Tools for the Internet Campaigner

Some ideas to help build a social media campaign.

“To tell a story you must have a story.” Belfast writer Glenn Patterson

Having a story to tell is as important to the Campaigner as it is to the Novelist. As a campaigner:
• you will need to find your audiences – yes, there will be more than one,
• decide on the story each audience needs to know, and
• engage them to support you, to change their minds or to reduce their opposition.


What is it to Campaign?
To work in an organized and active way towards a goal.

First steps.
You will probably have some idea of what you want your campaign to be about.

As an individual or as a group, it will be really obvious. But your job will be to convince others that your campaign is right, and they should support it. Or at the very least, not get in your way.

Ask yourself “What is the Goal?”

Identify the Problem you want to fix:  


• What is the PROBLEM? If you can’t solve the problem then you need to work out who can …
• Who can SOLVE it?
  You can’t do this all by yourself – you need support. You might not be able to solve it at all. The Goal might be to convince others to solve the problem.

• Who can HELP?
  Who can give advice, insight, experience, resources?
• Who can HINDER?
  And there will be people who will get in your way for all sorts of reasons. So you need to identify them at the start and as you progress.


Now you need to think about …
What are you going to DO about it?

The Campaign Environment.

As you start out on your campaign, you should take a look at the Campaign Environment, and as you progress you should continuously review particularly as you will gain experience and knowledge at every step.

Issue: What is the issue you are campaigning on? Can you write it in one sentence? Can you explain clearly to someone is a single Tweet? Can you write it on a Banner? The issue may be complex, but the challenge is to engage people, making your point as clearly as possible in as few words as possible. You can get into the complexity later. A newspaper will need a headline. What’s your headline?

Advocates: These are the “do-ers” the people who will work with you on the project. They will include “Leaders” – there may be several components to any campaign. Bigger and more complicated campaigns may need several leaders to focus on different activities. And you will need “Champions”; some will be people you are working with, others may not work with you directly, but will act as supporters who can carry your message to a wider audience.

Resources: As you begin to plan your campaign, you will need to identify what resources you will need. If you are running an internet based campaign, you will want to consider the use of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, AudioBoo, SoundCloud, DailyMotion and so on. There are many web applications that you could use. Not all will be appropriate. You might also want to use Google Hangouts for communication with your team or teams or as a way to engage a wider audience.

You will probably need the traditional resources – flyers, posters, banners, leaflets and so on.

And Money. How much will you need? How will you get it? It will help if you draw up a budget.

Topic Environment: Is there anything else going on similar to your project? Maybe others have a head start on you. Can you work with them, add value to their project, learn from what they have done? Are there campaigns that have failed? What can you learn from them?

Media: You have your own (social) media – use it. But you will also need to campaign for space in traditional media. Get to know journalists. Engage them from the very beginning. Produce briefing material, have conversations, meet and chat. Then begin to consider great photo opportunities. It can be tough, but you need to give the media something to talk about. Perhaps you already know professionals who are sympathetic to your campaign – seek their advice. Ask for their contacts.

Time: Start with the end in mind – but also with an idea of what the Middle and Start will look like. How long will the campaign run?  Mark time and progress by posing Successes and Setbacks. Set out your milestones and meet them. Don’t drift. Keep a laser focus on the end result and do not be distracted by irrelevancies – no matter how attractive.

Venues and Event Management: Will you be holding events to start, end or mark important developments in the campaign? Think about venues. Are they easily accessible? Do they have good WiFi? Can you find places that are compatible with your campaign and even help to tell your story? And if you are inviting media, what is a good time for them? Help journalists meet deadlines. There is no point holding an event that you want journalists to attend if it clashes with the time they are filing final copy or editing for news programmes.

Audience: Who are you talking to? There will be more than one audience. They fall broadly into three sections; Supporters (people who already agree with you), Would Be Supporters (people who don’t know it yet, but they will be supporting you) and Opponents (no matter how right you think the campaign is, there will be people who you will need to convince – an perhaps never will convince).

Opposition Research: You will need to have a thorough understanding of the arguments against your campaign. Set up an opposition research group to find out what opponents say and think about your campaign. Let them be a tough as they need to be. Through an opposition exercise, you will begin to develop better arguments, to have answers for opponents, and have a clearer idea of the problems you may encounter.

You need to know who is with you, who will be with you and how to counter those who will be against you.

Try This Exercise

Divide your campaign team into two groups:

One will develop the arguments for the campaign
The other will develop arguments against the campaign. This must not be done half-heartedly. You will meet opposition. Be ready for it.

FOR:

• What do you want to achieve? Emphasise Clarity not Complexity
• Why is this important? Importance to you is obvious, but why is it important to me?
• What are the augments for? Emotional arguments are not enough. What are the economic, legal, moral arguments?
• What evidence do you have? A good idea is not enough; you must provide evidence.
• What is your story? A story has a beginning a middle and an end. It also has to have meaning.
• What will your Tweet say? Make your point in 140 characters or fewer.
• What will your banner say? Make it memorable.

AGAINST:

• "It has been tried before and has failed." 
• "It is too expensive."
• "No one else wants it."
• "We have a political agenda that is opposed to it."
• "It is not as important as you think."
• "You are not providing sufficient evidence – the evidence is not compelling."

In the end there are some key thinks to remember:

• Keep it simple. No matter how complicated it all is, when you present to people at the beginning, you must keep it simple
• Make it easy. Don’t frighten people by burdening them. Make supporting your cause easy. Recruit supporters now. Some will want to take on the hard work, later
• Don’t ask people for something they can’t deliver.
• Set realistic targets.
• Success breads success.  Tell people about your successes as you go along. Even setbacks can help engage people – just because you are not yet succeeding, it doesn’t mean you won't get support later. Ask for help.
• Set the Agenda. It’s your campaign. You are in charge. Be confident.
• Make it easy to share. Simple sharing – especially on the internet through social media – will deliver support and success.

Making it easy to Share:

As a protest to the Pussy Riot case in Moscow, overnight in Belfast (and possible other places, too) Amnesty International activists dressed statues in Pussy Riot style masks and "Free Pussy Riot" banners. Easy to photograph and share. That morning there were dozens of these photos being shared on Facebook and Twitter.