Rooted in Hull is a social enterprise which promotes a uniquie, warm and safe environment for those looking to connect with other people. An urban farm located in Hull city centre which strives to bring the community together through the power of food, with the use of food projects, workshops and events. Aimed at those who struggle with social isolation and feel like they have no means to connect with other people, and to help those who struggle financially to feed themselves. This is enabled by the pay it forward scheme which is provided by other community members.
The target audience is the local people of Hull, it is open to anyone who feels like the want to connect with other people. This includes those who are struggling with their mental health, feeling socially isolated, particularly after the struggles of the global pandemic. As well as giving prisoners the opportunity to get involved in community projects by working with parole schemes. It gives everyone a chance to improve their mental wellbeing by coming together to enjoy group activities and give them that feeling of community. It also has a social health aspect to aid in providing meals to anyone who is struggling. As well as an environmental aspect through their urban farming projects which educate people about sustainability and composting.
This is mainly funded by government and charity organisations such as the National Lottery, Comic Relief and The Rank Organisation. However, this is also funded by the people through donations at their events and online. One of the urban farm projects they engage in is beekeeping which gives them the opportunity to create their own honey which is then sold in various local events. The staffing of the events is mainly through volunteers, including the entertainment such as musicians and entertainers.
Due to their funding being generated by the people themselves, it makes it incredibly important to reach out through social media platforms to get people engaged with their projects. They currently have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn but they do not seem to take advantage of all the opportunities these platforms provide to engage people in their cause. The Facebook and Twitter pages come across as outdated and one-dimensional, their Instagram doesn’t use their logo as their profile image which breaks the consistency of the other pages and harms brand recognition.
One social media platform they are currently missing is TikTok which is primarily used by the younger generation. They are missing out on a huge audience that could result in more funding, volunteers and engagements with their events. With the use of their musicians and artists that take part in the events, they already have a good base to start creating the short form content required. One idea would be getting involved in current trends on social media such as dance routines which require a large audience to sync together and create a video. This would give them extra entertainment for their own events, having a type of dance class for a large group, while also creating more exposure for them online and reaching a younger audience.
They need to keep the consistency in using their logo as much as possible through all activities and merchandise they are involved in. The honey made through their beekeeping does not contain their logo at all, this is a missed opportunity to further advertise their group. More merchandise being created such as t-shirts, hats and cups could help bring in funds and raise more awareness. They could try to work with local printing businesses for this to co-promote while furthering their own cause.
Creating a donation button on their social platforms which will allow people to skip their website and directly help their cause would be a good idea. Having links within their posts on the platforms which will take people back to their website and directly to the donation page would be hugely helpful. Getting people engaged with posts and immediately showing them how they can help would be the most effective way to progress their project. Asking people to join a newsletter, updating them on the organisation activities on a weekly basis would be a great way to keep the organisation relevant.
Another idea would be to create a competition around making dishes with the honey they produce. This could be shared on all social media platforms using shared hashtags such as #HullHoney, with some type of prize sourced from their community. This would bring out people’s competitiveness and get them posting on to Rooted in Hulls platforms which would indirectly bring more people into the cause. Having different types of activities like this will make their platforms enticing to people and create more foot-traffic for the website.
A key feature of the website could be around people sharing their stories on how the organisation has helped them. These testimonials would go to helping people empathise and understand the importance of the group. Using elements such as a floating donation button that would stick with the page wherever the user is scrolling to keep it on the viewer’s mind. Keeping consistency throughout the design layout on the website with keeping the boarders around the text and cropping of images the same. Also splitting the sections where two images are placed above the text so that one image is next to one paragraph of text and then the next is below it but with a flipped layout to match the homepage, this breaks up the wall of text and makes it more digestible.
Having a carousel option rather than static pictures for the home screen would make it come across as modern and more dynamic. The subtle animations on the images and text as they are fading into the page also look nice and I would like to implement more of this to make it more visually appealing. The green, orange and yellow colour schemes work well to promote the message of the organisation, representing themes of nature, warmth, joy and happiness. I would keep using this colour scheme; however, I would change the ‘more’ buttons to a yellow background to separate them from the donation button, I want to keep this distinct and unique as to be the focal point of the page. Also having an accessibility menu available could be a good opportunity to make the website more diverse.
Referencing –
Rooted in Hull (2024) We Grow People and Food.
https://rootedinhull.org.uk/ [Accessed 04/11/2024].
Rooted in Hull Beekeeping (2024) Beekeeping In Hull City Centre, Jar of Urban Honey [Photograph].
https://rootedinhull.org.uk/urban-farm-projects/beehive/ [Accessed 04/11/2024].
clothingartstudio (2024) Regular fit Short sleeve T-shirt Template [Photograph].
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