Develop your strategy

Before launching any kind of campaign, it is useful to think about: What do I actually want to achieve with this campaign? What does success mean for me in regards to this campaign? And, (almost) most importantly: Who do I actually want to talk to? 

 Planning ahead

Yes, life might get in the way, in terms of: maybe there is an outbreak of a global pandemic or police violence is recorded on video, triggering a global movement against racism, or a new hashtag is going viral against sexual harassment. Nonetheless, it can be useful to have some form of a campaigning plan, especially if you already know some fixed dates that are important for you or your organisation, such as the international day for human rights on 10th of December. 

Planning ahead allows you to pool your available resources accordingly. For instance, if you know that you want to launch an extensive alternative narrative campaign on 10th of December, you might want to block some days (or even weeks) before to come up with your actual campaign, develop the content and plan the launch day. 

Safer Internet Day 7 February
Action Day to counter sexist hate speech 8 March
International Romani Day 8 April
Action Day in support of victims of hate crime 22 July
Action Day countering hate speech targeting Muslims 21 September
Action Day countering Antisemitic hate speech 9 November
Action Day for human rights online 10 December

 

Other days you might want to consider or include are:

International Day against Homo-, Bi- & Transphobia 17 May 
World Refugee Day 20 June
Day of Remembrance for the Roma Holocaust 2 August
International Day for Persons with a Disability 3 December 

 

No worries if you did not jot down the dates for future campaigns yet: Planning ahead is a recommendation, not a requirement, to help you structure your year. However, we know: Life can be unpredictable and more often than not we have to respond spontaneously – go for it.

 How to set your goals ?

In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to identify objectives and benchmarks to steer your efforts – and to be able to tell whether your campaign was indeed a success. However, it might not be that easy to arrive at measurable objectives right away, which is why we recommend to, first and foremost, focus on your message and the overall goal:

What values, attitudes and knowledge do you want to address and transfer with your counter or alternative narrative campaign? What is the overall goal of your campaign? What are quantifiable milestones and tangible (sub)-goals?

 

From there, it is usually easier to set measurable objectives. You should further keep in mind the size of your audience and the resources available when setting objectives. The WeCan manual of the No Hate Speech Movement (p. 130) suggests to:

  • Be realistic, meaning: You should set achievable goals.
  • Be brief, meaning: Use one sentence to define your objective.
  • Be specific, meaning: Be concrete about the goals you want to reach.
  • Be clear, meaning: Use easy and accessible language, avoid technical terms.

Meanwhile, communications and marketing research suggests to rely on the so-called SMART criteria when defining objectives, thus they should be:

Specific: do not use vague, abstract or generalized terms, be as specific as possible.

Measurable: include dates and numbers to measure the success of your campaign.

Attainable: make sure it is possible to achieve your objectives.

Relevant: your objective should align with the general direction and goal of your NGO.

Time-related: there has to be a deadline.

It is important to regularly assess whether your campaign is in line with your objectives and which adjustments might be necessary or can be done for you to reach them. Don’t be discouraged just because you might not reach an initially identified objective as things and circumstances can change. This does also not mean you failed – on the contrary: First of all, you got started and did something. And secondly: There is so much to learn from things going wrong, so get back up and better luck next time.

 Here are some examples of what you can do in a campaign:

  • The #choosetochallenge campaign from the International Woman’s Day 2021 asks their audience to take action through posting a picture of themselves with their hand hold up.
  • This Campaign from the UK is defending the Freedom of Speech. On their website, people can take a quiz
 related to the topic.
  • A similar Campaign with the hashtag #ProtectPressFreedom, informs about the topic and also provides a test about your knowledge

Let’s have a look at a hypothetical example on setting goals

For the International Day of Human Rights in December, you want to educate and engage young people to stand up for values such as diversity and freedom of speech. Therefore, you produced a video for YouTube as well as various graphics to share on Instagram. Objectives then might be to get 1.000 views and 100 shares of your material on social media, preferably of course by young people. Another objective could be to have at least 20 interactions (via the comments sections or direct messaging) with young people. In addition to your content, you have digital events lined up throughout the day and you want to have at least 50 participants per event – which is another objective.

 As you can see with these objectives: they are based on numbers and measurable indicators.