Kairos is an ancient Greek term for the right or opportune moment to take action. The Greeks associated it with archery, referring to that split-second when an arrow, correctly fired, will hit its target with the greatest possible impact.
Today we use Kairos to refer to that perfect moment when an argument will have the best chance of changing minds and turning political tides.
Kairos can be a challenge for digital media because information moves so fast. It’s easy for the perfect moment to pass us by.
While we might not be able to stop time, New/Mode campaign tools are fully editable so that they don't get stuck in last week's kairos. To ensure that your tools always have good timing, we highly recommend tweaking and revising your supporter content as you go.
Respond to the shifting political climate, media conversation, and to the reactions of supporters and targets using these four strategies:
Set Up Templates For Quick Tool Launches
A sudden policy change, news bomb, or negotiation breakdown can demand really fast action from your organization. A rapid digital response is invaluable for pulling together your existing community on the fly. You want your supporters to see a story in their news feed, and be able to instantly turn to you for a tangible, actionable response.
This is one of the reasons that setting up Templates for your campaign can be so valuable. Campaign tool templates can be pre-formatted with your organization’s branding and boilerplate, allowing you to quickly go to your New/Mode organization Dashboard, create a tool based on an existing template, and get campaigning in minutes.
Quick deployment of a time-sensitive campaign tool will also allow your organization’s first response on social media to include a link to an immediate action that supporters and their social networks can take. There’s no better time to have an action in place than that split-second when a fresh miscarriage of justice hits the proverbial front page.
Update Based on Testing
When you first launch a campaign tool, we always recommend that you test it thoroughly. This doesn’t just entail making sure that targets and emails are working. You also want to be sure that your look, feel, and content are making the connections so crucial to creating a real, quantifiable movement of the people.
To be sure that you’re on-message, test a new tool on several different demographics, including members of your organization, as well as folks who might be less familiar with your campaign. Develop a go-to group of ‘beta testers’ including friends, non-experts, and hey, add mom to the list and see what she thinks. The idea here is to get as wide a range of responses as possible, so that you have a sense of what to expect from your supporters before a tool launches.
Revise Based on Success and Feedback
As soon as a New/Mode tool goes live, it starts to generate information about who’s landing on it, who’s clicking on it, who’s taking the next actionable step prompted by your Thank You Page and Thank You Email, and if you’re using A/B Testing, which messages are hitting home.
It also starts to generate responses, often directly from targeted decision-makers who may reply to supporter emails, respond on social media, or speak to supporters over the phone.
Use all of this information to update tool content, drive conversions, and ensure that messages sent to targets are not only being heard, but demanding action.
You may also want your campaign message to evolve as it progresses. For example, on tools with highly customizable content, like an LTE Tool or a Call Tool, you can change and update key talking points every few days so that messages to newspapers and targets stay fresh and relevant. Keep your story growing!
Respond to the Media Narrative
When you’re working on a campaign that is moving at the speed of today’s news cycle, the story being told by the media is changing every day. To keep your campaign tool content relevant, update your Call to Action, Key Points, and images to respond to the shifting narrative and the language being used in media conversations.
Part of keeping your campaign tool content ultra-responsive is knowing where your supporters and prospective supporters are getting their news. Keep a database, and try to:
- Employ buzzwords and key terms that the members of your community are seeing in their newsfeeds.
- Avoid ‘dog whistle’ messaging that obscures the clarity of your agenda across demographics.
- Know the difference between national and regional headlines. What terms are being used on the global stage vs. in the news cycle of a city, county, or state? Edit your content to speak to the supporters to whom your campaign is most geographically relevant.
- Be prepared to change tools. As a campaign progresses and the story shifts, an existing tool might need to evolve. For example, if you’re running a Twitter campaign, but find that the media is focusing on personal narratives, it might be time to launch an LTE tool, and get your supporters sending their stories into local newspapers.