The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Our vision is a world free of hunger and malnutrition where food and agriculture contributes to improving the living standards of all, especially the poorest, in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner. Social media has become the preferred communications channel and has significantly changed the way we communicate online. Social media tools have made it easy to connect, engage and interact with other people, in many ways making communication an instant and two-way conversation. These tools provide FAO opportunities to advocate and promote its work, engage with stakeholders, and increase the visibility of its work. This presentation provides a summary of how FAO is currently using social media. ©FAO 2017

1. Using Social Media to
promote FAO’s work
Gauri Salokhe, OCCI
13 June 2017

2. Social Media
 Has become the preferred communications channel for many
 Is easy to connect, engage and interact with other people
 Has made communication an instant and two-way conversation
 Like other international agencies, FAO maintains official accounts on a select
number of the most popular and strategic social media platforms
 Office for Corporate Communication (OCC) is responsible for maintaining
these accounts and clearance of any additional accounts (such as on Twitter)

3. Why is FAO on Social Media?
 Position FAO as the key United Nations agency to lead the
effort to achieve #ZeroHunger
 Mobilize support and engage around FAO’s mandate and
the SDGs
 Increase visibility to our work and engage in a global
dialogue with the stakeholders
 Educate our audience and get them involved
 Increase traffic to FAO.org
 Be open and transparent

4. FAO’s social media presence
Single corporate presence on:
 Facebook
 Google+
 Instagram
 LinkedIn
 Medium
 Pinterest
 SlideShare
 SoundCloud
 YouTube
 Multiple Twitter accounts in addition
to corporate presence
 Two corporate channels and a pool
of affiliated accounts on Flickr
The combined audiences of FAO’s the different social
networks totals over 2 million users (and counting)

5. Facebook
 Single corporate presence
 facebook.com/unfao
 Over 1 million followers
 General audience
 Posts are in English, Spanish,
Arabic, French, Portuguese and Italian
 What works:
 Short engaging content on
FAO’s key priorities
 First-person human interest
stories
 FB Live
 Videos/animations
 Visual content/infographics
 Quizzes

6. Examples of Facebook posts
International Days Call-to-actions/tips Videos

7.  2 corporate accounts:
 twitter.com/faonews
 Twitter.com/faoknowledge
 Almost 90 multilingual
thematic/country accounts
 Almost 1 million followers
 Audience interested in specific
topics or regions such as climate
change, statistics, Africa, fisheries,
forestry, etc.
 What Works:
 Short engaging content
 Joining existing conversations
 Videos/animations
 Visual content/infographics
 Quizzes / Twitter Chats
Twitter

8. Examples of Tweets
 Given the real-time nature of Twitter, content strategy is a combination of sharing existing
multilingual content and creation of new visual content.
 We also regularly share most engaging content from thematic and country/regional accounts.
 Twitter lists:
 Corporate FAO accounts https://twitter.com/FAOnews/lists/fao-twitter-accounts
 FAO Employees https://twitter.com/FAOKnowledge/lists/fao-staff

9. Instagram
 Single corporate presence
 instagram.com/unfao
 Over 80k followers
 General audience
 Posts are in English
 What works:
 Visually striking high resolution
FAO photos
 Images with personal stories
 Quizzes / GIFs
 Photo contests

10. Examples of Instagram posts

11. LinkedIn
 Single corporate presence
 linkedin.com/company/fao
 Over 150k followers
 Technical audience
 Posts are in English, Spanish,
Arabic, French and Portuguese
 What Works:
 Vacancy announcements
 Latest Publications
 Training/Webinar
announcements

12. Google+
 Single corporate presence
 plus.google.com/+UNFAO
 Over 15k followers
 General audience
 Posts are in English
 Primary purpose is to optimize
Google search rankings for FAO.org
 What works:
 Short engaging posts
 Videos
 Infographics

13. YouTube
 Single corporate presence
 youtube.com/FAOoftheUN
 Over 18k followers
 General audience
 Playlists by topics/country/region
 What works:
 Videos
 Animations

14. Examples of videos

15. Flickr
 2 corporate accounts:
 flickr.com/photos/faonews
 flickr.com/photos/faooftheun
 FAONews
 Managed by OCCM
 Official HQ meetings and DG
Travels
 FAOoftheUN
 Photos by FAO Employees on
mission / in country offices
 Country collections

16. SlideShare
 Single corporate presence
 slideshare.net/faooftheun
 Technical audience
 Presentations are by FAO employees
 Mostly in English, Spanish, French

17. Social media content production
 Closely monitor organizational priorities (International Days, key events, DG
visits to the field, etc.)
 Produce content specifically for social media
 Animations
 Infographics / Infovisuals
 Videos / GIFs
 Write stories targeting specific audiences
 In Action
 Zero Hunger
 Regularly monitor FAO websites, document respository
 Ideas can be sent to social-media@fao.org

18. FOOD WASTE SOCIAL MEDIA
CAMPAIGN
In collaboration with Food Waste and Loss team

19. Food waste – social media campagin
 One week campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn to
raise awareness about the issues surrounding food loss and waste
 Develop strategy targeting general audience with a strong call-to-action
 Content created specifically for the campaign
 Visual identity/ color palette
 Gif, video, visuals with photo and graphics, web content
 Multilingual content

20. FOOD WASTE SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
It is by far the most
viewed video ever
launched by FAO,
with over 1.7M
views on all FAO
social media
channels combined.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SqLz4O32vc

21. GIFs

22. Calls-to-action

23. In summary..
 Each tool has it’s own unique audience and content requirements
 In general, we need to tell FAO stories through human voices on digital
channels
 Respect real situations – show beneficiaries as active actors in the change FAO is
making through its work
 First person narratives / portraits – the 5 Ws and 1 H apply to digital story telling.
Use them to capture a complete story.
 Capture the reality - To change reality, even with the best of intentions, is to
imply a different reality or to misrepresent
 Language and branding – FAO doesn’t need to be mentioned explicitly, tell the
story through the lens of an individual without the institutional narration.
 If content is intended for social, the digital team can be contacted for
guidance and support

24. Ground rules for employees
 All employees are encourage to share FAO content on their personal accounts
 Social media tools present opportunities, but also risks. Remember:
 Nothing is private – protect confidential information, respect internal embargoes
 Identify yourself - and add a disclaimer: “The postings on this site are my own
and do not necessarily represent FAO’s views, positions, strategies or opinions.”
 Consider your audience, be passionate and keep your cool – respect your audience
and avoid negative personal comments or inflammatory subjects. If you come
across misrepresentation of FAO’s work, correct it with factual information and,
whenever possible, a link to additional information.
 Respect privacy rights of colleagues – particularly when posting photos and
videos. Posting personal or identifiable information (including times, location and
travel information) may raise safety and security concerns.
 On social media just as in the office, you must abide by FAO’s code of
conduct and staff rules

25. “
”
Thank you
Social Media Policy: fao.org/2/socialmedia
Contact us: social-media@fao.org