The Influencer Edition

Welcome to issue #48?of Changing Stories -?MAGENTA's monthly round-up of all that is interesting, inspiring and innovative from the world of Social and Behavioural Change?(SBC).

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Read, think, share, and enjoy!

Influencers can come in all shapes and sizes

When you hear the term ‘influencer’, what do you think of???

A glamorous social media personality who shares every moment of their life and the products they use with their vast follower base???

An elderly religious leader from a small rural community who connects with their followers at the local mosque??

Or perhaps an AI-powered humanoid robot with purple hair and independent learning capabilities whose pop band has taken the world by storm???

In the world of SBC, all the above can be influencers.

We use influencers in SBC programming because they offer a potent means to reach and engage with specific target audiences effectively. Influencers have built trust and credibility within their communities or niches, making them influential voices capable of driving behaviour change and promoting positive social norms.?

With over 4.2 billion active users globally, social media is a great medium for communicating with people. When we design SBC campaigns that utilise social media and online platforms, we engage influential personalities to amplify our campaign reach and impact. We work with them to co-create impactful messaging and content for reels, stories, videos, and live streams that will resonate with target audiences. We always need to take into consideration the digital divide and ensure that using online communications doesn’t exclude any groups.?

In our recent project with Creative Associates on promoting positive masculinities in Honduras, we worked with a group of young male community leaders, or ‘champions’, to co-design our digital campaign. To help guide our strategy ideation, we developed two characters, Jefferson and Paquito, and explored their demographics, their social and psychological drivers, and the influencers in their lives. Having a clear idea of the types of young men the campaign was trying to reach helped to guide the design of the content and key messaging.?

Offline influencers are just as important for SBC as their online counterparts, as they often have in person interactions with their audience or followers. In Iraq, religious leaders are the cornerstone of their local communities and are highly respected and trusted. We’ve been partnering with UNICEF to leverage their potential to influence change by developing a toolkit to engage religious leaders in disseminating key messages around public health, social justice, and civic engagement to the Iraqi public. Read more.?

Finally, other influencers bridge the divide between the online and offline worlds! Sarah Cottereau, MAGENTA’s Director of Quality Assurance, recently attended the SuperAI Conference in Singapore where she met ‘Desi’ (Desdemona), a humanoid robot and the lead singer of Desdemona’s Dream Band.?Created by SingularityNET, a decentralised AI marketplace, Desi’s mission is to change the world for the better through the power of AI in the creative arts.?

Who knows, the future of SBC may include robot influencers driving behavioural change!

Want to know more about SBC and influencers?

Understanding the Costs of SBC Social Media Interventions - Breakthrough Research

Interested in using social media as part of your SBC intervention? There are many ways to leverage the potential of social media for engaging wider audiences and amplifying key messages. Breakthrough Research have compiled?a useful research brief outlining the different components of SBC social media interventions and their associated costs.

There are three primary costs that need to be considered:?

1) costs to develop the content,

2) costs to disseminate the content, and

3) overhead costs.

As new data on the costs and cost-effectiveness of SBC interventions on social media emerge, programs can use the information for budgeting and planning, as well as for allocating scarce resources most effectively.

Read the full brief here.?

Motivating Social Influencers to Engage in Health Behaviour Interventions - Smit et al., Frontiers in Psychology

So we've established that social influencers can super charge a behaviour change campaign with their vast online audiences and popular credibility. But how can we motivate them to shift from promotors of purchase behaviour to champions?of health behaviour??

Using insights from self-determination theory, researchers from the Netherlands have looking at?how social influencers can be motivated optimally in health behaviour interventions and ultimately improve?the success of?interventions.?

Read the full paper here.?

MAGENTA Impact Corner

Last month, we held a hugely successful?event in Mexico City on the research conducted as part of our ongoing project addressing Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) in Mexico.??

The research report, "Drivers of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in Mexico: A Behavioral Research Study in Oaxaca and Mexico State”, explores the motivators of behaviours associated with TFGBV and will go on to inform our upcoming campaign strategy.?

We were joined by our?project partners?from local?grassroots organisations, Asamblea Vecinal Nos Queremos Vivas Neza and Organización Feminista Lilas who shared their insights and experiences on the topic in what was an enriching and thought-provoking discussion.?During the event, we?explored the motivations of TFGBV, strategies for its prevention, and what we can all do to create safer spaces for women both online and offline.

Read the full report in Spanish here or the research summary in English here.?

MAGENTA Resource Box

Each month we bring you inspiring, innovative, and practical resources from the world of SBC that you can apply to your own work, practice, or research.?

If there's one thing that you have in your SBC toolbox it's UNICEF's Social and Behaviour Programme Guidance. It's a one stop shop for SBC ideas, with tonnes of fantastic links for those looking to expand their SBC knowledge, delve into case studies, and find useful templates. From selecting SBC approachesto human-centred design, digital engagement to M&E in emergencies, there is literally something for everyone.?

Read more here.?

MAGENTA Academy

Enrol in MAGENTA Academy

Are you and your team?interested in learning more about SBC and how to apply its principles to your projects? The MAGENTA Academy is our training and capacity-building institute where we up-skill our partners on SBC theory and practice.?Download our brochure?to learn more.?

Take a look at what people are saying:

I am leaving the SBC in a Day course feeling thankful, and illuminated but mostly with a lot of knowledge! ?- SBC in a Day participant, Mexico

This is the first time l've been part of a comprehensive SBC training. Great that it goes through the building blocks, the theoretical concepts but also clear practical exercises that help to clarify and apply this to the real world. - UNICEF Asia Pacific Region?

SBC fun fact of the month!

Did you know??Humans make on average between 33,000 and 35,000 decisions each day. And 226 of those are about food alone!