Guidance on the use of social media in spreading awareness of online counselling among young men
How to advertise efficiently On MitAssist, we have fond experiences, first and foremost, attracting young men based on a community-approach and by mediation of knowledge. The fact that they can receive help to solve their problems is only advertised to a smaller degree. We consider this the secondary part of the recruitment process. The primary focus is attracting the young men to the website and then motivate and encourage them to use it frequently. Therefore, we recommend the following:
Paid advertising
How to recruit through advertising
If your counselling is based in the digital world, it makes sense to recruit online. All it takes is one single click from your target audience to get into the website, and you will have a further reach than by using, for example, printed materials. Furthermore, you will meet the boys in an arena where they are already spending several hours of their day, and where they are already looking for answers to their questions. From focus-groups in schools and in youth clubs, respectively, we have gained a thorough insight into how teenage boys uses the internet in particular to find answers to their problems in real life. Utilizing that knowledge, we decided to advertise on Google. It is important to make sure that the ads show off the expression that boys can be part of a “boy-community” on MyAssist. Text advertisements: We do 4 types of advertisements. They are composed so that the content fits what the boys are searching for Google and can be matched by useful content from MitAssist simultaneously.
- Knowledge advertisement: Links to the website where the forum is.
- Themed advertisement: Links to a specific subject, ex. “Family & relationships”.
- Blog entry advertisement: Links to blog entrys, ex. “Are you into boys or girls?”
- Chat advertisement: Links to the group-chat.¨
Displayed advertisements: These are a bit different from textual advertisement because they reach the target audience unsolicited. For example, these displayed ads might appear on a website where teenage boys are usually gaming or shopping for clothes. Therefore, this type of ad can be an ideal opportunity to increase awareness of your website in the introductory phase of your project. On Facebook & Instagram, the ads are tailored by us based on the interests of the user. ‘Interests’, in this context, is based on the things that boys have interacted with on the two social media sites earlier. The advertisements match the characteristics of the target audience such as age, gender and interests. Like on Google, the purpose of the ads on Facebook & Instagram is to meet certain objectives like, for example, making young men participate in the chat, ask a question in the forum, read the blog entries and so on. Advertising for the chat is only active during the opening hours. This creates a bigger opportunity for a direct effect of the money spent on advertising, like young men participating in the chat during their first visit. Good to know:
- The systems at GoogleAdwords & Facebook constantly change and update. It might prove advantageous to seek assistance at, for example, a marketing agency to make sure that your resources are not spent in vain.
- Facebook offers free counselling if you spent a certain amount of money on advertising. This amount, like the systems at Google & Facebook, also constantly changes.
Hvis du vil sætte et par ord på din tilbagemelding, vil det hjælpe os rigtig meget, til at kunne forbedre vores indhold.