opportunity for digital marketers to target a specific population of animal lovers? I think so.

An Animal Friend of Mine on Facebook

Animal profiles on Facebook are not only for private pet owners, however. When the Leipzig Zoo released photos of Heidi, the cross-eyed opossum, photos and videos of her immediately went viral online. Her fans quickly created a Facebook page for Heidi, which now has 324,382 fans. That's quite a few people who like her just for being cute - a number any business page would kill for.

Heidi, the Most Famous Opossum in the World

Heidi certainly is not the first animal to go viral on the internet. The following videos are other examples of some of the most-played animal-related YouTube videos in recent years. 

I must admit that the number of videos I posted was mostly self-serving.

But don't underestimate the power of a fluffy, doe-eyed critter. Their funny viral videos, heart-melting photos, and often ridiculous social networking profiles may seem light-hearted (because they often are), but they carry huge potential for online marketers. Some companies have already tapped into the animal craze by creating animal web mascots, such as the Firefox logo to the right.

Clearly, the public has an insatiable appetite for cute, funny, and intriguing animals. Besides posting advertisements next to the videos, forums, and profiles, however, I haven't seen many attempts by marketers to take advantage of this huge desire. So what do you think? Can marketers harness the animal appeal, or is the basic appeal of animals in the groundswell that they aren't there to sell or to convince?

They're there because they're cute. That's all.

Monitoring AFS-USA: A First Look

About AFS-USA

AFS-USA is the independent U.S. division of AFS Intercultural Programs, a 60-year old nonprofit that provides international exchange programs to high school and gap-year students for a year, semester, or summer. AFS-USA is a top leader in the United States’ high school intercultural exchange program industry. According to the AFS-USA website, the organization's mission is to work “toward a more just and peaceful world by providing international and intercultural learning experiences to individuals, families, schools, and communities through a global volunteer partnership.” To do this, AFS-USA finds host families and provides orientations and support to students visiting from different countries, recruits and sends students from the U.S. to other countries, and provides orientation and support for returnees to the United States. The organization is primarily run by volunteers in local chapters and backed by professional staff located at four main offices throughout the country. According to a presentation by Esra Kucukciftci, the Vice Chair of AFS-USA's National Council, about 13,000 students choose to study abroad with AFS Intercultural Programs. Of that number, AFS-USA hosts about 2,500 international students and sends around 1,000 American students abroad. AFS-USA is focused on reinvigorating its volunteer and alumni base. 

AFS-USA’s Target Audiences

One obvious target audience for AFS-USA is the high-school and gap-year age demographic (about 15-19 years old), which is the eligible age group for AFS’ programs. In addition to recruiting participants, however, AFS-USA’s audiences extend to the parents of potential participants, current and future AFS-USA volunteers, and AFS-USA returnees.

According to the AFS-USA website, over 370,000 people have studied abroad with AFS, and at least 100,000 of them live in the United States. This means that AFS’s audience is incredibly diverse in age, nationality, and gender.

In 2010, AFS-USA started the Returnee Initiative Task Force to focus on engaging with AFS returnees in order to refresh the AFS-USA volunteer base and broaden AFS-USA’s network. Though AFS-USA returnees are all ages, the main target demographics for the returnee initiative taskforce are the college-age and young professional returnees.

My Involvement with AFS-USA

I studied abroad with AFS for the year program in Argentina my junior year of high school (2005-2006). Recently, AFS-USA hired me as the Returnee Initiative Communications Intern. Part of my job is to reach out to returnees using social media, so understanding where the brand currently stands, especially with returnees, is very important to my success in this internship and for the success of the returnee initiative.

Initial Observations of AFS-USA in the Groundswell

AFS-USA’s main social media venues are its Facebook page and group (Study Abroad with AFS USA and Ask an AFSer!), its Twitter account (AFSUSA), its Flickr account (AFS-USA Intercultural Programs' Photostream), its YouTube channel (AFStv), and its blog aggregator located at http://www.afsblog.org/. Most of the engagement with these social media venues comes from future and current AFS participants. Very little engagement seems to come from returnees (essentially, AFS alumni). This could be that most of AFS-USA’s social media venues are targeted at future and/or current program participants.

The most recent video posted on AFStv

Searches on socialmention.com, addictomatic.com, twitalyzer.com, Google Insights, and compete.com revealed that overall AFS-USA has a positive, yet not very pervasive, reputation in the social media realm.

According to Google Insights, in the last year, worldwide searches for AFS USA peaked between March 21-27, May 2-8, and September 12-18. There were fewer searches in the fall and winter than in the spring, and there were the least between mid-December and early January. Regionally, searches came only from within the United States. Google Insights did not have enough information to provide more in-depth results.

A comparison on Compete.com revealed that traffic from unique visitors to the Rotary International website, AFS-USA's main competitor, is much higher than on the AFS-USA website.



According to Socialmention.com, in mid-February, the AFSUSA brand had a positive, yet not very well-distributed brand in social media. Overall, social mention

gave AFSUSA 1% in strength, 56:00 in sentiment, 57% in passion, and 16% in reach.



In mid-March, The AFSUSA brand mentions changed slightly, but not very significantly.



According to the listed sources on socialmention.com, AFS-USA’s content appears on many different kinds of social networking sites. The majority of original AFS-USA-related social media content comes from or is aggregated by AFS-USA in the venues listed earlier. Still, the content of blog and Flickr posts often does not directly reference the AFS-USA brand and instead consists of personal accounts of study abroad experiences that may mention the AFS-USA website. These personal accounts that are associated with but not generated by AFS-USA are beneficial for future and current AFS students, but they do not target the returnee population.

In this blog description from the AFS blog aggregator, for example, the author provides an enthusiastic description of what she is blogging about and references AFSUSA, but her actual blog posts are more specific accounts of her time in France.

One qualitative example of the AFS-USA brand appearing in the groundswell without the organization’s facilitation is the following exchange on Yahoo Answers. Yahoo Answers user Maggie O asks, “Can anyone suggest a reliable travel abroad program for high school students? I was thinking about spending a high school semester in France, and am having trouble finding programs. Can anyone suggest a program, and give me the link to their website? Thank you!”

Both users recommended AFS-USA, which is a positive reflection on the AFS-USA’s brand. While hurricane mentioned Rotary, one of AFS’ main competitors, she did not suggest one over the other.

The photos associated with AFS-USA on Flickr that I discovered through addictomatic.com are all positive and portray either smiling groups of diverse people or scenery-shots. These are consistent with AFS-USA’s brand strategy.

AFS Group, 2008-09 Year Program

Posted by AFS-USA Intercultural Programs on the AFS-USA Flickr

Though AFS-USA has an overall positive brand, because its strength is weak in the social media sphere, one displeased social networker can have a significant effect on AFS-USA’s social media brand presence. 

What? Tampons in the Groundswell?

Chapters 9 and 10 of Groundswell focus on embracing the groundswell for innovation and how the groundswell can transform companies, respectively.

Both chapters reminded me of Kimberly-Clark's (makers of Kotex pads and tampons) most recent product line, advertising campaign, and interactive website - U by Kotex. Like Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, which was profiled in chapter 10, U by Kotex takes a risk by challenging traditional norms for feminine care advertising and releases some control over its brand by creating content for the groundswell to interact with. The campaign also fits within the topics of chapter 9, because it uses groundswell forces to solicit direct and indirect feedback about its products directly from its customers.

According to the New York Times article, "Rebelling Against the Commonly Evasive Feminine Care Ad," U by Kotex was introduced in March 2010 and comprises an entire line of feminine care products, including pads, tampons, and pantiliners. It is targeted to teenagers and young women between 14 and 21 years old - a prime demographic for groundswell engagement. The products are small, sleek and come in a black box, individually-wrapped in a variety of neon colors.

U by Kotex Products  - Try a Free Sample HERE

In addition to the line’s inventive packaging, the U by Kotex’s advertising campaign has caused a stir for its innovative, frank, and satirical nature. The U by Kotex campaign, which includes television, print, and digital advertisements, directly references and mocks previous Kotex advertising campaigns. Watch the campaign's most famous advertisement, "Reality Check," below.

Other advertisements in the series include a candid camera-style video of a woman trying to convince men to buy her tampons, a man administering a fake Rorschach test with every ink blot resembling a penis or vagina, and a print advertisement with large text that says, “I tied a tampon to my key ring to make sure my brother wouldn’t take my car. It worked.”

All the campaign's advertisements, as well as its other forms of rich media, can be found on the U by Kotex YouTube channel, which has 890 subscribers as of today.


Though the advertisements are humorous, the campaign focuses also on the serious aspects of education and awareness in relation to menstruation. The website has multiple interactive venues for girls and women to post their personal stories, read articles, view videos, take quizzes, and ask questions about menstrual health, and sign a declaration to “break the cycle."

Sounds a lot like Tampax's beinggirl.com, doesn't it?

In Mass Marketing Retailers' article, "Kimberly-Clark gives Kotex brand new slant," Andrew Meurer, the vice president of Kimberly-Clark's North American group brands was quoted saying, "For the past 50 years, advertisers – Kotex included – have been perpetuating a cultural stigma by emphasizing that the best menstrual period is one that is ignored...We are changing our brand equity to stand for truth, transparency and progressive vagina care," he says. "Moving forward, the tone of the Kotex brand's marketing will adhere to its new tagline--'Break the Cycle.'" The tagline, he explains, comes from a 2009 study of the same name, which showed that while 70% of girls and women ages 14 to 35 feel it is time for society to change how it talks about vaginal health, only 45% of them feel they have the power to make a difference.

The entire U by Kotex campaign is a perfect example of a company embracing the groundswell and using it to energize its brand. Notice how Meurer noted a focus on transparency? There may be an altruistic side to Kimberly-Clark's transparent approach to menstrual product marketing, but my guess is they've recognized that transparency is key to success in the groundswell.

The U by Kotex campaign begs its target market to give it feedback and engage with its products. The website immediately greets all visitors with a prompt for feedback, and throughout the site, there are countless additional opportunities to chime in about the products, the campaign, and the movement.

A Snapshot of a Forum about U by Kotex Tampons

U by Kotex Prompts the Groundswell for Feedback

In addition to its YouTube account, U by Kotex manages Facebook and Twitter accounts, and according to the running tally at the bottom of the U by Kotex website, the brand has engaged 2,333,827girls in its cause. 


Cause or no cause, all that engagement with the groundswell is sure to improve U by Kotex's brand presence and encourage innovation in its products and its market approach, don't you think?