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The Online Impact Strategist
The Online Impact Strategist
Content
This activity invites youth work managers, youth workers, and young people to navigate some of the most significant challenges of our time—moving from reactive to strategic digital youth work.
By equipping yourself with new skills and forging key partnerships, you can help your organisation not only respond to online trends but also proactively build a meaningful and sustainable online presence. This is your chance to turn your digital activities into a clear strategy with lasting impact.
The Challenge
The digital world moves fast, and it's easy to get caught in a cycle of creating content without a clear purpose. While many youth work organisations are active online, they often lack a defined strategy, making it difficult to measure real-life results. This can lead to missed opportunities to engage with young people in a meaningful way. The challenge is to shift from being just a content creator to becoming a strategic online voice for youth.
By completing this activity, you will:
- Build a clear, values-based digital strategy for your team.
- Forge sustainable partnerships with local organisations and experts.
- Help young people use their digital skills for positive change.
- Contribute to a resilient and strategically-minded youth work organisation.
Get Inspired
Ready to build a powerful digital strategy for your community? The work of an Online Impact Strategist is not just about making videos; it's about building a system that delivers value and creates real-world results. By connecting young people with the right resources and building strong partnerships, you can create an online presence that informs and empowers. This is your chance to become a vital voice in your city-wide network and help youth take ownership of their digital futures.
Watch this video of Louise Aniba from Dynamo, a youth work organisation in Amsterdam, as she discusses her role in developing a digital strategy. She explains how the organisation moved from simply making content to creating a structured and impactful online presence.
Instagram: louise_dynamo or dynamo_jongeren
Youth work organisations, like Dynamo, are showing that a strategic approach is key to success, but they can't do it alone. That's where you, as a youth worker or manager, come in.
The Opportunity
Youth workers and managers are crucial in bridging the gap between an organisation's values and its online presence. By enhancing your skills in strategy and coaching, you can:
- Identify young people who are passionate about social media and help them use their skills for a purpose.
- Coach them on how to turn their creative ideas into valuable online content that reflects the organisation's values.
- Collaborate with a wider network of experts and organisations to create a stronger support system for youth-led initiatives.
- Empower young people to become critical, confident, and independent digital creators and citizens.
Take action: Activities for different roles
Explore the following role-specific badges to access activities designed to enhance your digital youth work within the organisation. Each badge contains a series of clear, actionable tasks tailored to your role.
- Youth work managers can earn the Online Strategist badge to develop and implement a strategic plan for digital youth work.
- Youth workers can earn the Digital Content Coach badge to get hands-on experience in coaching young people to create valuable online content.
- Young people can earn the Digital Influencer badge to build their own skills and gain confidence in a practical way.
Your Mission: Become an Online Impact Strategist
This activity will guide you through practical steps to develop a strategic approach to your organisation’s online presence, ensuring it is valuable, safe, and sustainable.
Phase 1: Understanding the Landscape (Preparation)
- The importance of a clear strategy beyond just creating content.
- The need for city-wide collaboration with other youth work organisations.
- The discussion on balancing youth work goals with marketing and branding.
- The ethical considerations of privacy and anonymity for young people online.
2. Identify Local Resources and Experts: Research various organisations and individuals in your area that could be strategic partners. This includes not only other youth work organisations but also:
- Young people: They are the ultimate experts on what resonates with their peers online and can provide invaluable insights into trends and digital culture.
- Well-being and community centres: They often have programmes that can be leveraged for content on social issues.
- Schools and vocational training centres: These institutions may be interested in promoting digital skills for future employment.
- Experts and foundations: Look for local experts or foundations dedicated to media literacy, cybersecurity, or debt counselling who can provide valuable input for content.
3. Assess Youth Needs and Insights: Organise a brainstorming session with a group of young people. Ask them about your organisation’s current online activities. What do they like and dislike? What topics do they want to see more of? What do they think is missing?
Phase 2: Taking Action (Implementation)
1. Launch the Strategy Session: Organise a strategy session with your team of youth workers and the young people who participated in Phase 1. Use the Dynamo transcript as inspiration to discuss your organisation's values and how they can be translated into a clear, engaging online voice that resonates with youth.
2. Create a Collaborative Plan: Together, with the young people, define a strategic plan that includes your main goals, target audience, and key messages. Decide on the platforms you will use and the types of content you will create. Ensure this plan is built from the ground up, with input from everyone.
3. Establish a Partner Network: Reach out to at least two potential partners you identified earlier. Ask the young people for their input on which experts or organisations they would trust to provide valuable information online. Schedule a meeting to discuss how you can collaborate to create content that serves both your organisations' goals and the needs of young people.
Phase 3: Reflecting and Growing (Impact & Learning)
1. Evaluate Impact Together with Youth: After launching your new content strategy, review the performance of your first few weeks. Look at data on engagement rates, saves, and shares. Discuss these metrics with the young people to get their perspective on why certain content worked better than others. Also, reflect together on any real-life effects you've noticed, such as young people mentioning your new content or coming to your centre as a result.
2. Share Your Learnings: Discuss your experiences and findings with your colleagues and the partnering organisations. Talk about what worked well, what challenges arose, and how you will adjust the strategy for the future. Empower the young people who participated to present their findings and experiences to the wider team or partners.
3. Consider Next Steps: Based on your experience, what are the next steps for you as a digital strategist? Are there other skills you want to develop, or new partnerships you want to explore?
Who created this resource?
This strategic approach to digital youth work is inspired by Louise Aniba from Dynamo, a youth work organisation in Amsterdam, and adapted by the Dutch Cities of Learning Network.
Next steps:
Try this approach in your own youth work setting. Start by earning the badges in this activity. Then, explore more resources on digital youth work at https://www.digitalyouthwork.net/.
© activity cover: Shkrabaanthony
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The Online Impact Strategist
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Digital Youth Work Resource Hub
Awero not-for-profit organisation manages this platform and develops it together with leading educational organisations. The European Union's programme Erasmus+ granted co-funding for building the first version of this platform. Contact support@awero.org.
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