by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

Using Whats App or Similar Direct Messaging Apps
in Volunteer Support & Engagement

Tech tools come and go so fast that I hesitate to write about a specific app in regards to volunteer support and engagement - by the time I've invested the time and research into how it's being used, and learned to use it myself, the tool is already being replaced by something much more popular and very different. An added challenge is that what's popular in the USA might not be in, say, India, and vice versa, and I don't want to write just for USA audiences - but I don't always have the time to invest in learning about tools popular elsewhere, especially when I don't know if the app has staying power or is just a fad.

People in many countries often rely on only one or two text messaging services to stay in direct touch with family and friends - they don't try to use them all. As of 2019, the lay of the land looked like this: in China, WeChat, which is made by Tencent, is popular, while WhatsApp is heavily used in South America, India and "the stans." A lot of people in Eastern Europe prefer Telegram to WhatsApp because it isn't owned by Facebook. People in the USA are much more divided in their use of direct messaging - no one tool dominates the landscape.

This article in ICT Works notes:

With more than two billion users in over 180 countries, WhatsApp is an ideal means of staying in touch with others. The app, which first started as an alternative to SMS, is free and offers simple, secure, and reliable messaging and calling. HIV program implementers can use WhatsApp for virtual collaboration and to provide technical assistance to remote-based partners, staff, and clinicians.

WhatsApp is both the direct messaging and the social media tool of choice in many countries and, even though it hasn't really caught on in the USA, it's worth talking about, for three reasons:

because of its popularity with certain groups/communities,
because its features seem to be especially attractive to young people and even if it gets replaced by something else that becomes more popular, whatever replaces it is going to have similar features, and
because of how much Facebook, as a company, seems to want to emulate some of its features on the Facebook platform - and Facebook remains the most popular social media in many countries, including the USA.

What makes WhatsApp so attractive to so many users is that, currently,

it requires only a phone number when new users sign up,
it's not as busy as Facebook, which is filled with advertisements and games and push marketing, and
its functionality is completely integrated into a person's smart phone
its cheaper than phone-to-phone text messaging

These are all features many young people really love. I find the phone number integration annoying, but I am old, so there you go. By contrast, Facebook and Facebook Messenger ask users to provide their names. Matching Facebook and Instagram users to their WhatsApp handles should give pause to those who are hoping to keep their use of each app separate.

WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, and Facebook already allows a user to connect it into their Facebook page (navigate to your Facebook business page, click settings, in the left side column, click WhatsApp, choose your country code, enter your WhatsApp number and click send code - and, voila), though the stated plans are that users can keep Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp each as stand-alone apps, making it possible for WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram users to send messages to one another across platforms but without switching apps.

Facebook is launching a new function called Facebook rooms and, as of July 2020, there is some rumors that these rooms will be integrated with WhatsApp.

The point of my bringing all of this up is twofold:

to show you just how much Facebook knows how popular WhatsApp is, and wants to tap into it and
to say that I have no idea what this is all going to mean for the future of WhatsApp, but you need to be paying attention.

I don't use What's App in my work with volunteers, but I do use it with clients and colleagues and friends outside the USA; it's an easy way for them to text me and to have short video chats. And it's FREE.

But I'm seeing Whats App regularly referenced as a way to work with volunteers:

Examples

Here are examples I found in June 2020 of NGOs using WhatsApp as a part of their volunteer recruitment, support and engagement. Here are some examples I found in June 2020 on social media with just some keyword searches on Twitter:

While not a volunteer-specific example, the aforementioned ICT article offers an overview of how HIV Programs Can Use to Mitigate COVID-19 Impact and notes that:

In Jakarta, Indonesia, the lockdown limited the ability of LINKAGES staff to continue hosting physical meetings and trainings with health providers. They switched to using WhatsApp for weekly discussions. With more than 200 participants, these sessions have helped roll out facility-level responses to COVID-19, including multimonth dispensing of ART, which allows people living with HIV to visit health facilities less frequently.

So, should you use What's App?

As of July 2020, yes, I do think you should add What's App to your smart phone and experiment with it.

Note that the What's App web site provides a way you can download an application to your laptop so that you can use your laptop instead of your phone for interactions; it's a LOT easier to type messages on your laptop than a smart phone. And those conversations are cloned - if you have a conversation via your laptop, it shows up on your smart phone, and vice versa.
What's App will go through your contacts on your phone and let you know who else is on What's App. If you are in the contact list of a lot of your volunteers, they are going to see that you are on What's App and you are going to find out very quickly if they like to use What's App.
Go through the people you know who are on What's App and pick two or three you work with a lot, who are close friends, etc. Write a couple of them on What's App and say, "Hi, I'm figuring out What's App. I want to see how this works. Feel free to message me on this." If those two or three don't respond in a few days, pick two or three other people and try again.
Pick two or three volunteers you trust to have your smart phone number and let them know you are on What's App and ask if they would help you experiment with it. That means they will need to download the app as well, if they haven't already.

Start a WhatsApp group with a particular group of volunteers or staff. What about for all the volunteers doing a particular task that you need to immediately contact with breaking news, like a shift change, or a location change, or frequent reminders? I could see using this with volunteers who would be helping at a weekly farmer's market, or at a theater performance, or a summer camp. Use your group for short updates volunteers need more immediately than email.

You are going to know in two or three months if the your network of colleagues, including volunteers, or friends are using this tool, and if they find it helpful. And it will take a bit longer for you to find out if this is a tool you want to use with your volunteers. But make no mistake: this is the style of social media in the future, and you, a person that works with volunteers or young people as a part of your work at a nonprofit, NGO or charity, need to learn how it works.

Also see

Snapchat’s Potential Power for Social Good – with REAL examples
Also applicable to Tik Tok, Instagram, or whatever the short-video-platform-flavor-of-the-month is.
High Impact Virtual Volunteering
Examples of high-impact virtual volunteering projects that would require a substantial investment in time and planning, and would involve groups of volunteers, not just one.
Is group volunteering all its cracked up to be? A blog commentary by me.

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Using Whats App or Similar Direct Messaging Apps in Volunteer Support & Engagement

Examples

So, should you use What's App?

Also see

Using Whats App or Similar Direct Messaging Apps
in Volunteer Support & Engagement