Born Free & TikTok
BORN FREE & TIKTOK
Born Free’s Youth Engagement Assistant, Eve Pawsey, tells us about the organisation’s new TikTok account and what it takes to create fun and engaging educational content.
Engaging with young people in the development, delivery and communication of conservation and wild animal welfare is hugely important for sustainable action and to protect wildlife into the future.
Young people have a significant stake in the future of our planet, including its environmental health and the state of the species who reside on it. However, modern living has created a disconnect between people and the natural world. By offering new ways for young people, from all backgrounds, to engage with wildlife, across all the species Born Free works to protect and more, while providing them with skills and knowledge to become change makers, we can help them achieve their potential and help create a more sustainable future.
This is why Born Free’s Education team has launched a new TikTok account, to increase opportunities for young people to learn about and build a connection with the natural world. Worldwide, 4.66 billion people are active internet users and 4.2 billion are active social media users, with TikTok being the most downloaded app globally in 2021. The raw power of the platform is hard to ignore and makes TikTok the perfect opportunity to engage with young people and use the app as an invaluable tool for education.
For those who are unsure, TikTok is a social media platform used for creating, sharing and discovering short videos. The app is used by young people as an outlet to express themselves through creative videos and share them across a community. TikTok is designed to constantly show users fresh content that will interest them, from any account on the platform, making it the perfect learning tool to explore interests and discover more about the world. The popularity of TikTok’s education content fits into the trend of micro-learning. Micro-learning is said to be 17% more efficient than traditional, longer-duration courses and distils topics into digestible, small chunks. This makes TikTok the perfect delivery vehicle for micro-learning and Born Free’s aim to increase reach amongst today’s young people.
Born Free’s new TikTok account is a fun and exciting platform for young people to learn about wildlife, conservation, welfare, and lots more, aimed at 13–18-year-olds who are passionate about wild animal welfare, compassionate conservation and protecting the planet, or anyone who may be interested in learning about wildlife and the planet. Behind the scenes of Born Free’s TikTok, I am trying to find creative ways to spread our message, educating young people in an insightful and uplifting way, and encouraging them to remain positive and hopeful. To create impactful TikTok videos, it is important to stay active on the platform, following trends and seeing what makes a video successful, as well as staying current with news and current research.
I speak regularly with Born Free teams to make the most of their expert knowledge, taking this information and slicing it up to create 30-90 second videos that are easy to digest and enjoyable to watch. In addition, I keep updated with Born Free’s global updates to highlight key areas of our work and showcase them in an educational and inspiring way, searching for great video content of wild animals and creating bespoke videos with fun facts, topical news, and actions individuals can take. As you can see, Born Free’s TikTok is the place to be to learn about wild animal welfare, compassionate conservation and how YOU can help the planet!