Wed, May 31st, 2017
Dissemination is a key part of any international project, and has particular importance in Erasmus+. In fact, along with impact it counts for 30% of the total score in applications! Yet it can be difficult to know where to start and how to disseminate effectively. Following the previous post on identifying your audience, message and method, Lérgas Communications and Impact Research Officer Charis Hughes looks at how to connect with your audience.
In part one of our guide to practical dissemination, we looked at the importance of identifying these elements:
The next stage is to connect with your audience so that you can get your message across. But as we saw in the previous post, most projects will have more than one audience. Here are some points to consider when targeting different audiences:
Many projects use social media to connect. It is cheap, immediate and allows you to track if people are engaging with your message. If you are new to using social media for work, here are some points to bear in mind!
Strong images are a great way to connect. An image can be taken in at a glance, so will reach more people than text can. The easiest way to get strong images from your project is to take them yourself. You don’t need fancy equipment; a phone camera, when used well, can work wonders! Before you click the button, remember:
Compare the two photos below. What information can you tell about the project from each one?
If you don’t have or can’t use your own photos, don’t just choose some from an image search – you might be violating someone’s copyright! Instead, look at websites where you can download free stock photos for public use. These are some of our favourites:
Unsplash
Picography
Creative Commons Search
There are also tools to help you create strong graphics quickly. One of the best is Canva, a free online design programme with a wide choice of templates, icons and typefaces. It’s particularly helpful for designing newsletters or announcements.
Finally, your finished material – whether a photograph, video, newsletter or website – must credit Erasmus+. This is both to acknowledge the public money that you’ve received to fund the project, and to inspire other organisations with the possibilities that the programme offers! To credit Erasmus+, use the programme logo and write “Funded (or ‘co-funded’, depending on your project finance) by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union”. If you’d also like to credit Léargas, which is helpful for other Irish organisations, please do!
Download the Erasmus+ logo here.
Download the Léargas logo here.
If you are unsure about how to use logos or need them in other formats, please contact us in the Communications team.
We hope you’ve found these posts useful! We’re looking forward to hearing all about your projects.
We welcome contributions to ‘Insights’ at comms@leargas.ie.