When does it make sense to go visual in EU public affairs?

“There are a lot of great tools and channels to play with when it comes to creating and sharing visuals. That doesn’t mean you have to use them all.”

That was the message EurActiv’s incredibly talented Multimedia Director Evan Lamos kicked off with at an October event in the second-yellowest room of the Brussels media mainstay’s HQ. I was more than happy to follow that act.

Visuals should do stuff

Effective communications and public affairs strategies are designed to reach specific people and drive them to take action.

Put the building blocks of your communications strategy in place (find these in slide 2 below) and with every new promoted tweet/hyperlapse/periscope livestream/twitter poll/youtube upload/snap/thunderclap ask yourself (at least) these three critical questions:

• Am I reaching the right people?
• Are they taking the action I want them to take?
• Am I executing a communications strategy here – or am I just playing with toys ( there’s no hard and fast answer, you’ll just know the difference when you know it:-))

Keen to get in on the visuals game?  

Here’s a 90-second deck to get you grounded in strategy and some concrete content ideas to get you started in the Brussels Twittersphere.