An example: Unlock

Evaluate:

Unlock uses a blog to promote its work. Take a look at their blogs on their website and write a list of what you think works well, and how it could possibly be improved? What format is it in? Does this format make it easy to access for people who are unaware of the cause of Unlock and does this type of blog promote the cause to new people? Does it give regular updates on the campaign? Can it be used to create discussion and debate? Does it link readers to other relevant articles. Does it provide in-depth information? Is it too in-depth for people who just want to help the cause of convicted criminals?

An example: Time to Change. A mental health campaign aimed at men. The post showing a beer mat went viral on twitter and although the campaign used the real beer mats (merchandise) to spread the word; the tweet that went viral spread the message much more quickly than the beer mats themselves.

Evaluate:

It costs nothing to create a message, but can you guarantee it will go viral? What would help to get a message to go viral - sending to people with high social networking potential, now known as "influencers"? But is there a guarantee they will wish to share your message? It may also annoy people, if they feel they are having a message forced on them.

Evaluate:

Go to the Facebook and Twitter pages of these campaigns. Make a note of the key aim of each of these campaigns. Look at how many followers they have, and think about how the messages can be reacted to and shared quickly by followers. Do you think it is an advantage of social media to reach such wide audiences quickly by sharing and re-sharing, or tweeting and retweeting. For example the hashtag MeToo was used by 4.7m people in the first 24 hours of its launch! And all at not cost! It can also raise the campaign's profile, especially if you can get celebrities to endorse it. Social Media allows many different people to have input into a campaign. Social Media is also an environmentally friendly way to raise awareness.

What do you think may be a limitation of this way of promoting a campaign? It clearly raises awareness but does it create action? Does it actually inspire people to act or report such crimes?

In what way is Twitter, in particular, limited?

Evaluate:

It is the opportunity to for the campaign representatives to promote their cause by being interviewed on national and local radio stations, or to have people who have benefitted from their campaign telling their personal story on the radio.

It can add a human element where the listener can hear the campaigners speak with passion about the cause, or a victim or sufferer describe their personal experience, and it can reach a wide audience of listeners. For local issues then local radio is targeted at people who live in that area.

See local BBC radio Make a Difference website where local campaigns can promote good causes.

But think about the range of people listening - is the range of the audience always the people you want to reach?

But if your campaign has the funds then it will offer the following:

TV reaches a much larger audience than local newspapers and radio stations, and it does so during a short period of time. It reaches viewers when they’re the most attentive. It allows you to convey your message with sight, sound, and motion, which can give your business, product, or service instant credibility. It gives you an opportunity to be creative and attach a personality to your campaign.

Evaluate:

Look at the variety of issues that can be brought to the viewer's awareness in one film. By using a well known personality, with a personal experience, it immediately engages the viewer. It can inform us why knife crime is increasing, why it is under-reported, the ages of those involved, the experiences of gang members as children themselves, and what can society, the police and prisons do to help this situation.

Can you think of any limitations with a documentary such as this?

What about the nature of the content - it can be very emotive and upsetting. Is this a strength or a limitation?

Evaluate:

Go to the Basingstoke Gazette online, and see if you can find a local campaign for change.

What was reported?

What do you think the story achieved for the campaign?

Did the story have any facts and figures?

Did it ask for donations or involvement in any way from the reader?

Evaluate:

Go to the No Knives, better Lives website (link above) and look at how accessible it is. It has sections for young people, for teacher and other practitioners, and parents. This makes the campaign accessible to a wide range of people and also has interesting videos, events and resources available to those groups. It is a good way for anyone who wants to research a particular issue to find out more information. Websites also contain links to other sources of information.

But how does a website raise awareness of the campaign in the first place. Would you already have to interested or affected by the crime to access the website? Does a website raise awareness? Is there any guarantee that people will see the website? Or if there is too much information on a website, people can lose interest.

Remember creating a website can take a bit of time or specialist skills. If you are unable to do this for yourself then you would have to pay for a web designer.