Communication is not just my full-time work — I live and breathe it!
Interview with Sophie Pownall, a communication and social media specialist, zillennial, feminist book lover, and a true inspiration
Sophie Pownall is a young dynamic communication and social media specialist who wears many hats. Among them are her full-time role as an Assistant Project Manager at the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, her volunteering at the Young Security Conference as Head of Programmes, and her own personal social media project called Sophie’s intersectional bookshelf.
Born on the cusp of two generations in the mid-90s, Sophie combines the best of both worlds. As a British national residing in Berlin, she has spent significant time abroad and has gained a deep understanding of how to communicate effectively with people from different cultures, generations, and political and social backgrounds.
But let’s move beyond the mere facts and meet Sophie on a personal level, where we can glean insights from her impressive experience and draw inspiration.
I didn’t choose communications, communications chose me!
What do you like most about working in communications?
Something I love most about my work is the ability to connect with diverse audiences from across the globe with traditional and non-traditional communication forms. I especially enjoy using my creativity to make memes, trending reels and infographics, as I have done for organisations such as ICAN and Centropa in a freelance capacity.
Communication is not just my full-time work — I live and breathe it!
What about Sophie’s intersectional bookshelf?
Engaging with global feminist communities is really what brings me the most joy and is why I started my Instagram book blog @instersectionalbookshelf.
Through this account, I have connected with feminists from across the globe and promoted feminist literature from underrepresented voices. The account has allowed me to trial different types of content and tones as well as paid ads. I have been impressed with the results of this account — with my largest reach being 111,000K on one reel and my following growing to 1,600 in just one year!
What are the social media platforms and types of content that work best to engage people with political topics?
This is the million-dollar question that lots of organisations are asking! Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all answer — and that is why being a communications expert is a challenging job. It all depends on the organisation’s goals and the audiences they seek to engage.
I think a big mistake many organisations make is mass posting content across all platforms.
You have to modify content for each platform and take into account the audience’s wants and needs. You also have to think about crossovers — you don’t want to bore your audience if they follow you on several platforms with the same content!
I would also recommend that if you can’t do it well… DON’T DO IT! It is better to cultivate engaged audiences on fewer platforms than be present everywhere with mediocre work and little impact.
Generally, I follow these rules:
Twitter is great to engage with academic audiences of a variety of ages with quick compact information. Perhaps supported by an infographic, image or link with more info. Threads can also do well if you can build a good story or give a unique point of analysis on a hot topic. The lifespan of a tweet is short so act fast!
Instagram is a visual platform at heart with generally a Millennial demographic — so you’ve got to use high-quality infographics, pictures or reels (which is all in on Instagram currently!). Want to reach more people? Then make content that can be shared with stories or used as a resource! Think about what value you can add to your audience. Alternatively, hop onto trends by using reels to show a day in the life, three reasons why … or make a joke about politics. Showing faces also helps! Audiences like to see who is behind the organisation.
LinkedIn is the platform that shocked me most recently. The audience is more professional and best used for recruitment but there is a capacity to reach people interested in events, fellowships or with academic articles. LinkedIn is our strongest platform at the Young Security Conference for this reason!
In the security and foreign policy field, I noticed that Facebook has died out. The CFFP shut down their account and several other big organisations don’t seem to get much engagement. However, in the Jewish heritage field, Facebook is certainly still in! Proving that one size does not fit all. The demographic here is a bit older. Longer texts can work and people love story time or ways to relate the information to themselves such as through genealogy research.
TikTok is the biggest up-and-coming platform and is mainly video based. This is great for engaging GenZ and some Millennials. Finding the sweet spot on this platform is hard since the algorithm is sensitive but if you hop onto trends, and are up for story time and creative content creation you could reach millions of people daily. ICAN’s social media, headed by Venessa Hanson, is my favourite example of this.
What are some strategies you have used to get the attention of young people on social media, particularly on platforms like TikTok and Instagram?
A lot of organisations fall into the trap of doing the bare minimum on social media, often as an afterthought or a requirement for funding/ advertisement. If they have a project, this is typically reporting content or for an event (a few posts for sign-ups).
To get the attention of young people, and in fact anyone, you have to think of the added value you can bring to your audience and what they use these platforms for.
This involves a switch of thinking — social media should be a central tool to further the goals of a project or organisation and be thought about during every step of the process.
For example, the majority of young people use TikTok and Instagram for entertainment purposes. Therefore, content asking something from them (such as to sign up for an event) is just not going to work. This is where I would suggest diversifying content by showing behind the scenes, posting interactive content with polls on stories, reels on current trends, or interviews on hot topics, etc. Once you develop an engaged audience and gain their trust, they will be more likely to return to your profile and sign up for your events or newsletter.
How do you stay on top of the latest trends and popular hashtags on TikTok and Instagram?
There are plenty of free and paid tools that can help you with all the latest trends. A lot of social media tools have them built in such as Hootsuite or SocialPilot. My new favourite too, however, is ChatGPT.
How do you ensure that your social media content remains fresh and engaging, particularly for young audiences that may have shorter attention spans?
Firstly, I would suggest to LISTEN TO YOUR DATA!
Nowadays, social media platforms provide such detailed information on reach, engagement and conversions, we can’t make excuses that we are posting in the dark. The data doesn’t lie and is there to help us learn what content is performing best and what our audience wants. If you see a dip in the data, reevaluate your strategy! On the other hand, if you see that something performs repeatedly well, then repackage it and do it again.
Secondly, I would suggest not getting too lost in being unique. The great thing about social media is that we can learn from what our competitors are doing — in the case of smaller NGOs/ think tanks this means we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We can use our competitors’ content that performs well as inspiration and presume that it will perform well too. Don’t be afraid to try out new things or go outside your comfort zone — you would be surprised how well it can perform!
What are some potential pitfalls of using TikTok or Instagram, mainly when targeting younger audiences?
Oversimplifying complex issues — due to the nature of TikTok or Instagram which are typically in a short video format. I think that the content is often so neatly packed that it misses the depth of the issue and perhaps lacks any real impact.
The challenge here is hooking audiences to continue their research on this topic, delve deeper into complex issues and change their behaviour (e.g vote differently or sign up to attend an event). To combat this, I would suggest creating an info series or reel series that break down a larger topic into several bite-size chunks.
Out-of-control comments sections — online hate and negative comments are part of the package of social media.
But if you don’t have the capacity to moderate the comment section, you risk losing credibility and creating an unsafe environment for some members of your audience. I recommend that if you can’t control your comment section (even if that is simply deleting and reporting) then you shouldn’t use that platform.
Respond to messages. Instagram in particular now has a lot of interactive functions, where your audience can directly reply to stories or contact you. Like any relationship, if this is only a one-way communication, then it is likely to die out. Consequently, if your audience reaches out to you, it is an important reply. Even if that is an emoji reaction or the link to your website, etc. This will help keep your audience engaged and make them stick around longer!
Can you walk us through your process for developing a social media strategy for the organisations that you work for? What challenges and opportunities do you face?
When I first had to develop a social media strategy, I came across this guide, which I still use today.
In summary, you have to do the following:
- Establish clear goals and metrics to measure success
- Learn about your audience
- Do intense research on your competition, your own performance and inspiration accounts
- Establish a social media content calendar and set dates to reevaluate your progress
Even after working in the field for several years, I make sure to follow these steps as working based on your presumptions means that you can miss out on ways to engage your audience!
How do you handle negative comments or reviews on social media?
In an ideal situation, I would respond to the comment, giving more clarity or answering the question, hopefully resolving the concern.
However, in several of my roles, I have come across people who not only intend to leave negative comments but also incite hate. When resources and time permit, I work through this issue with the commenter. This is unfortunately often not possible, which is a reality for a lot of small NGOs. I have witnessed this in a variety of areas of political communications and is one of the limitations of social media.
I see that this is particularly bad on TikTok and would recommend that an organisation does not use this platform unless they can manage the comments.
What is your best achievement in the field of communications and social media so far and what was important for your success?
It has been great to work for lots of notable organisations and reach 100,000 via their social media platforms — but I have to say the achievement I am most proud of is my Bookstagram @intersectionalbookshelf.
In the past, I did not always have access to the positive elements of social media as my accounts were made 10 years ago when I was still a child. However, since I started my book blog and carefully controlled who I follow, my relationship with social media has completely changed.
The space I have created is a very engaged and niche feminist audience from across the globe. My posts reach over 80,000 people every week and lead to direct action such as someone buying the book I recommend or people viewing the world differently, which is confirmed by their comments and engagement. In connection to the page, I have since started a book club, which has 20 members who regularly attend.
Additionally, I organised a 12-hour Read-A-Thon raising 650 pounds for Women for Women International and had two keynote speakers Zahra Hankir and Christina Lamb.
This page has been an experiment and has shown that if you put love and care into an account it has the potential to reach lots of people and have an impact!
Thank you, Sophie, for your valuable insights, honesty, and positive energy!
