COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Transcription

1 COMMUNICATION STRATEGY SHORT GUIDE October 2015 Powerful communication has always been about getting people to pay attention and take action. Fard Johnmer

2 Table of contents Foreword Overall goal, objectives, key message, target audience Target audience engagement Target audience table Tools and channels Table of communication channels Roles & responsibility, schedule & timing, evaluation

3 Foreword This document is meant to serve as a short guide to CCB s communication strategy published in Furthermore, it is a general guide for creating a communication strategy for individual projects and joint campaigns. The guide provides questions, tools and tips for succeeding with each step of such a plan. 3

4 Defined goal, and a clear message to the right audience Overall communication goal What do you want to say to your target audience? Long term, broad goal Can be a general goal for your organization or for a specific project The main goal of CCB is to promote the protection and improvement of the environment and natural resources of the Baltic Sea area. You may have several different communication goals for different projects, campaigns, and internal communication. Objectives How will you achieve your goal? Short term goals, more specific actions on how to achieve your goal Provide access to information and environmental education Raise public awareness Political lobbying Key communicative message What do you want to say to your target audience? The essence of the message you want your target audience to hear a simple and specific statement The messages can be slightly different depending on the audience This message should be present throughout your work/your campaign Slogans are communicative messages Target audience Who do you want to reach? Target audience has both internal and external focus and each of these groups requires different tools and methods to be successfully reached. CCB s member organizations and partners CCB s external network and allies Political stakeholders The general public 4

5 Relevance and empowerment Target audience engagement What will motivate your audience to take the actions you want? Target audience engagement means communicating with your audience in a way that will help them understand your project work and to support it enthusiastically. Strategies for engagement: Social media humanization social media is about people. Be a person. Make your organization human not a logo or facts. This is especially important on Facebook. Be more personal on Facebook, because people are generally on Facebook to see what their friends and family are up to, so be like their friends and family and put up more photos, videos, and stories. Twitter, on the other hand, can be used for shorter news type posts with facts and information. Empower members/audience to share stories as to why they support your work. This will allow you to understand your audience more and they will be more engaged in your organizations work. However, it is quite important to use these stories in some way. They could be sent out in a newsletter, made into a blog post on the website, or shared on Facebook. This way the audience feels that they have been heard. Information must be relevant, meaning it should be meaningful and personal. To do this you must connect the unfamiliar with the familiar. You can do this by using examples, analogies, contrasts, similes, and metaphors. To be personal, you should try to connect ideas to the lives of your audience. You can use selfreferencing, e.g. think of the last time you or Have you ever, and labeling, e.g. if you re the kind of person who cares about wildlife, then you or parents who worry about do this. Competitions, petitions, surveys Participatory events 5

6 Analyze audience needs before inspiring actions Target audience table Purpose: to analyze what you want the audience to do and what their needs are to meet the desired actions you want them to take. Example table from CCB s Microplastics Awareness Raising campaign Audience Current Perception Desired Perception Their Needs Desired Actions Public Not aware Informed about the problem Get information, support, trust industry and policy makers Stop using products w/ microplastics + pressure decision makers both industry and policy Media Little attention to the problem + not aware Informed about the problem Receive communicable information + motivation to create public interest Reporting on the problem Authorities/Policy Increasingly aware Urgent matter, must be addressed Feel public support + receive sound advice from e.g. NGOs Implement regulations at EUwide, national and local levels Industry Doing as little as possible + consumer demand + marginal voluntary phaseout Aware of the problem + willing to stop using microplastics Feel the consumer demand for phaseout and alternative products Phase-out all microplastics from products 6

7 Choose channels that suit the audience Tools & channels How can you reach your target audience? When focusing on a more specific, singled out message, using multiple channels and tools simultaneously will be favored. Choose the channel best suited based upon your audience and purpose. Decide whether you want your communication to be interactive, then choose your channel. Choose interactive channels if you want to gain feedback and monitor opinions. If you want people to post something to Twitter/Facebook/Instagram together with others (i.e. simultaneous social media push) it is a good idea to send out an example/s or ready-made tweets to those who you want to post to make it easier for them to participate in the push. Build up the push in incongruence with policy and decision meetings. Use the same message in different forms on different channels. 7

8 Compare different channels Table of communication channels Channel Purpose Primary Target Audience Secondary Target Audience Twitter Used for information sharing, linking to articles, mobilizing support, live streaming, following events, and keeping people updated during an event and/or receive questions from the audience. Political/ Experts General Public/Other Organizations Facebook Information sharing and keeping people updated. Can use challenges/petitions to mobilize people. Encourage followers to share or post links to smaller scale, local environmental campaigns. Tip: try to be as personal as possible e.g. put up photos, videos, and personal stories. General Public/ Partners Other Org./ Institutions/ Interest groups Mailing Lists Use different mailing lists for different groups (e.g. board, members, working areas). Can be used for more urgent messages (write URGENT in the subject field) and ask for response when needed. Do not overuse it. Can become aggressive and possibly invasive. Partners/ Board/ External Network N/A Website Used for archives, publications, news updates, contact information, more detailed information about the organization, social media feeds, calendar, and upcoming events. Partners/ External Network General Public/Other Org. Newsletters For informing members about the on-going activities of CCB and its member organization. Focused for internal communication. Partners/ External Network N/A Face-to-Face For connecting with stakeholders. More personal connection. Can be used to mobilize support and cooperation. External Network General Public/Other Org. Instagram Use in more photogenic situations e.g. during a workshop, a campaign, and to advertise activities of your organization. General Public/ Partners Other Org./ Interest Groups 8

9 Plan carefully, measure outcome, improve Roles and Responsibilities Who does what to achieve the goal? Have clear roles and responsibilities for each target group strategy. Timely and good communication to coordinate joint actions. Schedule and Timing When should each activity be completed? Make a timeline with important dates and deadlines. Make sure participants are up to date on relevant information. Evaluation What can be improved? It is important to look back at different strategies and evaluate which ones work the best and how to improve the others. Are you spending too much time on one strategy that does not give enough back? How is the target audience responding? Are you meeting their needs? Evaluations are important for continually improving performances and becoming better at communicating. Report results both internally and externally. This gives transparency to the project and allows participants feel that they have come full circle. Don t forget to celebrate achievements! "The two words information and communication are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through." - Sydney Harris 9