Transcript All Strategy Attributes

Goals
Goals
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Goals
The first step in any strategic communication effort is clearly
defining your objective. Think of it as a destination, a specific
spot on the map.
 A goal statement should be simple and unambiguous.
 Your goal should also be realistic and aligned with your available capacity,
resources and time.
 Think about the ultimate social change you are seeking and the ways that
your communication activities will complement the programmatic work
required to get you there.
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Goals
1
Rank of "build communication capacity of
nonprofits" as a goal of communication.
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Goals
2
Rank of "build public will" as a goal of
communication.
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Goals
3
Rank of "influence policy and practice" as a
goal of communication.
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Goals
“
“In this day and age, often
communication is the work.”
EXECUTIVE LEADER
Private Foundation
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Goals
“
“Without communication we cannot advance our
public policy objectives or raise the dollars we need.
Communication is central to our strategy. It is a
programmatic lever that we use early and often.”
BOARD MEMBER
Nonprofit
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Goals
“
“I’ve seen people who embrace communication but
don't really get it. They want to make a snazzy video
but haven't really thought it through. Why?
What is the purpose? Who is the audience?”
PROGRAM LEADER
Private Foundation
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Goals
How are your goals aligned
with the social change
you are seeking?
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Goals
How do you communicate
your goals internally?
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Goals
How do you measure
your goals?
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Audiences
Audiences
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Audiences
Define your target audiences before you select the best
way to reach them. Focus on those best positioned to directly
determine the success or failure of your goal.
 It is imperative that you clearly identify, as narrowly as possible, the people
you need to reach and influence with your communication.
 It is important to remember that policy change is determined not by
faceless, governmental cyborgs, but by living, breathing humans.
 Be careful to avoid the pitfall of stratifying your audiences into imprecise
subsets like “voters” and “electeds.”
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Audiences
50/50
Roughly the split between time spent on
internal and external communication.
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Audiences
9%
Average percentage of communication time
spent communicating with policymakers.
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Audiences
22%
Average percentage of communication time
spent communicating with grantees.
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Audiences
““By communicating what the foundation is supporting
to our key audiences, such as policy makers and
potential partners, we can amplify our impact in
achieving our mission-driven goals.”
EXECUTIVE LEADER
Private Foundation
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Audiences
““If our efforts aren't heard by the right people, it’s just
as if a tree fell in the forest. Without communication
our work is like that tree. No will care.”
COMMUNICATION LEADER
Private Foundation
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Audiences
“
“Communication is essential. The best
evidence is of little value if it doesn’t get to the
people who need it, when they want it,
in a form that's understandable to them.”
EVALUATION LEADER
Nonprofit
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Audiences
Can you clearly define
your audiences?
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Audiences
How do you segment
your audiences?
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Audiences
Who is your internal
versus your external
audience?
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Point of View
Point of
View
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Point of View
Every successful communication effort has an inherent point of
view. Think of point of view as the tone, voice, style or
personality for your communication.
 Point of view can be carefully designed and cultivated, or an organic
outgrowth of your organizational style.
 Whatever your circumstance, the key to success is acting authentically.
That means communicating with a point of view that is believable,
appropriate and aligned with your organizational values.
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Point of View
20%
The percentage of annual expenditures
that most nonprofits can spend on
lobbying.
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Point of View
17M
The number of Ice Bucket Challenge videos
that were shared to Facebook. The videos
were viewed more than 10 billion times by
440 million people.
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Point of View
74%
Percentage of participants in a 47-country
survey who said that seeing the film An
Inconvenient Truth caused them to change
some of their daily habits.
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Point of View
“
“Foundations should be as loud as possible about
issues, grantees, and grantmaking approaches that
move the work forward. I think foundations should be
extremely mouthy in an “it's not about us” kind of way”
COMMUNICATION LEADER
Private Foundation
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Point of View
“
“I have frequently heard advocates ask us to put our
name on something, because policymakers find it
easier to hear it from us.”
COMMUNICATION LEADER
Private Foundation
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Point of View
“ “One of the things we have been thinking a lot about
lately is our voice. It's tricky trying to strike the right
balance between authentic, strategic, approachable,
and visionary.”
PROGRAM LEADER
Private Foundation
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Point of View
What “voice” do
you use for your
communications?
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Point of View
Is your point of view
cultivated or is it organic?
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Point of View
How is your message shaped
by your
point of view?
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Messages
Messages
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Messages
Successful messaging requires clarity and consistency. Good
messages also must align with the interests and concerns most
important to your audience.
 The best messages are those that align with an audience’s value system.
They are simple, factual, and provocative.
 Identify the values that sit at the core of the change you are seeking and
zero in on them as crisply and succinctly as possible.
 Give careful consideration to the visual design of your messages and the
pictures you use to tell your story.
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Messages
20
Number of times people need to hear a
campaign message before it sinks in.
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Messages
45
Or above. The recommended Flesch
score for better readability.
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Messages
5.4M
Total number of foundation followers on
Twitter (January 2013)
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Messages
4.4M
Total number of Facebook likes for
foundations (January 2013)
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Messages
““We communicate to reach policy makers. We can have
the best programs and policies in the world, but unless
we translate them into language that reaches policy
makers and the public, we won’t be effective.”
EXECUTIVE LEADER
Nonprofit
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Messages
“
“When you say things in a clear, exciting, engaging
way, people listen to what you have to say. If we want
people to respond to our mission, we need to
communicate that mission clearly.”
COMMUNICATION LEADER
Nonprofit
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Messages
““So many of the issues we work on are stuck because of
the dominant narrative, and that doesn't change just
by doing program work that gets results. To leverage
those results to create new narratives takes
strategic communication.”
COMMUNICATION LEADER
Private Foundation
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Messages
How do you tie your
messages to your values?
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Messages
What are examples
of successful messages
you have used?
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Messages
What kind of visual
messages do you use?
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Messengers
Messengers
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Messengers
Choosing the right messenger is a critical step in every strategic
communication effort. Without the right person delivering it,
your message is just a nice set of words.
 Cognitive science has demonstrated time and time again that what is being
said can matter far less than who is saying it.
 The key is to be intentional about choosing messengers who are viewed
with trust, respect and the appropriate level of authority on your issue.
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Messengers
50,000
Videos created and uploaded to the It Gets
Better Project.
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Messengers
$112M
Raised by the ALS Association in the Ice
Bucket Challenge (as of September 2014).
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Messengers
71%
Percentage of foundations using social media
who have not developed a formal social
media strategy.
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Messengers
“
“Though the foundation speaks to what
we're learning, we never wanted to be a
soloist. Instead, we find ways to make
sure that others can effectively "join the
choir" and use what we learn.”
PROGRAM LEADER
Private Foundation
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Messengers
“
“We only achieve our goals through the efforts of
others. We need to communicate so that our goals
and objectives are shared by others. If we can
enlist others into our perspective, we have more of
us working toward our goals.”
EXECUTIVE LEADER
Private Foundation
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Messengers
“ “We are working on integrating communications into
the grant cycle with communication capacity provided
to our grantees. Their reporting helps provide more
stories, media outreach, and impactful outcomes for
our internal and external communication efforts.”
COMMUNICATION LEADER
Private Foundation
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Messengers
Who are the right
messengers for your
organization?
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Messengers
What is your
social media
strategy?
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Messengers
Have your messengers
changed over time?
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Channels
Channels
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Channels
Your likelihood for success increases when you chose the right
channel to deliver your message. Consider how you want your
audience to receive and engage your communication.
 Earned media: Can you control how (or if) the story will be reported?
 Paid media: Will it have the resonance and influence you need to best
advance your goal?
 Owned media: The price tag might be more appealing, but will these
channels help you reach the decision makers you’ve identified as your key
audience?
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Channels
87%
Percentage of American adults who use
the internet.
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Channels
90%
Percentage of American adults who have a
cell phone. 58% have a smart phone.
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Channels
74%
Percentage of internet users
who use social networks.
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Channels
7th
The rank of annual reports as a source of
information by engaged Americans.
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Channels
““Every year our board asks us why we aren't in NYT or
WSJ. The answer to that is easy. We work on systems
change! There's nothing sexy about changing systems.
The story is in the work our grantees do.”
COMMUNICATION LEADER
Private Foundation
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Channels
“
“I care more about the content and strategy of
communication than the tools. I'm passionate about
seeing the communication field in philanthropy move
away from a fascination with the tools.”
COMMUNICATION LEADER
Private Foundation
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Channels
How do you choose
your communication
channels?
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Channels
What is your
social media
strategy?
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Channels
How do you control
your message in
different channels?
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