📚 Planning From Your User’s Journey

Welcome Back! 👋🏼

2023 pulled us in all kinds of directions! Finding the perfect social media platforms for your message as user experience deteriorates, understanding the new email requirements, and more. Last year social media felt very uncertain, this year it seems to be email. This week, we're looking at how we can look at the bigger-picture strategy to better prepare for the end of the platform era. Read on for more...

On Tap This Week
🌱 The Less Stress Strategy Process
🌱 Plan From Your User’s Journey
🌱 Own Your Content & Data
🌱 Navigating Tech & Comms News
🎪 Building Accessibility into Practice

The Less Stress Strategy Process

The last three years have been a tumultuous time for most industries. Non-profit communications, especially digital outreach, have not been spared from the cloud of uncertainty after rapid changes brought on by greedy corporate interests on the heels of an unprecedented pandemic.

Modern-day communications require organizations and activists to be experts in the rails at which we communicate. It’s no longer possible to reach a wide audience easily and organizations have to be smart about the social media, email, websites, media, and places where they put their messages so they can be heard by the right people.

The pandemic era has made this much harder. Social media’s rapid dominance could not have been predicted. The crumbling of traditional television has left a vacuum. And most of us are at the whims of algorithms impacting what content is deemed “professional” by the conservative, mostly male CEOs in tech and media.

Algorithms are changing and influencing what social and political issues get amplified and which ones get buried. All while the full scope of AI looms in the distance.

It’s hard to know which channels organizations need to be on. Is it still appropriate for more progressive organizations to be on Twitter? Will I miss my fundraising or conversion goal because I don’t join Threads? Why did my reach suddenly drop? Should I be on many platforms or only focus on a few?

🌺 Flowering & 🍋 Fruitful Member Zone

For February, use the below discount link to upgrade and get 10% off your subscription forever (or however long you want!). Upgrade as an organization or social change communicator.

• 📚 Podcast SEO Tips - search engine optimizations is just as important in podcasting, especially in a crowded landscape.
  • 🤓 The Root 🌱 - In a sea of content, discovery can be challenging for new or indepedent podcasts. Learn small tricks with keywords, episode titles, and descriptions can help you grow organically.
• 📚 AI Steals Our Writing - New reporting from 404 media shows a deeper web of companies and bots scrapping and then stealing content to profit off of it without the creators knowledge.
  • 🤓 The Root 🌱 - More attention will be paid to the profitability of AI, but underneath the business model is stolen work from real humans.
• 📚 Creator Platform Comparison Calculator - As the creator economy has been shaken up and people look for alternatives to Substack, use this comparison calculator.
  • 🤓 The Root 🌱 - Creator platforms that help creators monetize can often have hidden fees involved. Some platforms charge a % fee, while others use a flat monthly fee. This calculator shows the real value cost to help you make an informed decision.

Building Accessibility into Practice

Looking to brush up on your accessibility skills? Join Britt Holmes and I on Valentine's Day 💕 for Set Yourself Up's February lunch & learn where we are talking about building accessibility into practice in your communications.

This free, 30-minute monthly Zoom session is meant to help democratize digital communications knowledge for organizations, campaigns, entrepreneurs, and activists who are working toward social change. Learn more about the free series here. We hope to see you there!

🎟 RSVP! Join us on Wednesday at 12:30pm EST/9:30am PST 💕

And that's a wrap on this week’s newsletter! We hope you found this helpful in your work. If you have any topics you want covered or have any questions, please respond to let us know.

In Solidarity,
Sam Chavez
Roots of Change Founder

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🌱 about the roots of change agency

The Roots of Change Agency was founded to support nonprofits, campaigns, and activists to avoid burnout and tell empathetic stories to cultivate connections that empower social change. We were founded in 2020. Learn more.

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