The Akansha Foundation is a NGO that has taken the initiative of teaching about 4000 under-privileged students. Unfortunately their noble cause faces the biggest challenge in form of shortage of teachers. We all understand the importance and presence of teacher in the process of education. In spite of trying different techniques, Akansha Foundation was unable to source sufficient number of applications for volunteers as teachers. They finally decided to tap social media and the results were simply astounding!

On 5th September, when other students in Mumbai were celebrating Teacher’s Day; Akansha Foundation kickstarted its Social Media Campaign to make people realize the joy of teaching. Akansha Foundation targeted public places like international airport and malls and created a make shift classroom there. Armed with few benches and blackboards, volunteers of Akansha foundation converted small space at malls and airport into a mini-classroom. Students approached passers-by with a badge asking ‘will you by teacher?’ This gesture drew lot of attention and response from people. Passers-by stopped and spent 15 minutes with children teaching them varied subjects like math, history, arts, dance and photography. When these passers-by were questioned about their experience after they spent time with the children; they were exalted. Most of them admitted that they never thought they could teach.

With this social media Campaign, Akansha reached the core of the problem. It changed people’s mentality that teaching needs qualifications. Akansha Foundation’s ‘will you be my teacher?’ campaign gathered tremendous response. Thanks to tweets and retweets by Mumbaikars. A popular radio channel ‘BIG 92.5 FM’ invited listeners to conduct virtual classrooms for these students on air. Armed with support from BIG FM and Twitter, Akansha Foundation received four times the required number of applications for volunteers.

This social Media Campaign highlighted the use of simple yet effective technique to reach the masses. It once again proved the strength of Twitter in spreading the message and getting results. It also showcased the power of top influencers on social Media platforms. When a top influencer of the group tweeted about the campaign, the possibility of it being shared and retweeted increased considerably. Akansha Foundation achieved their results without spending a single rupee on classifieds and Ads. This campaign is a lesson for all marketing pundits that the most effective campaign doesn’t need to be campaign that is most expensive or most advertised. If you tap the right key, which in today’s world is social media; you will be in a position to make yourself audible.

You can catch the glimpse of this social media campaign by visiting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwIzJfgzs9Y