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Day 2 – Tools Conference Write-up
From the 30th May – 2nd June 2018, our Project Coordinator attended the Patagonia Tools for Grassroots Activists Conference in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We were invited to attend at one of Patagonia’s 1% for the Planet NGO grantees.
Day 2
Campaign Strategy
Lucy Mason
Resources:
The Ruckus Action Strategy Guide
Training for Change
Tripod
Campaign – mobilising of forces to effect change.
Strategy – long-term plan.
Tactic – a method deployed.
When tactics occur in a logical and strategic order you achieve your goal.
A strategy can be based on instincts or by planning only one step at a time.
Celebrate wins no matter how small.
Is the strategy inclusive? Who’s involved in planning and implementation?
The spectrum of allies is not about converting a leading opponent to a leading ally. A win is moving someone one category to the left.
You can also convert ‘pillars of support’ in a current system to topple it or support an idea/figurehead within it.
- Name your target and investigate who the pillars of support are to it (e.g. unions, members, organisations, charities), and highlight those that align most closely with your goals or who you have common ground with (one isn’t usually enough).
- Target named individuals within that pillar; lobby them, get to know them, understand their story, bring their opinions into the dialogue, help them understand your goal and reasoning.
- Hold sway over that pillar by having contacts and a respected opinion within it.
- The idea, individual, regime, etc. that you are campaigning against has lost some of its support and becomes unstable/falls.
Employ the ‘ladder of engagement’.
Move individuals along from observing content (on a CL course), to sharing content or talking about your organisation/campaign (becoming CLT’s), to going out an actively campaigning (generating business contacts, bringing CL to a new organisation, etc.).
Takeaways for The Carbon Literacy Project:
– Quarterly strategy reviews to – stay on-track with goals for that year; focus priorities; redistribute tasks; celebrate wins.
– Create an area on the wiki to record our ‘wins’.
– Utilise and engage our network of trainers better (particularly student trainers post-graduation, and those that have been certified as Carbon Literate).
Communications
Natalia Truchi Vera
Resources:
350.org
Additions to the 5 W’s
Activism Needs Introverts
Don’t Think of an Elephant
How to be a Craftivist
Identify your audience.
Find new insights.
Choose precise words and framing of your cause in the message you convey to that group.
1. You know more about your target audience than you think.
2. Be specific with your audience.
3. Create a story that incorporates their interests and captures their imagination.
First, identify and name specific individuals or groups that your campaign is targeting.
Pick one of those groups and think in-depth about their actions, thoughts and feelings.
Visualisation
Natalia Tamar Harel
Resources:
Gamestorming
Visual Alphabet
Active Listening
UZMO Thinking with Your Pen
Cause and Effect: Visualizing Sustainability
My journey to the Tools Conference – as drawn by Arjan Berkhuysen, World Fish Migration Foundation. This session was all about the use of drawing as a tool, and the interpretation of a ‘thing’.
This session was all about the use of drawing as a tool, and the interpretation of a ‘thing’.
We looked at basic shapes and different modes of drawing, from a self-portrait to flow diagrams.
We explored how individuals can interpret the same brief differently, why this happens within the brain, and the uses for this in terms of engagement and hiring.
In a broader sense, the session got us to interact with each other and think deeply about how we would communicate with others.
It showed that:
– different strategies and modes of communication are needed in order to engage vast swathes of your target audience.
– different individuals are better suited for certain types of thinking or lines of work.
Social Media
Tim Slack
Resources:
Powerpoint
Facebook Business Manager
Google Analytics
Google Tag Manager
See, Think, Do, Care
Plan, Post, Measure, Adapt
Integrate Google Analytics.
Do post by post engagement reviews to see what works with your audience and what doesn’t.
Google tag manager and URL tagging.
Facebook algorithms don’t like text in images so avoid this.
Talk/reply to your audience, ask questions, start a debate.
Go live! – Use Instagram Stories and Go Live on Facebook. This brings your audience closer to you and into the day to day of your organisation.
Use group features – Create a group of your no.1 fans and ask them to share your content.
Use Facebook Business Manager to create custom audiences for promotions (costs money).
You can also create lookalike audiences to reach those most similar to your followers/viewers, but who aren’t in your sphere of engagement. Use 1% similarity for the most return on investment.
You can also run ads through on in partnership with other audiences you work with or have a shared mission with.
Utilise Influencers (high profile organisations and individuals) on social media. How do we influence them?
Wait for the ask (to donate or to sign a petition). First, educate on your issue or cause – build emotional equity.
Takeaways for The Carbon Literacy Project:
– Integrate social media analytics.
– Utilise current network and influencers better, for further reach on social media.
– Look into ads and promotions for potential use in relevant future campaigns.