Digital advocacy mobilizing the girl effect
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Digital advocacy mobilizing the girl effect
- 1. Digital Advocacy: Mobilizing the Girl Effect Presentation for Be Good, Be Social October 27 th , 2011
- 4. The Girl Issue: The Power and Plight of Girls
- 5. The Plight and Power of GIRLS
- 9. Advocacy: Creating Change
- 18. Digital Advocacy : Engaging One Million
- 19. Source: http://www.nowlebanon.com/BlogDetails.aspx?TID=1207&FID=6 Digital Advocacy: “clicktivism”?
- 20. The Ladder of Engagement
- 22. Digital Advocacy and Awareness
- 26. Case Study: International Day of the Girl
- 32. Online to Offline Action
- 36. Questions?
Editor's Notes
- The is an URGENT need to stand up for the rights of millions of girls around the world who face barriers to their survival and development, simply because they are girls. Girls in the poorest regions of the world face unique barriers, YET, it has been proven that investing in girls is KEY to transforming their lives, communities and nations, ultimately eradicating global poverty.
- We would like to share a short video, created by one of our partner organizations – the Nike Foundation – in order to illustrate the situation for girls in the developing world.
- Influential International figures have even made public statements about their support of investing in girls, which has increased visibility worldwide that the old belief in the perceived “black hole” of poverty, the idea that investing in internal development will not create change or improvements, is now becoming a distant belief because of the evidence that tells us that investing in girls is key to eradicating poverty and creating a better world for all.
- The Because I am a girl initiative is Plan’s campaign to raise awareness and engage the Canadian public to lend their power to make REAL change for girls in the developing world. Although this isn't an issue affecting Canadians per say, this initiative is raising awareness for millions of girls around the globe who may not currently have a voice make change, and inspiring Canadian girls and women to take what they know and pass it on, creating a multiplier effect and ultimately taking responsibility as global citizens and leaders to create gender equality. Engage 1 million girls, women and everyone who matters to them.
- These streams are building blocks which are connected in achieving the end goal of real impact
- One of the main advocacy goals for Plan’s Because I am a Girl initiative has been to get the United Nations to proclaim September 22 as the International Day of the Girl. The reason for this goal is that an internationally recognized day can serve as a foundation for further advocacy by bringing attention to a specific issue or cause and by enabling the government to be held to task on a yearly basis for what they are doing for that group and the progress they’ve made. There have been several components to the advocacy campaign for the International Day of the Girl including both digital and traditional advocacy components.
- As you can see here, in addition to mobilizing public support and awareness, largely through digital means, there has also been a focus on political engagement with the Canadian government and through them, the United Nations. In March 2011, there was an all-party resolution xxx. and most recently a few weeks ago the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, the Honorable Rona Ambrose, brought this resolution to the United Nations. So what role has digital advocacy played in this campaign?
- Gateway to grassroots involvement, beginning with awareness and filtering into advocacy over time. a non-revenue driven activity which allows for accessibility to get involved and making impact How many times we are asked for money everyday vs. given a voice and empowered to make change? Our advocacy platform depends on Canadians taking the first step of action to get further involved and rally around this important initiative Advocacy initiatives folded into the larger campaign language – Girls have the right to…..Girls rights are Human Rights by building on advocacy support at all levels; public, private and government
- And where are the advocates? Well, in our digital age, they are online. We consider our BIAAG campaign to be anchored in the digital side of communications, pushing traffic to our website from various places online and offline. Our focus is on attracting the primary audience I spoke about previously – women and girls – that we feel will have a deeper connection with this cause. And in fact, online reporting tells us that social media is exactly where our focus audiences are, as Canadians are among the most active social network users in the world. These stats are from a study published by Ipsos Reid in July 2011 and show that: 50% of Canadians have a social media profile – 60% of Canadians with internet access have at least one account While the majority of Canadians using social networks are 18-34, there are still significant numbers of Canadians using social media between 35-54 and 55+ - and these numbers are growing all the time. 45% visit a social media ‘site’ at least once a week; 30% visit daily 86% of those using social media have a Facebook profile The use of Twitter has rised dramatically with 19% of Canadians using it And significantly, for our target audience, which is professional women 35-54, o nline Canadian women are much more likely to visit a social networking site at least once a day than men. But how do we bring advocacy to the table for our audiences in our digital communications? Well, over to Maya…..
- So now we know that Cads are online, it makes sense to fovus on dig adv. we’ve talked about how advocacy is a pillar of Plan’s “Because I am a Girl” initiative with the ultimate goal of extending girls’ rights around the world. As Christina has spoken to, advocacy is key because it provides a way for supporters to get involved in the girl issue and to build and deepen their relationship with us over time leading to ongoing engagement. Now we want to turn the focus towards the role of ‘digital’ in the advocacy space, and more specifically the role of digital advocacy in mobilizing the girl effect. But before we get there, we wanted to situate this in the context of a larger debate that’s currently happening around digital activism.
- By digital advocacy, or digital activism more broadly, we mean: the use of Internet-based technologies for cause-related activism, campaigning, fundraising, and organizing. What has been the subject for debate, however, has been whether or not digital advocacy is actually effective at creating change. On the one hand, you have the doubters, like Malcolm Gladwell, who has argued that the power of social media is overrated and there is the notion that digital activism/ or advocacy is really a form of “slacktivism” or “clicktivism” – where minimal effort is required to support an issue or cause (such as “liking” a Facebook group) which in reality has little actual impact on the world. Malcolm Gladwell has argued that the “weak ties” of “digital activism” cannot remotely compare to the strong ties of traditional activism, and that "social media makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact." On the other hand, you have the optimists, people like Clay Shirky who have examined the role social media has played in recent events like the Iranian protests in 2009 and more recently, in the revolutions of the Arab Spring, to argue that social media can in fact facilitate collective action and social change. To quote Shirky: "As the communications landscape gets denser, more complex, and more participatory, the networked population is gaining greater access to information, more opportunities to engage in public speech, and an enhanced ability to undertake collective action." We wanted to touch on this larger debate to help situate our stance on digital advocacy:
- While we do not believe that social media alone will lead to social change - we do believe that social media provides an entry point for more people to become aware and engaged in an issue or cause and that once these people are aware and even take small actions through social media - this can lead to larger actions and higher engagement. And for us, these larger actions are related to donations because it is our programs on the ground that are providing girls with the tools they need (such as education) to improve their lives. Recognizing this, it is our role - as organizers of a digital advocacy campaign to help "steward people up the engagement ladder" to borrow a phrase from Beth Kanter.
- So we know Canadians are online in masses, this helps explain why digital advocacy is so important. Because I am a Girl is a national initiative with the goal of engaging 1 million Canadians. Using digital tools allows us to reach more Canadians, and particularly Canadian women, in a much more affordable and time-efficient way because we can now reach people anytime and anyplace on their preferred medium (whether through our website, email or social networks). When we spoke earlier about what advocacy means, we spoke about getting the right information, in front of the right people at the table, at the right time. The ‘digital’ space allows more people to sit at this “metaphorical” table. Because we can reach Canadians where they already are, we not only broaden our reach, but also our accessibility – and in effect, allow more people to be involved or included in the advocacy process as agents of change. Through the use of social media, we are not only able to foster relationships and build engagement over time, but we are also able to help build a community of our supporters around a shared goal.** how Lastly, by using digital tools we are able to better measure the success of an advocacy campaign. For example, we can see how many people are opening and clicking through emails and who is signing e-petitions, which helps to evaluate and target impact. So now that we know Canadians are online in masses, this helps explain why digital advocacy is so important. Because I am a Girl is a national initiative with the goal of engaging 1 million Canadians. Using digital tools allows us to reach more Canadians, and particularly Canadian women, in a much more affordable and time-efficient way because we can now reach people anytime and anyplace on their preferred medium (whether through our website, email or social networks). When we spoke earlier about what advocacy means, we spoke about getting the right information, in front of the right people at the table, at the right time. The ‘digital’ space allows more people to sit at this “metaphorical” table. Because we can reach Canadians where they already are, we not only broaden our reach, but also our accessibility – and in effect, allow more people to be involved or included in the advocacy process as agents of change. Through the use of social media, we are not only able to foster relationships and build engagement over time, but we are also able to help build a community of our supporters around a shared goal.** how Lastly, by using digital tools we are able to better measure the success of an advocacy campaign. For example, we can see how many people are opening and clicking through emails and who is signing e-petitions, which helps to evaluate and target impact.
- How does awareness lead to advocacy ? Individual Girl – learns about the cause shares with her friends who share with their friends Who rally around the cause multiplier effect = broadening awareness --. Leads to action (and then overlay with awareness to advocacy funnel) We spoke earlier about the role of awareness and more importantly how we can steward awareness into higher levels of engagement through advocacy. This diagram helps show how this process of how mobilizing the girl effect works. It starts with an individual woman or girl who joins our Facebook group and learns about the cause and who then shares an e-petition with her friends, who tell their friends about the initiative as well, creating a group of people who rally around the cause, creating a multiplier effect. Digital advocacy provides a set of non-monetary actions supporters can take, almost like an “alternative currency” leading to further engagement and advocacy – and as this relationship and engagement builds over time, through word of mouth it feeds back into greater awareness – as this funnel shows. Word of mouth from a trusted source is always the most effective means of spreading a message. Joining a group may require little more than a mouse click, but behind that click is a trusted network of friends and colleagues providing their personal recommendation. But it doesn ’t stop here.
- There are recent studies that have shown that people who have taken online actions for a campaign or cause are actually 7 X more likely to donate than those that have not taken any online action. Additionally, as these diagrams show, people are 6 times more likely to open an email with an advocacy-related ask than a fundraising appeal and also a newsletter. Additionally, this study showwed that although only 7% of people were very active in this online advocacy campaigns, this 7% were actually responsible for 31% of online actions taken. All of this taken together goes to show that there is more than just “clicktivism” happening here and also helps to identify some of the most loyal supporters (who are 7X more likely to become donors) than those who have never taken an online action for the organization.
- Mobilizing the girl effect is only possible through digital advocacy because it serves as the bridge between awareness and fundraising. Because it serves to connect awareness with fundraising, digital advocacy is instrumental in achieving the mission of Because I am a Girl and by extension, in improving the lives of girls worldwide.
- Traditional forms translated into digital but can also exist simultaneously We ’ve talked about the models of how digital advocacy leads to deeper engagement and serves to connect awareness with fundraising. However, what does this look like on a practical level? Here are some of the tools available to use in the digital advocacy toolbox. We are going to take a look at this more closely in a case study of our own digital advocacy campaign that we created towards the International Day of the Girl. e-petitions downloadable letters to government representatives blog interviews with issue experts digital press kits eblasts – share in the success YouTube – education and entertaining Key Influencers / ambassadors Ads and Aps: Driving traffic and giving them “something to do” Partner Organizations: collaborating with partner organizations to help spread the word in their social media channels Content & Resources: empowering supporters to feel ownership over the issue
- I nform people about issue Develop campaign around the International Day of the Girl and informed people about the issue through our website, blog, email, social media 2 ) Encourage action Provide multiple options for taking actions that move from easy to hard (actions ranged from small actions on Facebook, including asking people to change their profile pictures and update their statuses, to signing e-petitions and writing letters to their MPs) 3) Deepen relationships and foster loyalty Throughout the campaign, we would provide ongoing updates that show progress of campaign Through social media, we also made sure to give supporters a voice And worked to create sense of shared identity Crucial to achieving these goals was having a coordinated approach to our digital communications, ensuring that we developed a publishing schedule to reach supporters using different channels over time Also – this doesn’t only help achieve support for the cause or issue, but also helps further engage with people in your online communities – provides something tangible for people to really get behind and get passionate about Opportunity to have our community rally around the cause
- Frame it better – coordinating comms and curating content and flow reaching targeted people on preferred medium; bringing people to the table; connected ness, flow of dialogue b/w channels and platforms and bringing key players to table = Members of Parliament Pause after this and go back to big picture – with what does all this mean before going into results Websites were main hub of actions people could take in support of the Day of the Girl with: online petition pre-formatted, downloadable letters Inform – through blog / website Smaller actions to larger actions – e-petition THAN letter-writing (via e-blasts) These were accompanied by social media actions And updates were communicated through all channels as well Website with online petition, direct communication with elected D ot G in 2011 Website E-petition Pre-formatted letter, MP lookup (tell-a-friend capabilities) Targeted email communications Blog Newsletter Social media FB (e-petition, 22 logo – profile pic, status, Ads) Twitter (22 facts) Program levers Branding: 22 icon Awareness: 22 facts about girls’ rights Momentum: Regular status updates and news updates Apps: Accessibility Ads: Increase traffic Call To Action: Sign the petition, write a letter to your MP, share the message or the image Program Tactics Coordinate streams of communication: Blog, FB, Twitter, PR/Media, eblasts Influencer buy in Clear and accessible CTA Light to heavy engagement Want to feel part of a community that creates change inform the people, activate the people, and organize the people into communities dedicated to achieving your policy goals. While online tools to help with these efforts have long existed, the divergence of communication channels has eroded the effectiveness of many of these more traditional tools. Thus, we need new online advocacy tools that deliver messages across channels, leverage social media to promote a key message, encourage action, and build community. Ease, speed, reach, interconnection & community
- E-petition signatures: 14,000 Also helps with email address acquisition Letters to MP – while we can’t measure how many people actually sent letters to their MPs, we did receive updates from our community letting us know they sent letters – for example, here is a photo one of our supporters posted on our Facebook wall of a letter she sent to Paul Dewar. We also increased accountability of MPs to reply by tagging them in the conversation. In addition, some of our supporters also sent us copies of the reply letters they received from their MPs. Ebb and flow between offline and online
- 75 people that we KNOW of. Potential reach of 10,000. That’s 10,000 new points where dialogue could potentially take place – people wondering why their friend changed their profile – without this – these are convos that for sure would not happened. On all of our Facebook updates related to the Internation Day of the Girl we got higher than normal likes, shares and comments. DIGITAL DEMONSTRATION - rallying
- Direct line of comms to orgs and MPs
- One supporter posted on our FB wall what she posted on her dorm room wall on September 22 – shows that online action can lead to offline action - Also – we are about to pilot a community engagement program where we reach out to our supporters – based on this – this particular fan is one of the first people we are engaging with for this program= MULTIPLIER EFFECT
- This case study demonstrates how we’ve broadened awareness, mobilized support both on and offline, and ultimately we expect it will lead to ongoing and deeper engagement, leading to more donations that all goes to support girls in developing countries and works to improve their lives. So what’s next – we should have a decsion for DoG in December and we’ll eb leveraging across our dig comms to share this important win. Ultimately, this Day will serve as a foundation for furhter advocacy and alleviating child poverty.
- Content curation and relevancy Offline engagement capacity Revenue and social media ROI\\ Internal education / facilitating business objectives Advocacy is relative depending on organization and audience Campaigns don’t have to national or international to be successful. Governments are looking to identify issues that important to the public and even local issues can become a top priority