The UN Social Good Summit & Ukraine:

The 2014 United Nations Social Good conversation took place 170 countries and 45 languages, both in onsite events and online activities. The focus of the summit and associated conversations was how citizens can use technology and social media to create a better world for all by 2030.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Ukraine office was experienced in coordinating onsite events and reaching a wide range of representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government offices to participate. The staff knew the Ukrainian landscape well in terms of what groups and agencies were using Internet technology to create a better world and used this experience and knowledge to put together a robust, lively online event that showcased various "tech for good" or "tech4good" activities in Ukraine. It was my responsibility to undertake online activities to amplify what was happening onsite at this summit, to ensure that New York city summit participants, UNDP headquarters, UNDP offices worldwide, and the general public knew what Ukraine was doing in association with the Social Good summit.

My goal with these online activities was also and to create a model for using social media that UNDP staff could adapt for the many campaigns it undertakes. In addition, I decided to create a way for momentum around "tech for good", or "tech4good" to continue online, by launching the #uatech4good tag, for any individuals or organizations to use on Twitter, Facebook, blogs or any social media to highlight efforts in Ukraine that use tech tools to raise awareness about development issues and drive action to address those issues.

Note that I had just three weeks to create a strategy, write all associated materials, adapt graphics, and execute activities, amid my many other communications priorities while working at the UN mission in Kyiv for two months as a surge communications specialist.

The summit strategy

In the two weeks leading up to the summit, I created a press release for the United Nations web site announcing the 2014 United Nations Social Good Summit and affiliated event taking place in Kyiv. We used a graphic by UNDP in association with the event and that promoted the #inno4dev social media tag:

I prepared messages to be sent via the UNDP and UN Twitter and Facebook accounts pointing people to this press release and using the #inno4dev / #2030now social media tags. The goal was both to build awareness for the tags and to ensure other UNDP and UN offices and anyone following these tags were aware of Ukraine-based activities.

During the Ukraine social media event, I live-tweeted what was happening via the UNDP Ukraine Twitter account, @UNDPUkraine, and others tweeted as well.

A selection of tweets on the day and leading up to the event:

That evening after the Ukraine onsite event, the UNDP Resident Representative made remarks via a live video feed to the New York City Social Good #inno4dev / #2030now summit:

Our own social media tag

In association with the event, our office launched our own #uatech4good hashtag, announcing it via a press release and featured a graphic I adapted from one already in use by UNDP:

Tweets our office sent to promote "tech for good" initiatives in Ukraine (most NOT by United Nations agencies):

As noted on the official United Nations account of the 2014 event, "Through the UN Development Programme and other meet-ups, citizens gathered in places from Afghanistan to Ukraine to Gaza to talk about how they can solve local problems and make a global difference." The prominent mention of Ukraine in most UN recaps about the event was a direct result of our social media efforts

The social media messages on Twitter that I generated for UNDP Ukraine were picked up by numerous UN and UNDP offices globally on the day of the event, probably more than any other local office. Unfortunately, the ready-to-view examples of such via a story I created on Storify are no longer available, as Storify is now defunct. Searches on Twitter using Ukraine and the various keywords and tags associated with the 2014 Social Media summit will generate many of these tweets for your review.

Facebook proved less impactful, probably because its algorithms emphasize messages in a viewer's newsfeed from the few Facebook friends an account holder interacts with most. That means that, even though a user may have liked UNDP Ukraine's Facebook page, or any Facebook page associated with the Social Good Summit in 2014, that user may never see the messages associated with such in their newsfeed.

The #uatech4good tag did not become widely used because the UNDP office was unable to undertake the social media strategy I developed once I left Ukraine. The tag was meant to be used by any individuals or organizations on Twitter, Facebook, blogs or any social media to highlight efforts in Ukraine that use tech tools to raise awareness about development issues and drive action to address those issues. But without awareness of the tag nor recognition for using such, it did not catch on. Reasons the office was unable to continue promotion of the tag include: rapidly changing communications priorities for the United Nations programs, including regarding social media, the departure of the UNDP Resident Representative and the interim head of the UN mission, both of whom strongly supported the campaign but whose terms ended just after my own, limited time to train staff regarding what success would look like for this campaign and why it was important, and communications resources that had to be used to counter misinformation campaigns targeting UN activities in Ukraine.

If you know more about this or other social media campaigns with which I have been involved, please contact me, Jayne Cravens.

Also see:

• Lessons from onlinevolunteering.org
  Some key learnings from directing the UN's Online Volunteering service from February 2001 to February 2005, including support materials for those using the service to host online volunteers.