Defining Content Pillars for Advocacy Organizations (that actually generate influence)
I want to ask you a question. Is your advocacy organization’s digital content ecosystem a diner that has something for everyone, but everything is mediocre, or a niche restaurant that does one cuisine really well?
It’s easy to make the mistake of trying to cast too wide of a net with your content strategy.
That’s why the first thing we focus on in the SALT content methodology is Specificity.
Specificity is two-fold. First, you get specific on who you’re trying to reach.
Then you need to get specific on your content topics.
Instead of thinking about splitting your content mix by topic, consider our method instead.
60 Percent of Your Content is for Persuadables
Persuadables are the people who can take the direct action(s) that sustain your organization’s existence. 60 percent of your content needs to be geared toward them.
This group responds primarily to high-emotion content.
This could be an emotionally-charged rapid response to something like a court ruling. Or it could be an emotionally charged narrative, like a story of a constituent affected by the cause(s) you’re advocating for. This emotional connection is the precursor to likability, which is a vital component in the SALT methodology.
This group also responds to authoritative content, but that’s more for the validators.
30 Percent of Your Content is for Validators
Validators are the people with outsized influence over your persuadables, typically earned through their profession (i.e. journalists) or advocacy work within the community.
This group craves intellectual substance. You might be the most likable organization on the internet, but no one is going to risk their credibility to vouch for you if you don’t have a library of content that shows your org deeply understands the issue(s) at hand.In-depth long-form threads, newsletter issues, and blog posts appeal to them most.
10 Percent of Your Content is for Amplifiers
Amplifiers are the people who ideologically support your cause(s), but can’t take the direct action(s) that help your organization achieve its objectives.
They can still do 2 very useful things, though, and that’s amplify your content and make donations. This type of person appreciates a combination of authority-focused and likability-focused content, but the more emotionally charged it is, the more likely they are to amplify it.
Short-form threads, 60-second talking head videos, carousels, and memes are the best formats to reach these folks.
Tactic: Choosing your content topics
Now that you have a brief understanding of the 3 types of people you need to attract (I highly recommend reading the article I linked to in the intro), as well as the mix of content for targeting these 3 types, you need to select your topics.
Your umbrella, or primary, topic should be easy, as it’s the primary reason for your organization’s existence.
If your organization fights to protect reproductive rights, then you want to be talking about reproductive rights a majority of the time.
Within your Umbrella topic are a bunch of subtopics you can create content around.
For reproductive rights, these would be things like abortion access, contraception access, post-Dobbs law changes at the state level, and IVF and fertility treatment access, to name a few.
Then you can pick 1-2 adjacent areas that heavily overlap with your primary issue. One obvious one for reproductive health is maternal health. Once you have your topics selected, you’re ready to create some content. But I won’t lie to you…Creating good content will take you hours…time you probably don’t have. That’s where we come in.
Hire Bluethread Social to Build and Manage Your Digital Content Ecosystem
Newsletter. Educational email course. A presence on every social media platform. And most importantly:
An overarching strategy that capitalizes on the generated influence to achieve organizational mission objectives.
DM us this article on Threads or Instagram @Bluethreadsocial and we’ll do a free detailed audit of your current digital content ecosystem just for reading. This is a $99 value, AND it comes with actionable tactics whether we work together or not.
