Note: When referencing EA, the article is mainly referencing the Centre for Effective Altruism and organizations adjacent to it. 

Introduction

Although the EA movement has built a strong community filled with passionate people and great research, it seems as if there is room for improvement regarding outreach initiatives towards younger generations. Specifically, EA's social media initiatives are lacking, and leaves much to be desired in terms of growth and content. This post will analyze the importance of social media, how/where EA can improve, and additional benefits of increased social media. 

YouTube, Instagram, & More

Social media usage is at an all time high, with 4.8 billion people currently using some form of social media. In the age of the internet, it is of no surprise that many of these users are young adults, especially in the United States, where 84% of adults ages 18 to 29 report using these platforms with decent consistency. Within this statistic, the most commonly used social media for young adults was YouTube and Instagram; in which 95% of young adults reported using YouTube, and 71% reported using Instagram. The majority of this demographic also reports daily engagement, with 73% of Instagram users and 54% of YouTube users claiming to use the app at least once a day.

As for the even younger age bracket (13 - 17), YouTube is most commonly used by 95% of teens. Next in line is TikTok, used by 67% of teens. Social media engagement is strikingly high in this demographic, with 35% of teens saying they are using at least one "top 5" platform (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook) almost constantly.

The visual nature of these platforms is of little surprise, with data supporting that visual content increases engagement and possibly information retention.  This proclivity towards visual stimuli holds true even for text-based platforms such as Twitter, where 97% of people on the platform focus on visuals.

The importance of courting Gen Z and Millennials through their preferred platforms cannot be understated, especially taking into consideration that these generations have become increasingly politically proactive. The 2022 midterm elections showcased this, where Gen Z and Millennials had the second highest youth voter turnout in the past three decades. As older generations fade, the political power of Millennials and Gen Z will continue to grow, meaning that future decisions regarding policy and legislation will be in their hands. These decisions will undoubtedly be influenced by the news they consume, which is primarily through social media.

With this in mind, if EA wants to maximize its influence on the future and effectively recruit more people to its cause, it must dedicate more of its resources to social media outreach, emphasizing visual content. 

How EA Can Improve

For the purpose of this analysis, I have provided a table listing the social media following for Centre for Effective Altruism and the 80,000 hours project.

Despite the decent numbers of both groups, engagement for at least the past year has been low throughout all platforms. For example, Centre for Effective Altruism's twitter struggles to break 15 likes per post while 80,000 hours twitter struggles to break 50 likes. Recent YouTube videos for both accounts get less than 1,000 views, and the vast majority of Facebook posts have under 20 impressions. Frankly speaking, anyone who "knows" social media would falsely assume we bought our following. 

On the bright side, the right type of content can easily rectify this discrepancy, and expand our outreach to new heights. With this in mind here are some suggestions for improvement per platform:

Twitter

Posting regularly will incentivize the algorithm to push more tweets to EA's current following. It's important to have a mix of original content, as well as  quote tweets and replies. Quote tweets and replies should be done in reference to a popular tweet or big account, when done properly, tagging big accounts increases the chance of being retweeted by them, which results in increased visibility. 

YouTube

 YouTube shorts have helped rapidly increase the following of many creators. YouTube shorts should be....short! Ideally they would be a snippet with a brief explanation of a more complex subject. This viewership can then be translated to other longer form content/videos. Overall, there's a lot of room for improvement when it comes to longer form content on the YouTube channel. EA deep dives into complex subjects all the time and a Kurzgesat approach (and maybe even collaboration) or video essay approach could result in great, shareable, easily understandable content. We can even pull articles from the forums or newsletters to base the videos on. 

Instagram

Instagram is fairly easy, heavily favoring consistency. Uploading 3 times a week using trending audios will help expand growth in no time. Although the "influencer" nature of the platform makes substantive content more difficult, at the very least it can be used as an introductory tool. Short reels showing "cool" events or even work life in a relatable way gets people invested. Instagram is also an easy way to get college students involved in the cause. For example, we can have campaigns promoting EA college clubs to make content that would then be posted and tagged on to our main platforms. This way we encourage EA college students to get more invested through content creation, and involve them with how to shape our messaging towards other young adults. 

TikTok

The algorithm in TikTok is great, and there is definitely a market for explaining studies, news, and all sorts of topics in fun short ways. The investment company, Fidelity, does a great job at creating this type of content in the platform. Another fairly popular favorite of mine is Nikita who uses "girlie" language to break down a variety of subjects.

Other Content Notes: 

I strongly suggest that the  80,000 hours podcast uploads video in addition to audio. You can easily produce Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts content using that visual content. Plenty of online podcasts have grown by simply clipping and uploading segments of longer form podcasts or live-streams. Take braintrotpolitics for example, who has gotten fairly popular by clipping impactful moments from debates.

Additional Benefits of Social Media

I would like to end this post by highlighting the other benefits found via expanding our focus on social media. For example, the use of social media goes beyond increasing visibility/awareness. When properly utilized, the analytics and metrics obtained by social media will allow us to gain insights into the preferences and behaviors of our target market. This data will help us refine our strategies and better tailor our content to effectively resonate with their interests and concerns. It not only increases our visibility, but gives us the necessary tools to better serve the EA community. In short, these metrics will allow us to build an even stronger foundation, with more effective and improved communication.

Finally, social media is a powerful tool that can quickly raise funds and awareness for certain causes. Through the collaboration of content creators and streamers, we open the possibility of a new donation line. For example, in just three days twitch streamer Hassan Piker was able to raise more than $1 million dollars in charity. Likewise, other sizeable sums of money have been raised streaming, the largest one by streamers Zerator and Dach which broke the world record for most money raised. Across three days of streaming, the content creators raised about $11.5 million for Action Against Hunger.

Conclusion

It is of great importance that EA expands its outreach initiatives to visual content on social media if it wishes to withstand the test of time. Effective altruism is a powerful force for good, and by effectively utilizing social media, we can bring its transformative potential to the forefront of young minds. Let's work together to create an online presence that not only educates and informs but also inspires the next generation to embrace the values of compassion, rationality, and evidence-based action.