A communication strategy is built partly on determining who you want to reach, what you want them to do, what you can say to make them do it and when you need to say it to get them to act. These slide review the concepts of target audience, key messages and user scenarios as tools to help Extension professional affect change.

1. Target Audience, Key Messages
and User Scenarios

2. Why Are Restroom Hand-
washing Signs By the Sinks?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/akeg/

3. Communication Design
• What are you trying to change?
• Who do you need to reach to change it?
• What do you need to say to get them to
act (or not act)?
• When do you need to say it to get them to
act (or not act)?

5. Understanding Audience
Demographics Psychographics
Gender Interests
Race Personality
Age Values
Employment status Attitudes
Income Lifestyle

7. Behaviorgraphics
• Benevolence – behavior that engenders and
promotes recognition and reciprocity.
• Problem Solvers – people seeking information.
• Commenters – Providing thoughts, opinions,
observations, experiences.
• Curators – Find and share what captivates them
and what they believe will interest their followers.
http://www.briansolis.com/2011/02/behaviorgraphics-discovering-the-me-in-social-media/

8. Communication Design
• What are you trying to change?
• Who do you need to reach to change
it?
• What do you need to say to get them to
act (or not act)?
• When do you need to say it to get them to
act (or not act)?

9. Situation
• What is the situation or environment the
audience members are in?
• Why will reaching them with your key
messages lead to the change you are
trying to affect?

10. Creating Key Messages
What behaviors will lead
to the change you want?
What do you want
people to do?
How do you want them
to do it?Photo by William Neuheisel,
www.flickr.com/photos/wneuheisel/

11. Creating Key Messages
Goal:
“improving the health of
our country through diet
and in many cases
reversing childhood
obesity” – Tom
Vilsack, U.S. Secretary
of Agriculture

12. Communication Design
• What are you trying to change?
• Who do you need to reach to change it?
• What do you need to say to get them to
act (or not act)?
• When do you need to say it to get them to
act (or not act)?

13. Creating Key Messages
Key Messages:
• Eat healthier
• Eat a little more than
25% vegetables, a
little less than 25%
fruits, a little more
than 25% grains and
a little less than 25%
proteins
• Lean more about food
and nutrition

14. Creating Key Messages
Better Key Messages:
• Make half of
everything you eat
fruits and vegetables
• Use smaller plates to
help you eat less

15. Information & Behavior Change
Probably the most dominant behavior
change myth is the idea that if individuals
were more knowledgeable about problems,
they would act on them in a responsible way.
Owens, S. (2000) Engaging the public:
information and deliberation in environmental
policy, Journal of Environment and Planning A,
32, 1141-1148.

16. Information & Behavior Change
If individuals are provided with too much
information, they may experience "overload",
causing them to feel helpless, leading to an
immobilization of action.
Kaplan, S. (2000). Human nature and
environmentally responsible behavior. Journal of
Social Issue, 56(3), 491-508.

17. Information & Behavior Change
While "declarative knowledge" is unlikely to
foster behavior change, "procedural
knowledge," or information on how to
perform actions, and "behavioral
competence", or the feeling of being
confidence and able to take action can be
important.
Hines, J.M., Hungerford, H.R., & Tomera, A.N.
(1987). Analysis and synthesis of research on
responsible environmental behavior: A meta-
analysis. Journal of Environmental
Education, 18(2), 1-8.

18. Creating Key Messages
• Focus less on what
you want people to
know and more on
what you want them
to do
• Shrink the change –
don’t give too many
options
• Provide a roadmap
– what to do and how
to do it

19. User Scenarios
• Combine user demographics, psychographics
and behaviorgraphics with specific detailed
situations where learning and behavior change
might occur.
• Affect user behavior by communicating
– the right message
– in the right context
– at the right time

20. Communication Design
• What are you trying to change?
• Who do you need to reach to change it?
• What do you need to say to get them to
act (or not act)?
• When do you need to say it to get them
to act (or not act)?

21. User Scenarios
eXtension's Just-in-Time Parenting program seeks
to reach parents with the key information that can
help their family unit thrive and support their
children as they grow up healthy and ready for
success.

22. User Scenarios
"A young mother is worried because her 6-month
old son is having trouble sitting up on his own.
Their pediatrician says not to worry; all babies
develop at different rates. As she sits on the floor
with her son, watching him trying to sit up, she
decides she'd like more information on infant
development."

23. User Scenarios
"A new father standing in the store looking at baby
formula. One formula label boasts that it is fortified
with Lutein and DHA/ARA for eye and brain
development. He'd like to get the fortified formula,
but it is $3 more per can than formula that is not
fortified. He'd like to know if the fortified formula
will really help his infant daughter and if it is worth
the increased price."

24. User Scenarios
"A couple in their 50's are raising their teenage
grandson. In the past months they have felt
increasingly distance from him. His grades have
fallen and he has twice been suspended for verbal
outbursts at teachers. The couple feels they have
tried everything and are at the end of their rope.
The boy's grandmother is standing in their kitchen
at 2 a.m., worried and unable to sleep. She knows
that they need help, but she doesn't know where to
find it."

25. Online Communication &
Transformational Education
Both high content
transmission and a
high level of
process are the
most effective in
helping people and
communities to
solve problems or
address issues.

26. Online Communication &
Transformational Education
We need to bring
high process to our
already high content
to begin using
online
communication as a
critical element of a
lifelong learning
network that helps
people improve their
lives and
communities.