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Thank you for a successful International Development Week 2010!

Posted February 23, 2010 - 3:14pm by Nicole
International Development Week (IDW) took place from February 6 to 13, 2010. This year, BCCIC profiled eight youth, ages 15-26, from around British Columbia who are acting as global citizens in their communities. The youth were profiled on our webpage and each youth had an article, podcast and YouTube video produced which outlined their achievements.
 
While IDW only took place for the one week in February, BCCIC launched our campaign on January 27 to correspond with the launch of our new website.

BCCIC would like to share the success of our campaign with our members and friends:

Website
Prior to the launch on January 27, BCCIC received an average of 48 visits per a day on our website since March of 2009.
 
From the period January 27 to February 14, BCCIC received 2,707 visits to our webpage, an average of 142.47 visits per a day.
 
Of the 2,707 visits to our website, 2,481 of these visits came from 164 cities across Canada. The majority of the website visitors came from British Columbia and the cities with the largest number of visitors included Vancouver and West Vancouver, Victoria, Courtenay, Surrey, New Westminster, Nanaimo, Kelowna, Richmond, Cloverdale, Kamloops, Abbotsford and Prince George.
 
Videos
During the period of our campaign, our videos on YouTube of the eight youth were viewed 808 times. The YouTube videos were available on BCCIC’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/TheBCCIC), embedded on the pages for the youth on the BCCIC website (www.bccic.ca) and linked to BCCIC’s social media sites (Facebook and Twitter).
 
Podcasts
During the period of our campaign, BCCIC’s podcasts were downloaded 1640 times – an average of 86.3 downloads per a day. The podcasts were available on BCCIC’s My Podcast World (http://www.mypodcastworld.com/podcasts/bccic), embedded on the pages for the youth on BCCIC’s website (www.bccic.ca), available on iTunes podcasts, and linked to BCCIC’s social media sites.
 
Social Media
As part of the International Development Week campaign, BCCIC had the opportunity to develop our online social media pages. These include a Facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/BCCIC) and a Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/bccic).
 
Facebook
Prior to the campaign, the BCCIC fan page had 168 fans. At February 14, BCCIC’s fan page had increased to 248.
 
Twitter
Prior to the campaign, the BCCIC Twitter feed had 40 followers. As February 14, BCCIC’s Twitter feed had 334 followers.
 
Print Media Reach
Half page, colour ads were placed in five newspapers across the province, including two student newspapers. Two online banner ads and a Facebook ad were placed for a two week period before and during International Development Week.
 
Print Ads
Total readership of print advertising = 393,906 readers
The Georgia Straight has a reach of 314,000 readers.
The Prince George Free Press has a distribution of 29,018 subscribers.
The Comox Valley Record has a distribution of 21,888 subscribers.
The University of Victoria Student Newspaper has a distribution of 25,000 copies.
The Thompson Rivers University Student Newspaper has a distribution of 4000 copies.
 
Online Ads
Total impressions of on-line ads = 3,732,020
The Tyee – Impressions – 50,000 impressions over a 2 week period. In addition, the Tyee provided a large banner ad in the online newsletter that is sent to 17,000 readers
Georgia Straight Online had 25,000 impressions over a 2 week period.
Facebook Ads – 3,657,020 impressions and 1,000 clicks to connect to the BCCIC website.
 
Attendance at BCCIC Sponsored IDW Public Events
Total in-person participation in various events = 450 people
 
February 29, 2010 - BCCIC sponsored the appearance of the Director of “Sweet Crude”, a documentary film the situation surrounding oil extraction in Nigeria at Co-Development Canada’s World Community Film Festival. This event generated 200 viewers and participants in the public discussion with the Director after the screening.
 
February 3, 2010 – BCCIC coordinated a panel discussion at the University of the Fraser Valley in collaboration with CIDA, Western Office as an adjunct to the Afghanistan 360 display taking place in Abbotsford. The panel was entitled “Development Lessons from Conflict and Post-Conflict Zones: Building a Country in the Midst of Crisis”, and 90 people attended this event. Following the panel discussion, a “Global Café” style exhibition took place, bringing 9 exhibitors with experience in conflict zones into a room to give short presentations about their lessons and work. Approximately 50 people participated in this aspect of the day.
 
February 5, 2010 - BCCIC coordinated a youth component for the World Community Film Festival in the Comox Valley, which saw 110 high school youth bused in to a special screening of the film “Garbage Dreams” and the BCCIC YouTube videos of our IDW youth role models.
 

Overall, BCCIC was very happy with the direct and indirect outcomes and impacts of the IDW 2010 campaign. Long term impacts for BCCIC include a much greater internal capacity to use social media tools and a very strong increase in the numbers of people who are now “following” BCCIC’s work on our website, Facebook and Twitter. This newly generated “on-line community” should see increased reach and impact for all of BCCIC’s work and an ability to engage youth in the work of international development in British Columbia, thus deepening the scope of our outreach.

We are excited with the possibilities of online social media. As part of this, we are planning a Social Media Training Day for our members. For more information, please contact Nicole at info@bccic.ca.