How to Adapt Your Messaging
Advocacy Communications During a Public Health Emergency
By RALLY’s Digital team: Elyse Dickson, Kevin Singer, Evan Stepper, Dana Variano, and Samantha Wong
“What does ‘advocacy’ in the COVID-19 age look like?” We’ve been getting a lot of questions about how the current crisis affects advocacy communications. These past few weeks have made it clear that this virus is another force exacerbating existing lines of inequity across the issues for which we, our clients, and our partners advocate.
We’re going to go out on a limb and suggest that if you’ve been doing advocacy right this whole time (centering community leaders, using networked organizing, connecting folks on the ground to those who have political power), the basic strategies will not drastically change.
In fact, it’s a good time to get “back to basics” and re-center intersectionality, community building, and connection in our issue advocacy work. It’s an opportunity to learn from those who have been doing this right for years.
To that end, let’s unpack how some of our clients have supported their communities during this public health crisis and lessons we can all learn from them.
1. Make online communication accessible and meet people where they’re at.
Now — more than ever, we’re reaching out to each other to connect online. With technology, we’ve seen that physical isolation doesn’t have to equal social isolation. Whether it’s video chat, phone calls, webinars, or streaming videos together, this is an inciting moment when we can leverage our existing digital strategies and tactics, and open the door to a greater level of engagement.
With a majority of our time being spent indoors, the way we consume online content is also changing. Less time commuting and more time at our desks may see a shift from the dominance of mobile over recent years. We’ve already seen podcast listenership increase, for both news and entertainment, as well as an increase in dependence on online conferencing platforms like Zoom and Houseparty. We need to recognize these changes in behavior when considering communication in the post-COVID world.
But our increased reliance on technology also highlights inequality when it comes to access. Not everyone has access to the internet, laptops, or smartphones needed to remain connected. For students, this goes beyond the need for social connection and begins to affect their education. Through our work with Computer Science for California, we’ve seen that low-income students, students of color, and girls are less likely to get a quality computer science education. Add internet accessibility to that, and we’re only going to increase the existing divide.
Another important consideration as we move increasingly online is that people experience online communications in different ways. We should make our communications as inclusive and accessible as possible. These can be simple changes, like adding subtitles to any videos you share, or refraining from squeezing paragraphs of text into a small Instagram post. You can read more about increasing the accessibility of your content here.
2. Be mindful — couple timeliness with authenticity.
#Coronavirus is now the second most used hashtag of 2020 on Twitter. In times of crisis, your followers are looking to leaders and organizations for accurate information and credible guidance. However, with such a barrage of COVID-19 coverage, it’s easy to appear opportunistic or even insensitive. That’s why it’s important to be mindful of who you’re talking to, how you’re communicating to them, and what you’re offering them.
Twitter finds 75% of COVID-19 Tweets are Retweets, showing that people are actively seeking out and sharing information they deem credible during a time of crisis. While providing useful resources and information is helpful, consider how your work intersects with COVID-19, and how your content can mobilize your supporters to affect positive change.
“We use this moment not just to provide emergency shelter, but to chart a long-term course to house our homeless population permanently.”
On March 26th, Tipping Point Community’s All In campaign published an op-ed in the SF Examiner, highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on the unhoused population and calling for a long-term solution to address the challenge of homelessness.
Similarly, the Everyone In campaign, working to end homelessness in Los Angeles, organized a virtual community call with experts on homelessness and health to provide reassurance and reliable information to supporters.
People are experiencing mental and physical stress under the current pandemic. Before you pitch your story or publish a Tweet, ask yourself: what are you offering? Is it adding something valuable or insightful to your audience? Is this the right time to launch?
As you continue to advocate for the issues your organization cares about, adjust your tone to match the moment and share your insights into how supporters can think about the situation in more nuanced ways.
3. Use your expertise and following to affect positive change.
There’s a surge of misinformation and rumors being shared online, and at moments like this, false facts and rumors are particularly harmful. It’s important to take a beat and consider what role your company or organization has to play in this current public health emergency, and if that role even exists. Like we mentioned earlier, it may be a moment for reducing your output, to let the voices of others shine through. Or, it may be a moment in which your organization’s voice, community credibility, or online following are needed more than ever to spread accurate and helpful information.
The Registered Nurses Professional Association (RNPA), a Union working in Santa Clara, California, has been using a combination of social and earned media to spread information about COVID-19, and raise funds for frontline healthcare workers. The Union conducted digital outreach from RNPA leaders, crafting nurse-led photos and videos for a public support campaign outlining three things folks could do to help frontline healthcare workers: stay home, donate equipment or funds, and share the message with family and friends. They supplemented this with media alerts to mobilize local outlets and broadcast the call for equipment and monetary donations.
Not only is their straightforward messaging getting coverage from news outlets and helping to share vital public health information, the conversion to donations was also significant: they fundraised almost $600K in donations for emergency medical equipment in a single day.
Some parting thoughts
So, what does “advocacy” in the COVID-19 age look like? It’s recognizing that many of us are experiencing the world differently right now and that we can’t just go on with business as usual — because these are unusual times.
But in these unusual times, we can push for solidarity and change that lasts beyond this moment — solidarity that’s inspired by a sharpened awareness of the inequities that exist in the issues that we care about, and also in the systems we use to communicate about them. It’s checking ourselves, being mindful of the moment, and ensuring our messages address our audiences’ reality and equip them to affect positive change.
The strategies are the same. As for the tactics? Next we’ll be sharing RALLY’s insights, tips, and tricks for increasing digital advocacy in the COVID-19 age. Follow us @WeAreRALLY for the update.
Thank you to our clients and partners who are on the frontlines supporting the communities most affected right now.
RALLY is an issue-driven communications firm | Certified force for good by B Corporation
Our team consists of experts in political, media, and digital strategy. Get inside our brain: click here to sign up for the official newsletter. Learn more at wearerally.com.
