A leading children’s charity has won a prestigious industry award for the innovative way it uses social media to generate income.
East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) scooped the Third Sector Award during a ceremony at The Brewery, in London.
It prevailed in the ‘best use of social media’ category for its highly-acclaimed ‘Style with EACH’ initiative.
The vibrant brand is an online boutique carrying the strapline ‘fashion that doesn’t cost the earth’, referring to fashion that is cost-effective and promotes recycling.
EACH created new standalone Style with EACH brand accounts on Instagram and TikTok and, collaborating with social media influencers, has seen its followers rocket by 68%, its store views increase by 63% and sales shoot up by 50%.
Over the last six months its Instagram channel has seen a massive 173% increase in followers and Reels reach increase by 135%.
Lois Livoti, EACH Social Media and Digital Communications Coordinator, attended the ceremony and received the award along with Style with EACH Manager Yasmin Bata.
Lois said: “Style with EACH was initially set up to support our retail operation during the pandemic, but has now continued to build an additional revenue stream.
“Social media has been key to the success and allowed us to communicate with, and attract, supporters of a different demographic to our usual customer base.
“Rather than using our existing social media platforms and profiles, we created new standalone Style with EACH accounts on Instagram and TikTok.
“What we’ve achieved is incredibly innovative and a type of content few charities have ventured into.
“Our new channels have been used to promote high-quality, high-value items listed on our boutique, along with using it to engage with our audience by filming fun and light-hearted Reels and TikTok trends.
“It’s kept our content fresh and current, gained thousands upon thousands of views and resulted in vastly growing levels of engagement.”
EACH, which supports families and cares for children and young people with life-threatening conditions, lost £100,000 of income per week when its 44 shops were forced to close because of Covid.
It resulted in a large amount of donated stock to sell, without being able to access its target audience.
“In addition to using our already successful eBay store, we identified a gap in the market for a younger online audience,” added Yasmin.
“These are people with a high demand for vintage fashion and the passion to reduce environmental impact, especially around fast fashion.
“They’re looking for alternative ways to purchase and our challenge was finding the best way to communicate with them effectively.
“Since then, we’ve started reaching a new, younger audience – our donors of the future – and created a successful, sustainable income stream.
“We’ll be expanding to high-end fashion, including children’s clothing, and on other specialised selling platforms – a very different, positive venture born out of the adversity of the pandemic.”
The Third Sector Awards were held on Friday, 30th September.
They are an opportunity for voluntary organisations of all sizes, and the people who work for them, to celebrate their work and the difference they make to society.
To find out more about Style with EACH, click here or head to its Instagram and TikTok accounts.
Image credit EACH