How can passive activists in the “selfie” age be converted into online and offline evangelists for your cause?
From an organizational perspective, messaging a community and facilitating communication can be a difficult task. But it’s not impossible.
Here are seven messaging tips to help make that happen.
Be Controversial- Taking a front-facing charge on an issue can be controversial, especially if you’re pivoting against another organization, coalition or interest group. Pitting your position against their position on social media poses the risk of a counter-response. But a well-timed and properly developed contrast can ultimately hook supporters to join the wave.
Be Eye-Catching– Graphics and video is essential. If you’re messaging to Congressional staff or your organization’s advocates having some form of visual content is essential. Not only is it useful in getting more reads and action, it can be repurposed across channels and reposted during the most opportune periods of time. Text alone, even in short form, is not going to suffice.
Humanize Everything– Politics, ultimately, is about people. Issues, legislation, and regulations affect real people. Social media provides a perfect vehicle to humanize the issues, even mundane ones, because it can showcase the real people at stake.
Get Emotional– In the same vein as humanizing, advocacy communications should connote some type of emotion: Fear of the alternative, being a part of a movement, genuine desire to solve a world problem, anger at having to dole out more hard-earned cash, etc. Tapping into those emotions are what gets people to respond to your call to action. Just be careful to stay within ethical frameworks and organizational integrity.
Be Timely– Content should have a frame of reference outside the scope of issues. Is it Thanksgiving? The SuperBowl? A solar eclipse? Messaged with a theme, content can capture and captivate an audience, especially when it’s connecting with what’s going on in the rest of the world. This can be especially useful for organizations that don’t have easily messaged issues or strong imagery.
Be Relatable-Having content that is relatable goes hand in hand with being timely. Social media content should relate to your advocates and potential ones. Making simple connections between everyday tasks or commonly known objects is another opportunity for quality content that spurs action. For example, running a campaign during Back to School season with education imagery and icons might be an option for your organization.
Start Interacting– Getting people to interact and share opinions can shift the approach to a direct conversation. Graphics, games, and social tasks with incentives are tools that can mobilize people to take a stand. Look at trends in social media and corporate brand marketing that can be applied to advocacy content. Some interactive content can even manipulate social media algorithms favorably to get more eyes in front of that content.
