Step 4: Identify the campaign audience

Highlights

By now you have identified the campaign's beneficiary. The next phase involves selecting your campaign audience. This step will include considering the campaign beneficiary themselves and all of the individuals or groups who may influence your campaign's beneficiary.

Two women talking on a bench

Social Ecological Model

Did you know?

There is extensive formative research from SAMHSA's launch of 988 that can provide audience insights as you move through this step.

The Social Ecological Model can help you gain a more nuanced understanding of the broader influences on your campaign beneficiary. This model is a framework to understand the complex interplay between people and their social, cultural, economic, and physical environments. It helps explain how multiple factors at different levels of society influence human behaviors:

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The social ecological model. Level four societal. Level three community. Level two relationship. Level one individual.
The Social Ecological Model demonstrates how these levels connect and influence each other.
  • Level 4 Societal – Broader cultural, economic, and political factors that shape behavior and health outcomes.
  • Level 3 Community – Characteristics of the local community, including social norms, resources, and services.
  • Level 2 Relationship – Interpersonal relationships with family, friends, peers, and social networks.
  • Level 1 Individual – Personal characteristics, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.

Suicide is a complex issue caused by a mix of different factors. The Social Ecological Model can help conceptualize the facets of a person's life that may influence their risk of suicide. It can help you identify gaps in knowledge or awareness of behaviors/resources that you and your organization can influence.

Interventions aimed at promoting health or behavior change should be specific about which level would be of primary focus. If your campaign is wellresourced, then addressing multiple levels at the same time could increase your effectiveness or impact. For example, you may choose campaign components focused on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, or Queer youth (individual level) and their parents (relationship level).

We all encounter a wide range of people, organizations, and institutions. Social dynamics can influence our choices, well-being, and perception of the overall quality of our lives. Take some time to think about:

  • Are we going to focus our campaign on the people in the disproportionately affected group, or others who may be a positive influence in their lives?
    • What group(s) or individual(s) can be a positive influence on our campaign beneficiaries?
    • What key institutions or organizations does the audience interact with that might be able to offer support?
  • What is the larger societal context, and what are the risk and protective factors that impact suicidality in our affected population?

Keep in mind

Remember, the disproportionately affected group is the campaign beneficiary. If you are communicating directly to them, they are also your campaign audience. If you choose to communicate with others in their lives, then the "other" group is your campaign audience. See the graphic below.

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A question tree to determine who your campaign audience will be.
Who is your campaign audience?

Creating a Social Ecological Map of your campaign beneficiary

Creating a Social Ecological Model persona can help you better understand what may influence the wellbeing of your campaign beneficiary. You have already identified some potential groups at higher risk of suicide in your community. Exercise 4 in the Brainstorm Book will walk you through creating a fictional person (also known as creating a "persona"). You'll then create a detailed Social Ecological Map based on what you know about them. Start with the individual as Level 1 and continue through each level of the model by listing the:

  • Relationships such as friends, relatives, teachers, and/or colleagues (Level 2)
  • Community influences such as institutions and organizations with whom the person might interact (Level 3)
  • Societal influences which the person has limited control over (Level 4)

The completed persona(s) can help you decide which level of the Social Ecological Model your campaign can impact. It could be the campaign beneficiary. It may also be any of their influencers in levels 2 or 3 such as:

  • Friends
  • Family members
  • School personnel
  • The medical community
  • Co-workers
  • Religious leaders

The focus of your campaign may be a group, but thinking in terms of a single person may be helpful. This can humanize your audience and help you think about the relationships, communities, and societal influences on their wellbeing.

Consider: How might you dig a bit deeper to better understand the influences/factors affecting this group? Who might you talk to? We have a few completed examples for "Dannika" and "Jeff." These are personas of people who are at risk for suicide. Dannika is a high school student and Jeff is a middle-aged military veteran. The entities in the graphics below are just one example of how you could fill your persona map. You will choose the ones more relevant to your audience.

Sample Social-Ecological Map

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The social-ecological model as a map
Social-Ecological Map
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Social-Ecological Map example for a woman named Dannika
Social-Ecological Map example - Dannika
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Social-Ecological Map example for a man named Jeff
Social-Ecological Map example - Jeff

Choose your campaign audience

It's time to choose your campaign audience! Which group do you think you can best influence to change behaviors? In the next step, you'll dig into this group to really get to know how best to engage them.

Learn how your audience talks about suicide

It is important to learn how your campaign audience reacts to, absorbs, and processes information about suicide and suicide prevention. This will help you draft content in a way that is compelling and actionable. Use available resources such as Brandwatch or Mention and social media to gather data about your audience's behaviors, preferences, and existing conversations related to suicide and suicide prevention. This step can also help you identify other organizations working with your campaign audience. Consider collaborating with them if you think their work is science-based, accurate, and high-quality. This collaboration can amplify their efforts and produce greater impact for your organization with less effort.

Learn where and how to engage your audience

Learning how your campaign audience engages with health information allows you to identify the best means of communicating with them. Consider the following to identify effective platforms for your campaign to reference or use like:

  • Hubspot, Hootsuite, Sprout Social or Pew Research Center to gather demographic data around who uses which social media platforms
  • Less traditional channels: podcasting platforms such as Spotify, streaming services like Twitch, non-digital media such as bus or radio advertising, or promotions through gaming platforms.

You can also search for where discussions about suicide and suicide prevention are already taking place among your campaign audience. Many ongoing discussions may be among people who have experienced loss from suicide. Conversations about loss can help you understand how people think and talk about suicide. You can:

  • Scan social media platforms and social media management tools
    • Find and review relevant hashtags
    • Use real-time social listening tools like Brandwatch or Mention to monitor specific keywords or hashtags
    • Explore trending videos and identify commonalities in popular content
  • Attend virtual or live events hosted by organizations whose mandate aligns to that of your campaign goals
  • Engage audience members by hosting focus groups. Consider hiring someone who has experience facilitating focus groups.
  • Develop surveys/polls to gather additional insights about your campaign audience's attitudes, knowledge, behaviors, or preferences.

Notice

There has been substantial reporting about websites that describe ways to die by suicide and encourage people to choose suicide. Many of these websites are on the dark web, which people can only access using special software and tools. However, some similar information may be accessible on public websites, such as Reddit. You may not be able to access all of these sites, but it may be worth determining the influence such sites might have on your campaign beneficiaries.

Keep in mind

Consider learning what your campaign audience likes about a communication channel and its features. For example, perhaps your audience uses Instagram. Do they like to engage with carousels, images with or without text, cartoon images or photos? Review and track metrics for posts to identify which types of features have the highest engagement.

Build from existing relationships in the community to deepen your understanding of your campaign audience

You will want to consider where people in your community get health information, community resources, support, or connection. This could include schools, community centers, religious institutions, healthcare settings, or other relevant community settings. See if any of those organizations may be willing to talk with you about how they're reaching your campaign audience. This might be a good opportunity to make new partners. You can collaborate with organizations rooted in the audience's community. This may include individuals with lived experience or groups that are working on similar efforts. These opportunities can help you glean valuable insights and enhance the reach of your campaign. Together, you can:

  • Share knowledge and best practices regarding information sharing with your campaign audience
  • Explore opportunities to develop joint campaigns or enhance efforts of the partner organization

Exercise 5 in the Brainstorm Book provides you with a list of questions to consider while you build your campaign. These questions can test your understanding of and help you identify additional information about your audience.

  1. What do you already know about the campaign audience?
  2. Are there any sub-audiences for whom the campaign should further refine messaging?
  3. How does this audience consume information? Do they use traditional media? If so, which specific types of traditional media? Do they engage on social media and which platforms do they use? Is there something else they prefer?
  4. Are there any influential or respected members of the campaign audience that you could consider inviting to be a trusted messenger? Or is there a trusted messenger that this audience would listen to?
  5. Have other behavior change efforts been effective with this population? If so, what can you learn from them?
  6. What other groups may already be working with this audience?
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Content Source:
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control