Communications strategy and social media for reseachers
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A brief guide to building a communications strategy and using social media for development researchers
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Communications strategy and social media for reseachers
- 1. Building a communications strategy and the use of social media James Georgalakis Head of Communications IDS
- 2. Session objectives Basic introduction to research communication skills Understand key steps to building a communication strategy Learn how to deliver your messages Understand the use of blogs and social media
- 3. Why does research communication matter?
- 4. Factors affecting research uptake Political context Effective and power research relationships communication Gaps between researchers and Research research users uptake and changes in people’s Southern research lives capacity Character and credibility of evidence
- 5. What is research communications? Research communication is defined as the ability to interpret or translate complex research findings into language, format and context that non experts can understand. It is not just about dissemination of research results and is unlike marketing that simply promotes a product. Research communications must address the needs of those who will use the research or benefit from it.
- 6. Communication not as Dissemination… but as engagement
- 7. Research Communications – a Network of Participants and Beneficiaries Researchers Journalists Donors NGOs and practitioners Civil society organisations Policy makers Governments Individual beneficiaries All have different communication needs!
- 8. Effective research communications Distillation of research findings Use of plain language Making information accessible Tailored communications for different audiences Identification of the needs of the target groups Consider technical barriers, language and cultural factors etc
- 9. Three ingredients of effective communication Audience Message Channel Effective communication
- 10. Main delivery channels Publications Online Media Events
- 11. ‘Communication’ throughout research project Informing: Research agenda Methodological choices Comms strategy
- 12. Five key questions that your communications strategy should answer: 1. Objectives: What are the desirable outcomes from our comms activity 2. Audiences: Who do we want to influence and inform and what do we know about them? 3. Communications pathways: Who is best placed to communicate with each of our audiences and what are the best ways to reach them? 4. Timescales: When will be the best times to communicate? 5. Resources: What do we need - what might we have?
- 13. 1. Communication objectives What will success look like for the project? What do you want individuals/institutions to do as a result of your communications with them: Act differently; Think differently; Design or implement policies differently? How realistic are your objectives – what are the main barriers to your success?
- 14. 2. Audiences Who are you trying to reach? Why should they listen to you or care? Will they agree with you? Are they potential partners or opponents? What role might they play in the reearch’s design, delivery or uptake?
- 15. 3. Communications Pathways Who is best placed to communicate with each of your target audiences? Who has the skills, knowledge, contacts, legitimacy, networks? How do your audiences access information and what/who influences them? What kind of communication outputs/activities will be most effective in reaching your audiences? Blog, policy brief, workshop, report, media, journal?
- 16. 4. Timescale When will be the best time to influence policy or practice? What are the planned events and processes where you could present your research? Particular opportunities to collaborate with others? Are you tracking policy environment to support planning?
- 17. 5. Resources Have you already mapped out the activities you plan to undertake? What are the major resource implications – time, materials, skills? Will resource limitations or capability issues mean making any hard choices – how will you prioritise between desirable communications activities?
- 18. Choosing your communications outputs and pathways When Outputs and Resources Audience(s) Expected pathways outcomes Launch •Press release to Project comms officer Policy makers, Civil of national media and society orgs Awareness of project networks project and interest in •Launch Website Researchers, collaboration funders Year 1 •Launch Blog Researchers time and All Inform policy •Project e-newsletter support from comms debate officer •Working Papers Academics Grow credibility of online project Year 2 •Workshops $$$ Policy makers, civil Research design •Policy briefings society orgs and uptake •Working papers academics Year 3 High level roundtable $$ Policy makers Policy/practice Policy briefings $ NGOs, funders, changes Final report Comms officer decision makers Press conference Practitioners Influence research Journal articles Researcher’s time academics agendas
- 20. How to make messages stick – Simple – Unexpected – Concrete – Credible – Emotional – Stories Chip and Dan Heath (2006) Made to Stick
- 21. Framing your message You need to know Why should they listen? Why should they take action? What actions do you want them to take? Then tailor your core message? What you say – theories and arguments How you say it – language, style and format Who says it – appropriate messengers When, where and how you deliver
- 22. The analysis The recommendations What is the key What is the key issue? learning? How does it How will it affect people? benefit people? What is the What is the evidence? evidence for the solution? An example or Who/What killer fact? needs to change?
- 23. Elevator pitch Statement Evidence Example Call to action
- 24. Social media
- 25. Social networking Applications which enable users to connect by creating personal profiles and inviting ‘friends’ Friends can access each others profiles and other information and interact through message exchanges
- 26. How the internet has changed
- 28. Internet access in Africa Cheap Work College Mobile Cyber Inconvenient Café Convenient Fixed Internet Expensive
- 29. What’s in it for researchers? Quick and easy way to publish Raises researcher profiles more rapidly Ability to reach a larger audience
- 32. Blogging Short, crisp writing with a point to make from a provocative angle. A blog should invite thought, response, and dialogue. Questions, even rhetorical ones, are a good idea; they invite dialogue and comment. Links to other blogs, articles, (3 or 4 minimum) etc. are good Use quotes from other good articles and give credit. Especially reference & link to important bloggers, journalists A picture or a video embedded in the blog is great. For a picture, there must be copyright permission. Source: Planet Under Pressure email to bloggers
- 33. Twitter A micro-blogging site launched in 2006 500 million active users worldwide
- 34. What haven’t we covered! Tips for managing media interviews Writing policy briefs The theories behind research uptake M+E
Editor's Notes
- Ice breaker – tell your neighbour about an experience you have had of research communications.
- Ask participants why and write up their answers
- This morning we are mainly looking at effective communucations
- A DFID definition. Not an activity it is a process.
- A complex combination of research producers, knowledge intermediaries and research users – all these overlap. Lots of literature on role of knowledge intermediaries.
- Channel = communication pathway
- Somecomms activities are very resource intensive – for example general public awareness raising requires a lot of resources and impact can be hard to measure. What are your priorities – raising profile of institution/consortium versus targeted research uptake activities??
- Not a very good plan!
- Sticky messaging applies to all comms – policy brief, press release, media interview, workshop presentation.Keep SimpleUnexpected – things that surprise us or are counterintuitive are stickierConcrete – avoid abstract points – give examples – be specificCredible – credibility key to research uptakeEmotional – this could be controversialGood story telling is key
- This template can be particularly useful for a policy breifing
- 1 minute message – must be tailored to the specific audience
- People access the internet in different ways these days. Sharing web content, blogs, links to reports can be an agile and relatively easy way to find out about new research and also to share information.The proliferation of social media tools and ways to receive feeds of information mean that people now read what they want and how they want it.
- Why has internet access on mobile phones been a successProximity: There was the common theme that mobile internet usage correlates with the accessibility, affordability and quality of other ways to go onlineHits a sweet spotPerfect storm of circumstances and improving!Perceived cost (micropayments)Mobile as modem
- Quick show of hands to see who is on FB, who blogs, who Tweets, other platforms?
- Show Dev Horizons, Goverance blog, Duncan Green, MicroconIndividual blogs versus institutional onesLearning from Microcon blog
- Say what you have to say in 140/160 charactersShow IDS twitter – 10,000 followers Write a tweet on the workshop and I will tweet the best – id1comm5