Social Media for Behaviour Change (SM4BC) Toolkit

"Your social media objectives should support your program's overall communication goals and objectives. They define specifically how social media activities will contribute to creating behaviour change."

This toolkit is designed for anyone who wants to use social media to bring about positive behaviour change regarding disaster risk reduction among people in their community or other groups they serve. Developed by International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), it is designed as a flowchart to lead you through the key questions that need to be answered in order to be successful in using social media for behaviour change (SM4BC).

The layout of the toolkit is meant to be practical, with key considerations, action steps, links to additional sources of information, and worksheets (fillable in the online toolkit) at the end of each section to aid in planning and strategising.

The content and examples in the toolkit are geared towards those working in the areas of disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction, with a special focus on issues related to the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. However, the core concepts are applicable no matter what type of behaviour change you are working towards or where you are working (e.g., enabling healthy and safe living, promoting social inclusion and a culture of non-violence and peace, etc.).

The sections focus on:

1. Assessing internal capacity - Who are you?
2. Setting goals/objectives - What do you want to accomplish?
3. Prioritising audience(s) - Who do you need to reach?
4. Selecting behaviours - What do you want them to do?
5. Identifying levers of change - What can you do to help their behaviour change?
6. Creating a message strategy - What will your messages say?
7. Developing a tactical/content production plan - How will you create your content for your posts?
8. Developing a community engagement plan - How will you engage your community?
9. Developing an evaluation plan - How will you know if you're successful?