In this report, you’ll find what they told us. So, what will you learn?
Without hard data to measure the effectiveness of different approaches to impact communications, the whole sector has spent years basing its communications on assumptions and educated guesses. Well, no longer.
This year, we surveyed impact communicators from 16 different countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. They represent impact themes as diverse as global health, nutrition, youth empowerment, justice and climate change.
Challenges & Solutions
‘Making my message relevant’ (64%), ‘finding the right channel’ (60%) and ‘making them care about my issue’ (58%) are the biggest issues faced by impact communicators of all types. We know many of you would say the same.
How they’re addressing these challenges varies, with many doing their best to create engaging content, but the majority neglecting some of the techniques best shown to improve engagement, like working with relevant influencers and using humour to draw audiences in.
Trust
How is the rise of online mis- and disinformation affecting audience’s trust in what impact organisations say? What are impact orgs doing to hold on that trust?
Here comes Artificial Intelligence
AI tools like ChatGPT are here and here to stay. But how are they being used by impact communicators? What do they think about its risks versus its rewards? Does AI pose as much of a threat to the integrity of online information as its naysayers believe? Though many impact communicators are already using AI tools in their work, they worry about what it all means.
Hard data and harder questions
This report gives us impact communicators a foundation to build on – some certainty in an uncertain world.
But it also raises new questions, around our use of language, our relationship with new technologies, our commitment to received wisdom about what really works when trying to engage people about important social, political and environmental issues.
But that’s ok. There’s more to come. Over the next few months, Makmende will be presenting a series of workshops and webinars to help impact communicators move forwards, discussing the latest tricks and techniques for creating authentic, engaging communications. Follow us to be the first to know.
