Choosing the right communications tactics is critical. You need to make sure you are reaching your target audience where they get their news and information, and you have to strike the right balance of frequency and intensity of contact. In this episode, Joe and Martín discuss the different communications modes at your disposal, the use of content marketing, and how you can create meaningful long-term engagement. Joe speaks with Erick Sanchez, former travelling press secretary for Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign, designer of Dr. Anthony Fauci pillows, and the guy who got Kenny Loggins to play in his living room.
Your communications strategy needs to be well-thought out and effectively implemented. You need to decide what mix of earned and paid media you will use, and how you will harness your organization’s membership to act as amplifiers of your message. And of course, you will need to establish long-term engagement with your audience. Tune in to learn how to create an effective advocacy communications plan and hear Joe and Martín discuss advocacy communication best practices. This week’s guest is Andrew Yang’s 2020 travelling press secretary, Erick Sanchez. Erick is a master at advocacy communications, so come to hear his tips and stay to hear about his Dr. Anthony Fauci pillows and how he got Kenny Loggins to play a concert in his living room.
Resources
7 Questions on Social Media Activism with Erick Sanchez
How to Bring Campaign Communications to Life
Nonprofit Content Marketing Guide
Erick’s Dr. Anthony Fauci Pillows
Connect with us!
If you have campaign questions or want to learn more, reach out to us using the contact information below.
Twitter: @cmpwrkshp
Instagram: @TheCampaignWorkshop
Email: marketing@thecampaignworkshop.com
Joe Fuld
Twitter: @joefuld
Instagram: @joefuld
Martín Diego Garcia
Twitter: @gmartindiego
Instagram: @gmartindiego
Presented by The Campaign Workshop
(Intro Music)
Joe Fuld (00:08):
Hey folks, you're listening to How to Win an Advocacy Campaign, where you'll get an insider's perspective that teaches you not only how to fight for what you believe in, but how to win. I'm Joe Fuld.
Martín Diego Garcia (00:20):
And I'm Martín Diego Garcia, and you can find us @CMPWRKSHP on Twitter or @thecampaignworkshop on Instagram. Welcome and thanks for listening to episode eight of How to Win an Advocacy Campaign. So in our last episode, we discussed the joys and challenges of working in coalition with Hannah Willard. So make sure to take a listen to that episode today, we're going to jump into all things, advocacy communications, we'll walk through some different types of communications you can do how to be effective on these different types of mediums and a couple of things you should keep in mind when it comes to communicating for advocacy. So before we jump off, Joe, will you talk to us a little bit about what are the different forms or the different mediums in which organizations can engage in, when they are thinking about communications in the advocacy space?
Joe Fuld (01:07):
Absolutely. So communications and communications tactics do different things, right? So you have earned media, which is free press, which is probably pretty good for reach, right? And getting people to know about your issue and engage on your issue and paid media where you're doing digital advertising or doing television ads or radio or direct mail, which also often are reach functions. But also if you're doing digital, it could be targeted for conversion, right? So that could be paid ads that get people to sign up on a list, sign a petition, engage, right, or comms for long-term engagement. Like you might be doing internal communications that is free or paid for your organization, like communications could be a weekly email you send out to members of your organization. That counts as communications. And so for me, it's really thinking about what are your goals and how do you, how does that communications process fit for you? What are the right tactics for you? Martín what do you think about when organizations are putting together a communications plan
Martín Diego Garcia (02:19):
First and foremost, know your message, right. So what is going to be your core message? Have you done your research? Have you done your message box? Have you figured out your targets right. And crafted a message that you have buy-in right from all of the folks, whether it's throughout your organization or in the coalition you're working with before you actually start sending tweets and posting blogs and sending out press releases, right. And creating a website, knowing your core message and having buy-in is going to be really important and hopefully save you some headaches. But make sure that that message that you land on is the one you're most confident in, because you're only gonna get one chance at that first impression with your target audiences. So really critical to do that research on the, on the front end. But also understanding which mediums you're going to be using and why you're going to be using them is going to be critically important.
Joe Fuld (03:07):
Yeah. That why is a big deal? And often what happens is people will say, Oh, we should just do some direct mail or we should do some television as opposed to thinking about the end goal. So understanding that if you're doing something for conversions where you're wanting people to sign up, digital is going to be a better medium than if you're doing radio. So you want to think about, but if you're trying to go for reach, radio might be a better medium than other mediums. So you have to really think about the goal first, the message, right. That fits that goal. And then the medium that fits the goal. And the message
Martín Diego Garcia (03:47):
Definitely right before, before you thro\w everything and the kitchen sink at the wall, make sure you know what you're trying to get out of the wall, right? So Twitter is going to be short. It's going to be snappy, right? Usually for rapid response or to engage in things that are currently trending. If you think about Facebook or Facebook live, they're going to tend to be a little bit longer. They perform a little bit better, maybe an older audience. Right. But, but you can create a sense of online community when you're thinking about Instagram, right. It mainly operates with visual elements and visual components. So thinking if you're an outdoors organization in favor of parks and recreation rate, how do you post pictures of nature? If you are an animal rights or welfare organization, thinking of cute puppies and kitties, right? So does your, if your, if there is not a visual component in, in your work, Instagram may not be the right medium for you. And unless thinking about your website content, right, it's, it's a really great place to tie all these pieces together. It could be a great place for doing some storytelling, keeping people engaged on a regular basis, as Joe mentioned, doing daily, weekly bi-weekly blogs or, or FAQ's and, and things similar to that.
Joe Fuld (04:54):
Yeah. And what I'd also say is, think about depending on your budget, what traditional mediums you might want to do. If you have to reach a whole lot of people, you might need to be on television or might be on radio, or if you have a targeted message that is just going to some people and not to everyone, direct mail might be the best way to go in comps. So you want to think about that. And there's lots of choices out there, and this is why not rushing into a conversation, but planning is so important.
Martín Diego Garcia (05:23):
Definitely. And as people are thinking about how to strike that, that fine balance between engagement and communications that are going to keep your folks in the loop without sort of overwhelming them, spamming them, disengaging with, or getting them to disengage with you. What do you recommend, Joe?
Joe Fuld (05:41):
So when you're putting together organizational communications, which is really what that is like weekly week in, week out, you want to really think about the calendar, right? How are you going to create a content calendar that works? And you know, here at the campaign workshop, right? We do Facebook lives on a weekly basis. We do blog posts twice a week. We do tweets all the time, right. But we know that not everyone is listening or looking at everything that we do, right. We have this podcast that we do in different seasons. So it's understanding your audience, understanding what are the ways that they engage and thinking about different content offerings that might be best to go out once a quarter might be that you just don't have the resources to do a blog post twice a week. That's fine. Do a good one once a month. Maybe it's a longer blog post. That's like 2000 words that you're doing once a month that goes out to everyone that is part of your email newsletter and is more like a content offering. So really thinking about your goals and it's not just overwhelming your audience, but also thinking about what is the best way to utilize your staff and your team based on the budget that you have and the resources that you have internally, you might have people that could write more and you could do more things or could record more things, or you might have less. And then you also want to think about that balance of earned media. What is the outreach that you can be doing to press and coalition partners to get more engagement?
Martín Diego Garcia (07:18):
Definitely. I mean, some quick rules of thumb, right? If, if you're going to be on Facebook Lives, think about probably in that weekly bi-weekly space, right? If you're doing blog posts, as Joe said, it's going to depend on capacity, but you want to keep folks engaged and, and train them to know what's coming. So think about maybe once a week, once every other week, right? Tweets and Facebook posts, you're probably doing a couple of times a week, but again, it's going to depend on capacity. And if you only have the capacity to do a few of these, think about the ones that are going to have the largest impact on the communities, in which you were trying to reach.
Joe Fuld (07:51):
And what I'd also say is these things feed off each other, right? If you write a great piece of content, you can send it out to reporters, you have a relationship they may call you and say, Hey, let's do an article on that. Or there might be a like insider publication or a blog that picks something up. And that's great. You really want to think about that. And then you want to balance that with your budget around paid communications, you might not have all the money in the world to be able to do a constant flow of like Google ad words, but there might be specific times a year where it makes sense to be doing Google ad words or to be doing paid Facebook ads. So thinking about the seasonality of your communications, whether that's around advocacy or that's around organizational issues, you want to think about what works best for you and chart that out in a yearly calendar.
Martín Diego Garcia (08:42):
Definitely. And I think one of the other things to think about is right, what are the current rules and laws that may seem to be continuously changing as we are continuously tracking the changes that are being made that you think are only going to affect maybe the political space or electoral space. And they're not, they actually do have some implications in the advocacy space as well. So keeping up to date and feel free to contact us too, if you have questions on what can and cannot be sent out in terms of paid media or paid advertising on some of these social platforms, we're happy to help. And the last thing I'd say is target your audience, right? How do you continue to think about your audience first? Right? you don't want to waste time and money if you're not sending your right the right message through the right medium, to the right people to help accomplish your goal audience, audience, audience, right. And this is not about you. It is about them. So always putting them first is going to be really, really critical.
Joe Fuld (09:32):
Yeah. And you want to think when it comes to the audience, you want to think about making it relevant to them, demonstrating urgency, proving your organization or campaign has the ability to solve the problem and then have a call to action at the end to get people involved. Also have it at the beginning too, right? Have a call to action. A couple of times in the communications you put out, you'd be surprised how many conversions you actually can get if you're thoughtful and think about it.
Martín Diego Garcia (09:59):
Definitely, if somebody is engaged and wants to interact with you and then you don't give them a way to actually take an action, right. They don't know where to go. They're like, yeah, I'm totally in. But what do I do? You have to give them that answer.
Joe Fuld (10:10):
Absolutely.
Martín Diego Garcia (10:11):
All right. So when we get back, Joe's going to be chatting with Eric Sanchez about his experiences in advocacy communications and see what exciting tips and tricks he has learned from some of the very interesting projects he's been able to work on. We'll be right back.
(Music)
Joe Fuld (10:38):
And we're back. Erick Sanchez is a political and advocacy communications pro he's, the co-founder of United Public Affairs and was the traveling press secretary for Andrew Yang's 2020 presidential campaign. Erick continues to serve as the spokesman for Andrew and Evelyn Yang and their organization Humanity forward. Prior to joining the Yang campaign, Erick was a strategic consultant for AFSCME, was the press secretary for Congressman Tim Ryan. And Erick is also known for his social media activism, which includes running a successful campaign to support celebrity chef Jose Andres in pulling his restaurant out of the Trump international hotel, as well as a campaign to support Comet Ping Pong, a pizza restaurant that was the center of the far right pizzagate conspiracy theory, Erick, welcome to the show, how are you?
Erick Sanchez (11:30):
Joe, thank you for having me on I'm doing really well. You know, just excited to be here and excited to have this conversation with you today. We've known each other for a very long time. You've been privy to a lot of my craziness. So I feel like if, if, if anyone to have a discussion with about all these topics, you are probably one of the folks that know most intimately, all this craziness that has happened.
Joe Fuld (11:52):
I talked about the stuff that you've done in your career in your life, but one of the things that you are like most known for is of course, Kenny Loggins. Talk about why you got Kenny Loggins to play in your living room again, I've, you know, Erick and I have been friends for a long time. I've known Erick as someone who proudly wore the banner of like my DJ as my dentist, really liked a lot of like eighties music, which we could bond we'll bond over later. But like, why get Kenny Loggins to play a concert?
Erick Sanchez (12:26):
I remember this, this was so this was in 2014. I remember there was, I was scrolling on Twitter and, and log-ins had a crowdfunding project where he was trying to get money for an album. And at his highest level donor rates were able to pony up this big amount. He would come with two other guitarists and perform this set in your living room. And so, you know, obviously I didn't have that expendable income. I think most Americans, if they had $30,000 laying around, probably wouldn't apply it toward a private concert. They'd probably invest it wisely. But you know, I considered it an opportunity to kind of take this in an unknown direction. And obviously you know, at the time crowdfunding not that crowdfunding isn't popular anymore, but I feel like at that point it was really peaking. Uh and there was a gentleman I actually met along the way who I think it was over the 4th of July, had a crowdfunding project to make potato salad and earn, I want to say raise something like 60 or 65 grand. I mean, it was obviously a much simpler time than it is right now, but, you know, I thought to myself, well, you know, I don't have this money laying around, but maybe I can piggyback off of his crowd funding project, start my own and take some of the skillsets that I have learned throughout the way with, with earned media, to see how far we could push this project. And one of my favorite moments, a friend of mine when I launched the project I posted on social media, he commented something like, you know, having funded, you know several successful projects in the past. I can tell you with certainly this one will not get funded. And I feel like that was a motivator for me to be like, you know what, I'm just going to prove this one person wrong.
Joe Fuld (14:15):
So you have done some serious projects. You've done some fun projects, but talk to us about like the skills it takes and what folks should be thinking about if you're starting your own sort of social media advocacy around an issue, when you start something like that, what do you think about where do you start first?
Erick Sanchez (14:37):
Well I always, I feel like the thing I always keep in focus from start to finish is the call to action. It's you know, I need, you know, I need your help raising X money. I need your help getting x signatures. I need your help driving other folks to RSVP for an event. I mean, that's been a common theme for pretty much any project I've had either personal or professional is keeping sight of that end goal, because no matter what the variable is, whether you're having a one-on-one conversation, whether or not you're doing a TV interview, a podcast, anything, the call to action is the most important part. And you know, in a lot of these static campaigns it's simple because you have one, one signal or call to action that you're going to push together. In the Loggins example, obviously I was working to raise $30,000. So, you know, my immediate you know, call there was just driving folks to one hub where I knew they could, they could donate money easily. And one of the, one of the best things, at least pieces of advice I got from a friend was making sure that being able to pull that call to action would be easiest if I did something like, you know, provide an easy domain for folks to go to. So, you know I used Kickstarter as a platform for that project, but like, you know, in order to drive people to my project, I would have had to send them to like kickstarter.com/project, you know, equal sign 75. So I bought the domain, Logginslivingroom.com and that made it easy as I did media interviews to just reiterate, you know, here's the website, if you want to go check this out. And then, you know, in the in the in the Trump scenario where I had a petition and I was gathering signatures there, I can't remember. It was something along the lines of dump Trump. Maybe it was dumpTumpDC or something along those lines.com if it was dumptrump.com. I hope I still have that domain. I don't think it was that though, but something close to it.
Joe Fuld (16:37):
When you're setting those goals. How do you make sure the goal isn't overwhelming for you from a time perspective and, you know, part of this as you've done these creative things, but how do you, if you're doing this for an organization or a small group, how do you set an achievable goal that you can build off of?
Erick Sanchez (16:57):
Well, I think it's, there, there are a couple of different variables there. I mean, timing is certainly one, you know, and, and something that I try to set expectations for as I'm working with organizations is, is giving them an understanding that I feel for the most part projects become really successful both from a media standpoint. And, you know, an organizing standpoint is, is when you can figure out a way to make hit the zeitgeist. And I was something that I was pretty popular for just understanding a little bit about not only you know, what's happening politically in our world, but what's happening from a pop cultural standpoint as well. And those things are helpful. And whether it's like using an emerging tool you know, like Kickstarter for 2014 or, you know I feel like these days it's like TikToK. It's one of those things that's just understanding how to leverage that tools is incredible. Even looking back to the Yang campaign and in some instances beyond that, you know, different project roll-outs or policy roll-outs that we swore you know, would gain immediate media interest just had none, or, you know, as we would travel, you know, Iowa, but obviously like, you know, with, at the time 20 different campaigns running around, and it was hard to get everyone's attention, but there'd be times where we'd go in and walk into rooms and it'd be zero, zero cameras, zero anything. And so, you know, I think that that piece could particularly be difficult, but, you know, I think it's just a matter of, and for me being, being aware of the projects or the clients that I am working with and just making sure that you know, we, we set expectations reasonably to say, Hey, look, you know, we would love to be able to get you a petition that generates national media, but, you know, sometimes it just, it, it means an understanding and really some ways like the autonomy to be able to run in any different direction. So some organizations are more flexible than others, you know, and I'm, I'm sure you've encountered it a lot of, you know, fortune 500 companies have communication shops that are, you know, 70 or 80 big. And, and, and, you know, by the time you get through the, the bureaucracy of getting a project to the starting line the moment may have already been lost. You know, it's just thinking about those structural barriers that can happen sometimes.
Joe Fuld (19:23):
So I think the question I'd ask to start is, Hey Eric, so if I am going to start on building a movement and I want to use this combination of earned media and paid media, I have a call to action, I think is kind of good, but how do I start a campaign like this? I'm ready to go? What are things that you would, give me some other things beyond the call to action that I should be thinking about?
Erick Sanchez (19:53):
One of the things that I like to do and develop first off as I'm pulling a campaign like this together, no matter what tool I decide to use, whether it's a petition, whether it's a fundraising apparatus is a number one, constructing my message helping to create the urgency around that need, you know, I could pick recently I was working on a project with a friend of mine here in new Orleans where, you know we pulled down some Confederate statues. We had a very popular black female chef who passed away. And so we were working to get this circle renamed for her and just kind of, you know, taking her legacy and grounding within the city. We, we applied some public pressure. It kind of fell by the wayside and the, in the grand scheme of, of New Orleans bureaucracy, which is its own thing. But you know, at the same time one of the things that I like to do is, is build, you know a concrete message triangle of like, here's, what's, here's the void, here's how it gets filled. Here's why it needs to get filled. And so this is what you have to do.
Joe Fuld (21:03):
What are some ways in which you can build for the long-term using earned media? What are some best practices that you think about as long-term strategies around engagement?
Erick Sanchez (21:15):
Well, you know, as my firm and I, when we sit down and we look towards a long-term client, you know, some of the things that we do obviously with every organization has a series of project rollouts throughout the year. And I think thinking towards that, it, it, it takes an all encompassing approach. It's not just analyzing assets, like, you know, digital structures. It's also considering what else is happening in the world. Taking a look at legislative calendar is taking a look at even, you know, pop cultural calendars, like things like you know, it's national bread pudding day. And, and maybe you're working with a national dessert association and being able to, you know, grab everything that happens throughout the year calendar and get out effectively and actually developing a real, and kind of, like I mentioned earlier in a way like zeitgeists strategies to be able to land even, you know, between small and big punches. And in the meantime figure out what are some alternative outcomes. If it's not generating media, is it building an email list? Is it building up a digital followership you know, amping up social media numbers, or, you know finding amplifiers as I like to call them, just, you know folks that I will turn to within the, the social media ethos that can help create an echo chamber for some of the clients that I've worked with.
Joe Fuld (22:48):
If you're building an organization and your saying, Hey, we know we're going to be doing long-term communications. We know we're going to have some free media hits that we're going to want to have. What are ways in which you build a really good list of amplifiers?
Erick Sanchez (23:05):
It's it sounds cheesy, but it's really it really does take thoughtful relationship building I've learned. I mean, I feel like these amplifiers don't like being treated as amplifiers. And I understand that like, it's, I was reading the other day, this, this journalist put together a medium posts of how she appreciated getting pitches. And if those pitches felt like, you know, general PR announcements and things of that nature, she wasn't so interested in getting that and, and would not receive that pitch, but, you know, things like emerging trends things that would actually be of interest and, and, and being able to, to spell that out was more important. And I think that in that same vein, you know, if there is an emerging trend, like let's use voter registration as an example maybe there's an emergent platform that's being used to help foster, you know these the voter registration platform. We're talking about uh TikToK earlier. So maybe you know, you have influencers who are using TikTok to help you know, generate voter registration, being able to spell out how how that being implied ends up being places an emergent trend would fall into this, to this journalist's litmus test. So kind of thinking of it at it from that direction, I feel is really helpful instead of just, you know turning to these folks when, whenever there's just a, a project announcement, but more so kind of helping to spell how the project you're working on is fitting into their greater mold, whether it's progressive activism or something along those lines you know, making them feel like they're part of a coalition instead of treating them like, you know, I'm just going to come to you when I need to, you know, push stuff out. And all that I think is really helpful praying that investment. And obviously I feel like instead of you know, using your networks as in a transactional sense, figuring out a way to build that build that goodwill to make sure that, you know, you keep a steady stream, even if it's, you know, things like access to infrastructures or conference calls, or just, you know, I feel like we're all in an effort to have our voices heard and being able to create those spaces things like podcasts, you know, and, and being able to, to open the door for ideas to be changed and exchange and, and allow us all the opportunity to evolve I think is really helpful.
Joe Fuld (25:34):
Well, that's great. All right. So once you get somebody to engage with you just to start, you get an initial engagement and you feel like you have the potential for them to be a part of your community, talk about how you cultivate that.
Erick Sanchez (25:52):
I think, you know, the cultivation of it happened in a lot of ways. And so for you know, the friends that I've been able to work with it, it's funny, it's really just been a matter of of keeping constant contact and, and, you know, it especially for a time like this, it's funny, but it goes a long way to just check in every once in a while and see how folks are doing and, and, and really just offering up those types of just relational one-on-one interactive opportunities. And I know it sounds really simple, but it really is that way. Cause it's like, you know, a lot of these folks, a lot of the influencers are being bombarded by a lot of different people to get projects air lifted and really just being able to, to offer up an opportunity for feedback. And a lot of ways I learned things that I didn't understand about how to interact, how to pitch, how to offer up content is, is really helpful to just like, go beyond the, Hey, I have this thing, I think you should retweet it, or it'd be helpful if you would. It's like, so what do you think about this project? Or what do you think about this organization? How can they get better? And then next thing, you know, it might open up the, the window of opportunity for, you know, other conversations take place between the principals and these folks who really hold the gateway of, of helping, you know, projects seem more than just the eyeballs of, of journalists who were seeing a million emails come in on a daily basis.
Joe Fuld (27:25):
Yeah. And your pitch is not always just to journalists, your pitch might be to someone with a big following on Twitter. Your pitch might be to a journalist directly. Are there other things that you've done, especially like, let's say somebody contacts you like follows you on social media. What is another way you've used to engage with them? Do you ever send them something, add them to your lists? What are other things that you do?
Erick Sanchez (27:52):
Well, I think, I think adding list that has been really relevant your listeners may not know I also started making these pillows with Dr. Anthony Fauci's face on them which is a project I started.
Joe Fuld (28:08):
You always have a new hobby all the time, it's like, by the way, I've I decided to make pillows with Anthony Fauci's face on it. I just, this is something everyone does during COVID-19.
Erick Sanchez (28:16):
Yeah I bet people, people, yeah, everyone, it's totally a normal thing, but I started selling these pillows in may a neighbor and I kinda brainstorm this and that they're called Fauch on the couch. And if anyone's listening and they're interested in buying one, website's just fauchonthecouch.com product plug. But that was an interesting project because I've never worked with e-commerce before. But one thing I did do because I had them available, I sent them, I sent a pillow to all the producers I've worked with and online influencers that I've worked with as well. Just as a, Hey, you know, here you go. You know, I hope you're doing well. Here's a fun little memento of the COVID era. And, you know, I think it's a little bit of everything it's just you know, making, making and letting people know that you're thinking of them outside of when you, when you just need them for an amplifying tool, I think is, is really, really helpful. And it, you know, it's small gestures really go a long way. But also, you know, looking outside of the traditional and, you know, I, and one thing that we definitely applied on the yang campaign was the use of podcasts. I mean Andrew will say it himself. Like, I mean, Joe Rogan basically helped pushes campaign into unknown into, into reputable with, with one appearance. And then we kinda just moved and segued from there and to other appearances, but he still, I mean, now he has his own podcast. And, and I think that there's a lot to be said about, you know, I, I feel like we would call them unorthodox opportunities before, but now podcasts are, have become so mainstream that, you know, it's hard to build and develop a media strategy without thinking of them and it, and for those meeting consultants who don't consider a podcast as part of the strategy, it's kind of a real missed opportunity in my opinion.
Joe Fuld (30:15):
Great. Well, Hey, Erick, thanks so much for taking the time to be on the show and we'll talk to you soon,
Erick Sanchez (30:21):
Anything you need Joe and I look forward to doing that.
Joe Fuld (30:22):
All right. Take care.
(Music)
Martín Diego Garcia (30:38):
All right. And we're back. So although I may not get Kenny Loggins in my living room, I may have to look into these Fauci out on the couch pillows that Erick was talking about. But one, we'll go over some of the really important takeaways from the interview with Erick. I think the first and foremost, what I really liked is when Eric talked about amplifiers, right? So unless you or your organization has celebrity level numbers of Twitter followers or Instagram followers, right? Your singular voice may only go so far, right? It may only reach folks who already know about you. So you want to think about how can you tap into those folks or those enthusiastic supporters of your cause your issue, your campaign, who will also retweet your tweets, share your posts, right? Like your, your Instagram posts tell their friends and followers about your organization and your cause to help expand your reach. Right? Because remember people are going to trust what they hear from their friends and family likely over what they're going to hear from an organization they don't have a relationship with, right? So you want to try and really create an echo chamber when your message is bouncing around. And they're hearing it a couple times versus getting lost in the noise of say national or international discourse or current events, right? So, Joe, what are some ways in which folks can identify some of these amplifiers within their networks?
Joe Fuld (31:56):
So I would say reach out to the community in look at your list. You want to look at who are people in your list that are on Twitter. There are different tools, and we can put it in the show notes that allow you to sort of analyze your list for social media engagement. You want to do that. You also want to connect with people who already do this well in the community, get some tips from people who have a good social media following. Maybe put them on your Facebook live, have them as a guest, engage with them. So you pick up some of their followers. And really you want to think about what are the ways that you want to be using social media to engage. If it's conversions, you probably want to email. If it's reach, you're probably want to do Facebook or Twitter. And so you want to think about who has the best outreach, the best list around those things and connect with them to build your list, right? You have to use permission. You have to engage with those people and make sure they're okay with helping you, but ask for help. That's the way I've found over the years that I've been able to build an audience is find other like-minded people who care about your cause and want to connect with you.
Martín Diego Garcia (33:08):
Absolutely. We actually just did a pretty cool training with a group and organization who were trying to do this right? As you think about, particularly in the social media space, it's all about engagement and the algorithms. And although the algorithms tend to change, right? It's about how are people engaging with the information that you are posting or putting out on these social media. But what they did was they had really active volunteers who some of them were on social media and some of them weren't, but gave them the tools and the knowledge that they needed in order to be active on some of these platforms to start liking and to start sharing, to start reposting, to start growing their followers so that even though they weren't influencers or amplifiers right now, they can start building them so that they could be and increase that reach.
Joe Fuld (33:51):
Other things to keep in mind that Erick talked about. You want to seize the moment in pop culture. What's already being talked about online. What is a way for you engage people in that message that's already out there. You want to build on your message first, before you start putting it in social media. So you want to make sure you really know your Tully message box. You want to think about other ways. Is it a message triangle? Is it a message wheel, whatever it is you want to make sure that you're using some sort of a message building tool that you're comfortable with to really know the building blocks of your message and use that in social. And then you want to be flexible, really think about what are ways to engage people. You want to keep things simple and always talk about your URL, your, your website name, and when you're pitching journalists or other amplifiers, you want to make sure that you understand their motivations. What are they trying to get out of this and connect with them. Also understand sometimes that every time a journalist calls you, it might not be the right fit and you can send them to somebody else and just build a relationship. I think to me, one of the things that Eric has done best over time is really build great relationships with people. And that's what this is all about to really help expand your message.
Martín Diego Garcia (35:11):
I couldn't agree more right, as Erick said, right, if you don't have really strong relationships with these potential amplifiers, it's, it's unlikely that they're going to be sharing your message freely and willingly re now you don't have to send them a pillow with Fauci's face on it, but you do need to show them that you value that relationship, right? Whether they're participants at a training, they're weekend volunteers. I mean, if you remember back to episode one, Molly Daniels, about long-term engagement of your membership and needing to make sure that they feel like they're also getting something out of it too, right? Whether it's personal development skills or organizing and communication, right. It is a two way street that you're hopefully building with these amplifiers and these influencers to show them right, that you're not just using them, but they are also getting something and benefiting from it as well. I think the other thing that I really liked about what Erick said was in regard to failure, right? And not being afraid to fail. There will be many a time, right? That you think this new initiative or this partnership is a front page, worthy story. And most of the time it's not. So don't get discouraged, right? Not every press release or every story you pitch is actually going to make a splash, but keep at it because some of them actually will. So Joe, if organizations are trying to get some earned media, that they are putting their information out there, but no one is biting. What should they be doing to change that up a bit?
Joe Fuld (36:38):
Well, the first thing might be just following up, right? You can't just put out a press release and assume that people are going to pick it up and write about it. One of the biggest mistakes that we've seen people make is not picking up a phone or sending a message to a reporter and engaging in a conversation. Same thing goes with other partner organizations. If you're trying to get them to put something out on your website or in social media, you want to make sure that you're engaging in a conversation and following up, don't assume that you can just send them something. And it goes away. That is the biggest mistake. Follow-Up follow-up follow-up. And beyond that, you want to also make sure that you praise folks that you say, Hey, thank you for the work you've done in the community. Thank you for what you're doing. Here's how this meets with your goals. Can you help me? Don't assume that they understand the motivation for why you're doing what you're doing and how it aligns with their goals. If you can show that alignment that is going to be really important and then create content that benefits your user, your reader, your coalition partners, your audience. So it stands out and converts. If they see some benefit from the content, if they think it's interesting, if they think it's helpful, they're going to put it out. And it all comes down to relationships. If you're continuing to engage and following up and you're communicating, eventually your stuff is going to stick and it's going to get out there.
Martín Diego Garcia (38:06):
Yeah, totally. Well, hopefully you learn something to help up your advocacy communications game, but that is a wrap for this episode. Thanks for tuning in. If you have specific questions or comments about advocacy, communications, contact us using the social media or email address in the show description.
Joe Fuld (38:22):
On our next episode, we'll be talking about fundraising for advocacy with Joe Sangirardi. Tune in to find out how to effectively and efficiently raise the money. You need to run a winning advocacy campaign.
Martín Diego Garcia (38:35):
So until next time, this is Martín Diego Garcia.
Joe Fuld (38:39):
And Joe Fuld, breaking down how to win an advocacy campaign.
Joe Fuld (38:41):
How to Win an Advocacy Campaign is Joe Fuld, Martín Diego Garcia, Hope Rohrbach, Daniel Lam, Heidi Job, and Elena Veatch. Music by Mike Pinto. Sound editing by the Global Startup Movement. Special thanks to the team at The Campaign Workshop. Remember to review like, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
(Outro Music)