You’re probably familiar with the very resonant phrases ‘greenwashing’, ‘pinkwashing’ and ‘femvertising’ – all referencing the tendency of commercial brands to hop onto social causes in order to promote their products in an empty way. Businesses who put Pride flags on their social media profiles during Pride Month but who do nothing to materially promote … Read more
The always-brilliant Public Interest Research Centre have a tremendous new resource all about audience segmentation. I’ve long been a fan of their guides to testing and framing communications, and this new resource is just as useful. It tackles the tricky question of segmenting – when is it useful, and when does it hamper our efforts … Read more
‘Raising awareness’ should never be the only goal for your charity’s campaign. Why? Let’s start with this perfect summary from the Spitfire Strategies Smart Chart communications guide (an unmissable resource, go get it immediately): “Watch out for vague objectives such as “raising public awareness.” Usually “public awareness” is not an objective in and of itself. … Read more
Working in communications, we’re all too aware of the pitfalls of ‘myth-busting’ and ‘debunking’. By trying to challenge a piece of misinformation that’s already spread widely, you run the risk of further amplifying it. There’s also evidence that shows that people don’t remember the correction in any kind of coherent way. ‘Prebunking’ is a method … Read more
I saw an online conversation recently about plans for yet another charity sector campaign to try to ‘rebuild trust in the charity sector’. Someone in that conversation said: “Who better to advocate for the charity sector, than the charity professional bodies?” And to be honest, this made my heart sink. Yes, maybe some audiences who … Read more
Instagram has recently improved as a tool for activists. I find Instagram to be a delightful platform for personal use, but a hugely frustrating one for professional use: its analytics are beyond terrible, and it has poor peer-to-peer sharing functions compared to other social media. I have access to data from a lot of organisations, … Read more