Learning paths
Basics of Digital Comms
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MODULE 1: Overview & Landscape
What is Digital Communication?
Companies and organisations use a broad array of digital communication tools to deliver their messages and build communities - from social media networks to forums, blogs and messaging services.
The Universe of Digital Communication
Digital communication is a broad discipline that spans creative content like video and infographics published on social media channels, content strategy that plans out where and when new material will go up, and performance metrics that help organisations determine the success of their outreach efforts.
The Universe of Digital Communications
It is easy to get lost in the details and the jargon of digital communications, but at its core, it is a world divided across five major channels – sites and apps, social media platforms like Facebook, search engines like Google, email, and advertising. Digital communication is about using these channels to get your message across to your audience. This tutorial details how all these parts fit together.
The ABCs of Digital Communication
What is cross channel marketing? What is the difference between SEO and SEM? What does it mean to design a website with a good UX? And what exactly is digital communication anyway? This tutorial will walk you through some of the common terms and buzzwords in the field that you might have heard but never asked what they meant.
Integrated Marketing: How to Keep Your Message Consistent Across All Digital Channels
How do you protect your brand's identity as you communicate and reach out to different audiences across the various social media and digital channels? How do you adapt your message to new platforms, while preserving its essence?
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MODULE 2: Why does this matter, how does it help me?
Why Digital Communications Matters to Me: A Review of the Latest Trends Shaping the Discipline?
Why does your organisation need Digital Communications? How is the discipline shaping global conversations on some of the key challenges facing the world and your industry? How can you leverage this outreach towards increasing revenue and followers of your cause?
How Digital Communications Has Changed the Nonprofit World
How has Digital Communications impacted the way nonprofits raise funds and campaign for their cause? How has it altered the way they engage with their donors? How has this deeper engagement affected transparency?
What Digital Transformation Can Mean for UNDP
Digital Communications has the potential to expand UNDP's reach, allowing it to reach out directly to, and hear from, constituents around the world, promote its global development work, and campaign for action on global emergencies.
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MODULE 3: Basics of the most important channels
Introduction to Social Media Marketing
How can you use all the various social media platforms to advocate for your work, raise revenue and expand your following?
What Is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?
How can you promote your work through popular search engines? And how do you craft your website and content in such a way that it appears at the top of relevant search results, driving Internet traffic your way? Master the elements of search engine marketing (SEM) and optimization (SEO).
What is the difference between paid and organic search results? Should you use targeted ad campaigns that drive traffic immediately to your website, or is it better in the long run to build up a website so that it appears high up organically in search results because of its quality and relevance?
An email newsletter can be a boon to your business, allowing you to bring readers back repeatedly to your website and to reach out to them through their inbox, which they check daily. It can also drive revenue through sponsored content, and allow you to build a deeper understanding of what your audience cares about.
Newsletter Marketing: Best Practices
How do you create newsletters that keep your readers engaged in the long-term with your cause? How do you craft its content in such a way that it compels them to click through to your website, and to keep coming back for more? How do you use it to measure reader engagement and whether they find your message appealing?
Introduction to Website & UX Design
How does an individual experience your website? How do you design a compelling interaction that brings people back for more? User experience (UX) is an intuitive concept for many, but in reality is a discipline rooted in research and iteration.
Introduction to Digital Advertising
How do organisations advertise online? Out of the various types of digital ads that exist, including ads on social media, native content embedded in news sites, pop-ups and others, how do you decide which one is right for you?
Digital Ads: What Makes a Good Keyword?
What's in a keyword? How do you want users to find your content? When launching an ad campaign on digital platforms like search engines, organisations have to think about the keywords they want their brand to be associated with, and spend accordingly for high rankings in search results.
Introduction to Mobile & UX Design
How do your readers access your content? Through an app on their phones, mobile browsers, a tablet, or a desktop? Should you design your website to be mobile-friendly and meet your readers where they are? What design elements should you incorporate into your mobile phone app? Why does it matter?
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MODULE 4: Essential Skills in Digital
How do you use the Internet and the platforms available on it to tell a good story? How can you leverage its power to craft compelling content that reaches more people? What are the basic elements of a powerful story, and how does they translate to digital?
A Guide to Digital Storytelling
Stories are a universal language. But how do you leverage the power of digital communications to tell more memorable stories that stay with your audience? This tutorial will explain the basic principles that go into crafting a digital story, and tools like graphics, animation and interactive features that can immerse your audience in the narrative and compel them to action.
How to Use Data Visualization to Tell a Good Story
Data is crucial to an effective, powerful story that compels action. But data can also be unwieldy and boring, which is why it is important to present it in a visually appealing manner that audiences will easily grasp. This guide explains why data visualization is a powerful tool, and how to use it to tell stories that move people.
Creating great content is only the first step – you also need to make sure that people can find it. Enter Search engine optimization (SEO), a technique through which you can optimize your website, so it shows up high in search engine results. This tutorial explains why SEO is important for your organisation, and the work that goes into enhancing your site’s reach.
How Can I Help Google Find Me?
What can you do to make sure your site ranks high on Google search results? How do you bring in more readers to your website, with so many out there competing for clicks? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a powerful tool to help make your content more visible.
An Introduction to Digital KPIs
How do you know if your digital communication efforts are paying off? Both businesses and nonprofits use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of their outreach across platforms. From clickthrough rates to user engagements, each indicator tells a story that can help you understand your readers better and how well you're doing in engaging them.
Email can be a powerful marketing tool, allowing you to reach your audience through a channel they use on a daily basis – their inbox. Learn the elements of a good marketing email, how to create an extensive email list, the optimal frequency with which to email your target audience, and more.
MS Outlook: How to Master Email
Learn how to leverage the powerful tools within Outlook to craft compelling emails, manage lists, schedule messages and use a daily tool more effectively.
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MODULE 5: Digital Essential Processes at UNDP
UNDP Digital Communications Guidelines: Voice, Tone, Consistency, and Pitfalls to Avoid (coming soon)
Mandatory training for UN volunteers and interns on pitfalls to avoid when engaging in digital communications, and maintaining and unified voice and tone across all platforms that embody UNDP values.
On Demand Resource Repository Training: Repository Creation & Management (coming soon)
Working files, storage, management, naming conventions and collaborative working.
On Demand Image Repository Guide: Internal and External Repositories (coming soon)
Where to find good quality images, best practices in editing while maintaining authenticity, and how to save them locally.
On Demand Comms Request Guide: Communicating effectively with Comms (coming soon)
How and when to send campaign requests to both local and HQ communications teams.
Social Media
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MODULE 1: Overview & Landscape
The Universe That Is Social Media
The world of social media encompasses content sharing platforms like Facebook as well as other online communities such as book review sites, networking and discussion forums, and many others.
What does it mean for a social media post to have high engagement or to go viral? What is conversion rate? What is the point of hashtags, or ephemeral content that disappears after a short time? This tutorial will walk you through the rapidly expanding terminology of social media, which is evolving quickly as new forms of content and platforms emerge on the scene.
What are the differences between users that typically post on LinkedIn and Snapchat? Why does a younger cohort flock to TikTok while Pinterest is mostly used by women over 30? This tutorial details the different audiences of the various social media platforms, and why it is important to be aware of these differences so you can leverage them for your organisation’s goals.
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MODULE 2: Why does this matter, how does it help me?
What are the latest trends in social media marketing and usage? What is driving global conversations on the various platforms, and how are the platforms shaping the dialogue in turn? What changes and advancements in the underlying technology are influencing how people use them?
How Safe Is Your Data on Social Media?
How do the various social media platforms use their customers’ data? What best practices can users and organisations put in place to protect their information from malicious actors? What is the role of policymakers in preventing the misuse of these platforms in a way that damages the social fabric?
How can UNDP use social media effectively? How can the organization reach more people, raise awareness of global challenges, and advocate for action?
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MODULE 3: Strategy
Managing Your Presence on Social Media
What social media channels should you use when reaching out to your audience? Which tools are the right ones for your organisation? What is the best way to engage and build a community? This tutorial walks you through how to manage your online presence, by understanding which platforms are most suited for your goals, and the importance of remaining active and responsive to your followers.
How can UNDP use Twitter to communicate its goals, reach out to its core constituents around the globe, and promote the work it carries out with partners to address development challenges?
How to Mount an Effective Marketing Campaign on Social Media
Why should you spend money on social media marketing and paid promotions, and can they really expand your reach? How do you craft an effective campaign? And how do you measure its performance? What are some of the best practices when crafting social media ads, especially videos?
The Role of Social Media Influencers
What are social media influencers? How do you find one whose values align with those of your organization and whose followers are among your target audience? How can you leverage their massive following to promote or raise awareness of important causes?
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MODULE 4: Storytelling, Creativity and Production
Finding Your Voice on Social Media
Your voice embodies your organisation’s brand and values on social media. How do you strike the right balance when using it to keep readers informed and engaged? What is the difference between voice and tone, and how can they help get your message across? This explainer details how you can align your voice and social presence with your goals, and how to write posts that keep your readers coming back.
How to Produce and Market Compelling Content on Social Media
Delivering compelling content is the surest way to grow your audience on social media and tell your organisation’s story. Reaching that audience involves producing content that takes advantage of the strengths of social media platforms, and marketing techniques like optimizing for search and email newsletter promotions. This video details the key elements of social media content production and marketing, and why it matters for businesses and nonprofits.
How to Create Great Content for Each Social Media Channel
Each social media channel has its own strengths and weaknesses, its key demographics and unique features and restrictions. How can you produce content that plays to the strengths of each medium?
How Nonprofits Can Benefit From Great Social Media Content
How do you create powerful content on social media for nonprofits? How does the tone and nature of the content differ from that which promotes mainstream brands or companies? And what are some of the things to keep in mind when producing social media content for an organisation like UNDP?
Social Media Content Planning for Nonprofits
How do you plan your social media strategy around the seasonal calendar of nonprofit organisations? What elements go into crafting compelling content that has a maximal effect during important milestones like fundraising season?
Infographics: Visual Storytelling on Social Media
Raw data is unwieldy. Infographics allow you represent data visually, helping tell the stories behind the data and delivering information quickly and efficiently across social media channels. How do you craft powerful infographics that tell a story with clarity and engage readers?
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MODULE 5: Performance Measurement
Social Media Insights: How to Measure the Success of Your Campaigns
Each social media platform offers a variety of metrics to track the success of marketing and ad campaigns. Understanding each insight and performance indicator can help you craft powerful, effective messages and reach a broader audience.