e-advocacy: click for change

E-Advocacy: Click for ChangeThe basics of online advocacy

Eric Squair | eric@squair.ca | http://eric.squair.ca

2Eric Squair | eric@squair.ca

The basics of online advocacy

• Eric Squair

– Online campaign coordinator, Make Poverty History

– Web Manager, Greenpeace Canada

Please take a moment to write down the top three questions you want answered in this session.

Please don’t tell me what they are (yet)!

Key learnings:

1. Advocacy campaigns are a communications challenge, not a technical challenge.

Key learnings:

2. Successful campaigns allow people to become part of the change they want to see.

Key learnings:

2. Successful campaigns allow people to become part of the change they want to see.

3. The basic questions you need to answer in order to run an effective advocacy campaign.

How many people are:

1. Already running an advocacy campaign online?

2. In the planning stages for a campaign?

3. Curious to see if this is something that might be right for them in the future?

Eric Squair | eric@squair.ca

Advocacynoun: the action of advocating, pleading for, or supporting a cause or proposal.

Campaignnoun: An operation or series of operations energetically pursued to accomplish a purpose.

Why run an advocacy campaign?

Why are you interested in running an advocacy campaign?

Why run an advocacy campaign?

Advocacy campaigns are about change.

Good news:

Online campaigning is a communications challenge,

not a technological challenge.

Bad news:

Online campaigning is a communications challenge,

not a technological challenge.

All advocacy campaigns - whether online or offline - have a few basic communications challenges.

You are striving for a simple story, well told.

It’s a story about a serious problem that exists.

It’s also about a set of solutions that the listener can bring about.

If they join you in the campaign.

Key to all effective advocacy campaigns:

You must tell a story about how taking the action you are requesting of your audience will bring about the change they want to see.

Advocacy campaigns work best in the presence of a high information/enthusiasm ratio.

Crisistunity: a bad situation that people can get involved in solving.

Clear, compelling explanation of the problem (crisis) and an offer of an opportunity to get involved in solving it.

Have you ever heard the term

‘Preaching to the choir’?

It means you are aiming your message at the people who show up every time and already agree with everything you say.

You need to move beyond that dynamic and start to ARM the choir!

Arm the choir:

Give your supporters a simple message, and the tools to spread it. Let them evangelize for you.

Arming the choir is much easier with simple, powerful graphics.

Arm the choir:

- Downloadable banners and buttons

- ‘Email this page’ links

- Things to share on social networking sites

- Simple graphics to share

Arm the choir:

A crisistunity is a bad situation where supporters can help bring about a change they want to see by getting involved.

Your role is to supply the opportunity to get involved.

Online advocacy is only the first step in moving people who care about an issue up a ‘ladder of engagement’.

This leads to supporters taking more (and more meaningful) actions to bring about the change they want to see.

Online advocacy is only the first step in moving people who care about an issue up a ‘ladder of engagement’.

This leads to supporters taking more (and more meaningful) actions to bring about the change the want to see.

savetheinternet.com

Who has had one of their top questions answered so far?

What was the question, and what did you learn?

Ready to begin an online advocacy campaign?

Here’s what you need to ask:

1. What do I want to say? (Your message)

2. What do I have to offer? (An effective web presence)

3. How am I going to keep the conversation going?

(Your list*)

1. Your message:

There is a serious problem that the audience can help solve by getting involved in specific ways.

1. Your message:

There is a serious problem that the audience can help solve by getting involved in specific ways.

What is the problem?

What is the solution?

What's the opportunity for change, and what does it look like? How likely is it to happen?

Who are the people you want to reach?

What do they know or care about the issue?

Why is your organization the one to take this on?

1. Your message: There is a serious problem that you can help solve by getting involved in this very specific way.

“Even if you have reams of evidence on your side, remember: numbers numb, jargon jars, and nobody ever marched on Washington because of a pie chart.

If you want to connect with your audience, tell them a story.”

- Andy Goodman

2. An effective web presence.

Is based on a clear understanding of what value you offer your visitors.

Tone is conversational, not slang or too personal, but written by a person, for a person.

Make sure you ‘Arm the Choir’ with lots of ways to spread your message.

3. A means of continuing the conversation (a ‘list’).

There’s a saying in politics: ‘The best list wins’.

There’s a saying in politics: ‘Best list wins’.

Whoever engages most successfully with the people who support their cause will win.

Whether it’s e-mail, Facebook or Twitter, the basics of keeping your list engaged are the same:

- Cultivate deep respect for your audience: don’t send them junk!

- Come up with a simple editorial process, start a ‘list’, make it easy to sign up.

- Keep them engaged with meaningful ways to help bring about the change they want to see.

Some resources:

For your messaging:

- Andy Goodman: www.agoodmanonline.com

- ‘Made to Stick’ Chip and Dan Heath, 2007

www.madetostick.com/resources

- ‘How to Win Campaigns - 100 Steps to Success’

Chris Rose, Earthscan. www.campaignstrategy.org

Some resources:

For an effective web presence:

- “Don’t make me think” Steve Krug,

- Free Range Studios resources:

www.freerangestudios.com/resources/

Some resources:

For list building and engagement:

- Beth Kanter’s blog: How non profits can use social media: http://beth.typepad.com/

- www.digiactive.org ‘A world of digital activists’

What was it?

What did you learn?

Questions? Comments? Complaints? eric@squair.ca

Notes from today? http://eric.squair.ca

e-advocacy: click for change

effective advocacy campaigns

online campaigning

address http

campaign noun

simple story

technical challenge

successful campaigns

technological challenge

Technology

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