I remember in my earliest years as a political volunteer that I felt an intense repulsion to the idea of helping with a letter writing campaign. In the early 2,000s, on the leading edge of social media platforms, such campaigns were far more prevalent than they are today. Advocacy organizations built strategies around helping their volunteers share personal impact stories with elected officials.
In the years since Facebook stormed into our lives and gave us all a broad platform to share mass media and memes, we’ve lost a beat on that personal narrative strategy. And it’s a bigger loss, a bigger failure, than we may realize.
There’s a really good chance that you may not have heard about the the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF). A nonpartisan non-profit, CMF works to improve the relationship between congressional staff and advocacy organizations by providing training and recognizing best practices. They also happen to have decades of research on just what moves the needle for legislators when considering bills before them.
In scouring through their research it’s easy to see there’s a severe disconnect between what works and what advocacy groups still seem to prioritize.
What did CMF find?
The team at CMF interviewed representatives and their staffs and focused on two metrics that stuck out to me: a) communications tactics that those members and staff consider “effective” in helping a member come to a decision; and b) the frequency with which they experience those communication tactics. For instance, a member may find a clearly defined “ask” as helpful, but they may not often receive that clearly defined ask.
The rubber meets the road in two categories for me. Nearly 80% of federal legislators find it helpful to receive a “personal story” related to a bill or issue in coming to a decision. BUT, less than 20% of those same legislators report frequently receiving those personal stories. Fewer than 1 in 5 are being told, regularly, by their constituents how a specific bill relates to their life or livelihood.
More astonishing? Over 9 in 10 representatives find that information about a bill’s impact on their district is helpful while less than 1 in 10 frequently receive those impact analyses. Advocacy groups are asleep at the wheel when it comes to their own narratives and don’t even realize it.
So what happened?
I’ve admittedly not got the data to back this up, but I bet it has a lot to do with how we are using social media as an activation tool these days.
I danced around this concept in an earlier post in this series: On Hashtags, Fax Machines and Cults of Personality. But in short, as social media has evolved over the past 15+ years the balance between social and media has gone awry. Legacy platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have become more heavily utilized as Media platforms, while others like LinkedIn and TikTok (though to a diminishing degree) have remained true to the Social interaction roots of social media.
I believe there’s an argument to be made that while those legacy platforms have been evolving, our actions have been conditioned toward formulaic approaches as organizations. We see social media campaigns as tangible, visible deliverables that activate our membership. Worse, our volunteers have come to expect that those approaches are just as effective as others. But by creating one-size-fits-all content to be shared, liked and commented on, we’re leaving less and less room for our advocates to convey their narratives.
If the CMF research is showing us anything, it’s that those formulaic approaches are diminishing our value in the legislative process. We have to find new ways to put our advocates’ own stories, experiences, and impact analyses front and center in our advocacy and communication strategies again. Otherwise, something like 80% of decision makers will never hear what they need to make a critical decision on an issue.
When I was a younger advocate, my issue with letter campaigns was that I was…well…lazy. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Even then I wanted the easy way out and a form letter approach so I could just sign my name and move on. But what we had right in those earlier years was encouraging our advocates to share their stories directly. It’s time to get back to those basics.
In our own social media campaigns, we need to facilitate opportunities for those narratives. Short videos, live events, interactive graphics – the tools are all there. Let’s put them in front of our people and empower them to reach those decision makers in truly effective ways.
Next week, I’m planning to dive into some stories about ineffective strategies I’ve seen from groups over the years. I hope you’ll check in! And in the mean time, tell me what you think about my assertion here today. Do you think we’ve tried to make it too easy for our advocates? Has that degraded our quality? Drop a comment and let me know!
Part of the Possible 