Found 26 topics tagged ‘Advocacy 101’

The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that leads us to overestimate the knowledge of our audience. If you allow this curse to infect your writing, you may unwittingly leave supporters feeling confused an alienated. To...

Your reader trusts their own mind way more than they trust yours. No offense but it’s true. Knowing this, try to avoid ‘telling’ people what to think. That includes making assertions that some things are cruel,...

How can you keep vegans on board with lobbying efforts to incrementally improve welfare standards for systems they’ve chosen to boycott? Let’s apply common ground messaging theory to answer this question. Triggers: Ethical vegans recognize that cruelty...

How tempting is it to ‘bust myths’ and confront your opponent’s ridiculous claims head-on!? Hint: very. Proceed with caution—countering false claims can unintentionally reinforce them. However, if you can reframe the conversation, you get to own it...

Quick read

How do you encourage and celebrate meat-reduction efforts in ways that will be receptive to meat eaters but won’t alienate vegetarians or vegans? Let’s apply common ground messaging theory to answer this question. Triggers: Meat eaters can...

How can you simultaneously meet the needs of both long-term and fledgling supporters in ways that don’t patronize or confuse anyone? Let’s apply common ground messaging theory to answer this question. Triggers: Long-term supporters value long-term...