Annie Neimand, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Center for Public Interest Communications research director, is the co-author of “Finding the Right Messenger for Your Message” published in Stanford Social Innovation Review on May 6.

Neimand, Samantha Wright and Max Steinman stress that trusted messengers are important to the success of any advocacy campaign. They offer eight archetypes and four audience contexts to help organizers find the right messengers.

According to the authors, “This article seeks to help readers better understand how to deploy an effective trusted messenger strategy in four different audience contexts. Drawing from our work in film-based advocacy across a range of social movements, we hope to leave you with actionable insights on how to collaborate with the right kind of messenger, and thus help your idea, innovation, or desired behavior take hold.”

The eight messenger archetypes include three who transform knowledge. They are the expert, the witness and the affected. Five messengers who transform values are the guide, the converted, the vanguard, the trendsetter and the friend.

The authors state that matching the messenger to the audience context requires understanding your audience including how knowledgeable and receptive they are. They provide four possible scenarios including reaching the “unaware,” activating “the stagnant,” breaking through to “the passive skeptic” and converting the “active skeptic.”

The authors add, “There’s no one-size-fits-all messenger strategy, but using these frameworks to choose the right one can help you strategically widen the range of possible voices to bring into the conversation and bring more specificity to your communications strategy.”

Posted: May 7, 2021
Category: Center for Public Interest Communications, College News
Tagged as: Annie Neimand, Stanford Social Innovation Review