[GUEST BLOG] BANG! SOCIAL IMPACT WITH OOMPH

Social impact is en vogue right now and, as is the way with all things fashionable, there’s a right way and a wrong way to present things. What’s becoming apparent as the world of social impact communications and media moves forward, is that the era of plight and lengthy whitepapers is coming to a swift end. With that in mind, let the social impact communications style guru give you some tips: Good strategy is the cornerstone of any communications piece: Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle is an amazing communications framework to keep in mind when you’re considering your strategy. Drake said it best: “A good strategy is a success story told backwards.” So if you start from your big, hairy, audacious goal and then break it up into chunks, figure out who you are talking to, and how to talk to them – then you’re on a good wicket. Measurement, transparency, accountability and personalization These are power: aren’t we lucky that we live in an era where technology allows us to measure our impact? Gone are the days of donor’s money going into the charity abyss; now we can tell our donors exactly where their money went and we can tell personal stories to create a more authentic between the impactor and the impacted. Check out how Charity:Water measures their impact (using sensors placed on each well) and tells very personal stories to their donors. Responsive design means you can transcend any device on the web: look, I know you don’t have a lot of money – or the money you do have should best be used doing the actual work you set out to do. That’s why, if you invest in responsive design, you have an effective design framework that adapts to any digital device it is viewed on. So you design something beautifully and functionally once and then it lives in all its glory across the vast information superhighway. Video is the opiate of the TL;DR generation: too-long;didn’t read – millennials just don’t have the attention spans that older generations had which means we need to move away from long-form text and whitepapers when we’re talking impact. Video doesn’t have to be an expensive thing either – smartphones from the past few years are starting to produce the kind of quality that is easily edited (in-house) and placed on free platforms like YouTube for everyone to access. As this industry, which is getting some well-deserved limelight, continues to evolve, we need to ensure we do our best to highlight the impact that is being created. It’s up to us to make it as easy as possible for people’s hearts to connect with a message and for their efforts to continue to create that life-changing work. To get the know-how on each of these points and discuss, hear from me and meet at Hatch’s next Social Club on January 25th.