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Step into Branding: A Program That Actively Contributes to the Empowerment of Organisations

In the field of adult education, communication seems to be one of the most important challenges that organisations encounter. Step into Branding aims precisely there, to support adult education organisations so that they can gain more knowledge about shaping their brand and about the ways in which they can increase their impact.

As part of the project, a short but meaningful podcast and vidcast series was produced, in which representatives of organisations spoke honestly about their experiences, revealed some of the challenges they have faced, and shared the strategies that helped them evolve. Thus, we had the opportunity to talk with Eleni Tsireli from the Innovation Center for Lifelong Learning and Kyriakos Stenos from Kyttaro.

Our conversation with Eleni Tsireli provided fresh and original ideas. Initially, Eleni, as the head of social media, made sure to point out that “for an organisation to succeed, it must have a vision, a purpose… This is the main characteristic of the branding of any organisation.” She also referred to the decisive role played by communication with a clear message, consistency and stability, as she believes that interaction with the public is of crucial importance and that “In general, we have observed and it is known in the literature that when people see people behind a brand, they connect more with it… and this creates trust, credibility and builds a better image for the organization by having a face in its videos .” Somehow, this face became Eleni through the creation of the series “Myth or Truth,” which aired every Tuesday as video reels on Instagram. She also spoke to us about the attention they pay to monitoring their impact. As she said, they systematically monitor their statistics using KPIs and participant evaluation forms. Indeed, in this way, it is immediately detected which practices work effectively for the organisation and which do not. For small organisations that are starting, Eleni's advice is clear, "It must know what its purpose is, what its vision is and why it does what it does... to clearly define who its audience is, and it does not need to start with everything... Let's start step by step."

Step into Branding also contributed to supporting small organisations through a training course, where HYP had the opportunity to get close to Kyttaro and its people, to pass on the pre-existing knowledge and the fresh ideas collected through the program. In the meeting we held, Kyriakos shared how the three-step consultation meetings of Step into Branding helped their organisation. He specifically states, “The initial need was to improve our image on social media, as we don't know how to manage social media, how to build our image and our brand”, and how it was rather difficult for them to communicate their messages and reach new members. Their participation in the program, therefore, laid the foundation for them to regroup and effectively promote their organisation on social media. More specifically, Kyriakos says, “These three meetings have helped us a lot because we have come to an agreement on what image we want to show and what content we create specifically for the target group”. They managed, for the first time, as he explained to us, to clarify who their audience is, which groups of people they are addressing, to create their personas, and thus be able to more easily create their content and, consequently, their brand. They also learned how useful it is to reflect and take stock of the practices that worked effectively and those that did not work, specifically he says, “We look much more at the statistics of the posts, to see what works, what does not work… we have said that we will choose what our image will be for a year and we will look back after a year to see if it has worked”. The Step into Branding managed to change their entire mindset, as he told us, “We had never sat down to say what the brand is and what we want to put out there… We want to make it a little deeper, so that people can connect… So our perspective on various things has changed a lot, and it helps.” Kyriakos, closing, emphasised that he unreservedly recommends the program, especially for new organisations, saying, “It helped us incredibly! It was one of the best things.”

The experiences of all participants, therefore, highlight that Step into Branding is not just a technical training program, but a tool for shaping and reshaping their identity. Above all, it empowers organisations to showcase their work in a clean, authentic and effective way.

The Step into Branding is a small-scale partnership implemented by the Foundation for Innovative Education, Hellenic Youth Participation, and the Foundation for "Values, Virtues, Integrity". The Hellenic Youth Participation is a lifelong learning and empowerment organisation, with a network that exceeds 60,000 people and actions that reach up to 500 people monthly.

Step into Branding is funded by the European Union. However, the views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) alone and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the EACEA can be held responsible for them.