NAACP's Strategic Communication Plan

An image of the text messages sent by the NAACP as part of their Strategic Communication Campaign

Strategic communication campaigns are a vital part of an organization's many vehicles that are utilized for public outreach. The campaigns can be used in the emergency of a public relations nightmare or to just simply touch bases with a desired audience.

Recently, we got the opportunity to witness a strategic communication plan implemented by the NAACP, in response to the State of Florida V. George Zimmerman trial verdict. The NAACP sent out mass text messages to people affiliated with the group the read "Tell  friends to text JUSTICE to 62227 to demand that the DOJ address the travesties of this tragedy by filing a civil rights violation against Zimmerman."

Without getting into any details of the trial, this was a perfectly timed and executed strategic communication plan by the NAACP, as it was created prior to the conclusion of trial, sort of as an insurance policy that was to be used just in case the verdict announced was not in their favor.

A snapshot of the NAACP's homepage during the trial.

For some strategic communication plans, measuring their success can prove to be quite difficult as there is no typical mathematical formula in use, for their measurement. However, from the plan implemented by the NAACP, measurement is easy and can be compiled using simple mathematics.

One way to measure that the communication plan WORKED, is by simply counting the number of text messages received. However, this method would not measure the campaigns SUCCESS. In order to measure the success of the campaign, the NAACP would need to set a numerical goal that they would hope to have been surpassed either sometime during or after the campaign. Once the campaign is evaluated using a specific method, the NAACP would then be able to correctly evaluate the success of their campaign.

However, not all strategic communication plans can be so easily evaluated, with a quantitative ruler. However, I truly believe that a goal must be set by an organization during the developmental stages of their strategic communication campaign as goals can be reached and typically have a beginning and an end which both display growth, increase and completion.