Hello all, we have chosen Breast Feeding Friends as our organization for this COMM346 project. Through this blog post, we will bring you through the views towards public breastfeeding, an organization which is involved in the advocation of public breastfeeding, their goals, and the difficulties, our group’s plans to help the organization overcome the hurdles and achieve their targets. Thus, without further ado, let us present to you: BFFsg.

Who are Breast Feeding Friends?

Breast Feeding Friends (BFF) is a non-profit organization who wishes to educate the public about breastfeeding and eventually cultivate a new generation of open-mindedness. BFF believes that breastfeeding is a beautiful and natural act, and should not be subjected to stigmatization in the society as well as the corporate world. Thus, they have collaborated with cafés in Singapore who have pledged to welcome breastfeeding moms in their venues and to raise awareness among their own customers.

Why did we choose BFF?

What BFF believes in inspires us greatly and we too, feel that breastfeeding mothers should not be criticized or feel ashamed for doing something that is natural and intrinsic in humans: to feed their babies. It is a noble cause that should be widely supported yet, in reality, awareness among the Singaporean society is not very extensive. If such a meaningful campaign were to succeed, it brings greater hope for others who are stigmatized against in Singapore, because inclusiveness can be inculcated in our society.

Furthermore, our group strongly recommends more aggressive social media strategies for raising awareness of this cause, as social media can give the organization a greater push towards its goals.

Who are the target audiences?

First and foremost, the most pertinent audience for BFF would be the public and customers of the cafes whom BFF collaborates with. This is because the main goal of BFF is to achieve an inclusive society where there is no stigma against mothers who breastfeed in public. Thus, we should strive to eliminate the biases in Singaporeans before we can move towards a more comfortable environment for breastfeeding mothers.

Secondly, we will appeal to the breastfeeding mothers in Singapore. It is necessary to assure mothers that it is safe to breastfeed in public and will no longer be subjected to scrutiny if they were to do so because we now have cafes who welcome such mothers with open arms.

Evaluating BFF’s Current Social Media Strategy

Conducting an analysis of BFF’s social networks and campaigns, we have found that their outreach is below satisfactory. A BFF Facebook page and a blog are their only active social media platforms. While Facebook videos of public figures speaking about the cause and experiences of breastfeeding mothers have been shared, they have not been very extensive in their outreach, barely garnering a few likes and shares. Currently, they have only 2,154 people following this page.

Recently, they have also used an Instagram hashtag: #BFFsg to encourage their audience to share about experiences as a breastfeeding mother or stories they have heard of. Ironically, the organization does not have an official Instagram account and this would run counter to the strategy of using an Instagram hashtag. We have also noticed that many others have used the hashtag #BFFsg irrelevant to the cause, and this might be due to the hashtag not being unique and could be interpreted differently, such as “Best Friends Forever SG(Singapore)”.

The BFF blog is also infrequently updated, the latest post being on the 28^th March 2016. While the blog is meant for nursing mothers to gain tips for nursing/pumping in public as well as for mothers to contribute their own input as well, the purpose has not been very well achieved. This is perhaps due to a lack in the number of mothers who possess knowledge of such a blog in combination with the organization itself inadequately and inconsistently prompting their audience to voice out.

The Main Message We Wish to Promote in Our Strategy

The group will thus propose the main message of our social media strategy which we believe will greatly help BFF achieve their goals using social media.

#1: YES, it is legal in Singapore for mothers to breastfeed in public.

#2: Many F&B outlets have pledged with BFF to welcome breastfeeding moms into their branches.

#3: No one should feel ashamed about public breastfeeding, for it is a beautiful act of nature.

How are we going to gather data on our target audiences?

• Conduct a sample size survey on the target audience – consumers of cafes, restaurants etc.
• Gather information from research papers and previously conducted surveys
• Conduct small focus group meetings to get a general sense of what they know and think of breastfeeding in public

What platforms do we plan to use?

Looking at the organization’s goals which include: Moving towards an inclusive society, creating a network of support and listening to the community. We have tailored our project goals precisely to these three goals. To move towards an inclusive society, we aim to create and expand awareness for BFF’s cause. Creating a network of support would require us to extend BFF’s network of pledged outlets and to move beyond F&B outlets if possible. As for our last project goal, we recommend that BFF engage more intensively in gathering views and feedback from the community. The diagram below further illustrates this connection.

We have selected Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Whatsapp as our chosen social media platform to help achieve these goals. While some of these may be tailored to a specific goal, they are not mutually exclusive and a comprehensive use of all these platforms will bring us closer to the overarching objective of raising awareness.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we hope that we can inspire and educate more Singaporeans about public breastfeeding and come together to provide a better environment for breastfeeding mothers, no matter how small the effort. Therefore, for BFF, a social media strategy would be imperative in achieving their goals.