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28 February 2007

Public Citizen in Social Media: E is for Effort

Not_my_pill_public_citizen Public Citizen, a DC-based health advocacy group, is incorporating YouTube in its effort to reach and educate young women (I think) about the dangers of a new generation of birth control pills. The behavior they want is for people to support their petition to the FDA to ban third-generation birth control pills. The campaign website includes a video posted on YouTube that could best be described as 'office made' (to distinguish it from 'home made'). Kate, the director of the clip, is an editor/administrative assistant at Public Citizen. So much for audience generated content.

I don't usually get into critiques of the observable elements of a campaign because I know from experience that a lot can happen from project idea to strategy development through creative executions.  But this one demonstrates all the wrong things to do so well that it makes a good case drama [an earlier review of campaigns using new media elements ]. And it looks completely home-grown and delivered - so no clients or agencies to blame.

Read through the press release, send a prescripted message about the campaign to a friend, listen to the language in the video, and fill out the e-form so that your pre-written message is successfully delivered to the appropriate target(s) - yes, that what it says!. A classic example of doing things the old way and sucking whatever passion someone might have been able to experience about the issue right out of them.

Suggestions

  1. Put the message into English if it's for young women - well, for anyone not a policy wonk.
  2. Get your audience, not interns, to do the videos (though in fairness, they are asking for content contributions from others. Hint: do that ahead of time.)
  3. Social sites like YouTube work when you get involved and encourage interactions and sharing of information and content among like-minded people (Kate did mention putting a Facebook profile up). Using YouTube as a repository link for a video from your otherwise static website is just using new technology in old ways.
  4. Give petitioners language they can pick and choose from if not create themselves. We all know how ineffective those scripted letters are.
  5. And why not try mobile - especially with this demo?

The old way is so much more... familiar?

via Online Media Daily

Posted at 09:50 PM in Social Media |

Tags: Advocacy, Birth Control, Public Citizen, Social Media

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  • Health communication campaigns to drive demand for evidence-based practices and reduce stigma in the HEALing communities study
    Describes the development of five communication campaigns that focused on naloxone, MOUD, and stigma reduction as part of a community intervention study (n=65) to reduce opioid deaths.
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    This book weaves together multi-level theories of change, research and case studies to explain and illustrate the development of social marketing to address some of society’s most vexing problems. The result is a people-centered approach that relies on insight and empathy as much as on data for the inspiration, design and management of programs that strive for changes for good. “This is it -- the comprehensive, brainy road map for tackling wicked social problems. It’s all right here: how to create and innovate, build and implement, manage and measure, scale up and sustain programs that go well beyond influencing individual behaviors, all the way to broad social change in a world that needs the help."
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    Bringing together seminal texts from diverse sources, this six-volume set organizes the field of social marketing, highlights its global scope and empirical contributions, and present its current growth and dynamism. Each volume addresses specific themes: conceptual frameworks and common ground, social marketing in the developed world, social marketing in developing countries, applications for sustainable behavior and environmental protection, and deepening and expanding its impact.
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  • The new technology: The consumer as participant rather than target audience
    The original argument against social marketers having "target audiences."
  • Consumer-based health communication
    The foundational work behind the creative brief as used today.
  • Social marketing and public health intervention
    The first widely cited article on using marketing for public health programs that focused on its application in community approaches to preventing heart disease. The essential principles still hold.
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