Social Media Expert: Youth Engagement, Social Media Platform Engagement

CONTEXT & BACKGROUND

The world is on the brink of a 4th industrial revolution and it is essential that young people are equipped with 21stcentury skills to thrive and become successful in the future.

More and more, the demand for skills such as analytical thinking, innovation, active learning, and creativity will continue to grow along with an increasing demand for various forms of technological competency. Currently, these skills are not within the reach of marginalized youth in Lebanon.

Following the above, in 2017, UNICEF launched nationwide the Generation of Innovative Leaders (GIL – جيل), a program designed to address the high unemployment rates among youth in Lebanon & their lack of access to the knowledge economy. GIL is a program that leverages the resources available in the digital and knowledge economies to provide learning and work opportunities for youth in the country. GIL is the umbrella program to many workshops, events, initiatives, and training tracks, which are outlined in the 3D Growth Plan.

GIL is a 3-phase program that guides youth in their journey to learn 21st century digital and business skills.

Phase 1: the first phase includes hands-on workshops, talks by industry leaders, and tutorials to help youth explore innovative new digital concepts. GIL innovation labs are created in partnership with local stakeholders and operate nationwide, reaching those residing in the most secluded and marginalized areas. At the lab, youth are provided with trainings, workshops and events where they discover new opportunities, network with like-minded people and develop their digital and entrepreneurial skills.

Phase 2: once the participants have discovered their interests, they can enroll in as many courses as they wish. In the courses provided by GIL content partners, they develop and learn a set of skills in just four months. Courses offered include entrepreneurship training, digital and media literacy, micro work, and social media marketing

Phase 3: in the final phase of the GIL growth plan, youth can benefit from incubation services and funding to establish their own business and/or join B.O.T.’s talent pool to be later linked to digital freelancing opportunities. They can also benefit from mentorship and apprenticeship programmes.

Youth who successfully pilot and test their projects are expected to be able to proceed with their initiatives on their own. However, GIL will continue to provide guidance and support to all teams. In some cases, selected teams will be connected to other mentorships and new opportunities.

In partnership with local stakeholders, GIL has also established a network of youth spaces called Innovation Labs. These facilities are hubs for Lebanese and non-Lebanese youth to discover latent skills, potential new opportunities, and network with like-minded individuals to develop their digital and entrepreneurial skills. Various workshops, trainings and events are offered at the lab facilities. The labs function as co-working and FabLab spaces as well.

The Innovation Lab Network comprises of 13 labs in different regions all over Lebanon, aiming at creating an enabling environment for youth to have access to better learning opportunities, livelihood and be more civically engaged. The labs act as a “community” rather than only a physical center that gathers beneficiaries.

GIL has recently partnered with Berytech to leverage its resources to develop the capacity of the locally managed Innovation Labs and support them to emulate in spirit and function the co-working and innovation spaces run by Berytech. The aim is to build a youth-run community in the Innovation Labs beyond the activities of GIL.

Once the young people pass through the GIL programme, online platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook are the only means UNICEF and its partners can continue to communicate to and engage with these young people. Currently these channels exists but the engagement levels are low: youth enrolled in GIL trainings are not encouraged to join these groups and if they do, their level of engagement is very low (e.g. a poll was launched once and only 11 responses came out). A high number of youth tend to leave these groups after a while.

UNICEF Lebanon and its GIL partners aim to create an active online GIL community to:

promote peer-to-peer sharing and support

share opportunities such as internships, workshops, scholarships and start-up competitions

get feedback from the young people about their GIL experience and what they’d like to see next from the programme

share interesting content about the future of work and education

The platform created should be a two-ways communication by which youth can also reach out to the GIL’s team with any inquiry, idea or feedback.

In this context, and to follow up with GIL alumni, promote peer-to-peer sharing and share opportunities and interesting content, the GIL programme aims to leverage the interactive social media platform to which youth can join and remain under the umbrella of the programme. The social media platform can be in form of a Whatsapp group and an Instagram or Facebook closed group. Currently we have a Facebook and Whatsapp groups. These groups will be used to keep youth up to date with any new announcements, opportunities, polls, success stories, workshop, general knowledge facts…

The platform created should be a two-ways communication by which youth can also reach out to the GIL’s team with any inquiry, idea, feedback…

SCOPE OF WORK

The consultant will be delivering on the following tasks:

Promote the GIL WhatsApp number and social media group among GIL youth alumni and build the community

Manage the GIL WhatsApp number by responding to queries and sharing relevant information about the programme through calls and messages. 

Gather all registrations and questions made via the GIL number and share data with relevant partners

Create and manage a WhatsApp group and an Instagram or Facebook group for GIL that will serve as a digital platform to disseminate opportunities of relevance to youth, publish content, and share information as needed.

Coordinate with the GIL partners to develop a database of the GIL participants.

Create messaging, content and creative that will appeal to and most importantly engage youth

Develop a posting schedule in coordination with GIL partners

Develop an engagement plan

Deliver a monthly report of the progress

Identify and train youth from Innovation Lab that can manage the platforms

The deliverables are three-fold and are as follows:

Online community building and youth engagement strategy: The consultant will determine engagement/communication goals, gather youth data, conduct a social audit, and develop a content plan and engagement strategy to increase audience interest and engagement through posts, graphics and videos. The strategy will include:

Platforms to be included

Outreach strategy

Types of posts

Frequency of posting

Engagement activities

This phase will include one briefing meeting with GIL team along with visits to up to 6 GIL Labs

21 days

Platform Management

Create a monthly content calendar to be shared at the beginning of each month for approval.

Manage the GIL WhatsApp number by responding to queries and sharing relevant information about the programme through calls and messages.

Community management.

Creative visuals (using GIL branding guidelines)

Share relevant announcements, opportunities, youth success stories, events…

Coordinate with partners on promoting the online community

Conduct activities (polls, quizzes…) to engage youth

-Monthly Reporting

63 days

Handover and training  

Identify youth from labs across different regions that can sustain the engagement and manage the platform.

Provide training

Handover

Final report of progress including lessons learned and future recommendations

21 days

*all communication material must be developed in Arabic

MANDATORY PROFILE REQUIRMENTS

Berytech is seeking proposals from experienced individuals/companies with preferably more than 5 years of experience in community development and social media engagement. The individual or the consulting’s firm Team Leader should have the following qualifications:

A Bachelor degree in Marketing, Communications, Community Development or any relevant field. A Master’s degree is a plus

5 years+ of proven work experience as a community manager or similar role

Ability to identify and track relevant community KPIs

Excellent English and Arabic verbal and written communication skills

Hands on experience with social media management

Knowledge of online marketing

Attention to detail, critical-thinker and problem-solver

Graphic Design skills

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

The consultant will report directly to the GIL Project Coordinator from UNICEF and secondly to the Community Building Expert from Berytech.

All reports shall be submitted electronically in English and will revised and approved for the payment to be issued.

TIMING

Duration of assignment: 5 months (105 working days).

Start date: ASAP

The selected candidate will make time to meet one week before the start date and one week after the end date to discuss the assignment with the UNICEF GIL team and the Berytech’s community building expert. These lines of communication and liaison will remain open for regular contact throughout the assignment, and staff will remain available to assist and participate in the assignment as necessary or appropriate.

EVALUATION PROCESS AND METHOD

Technical Evaluation: Candidate is encouraged to ensure they meet the requested evaluation and qualification criteria; the technical evaluation will be based on a total score of 70 points, and 49 points will be the minimum score to determine eligibility.

Completeness of response and understanding of requirements (5)

Relevant education and experience (15): Provide resume (5 points for the first 3 years, each additional year will get three points up to 15 points)

Experience working on similar projects (20): Provide two samples of previous similar work (10 points per each report provided)

Proven related experience (10): Provide letters of reference or copy of contracts (5 points per each letter of reference up to 10 points)

Proposal provided (20): Proposal meets the requirements of the TOR (especially in regard to the timeframe and deliverables)

Financial Evaluation

Only bidders obtaining the minimum pass mark in the technical evaluation (50 points) will be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial evaluation is composed of 30 points. The lowest financial offer will obtain 30 points.

ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES   

The selected candidate will organize their own transportation for field visits (should they need to take place face to face)

The selected candidate is required to provide his/her own computer and communications equipment (laptops, telephones, etc.)

Under the consultancy agreements, a month is defined as 21 working days and fees are prorated accordingly. Consultants are not paid for weekends or public holidays

The selected candidate is not entitled to payment of overtime; all remuneration must be clearly described in the contract agreement

No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both Berytech and the consultancy team