I just had a call with a promising start up that's trying to build momentum for their new campaign after a successful media launch. They've a lot going for them: a solution to an issue with huge prominence, their timing is perfect, and an intersectional frame that could bring a lot of powerful actors together for a big win on multiple issues at once.
The problem is, like many, they think they can take a short-cut to success with a little digital shazam. That all they need to be noticed in our over-saturated media and cause landscape is to "go viral" and become the next big thing, driven by digital.
So while resisting the tendency to eye roll, let's lean into that for a second. My definition of something "going viral" means an idea or content must be shared from multiple source points until it becomes ubiquitous. In my experience, digital on its own can’t create those multiple source points who want to share your content. For that you need a network, and to build that requires two other campaign pillars moving forward at the same time.
Organizing as the core, aka “Do stuff on planet earth first”
The best way to grow influence online is to piggy back a great digital strategy onto great real world organizing activities. Doing digital promotions without this hard dust kicking up work typically falls flat.
By organizing, I don’t just mean the classic election style door to door relationship building. Organizing can be coalition building, deepening connections among peers in a coalition, volunteer recruitment and training, building lists of influencers, hosting conferences or events, the list goes on. You can organize your peers, volunteer leaders, partners, individual supporters, unusual allies...anything!
Once you're doing real things on the planet that your community starts to care about, your digital team can use those moments to build awareness, grow your supporter base and depth of relationships, and start to build momentum and buzz.
Narrative, story, and media work
No one gets far in today’s world unless your campaign has some key narrative elements baked into it. Your story needs to tap into a cultural mythology, speak to an audience’s values, create a hero and a villain, and frame your target in a way that boxes them in so they will eventually have to side with you (or they’ll have to side with the villain).
Once you've framed your great story, no matter how good it is it still won’t leave the nest unless it’s pushed. Almost every successful campaign today has a rock solid media director, firm, or contract strategist to not only shape the messaging but actively push it out there as far and fast as they can.
Top notch media work is essential for breaking through, both in getting elites and influencers talking about your campaign and in changing the public narrative (after dozens or hundreds of stories over a sustained span of time). On its own it won't get you all the way to a win, especially if it's focused only on top tier newspapers that media directors like to read, and hence the third pillar.
Now you can kick some Digital butt
Now is when when the digital magic comes in. Making bucketloads of visual content, pushing a content strategy to influencers and allies, energizing your supporters, building alliances with other online content partners, mastering your “owned channels” to push a common message in email, social, and web are all essentials to taking your momentum over the top.
But the biggest opportunity for digital to help your campaign succeed is not by working on its own, but in a deeply integrated way with your organizing and media work.
Leveraging moments often driven by the other two pillars of organizing and media moments to really grow the campaign’s online and overall footprint, and vice versa, is in my experience where the real magic of modern campaigns comes together, and where the most excitement and opportunity lie.
So don’t let inexperienced or lazy colleagues tell you you can build a real movement by only resourcing one or two of these disciplines. You may make a few waves, but your campaign won't break though and become a priority issue for a constituency - much less scare someone powerful into acting - without all three working together as one.
Innovative Campaigns