Connecting Foster & Kinship Carers
Communicating an agenda for change
The Opportunity
Connecting Foster & Kinship Carers SA (CF&KC-SA) is the independent, peak body representing South Australia’s foster and kinship carers.
The government-funded, membership-based organisation seeks to ensure that the voice of carers is represented and their rights are upheld, whilst they care for children and young people. Together with communikate et al, the organisation identified a need to:
- increase its public profile, to help attract members and garner support for key issues
- improve its communication with members and the wider carer community to showcase its advocacy and support the flow of information.
Our Approach
Working directly with the CEO, we brought together key team members for a workshop to explore the organisation’s unique operating environment and unpack its strengths, weakness, opportunities and risks.
With CF&KC-SA’s social media channels considered a key area of focus, we developed a content strategy and took over the day-to-day management of its pages for an initial 12-week campaign period.
We identified a significant opportunity to use LinkedIn to increase the organisation’s frequency and quality of communication with government stakeholders, industry partners and complementary service providers, while continuing to grow its presence on Facebook which had an established but relatively unengaged audience.
Supporting CF&KC-SA with its external communications and media engagement was also a priority, to better leverage commentary opportunities and show the value of the organisation’s membership.
The Outcome
Our initial 12-week campaign period saw significant success through CF&KC-SA’s Facebook and LinkedIn, reaching more carers than ever before with high-quality, timely and engaging content.
Results, compared to the 12 weeks prior, include:
- Nearly twice as many people reached on Facebook (up 93%)
- Engagement more than tripling on Facebook content (up 255%)
- LinkedIn content reaching 22x more users
- Engagement rate on LinkedIn nearly doubling to around 11%
- Total number of LinkedIn followers grew by 45%
By leveraging our established media contacts and understanding of media’s editorial agenda, we secured:
- An opinion article for the CEO with InDaily, advocating for the introduction of superannuation for carers
- Coverage with ABC, 10 News First and FIVEaa highlighting the organisation’s role in delivering systemic change in child protection through the introduction of new legislation to Parliament.