Lecture and additional material delivered at Southampton Solent University, November 2012

1. Networked Campaigning
in the Third Sector
simon collister
Senior lecturer @ University of the Arts, London
PhD candidate @ Royal Holloway, University of London

2. > Who Am I?
Bio in a tweet-worthy 140 characters:
> Snr lecturer University of the Arts, London
> Phd student @ RHUL, University of London
> Ex-(and occasional) we are social consultant

3. > What we’ll cover today
• Set out some context around social media and
the third sector
• Map out a conceptual framework to
(hopefully) help us make sense of our
increasingly networked environment
• Bring the framework to life with pertinent
examples of campaigns

4. Social Media & The Third
Sector: some context

5. > Social media is mainstream
Universal McCann Social
Media Tracker Wave 5
October 2010

6. > No longer ad hoc

7. > Professionalised
“How do you consider your
organisation’s use of social media?”
• Organisational
adoption of social
media becoming
increasingly
professionalised
(and commercialised)
Source: Alimeter Social Readiness Report 2010

8. > What does this mean for
the not-for-profit sector?

9. > Period of intense change
“If the late 19th century was the „golden age‟
of mutual institutions, clubs and
societies, the early 21st century is a new
golden age of networks and online
communities” (Griffiths 2007)

10. > Helped by the social web
• Early Internet built by
corporations and
Government
• Emerging social web
being built by networks
of individuals

11. > Causing power shift
“Organisations are
increasingly being by-
passed and power is
shifting away from top-
down hierarchies and
towards more fluid and
participative networks”
(Griffiths 2007)
Image via Dave Gray

12. > And internal challenges
Image via Dave Gray

13. Source: Visceral Business Social Index 2012

14. > The challenges
1. Maintain a
balance > 2. Identify and
adopt new > 3. Develop new
organisational
between repertoires of structures and
traditional and networked cultures
networked campaigning
campaigning

15. 1. Networked campaigning

16. > Networked campaigning
“Networks and campaigns can be
allies, but they ultimately have cross-
purposes. Campaigns share tasks but not
authority with their supporters.”
(Sifry 2008)

17. > Think about
UKUncut
> Networked campaigning > Traditional campaigning
> Shared authority > Shared tasks
> Hard to control > Centrally controlled
> Scales and spreads rapidly > Capacity building takes
time and resources

18. > New strategic drivers
• These emerging networked campaigns characterized
by two key drivers – social and technological:
1. Social capital > Networks motivated by rewards from
social cooperation to achieve shared goals
2. Self-organisation > Advocacy networks being created
by self-organised groups enabled by the Internet

19. > Obligatory Obama reference
• My.BarackObama balances networks and
campaign tactics

20. • 2008 campaign was primarily powered by email to
mobilise supporters
• 2012 campaign made greater use of social…

21. 2. New network repertoires

22. > Reper-what?
• Charles Tilly developed notion of ‘collective action
repertoires’ which identify:
“a limited set of routines that are learned, shared
and acted out through a relatively deliberate process
of choice. Repertoires are learned cultural creations”
(Tilly 1995)

23. > New campaigning approaches
• Chadwick (2007) updated notion of repertoires to
‘digital network repertoires’
• These:
a. Build (distributed) communities of trust
b. Create appealing (and convergent) forms of online action
c. Fuse (sub-)cultural and political discourses
d. Create and tap into online networks

24. a. Communities of Trust

25. > 38 Degrees
• UK’s first community-led
campaigning
organisation?
• Community determines
campaign agenda
• Mobilised rapidly
across range of actions

26. > Robin Hood Tax
• dsd

27. > Robin Hood Tax
• dsd
“Once the campaign launched it become clear that
people were keen to engage with the RHT coalition
brand, and the place for those conversations became
social media, particularly Facebook. Within a week
of launch we had a community of 100,000
plus. From there we invested approx 80% of digital
capacity of the campaign to social media. This was
not something we had planned to do but it
happened organically and we responded by shifting
resources.” (Interview with Anna Nolan, RHT)

28. > My.actionforchildren
• sasa

29. b. Fun, convergent actions

30. > Amnesty and S-Hell
• sasa

31. > Love Lewisham

32. > Panda Made Me Do It
Waterside
Challenge
Choose Ecover
Good Blue Mile
Wood
Earth
Book

33. c. Fuse cultural and
political discourses

34. > Fuse cultural/political discourse

35. > Not just big budget!

36. > Lots of scope with memes
#firstworldproblems

37. d. Create and tap into
networks

38. > MyDavidCameron
• dsdsd

39. Lush’s #FoxyForce

40. 3. New organisational
structures

41. > Internal challenges
“This new stuff – let’s call it
social media – is disruptive and
transformative inside the
organisation.”
(Bridger 2010)
But in what ways…?

42. > Organisational hybridity
“New organisational forms are emerging that exist only in hybrid
form and could not function in the ways they do without the
Internet.
These “hybrid mobilization movements” blend functions
traditionally associated with political parties, internet groups and
social movements.
Fast “switches” between online and offline realms, and within
and between campaigns, are emerging as characteristics of
contemporary … mobilization.”
(Chadwick 2007)

43. > Organisational responses
• Digital network repertoires and organisational
hybridity force charities to reconsider their
structure and reorient activity around
demands of new networked dynamics
• What might this look like?
• Oxfam case study follows…

44. > Reconfiguring a non-profit
Re-configuring a UK-based charity’s strategy for a
networked world meant aligning three activity strands:
1) Movement building – e.g. long-term establishment
of and engagement with core Oxfam supporters for
fundraising, campaigning and service delivery
2) Advocacy and Influencer campaigns – e.g. short-
term campaigns delivered through Oxfam and by co-
opting strategically aligned networks
3) Strategy planning and innovation – e.g. Ongoing
research, planning and co-ordination of Strands 1 &
2 to ensure all activities aligned with strategic vision

45. > Strands 1 & 2
Movement building
Advocacy Advocacy Advocacy
TIME

46. > Adding Strand 3
Movement building
Planning and innovation
Advocacy Advocacy Advocacy
TIME

47. > Plotting Repertoires
> Foster communities of distributed trust
> Create appealing and convergent forms of online action
> Fuse (sub-)cultural and political discourses
. . .
> Create and build on sedimentary online networks

48. > Creating a networked
campaigning strategy

49. > Strategy
development

50. > Setting objectives
• Top-line objectives need to be refined for movement
building and advocacy:
1. Movement building
• Longer-term; generic pro-poor change;
emphasis on engagement and authority sharing
2. Advocacy
• Short-term; linked to specific issues; emphasis
on task sharing

51. > Networked campaigning strategy
PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3 PHASE 4
Research & Establish
Movement building Advocacy
benchmarking foundations
• Planning &
• Activate on and
creating value
• Identify relevant off-sit community
frames
audiences/network engagement
s • Activate on and
• Devise actions
• Real-time off-site advocacy
• Identify and community
• Align with wider
analyse relevant engaging • Execute proactive
internal strategy
conversations actions
documents
• Execute proactive
• Campaign / issue actions • Execute reactive
• Create internal
benchmarking actions
guidelines &
• Execute reactive
toolkits
actions

52. > Mapping activities
>Movement building
- Ongoing engagement with core organisational networks/communities
> Research
- identify audiences, understand value frames & benchmark;
ongoing tracking to feed-back into planning
> Establish foundations
- set-up operational toolkits/guidelines; devise frames; create
actions
. . .
> Advocacy
- Create, co-opt and activate advocacy networks/communities

53. > Phase 1: Research
• Research needs to be completed
to understand and plan both
movement building and advocacy
activity. It should:
– Identify: volume and themes
of conversations about
organisation/key issues
– Who’s having these
conversations and where
are they taking place?
– Where are the points of
influence within this space
(bloggers, forums, forum
members, etc)

54. > Phase 2: Create foundations
• Foundations should be developed centrally to support both
delivery strands, yet remain flexible to allow switches
between activity
• Foundations should include:
– Using research insight to create specific online frames or to feed into
broader strategic frame development
– Using research insight and wider campaign strategy to devise
appropriate actions
– Establishing roles and responsibilities, e.g. community managers vs
campaigners; national vs regional etc
– Creating internal guidelines, frameworks and protocols for effective
management and measurement

55. > Phases 3 & 4: Activation
• Content planning
– Specific content & action strategy should be created to meet objectives
– Content could include: existing materials repurposed for social media;
conversational content created in line with guidelines; original social
media content where appropriate; relevant third-party content
• Channel planning
– Again, specific channel strategies should be created in line with agreed
protocols, e.g. defining the roles and priorities of the organisation’s
central platforms vs regional or campaign specific ones
– It’s likely movement building activity will focus on the organisaiton’s
current core platforms, e.g. Facebook, Twitter; blog(s); etc with advocacy
being dovetailed or conducted across third-party networks/platforms

56. > What this might look like
ESTABLISH
FOUNDATIONS
FRAMEWORK
ORGANISATIONAL OPERATIONAL EXECUTIONAL
• establish relevant social • Conversation • content creation
media platforms management & distribution
• define their roles guidelines • community management
• agree national / regional • Tone of voice guidance • conversation management
management structure • content strategy • social advertising
• align campaign strategies • content sign-off • influencer engagement
• integrate with wider process • internal launch
campaign activity • social media training • Internal reporting and
• monitoring and • internal comms comms
measurement framework • crisis protocol • listening, responding and
measuring
Phases 1 & 2 Phases 3 & 4

57. > Questions?
simon.collister@gmail.com
@simoncollister
www.simoncollister.com

58. > References
• Bridger, S. (2010) Putting People at the Heart of your Social Media
Strategy. Slideshare Presentation. [Online] Available at:
http://www.slideshare.net/mexicanwave/putting-people-at-the-heart-of-
your-social-media-strategy
• Chadwick, A. (2007). Digital Network Repertoires and Organisational
Hybridity. Political Communication, 24:283–301.
• Griffiths, M. (2007) ICT Foresight: how online communities can make the
internet work for the Voluntary and Community Sector. London: NCVO.
• Shirky, C. (2009) Here Comes Everybody. London: Penguin.
• Sifry, M. (2008) Keynote lecture at ‘Web 2.0 Politics‘ *Online+ Available at
http://www.simoncollister.com/simonsays/2008/04/royal-holloway.html
• Tilly, C. (1995). Contentious repertoires in Great Britain, 1758–1834. In M.
Traugott (Ed.), Repertoires and cycles of contention (pp. 15–42).
Durham, NC: Duke University Press.