Expanding Digital Communications for Social Impact

We certainly like to hear what you think about the show . Now a question for my listeners how do you transform your digital communications to have the largest social media impact ? Well , my guest today has an answer , and that answer is provided in his new book Engage with Impact Five Steps to Transform your Digital Communications for Social Impact .

His book details a process that shows communications leaders how to accomplish this transition in five important steps . So joining me today from Lisbon , Portugal , is Nicolas Bruneau , a digital communications consultant working at the United Nations . So , Nicholas , welcome to the podcast .

I used LinkedIn to survey all of my connections and more , and I asked them has the pandemic helped your communications to be more agile and responsive to future changes ? And actually 83% said or agreed that the pandemic had actually helped them to be more agile and helped them try new things , to be more innovative .

Thankfully , in the survey I also had a lot of space for people to give their comments , to give their suggestions , what went well , what didn't go so well .

It really gave me a treasure trove of information , and then from that , I decided then to do a series of interviews of communications directors to hear how they were changing the way that they were communicating , to get some success stories , to get really some input and to really then bring all that together so that it was going to be a book that was not just

about theory but also about how people are really changing on the ground , and really something that was going to be inspiring for communications managers worldwide .

So how can you then take that into a framework that can then help people ? So I took all of the comments and the suggestions and developed something that I call the Agile Framework . So the Agile Framework is five steps , which starts internally .

So internally , it's adopting a startup mentality , so developing that mentality where you're really thinking like a startup , developing systems and better collaborations internally , and then go digital first , which is really adopting new tools and tactics so that you can really innovate online and get people's's attention on social media and inspire with personal stories , and

that's about really having authentic stories and tension with some storytelling strategies . And then leverage your content is repurposing and that's I think we all know that we have limited time and resources , so it's important to then have a repurposing , and that's I think .

We all know that we have limited time and resources , so it's important to then have a repurposing strategy .

So that's all about making the most out of the content and the resources that you have and finally , it's bringing it together so that you empower your community , so having that digital funnel where you're getting your social media subscriber , your social media followers , subscribers , to then become participants and then finally to become advocates .

So it's really trying to sort of take people through a process where they're changing the way that they're communicating and first , you know , learning to run , learning to walk before they can run , for my apologies so that they can internally develop the systems for them , and then externally , then building up that community online and then in person .

If I'm going to go into the business , what am I going to bring with me ? What are some of the obstacles going to be ? All those kinds of things .

But in terms of making this shift , if you will , from just the outreach but into shifting your communications over to the digital side , what are those startup issues that they need to address and conquer and solve , if you will ?

The European Commission needed to fight disinformation and they needed to do so by reaching out to the scientific community . They needed to do by getting internal and external experts to really work together very quickly so they set up those systems . And then the second part is also innovating , being creative and having an attitude where you can accept failure .

I think that a lot of organizations , big companies , nobody wants to fail and what happens is then it becomes paralysis , where you're not evolving , you're not learning , you're not trying new things .

So the importance of failure is also a key factor for a startup , where they can learn , they can see the analytics and they can see what's happening and they can then adapt right . So on a concrete level , one example in the book is an NGO called Candid that decided that they wanted to experiment with short form videos .

They decided that they would have a three month period specifically where they would test 20 short form videos and they would look at the analytics . They would look at what works , what content works , what platforms are doing better , and then use that intel afterwards to then build a strategy longer term .

So it allows them to have an experimental approach that is not going to be , let's say , something that is going to use up a lot of resources , that is not also going to make a lot of waves , because it's only 20 videos . So it allowed them to then progress into that and see how they can move forward . So it's really adopting that startup mentality .

We're trying new things and you're really collaborating internally .

I didn't know anything about podcasts and a lot too many times when people think that they might fail or do fail at something , they stop because they don't want that again , I looked at it differently because , you know , because I didn't do it right meant that I did not know what I was doing , and then I went back to .

I have two things that keep me going . On this one , when people talk about Henry Ford , obviously you know he built these trucks , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah . And then he said he was going to shift the cars . And Henry , you don't know anything about cars .

He says , well , that's true , but I'm going to hire some people who do know about cars , and those happen to be the Dodge brothers . So he had cars . And then I looked not too long ago when he had to get into the rockets that took people up to the space station . Elon Musk , he had five rockets , five and he invested his own money .

The first four all exploded and went to hell . The fifth one made it , and that's the one that got him on to now this billion dollar contract that he has . So it's a question of you know . If you don't know , bring in some people that do . There's nothing wrong with that . I told some people I was going to produce a CD .

I don't read music nor do I play any music , but I produced a jazz CD . I found out I had to have licenses from people , got their permission , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah , and I got it done .

So what I'm basically saying is that , yes , you might not know how to do this the first go-round , but ask somebody , bring people in that do , and don't just see failure as well . Wait a minute , I didn't get it right this time . I need to add tweak , tweak it or do whatever , and let's try it a different way .

But success , failure should not be the game , be the beginning of you're not doing something . It should be your launching pad for saying what do I need to correct them the correct way ?

So you have to have that mentality where you're trying to learn but , as I said , trying to have it in an experimental and a controlled manner so that it obviously doesn't take too much of your time and also doesn't have too much of a negative impact . We can also have an attitude where we're going to be open to new ideas .

So in my book as well , I talked about the campaign that went really badly for the European Commission , where they had a video that was not well received to encourage people , encourage women , to go into STEM education , going to science fields , and they had a video that really didn't respond to the reality . People then complained about the video .

So what they did is they decided , well , let's encourage people from the scientific community to then create videos , let's crowdsource the campaign and let's really get people involved , and so they learn from that .

So by having a failure , they really learned how to then developed crowdsourced campaigns and now , more and more , you're seeing the European Commission develop campaigns that are that are first of asking people you know what their opinion is and asking them to contribute with videos or solutions , so to really have that bottom-up approach as opposed to that top-down

approach .

You know , one of the things that I do I mean I say this publicly now but it took me a while to get around to it . But I , being young , foolish and immature , I was kicked out of college twice . But when I finally went to the military I changed my attitude and approached a lot of different things .

So when I speak to college students now , my opening comment is this how does a guy like me , who got kicked out of college twice , wind up working for the President of the United States ?

Personal stories can certainly be a motivator in having people accomplish what it is you're saying that they do in terms of , you know , shifting their communications over to the social media platforms . Personal stories will certainly be a driving force in helping that happen .

And trying to show how you're trying to deal with that challenge and that's really what is going to get people to be interested about your story is not just , basically , you talking about how great you are or how great your organization is , but what are the challenges that you're facing and how are you dealing with it ?

And sometimes it doesn't go the way that you'd like it to , but people are interested in that and that's what really gets eyeballs on . Content is when you have a story that is really authentic , genuine and really shows , like , the difficulties that you're facing and you're dealing with it to try to find some solutions .

So she organized an event inspired by the book and she asked me to speak . So that was really nice to see that it is having an impact and as well , you know , I think that it's .

I was also asked to speak in Brussels for the European Commission where they asked me how can the Agile framework help us to build a community , to then , you know , not only to have a great social media presence but then also build community and then have , you know , new partnerships . So I went there as well to speak and give them a workshop about that .

So I think it's great when you have this feedback , that is great , that is constructive , and I've also tried to make it , as I guess the book , to make it as useful as possible . So there's like a list of tips and a workbook and all this stuff to help people on the way to when they read it .

But we hadn't thought about , you know , all the great content and all the great discussions that we could be working from that event so that , instead of the event being the last , you know the finish line , it should be the midpoint , so that if you've organized the event well , then you have all this content that you can then use throughout the year about .

You know , different topics , using it for either a blog , podcast , video , different ways in which you can use the content , maybe even make a report out of it , get some recommendations , so that you're really creating something that is going to have some legs after the event and help you continue to build your content .

So it's having that mentality where we're creating something like a video , for example , you're already thinking ahead . How am I going to then take this 30-minute video , for example , of someone speaking into short-form videos for social media , into a podcast , into a blog and sometimes , of course , you can use AI to repurpose that .

For me , ai is a great repurposing tool . It allows you to keep your brand but , at the same time , different pieces of information in different formats . So if you're able to do that as well , it strengthens your brand .

And I think the final one too you mentioned something about , I think you said , sort of engaging your , empowering , your community . Add a little bit to that too as well , so that folks can get some additional ideas .

can engage people online and also trying to then take that engagement and those people from social media to then join your email newsletter , for example , so that you're able to capture their details and you're not dependent on them being on social media , for example , and you're able to have that direct relationship and then from that , so using a kind of a digital

funnel approach , where then you're able to , thanks to them being on the newsletter , have them attend virtual events , for example , or real live events , and then gradually they start to know you , you better , they start to be more engaged and it becomes more of a relationship as opposed to just someone liking a post .

So it's really building that community , and a good example why in in the book as well is the malala fund , where they developed a newsletter specifically for girls , talk about the challenges that they're facing , getting the education that they need or facing certain issues around the world and first they thought you know , let's just do a newsletter where we interview

different girls and different people from our community . But then they had so much interest for people to contribute and send their information , send their stories and contribute directly to the newsletter that they became a whole microsite on its own . It became a whole community where the girls are each other . It's really a win-win where the Malala Fund .

Now they not only have a great newsletter that helps to support their message that every girl should have access to a negate , and but they they're also able to engage with this community and also organize even small events where whenever Malala you service I is in certain countries , she'll meet some of the these young advocates and really it really builds that sense

of community and I don't think there's anything stronger , you know , for a brand , for an organization , to really do that , to really have that high touch uh communication approach well , nicholas , you really provided us with a lot of insight about this book of yours and the benefits that it brings .

I really appreciated you coming on the show today , and again for my guests , you've been listening to Nicholas Bruno talk about the benefits of his book Engage with Impact Five Steps to Train your Digital Communications for Social Impact , and he's let you know exactly where you can get and the benefits of reading it that come with that book .

So , nicholas , once again , thank you so very much for being a guest on the podcast today .