It is essential to increase the presence and visibility of the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive created by The South Asian Legacy Project. This communication plan outlines a strategy using a mix of owned and shared media channels. The campaign aims to connect with members of the South Asian Canadian community and anyone else interested in Canadian multicultural history. The focus is to create content with meaningful engagement.
Audience:
The primary audience for the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive is the members of the South Asian Canadian community, especially those who are interested in history and community significance. The archive preserves their cultural heritage and makes it a part of Canadian history. It will provide the South Asian community in Canada with a sense of belonging. The secondary audience is the general public interested in Canadian history and multiculturalism.
Research:
The organization will research how similar historical projects and cultural initiatives are promoted online. According to the Guidelines for The Promotion of Digital Collections by CARLI, Social media is a powerful tool for promoting digital collections. The second thing to do is identify high-traffic keywords related to South Asian Canadian history, multiculturalism, digital archives, and Canadian history. The organization will also understand the online behaviours of potential users, such as social media preferences, websites frequently visited, etc.
The organization will use the existing website for the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive in collaboration with social media venues like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. The article “2024 Tiktok Algorithm Explained + Tips to Go Viral” by Stacey McLachlan tells one how to use the algorithm of these social media platforms to our advantage. Using apps like Instagram and TikTok can help reach our audience cheaply and effectively, allowing us to get a more significant, unexpected audience. By using the appropriate hashtags on all three platforms, the organization will link the website that directs to the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive.
We will be using social media as a way to generate more clicks to the actual website.
Spokesperson:
Dr. Satwinder Kaur Bains will be the organization’s spokesperson. She is the Director of the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of Fraser Valley and the leader of the South Asian Canadian Legacy project. She is one of the faces of the organization and holds a tremendous amount of information on the history of South Asian Canadians. Dr. Satwinder Kaur Bains immigrated to Canada at a young age. She accurately represents and connects to the initiative deeply since she knows the feeling of being left out and not accurately represented. She is an individual who can confidently speak on the importance of sharing and preserving South Asian Canadian stories.
Content:
The campaign is designed to showcase the impact and significance South Asian Canadian communities had on Canada and to make sure their legacy continues to future generations. This campaign will include a press release followed by some blog posts on the already-established website for the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive. The posts will highlight specific artifacts from the archive and tell the story behind them.
On social media, it will include an Instagram and Facebook series post of images and videos with captions that include quotes from the archive items. To celebrate specific days of significance in South Asian Canadian history on Instagram and Facebook, designated posts will be made using the caption “This Day in South Asian Canadian History,” which will include an image and a further elaboration of what happened that day. The team will also create story posts on Instagram and Facebook, where users can contribute their family histories, and then the team at the South Asian Legacy Project will select posts to share. The audience can have a QA section with Dr. Satwinder Kaur Bains, which can also be done on Instagram or Facebook stories.
For TikTok and Instagram Reels, we will clip relevant sections of the film “Unarchived” by NFB and share them on social media. This will use the already-owned press to our advantage and turn it into shared and earned media. Creating short clips of 15 seconds and using relevant hashtags will help us reach a bigger audience. We will also use ads for these reels and TikToks to reach our specific demographic and areas.
Calendar:
2 to 3 weeks before the launch of the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive initiative will include a pre-launch where the team will post teasers on social media. The team will also be approaching relevant media outlets with early information. The press release will be distributed during launch week, and the team will post blog posts on the website. This will be on Monday since it is the start of the week so that it can be news for the whole week. Since this initiative aims to share and preserve South Asian Canadian history for the future generation of Canadians, there will be an ongoing schedule for social media posting. The social media campaign will run indefinitely, with the posts scheduled every Tuesday on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook at 9:00 am PST. My analytics of Instagram has chosen the date and time, and the schedule can be subject to change over time if the team analyzes a different date or time that engages more users.
Conclusion:
This blog and social media posts series will build awareness and excitement for this new digital archive. Ongoing engagement and collaboration will ensure the archive becomes a dynamic, long-term resource.