It’s been 15 years since the first set of UN Millennium Development Goals were established. They came at a time when digital was in its infancy (as were most of Snapchat’s current core user base).
A time before everyone had the opportunity to voice their opinions and influence those goals via likes, RTs, shares, online petitions on Avaaz and blogs on the Huffington Post.
Now, as the world gears up for the setting of the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals at a global conference later this year, focused on ending extreme poverty and addressing the problems caused by climate change, it begs the question: how exactly can the new digital democracy enable everyone in the world to have a presence in that room in September 2015?
With the 50th anniversary of the Selma marches being remembered this month, the 1960s African-American Civil Rights movement offers us one of the greatest examples of a perfectly executed campaign.
A series of people and organisation-led examples of small non-violent protest and civil disobedience (bus boycotts and sit-ins), coupled with a few stand-out newsworthy front page moments (marches) and some big names (Martin Luther King) combined to influence the key decision makers and, ultimately, change history.
This ‘ladder of engagement’ shows how people, organisations and influencers should work together, in different yet complementary ways, to have the greatest impact.
And in 2015, digital campaigning works in exactly the same way. No matter where they sit on the ladder – people, organisations, influencers, decision makers – everyone has a role to play…
The people
Can consumers truly influence the agenda for sustainable development beyond 2015 via their mobile phones?
Well, yes… their role is share, like, make as much noise as they can. The more noise made, the more it gives permission and makes it acceptable to talk about these issues.
The #FGM campaign is a great example. As recently as a couple of years ago, could we have imagined casually retweeting a tweet about female genital mutilation, or dropping it into conversation as we passed the gravy over lunch?
The #ArabSpring is another example – people were finally able to voice their frustrations without fear of reprisal, thanks to the sheer scale of the conversation and hashtag.
It’s all about creating so much noise that it becomes ‘unavoidable noise’. The ‘No More Page 3’ digital movement reached fever pitch and drove The Sun to end a 40-year institution. Malala Yousafzai, the global campaigner for girls’ education, was once just a blogger who refused to be ignored.
The organisations
How can organisations ensure their particular issue gets a mention when it counts?
The organisation’s role is to support the noise by adding weight to the topic. To ensure topics/issues have impact on those at the top table, evidence is key.
The Girl Effect has harnessed the voices of girls around the world and supported them with robust economic arguments around girls’ impact on the GDP of various countries based on hard evidence.
This has captured the attention of Ban Ki-moon and drawn support from key decision makers and influencers around the world, including Desmond Tutu.
With so many global issues vying for attention, cut-through is also imperative. To truly change hearts and minds, organisations should aim to employ a ‘newsjacking’ policy, to grab attention (and then back up their argument with evidence).
Greenpeace is extremely successful in this arena, using planned agility as part of its comms mix and gaining traction around everything from the #CometLanding to #TheDress.
The influencers and media
How should the influencers speak out for maximum impact?
The influencers’ role is to give the people’s noise and organisations’ evidence an audience. Emma Watson discussing gender equality to a capture audience at the UN goes a long way in furthering the causes of women everywhere on behalf of HeforShe.
The Evening Standard championing #FGM and The Dispossessed Fund has ensured leaders such as Boris Jonson are talking about this issue (and even sleeping on the street).
However, organisations should also be strategic in their choice of influencer to champion their cause. Justine Greening is more likely to be influenced by a blog from Leyla Hussein, a credible, multi-award winning campaigner on FGM and gender rights with 9,000 Twitter followers, than by top YouTube influencer Fleur de Vlog – even though the latter has enjoyed over 52 million views of her vlogs.
The decision makers
Their role? Simply to listen. David Cameron could have chosen any issue to get behind but he knows the noise is around #FGM, so he’s wisely chosen to get behind it.
The digital opportunities available to us now mean we have a chance to get closer to that group of 600 delegates sitting down in September – wherever we sit on the ladder of engagement.
This will be a defining moment in the history of our people and planet, and thanks to the last 15 years of digital development, you can have your say on the development goals.
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