MAIA holds its 2nd Thematic Working Group on Communication 

On May 22, 2024, the MAIA project continued with its series of 6 thematic workshops on communication. These sessions are designed to create synergies between EU-funded climate change research projects, as well as share resources and provide training to improve their communication, branding and marketing. 

This second session focused on social media strategy and techniques and was attended by the following projects:

• Project Agora, which works to communicate climate change to marginalised groups, the elderly, and other civil society groups, promoting inclusivity.
  
• The Localised Project, which creates tools for businesses, small/medium communities, and cities to reshape local decarbonization and adaptation planning. Read the full article for more details.
  
• Holistic, which explores holistic use of scientific models and scenarios for energy and environmental planning.
  
• The EERIE Project, which explores the role of ocean eddies in climate.
  
• ESM2025, which is developing a new generation of Earth System Models in support of the Paris Agreement. 

During the session, MAIA Work Package 5 partner Pilar Pascual, Creative Director of Off Course Design Studio and Laia Palau, Art Director of the same studio shared tips on how to reach your audience using social media: 

The session emphasised: 

• The importance of understanding audiences, creating valuable content, and utilising social media effectively to engage with stakeholders.

• Segmenting audiences and fostering interaction and engagement based on interests and needs.

• Developing a clear value proposition tailored to different audience segments, and adapting communication strategies across various platforms.

• The need to create content that focuses on audience challenges rather than speaking about the creators. 

• The need to prioritise resources and maximising impact through evergreen content and repurposing content. 

• The need to build communities on social media and collaborate with others, including influencers. Also, the possibility to align with local actors to translate content for specific audiences. 

• The need to incorporate clear next steps and calls to action in all content for audience engagement and interaction.
  
• Using a structured formula for various content types, including posts, videos, and newsletters.

• Using analytics tools for feedback and strategy adjustments.
  

There followed a lively debate in which participants also discussed: 

• Communication strategies for various projects related to Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020. 

• The challenges of identifying common audience interests and reaching them when addressing a diverse group.   

• The challenges of gaining followers or engaging audiences when projects are at early stages without concrete results to show.

• Strategies for engaging specific groups like school children through relevant content.

• Strategies to increase followers through manual outreach and personalised invitations, or curating content from other networks. Participants acknowledged the laborious yet essential work required in navigating the saturated social media landscape.

• The possibility to establish or join climate research networks or collaborate with other projects to share best practices and engage with policymakers effectively.

The next Thematic Working Group on Communication will be held on May 28th. The topic is Digital Marketing.

To participate in an upcoming Thematic Working Group, please contact glorenzoni@inmedia.es 

MAIA is a Horizon Europe project that acts as an impact multiplier for climate research projects funded under Horizon Europe and Horizon2020 programs. It brings together the experience of several carefully curated Horizon 2020 projects that focus on innovation for climate resilience, including BINGO, BRIGAID, CLARITY, Connecting Nature, DRIVER+, PLACARD, and RESCCUE. The primary objective of MAIA is to make the current dispersed knowledge more interoperable, accessible, and usable and to render the outcomes economically sustainable.