National Academies Press: OpenBook

Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook (2012)

Chapter: Chapter 5. Message Delivery

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5. Message Delivery." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22666.
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Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook 41 5. Message Delivery No matter how clever your preservation messages are, without the right delivery tactics, they won’t reach the minds of your audience at the right time and motivate them to action. This is true whether you’re trying to elevate preservation’s priority within the minds of DOT leadership or to raise awareness with the public at large. The volume of messages Americans receive each waking hour continues to skyrocket and DOTs that deliver preservation messages on autopilot are likely to find few paying attention. Luckily, message delivery options come in many shapes and sizes. This chapter of the Playbook explores practical delivery options and tactics for packaging your preservation messages so they get heard, seen and remembered. Today, getting heard and remembered either inside or outside of your DOT requires building a surround sound presence for your messages that establishes a constant drumbeat across multiple delivery channels ranging from one-to-one conversations, speaking engagements, press articles, and editorial opinions to blog entries, social media conversations, and websites. Unfortunately, the 2011 DOT survey results (Appendix D) suggest most DOTs stick with a limited palette of tried and true message delivery options: 96 percent of the DOTs responding say they use press releases and 84 percent use presentations, but only 40 percent use YouTube and even fewer use blogs. With the resulting irregular drumbeat, preservation remains largely off the radar screen for all but the DOT community’s most interested stakeholders. This chapter presents a step-by-step set of message delivery guidelines for helping you get started on expanding the ways you get your preservation messages out using a combination of: • Internal buy-in on the importance of preservation; • Direct audience contact strategies; • Traditional media strategies, particularly brochures and print and broadcast media; and • New media strategies based around online communication tools. Message delivery goes hand-in-hand with message creation. Most messages feature a combination of visual, narrative, and detailed technical attributes. Depending on which aspect your message favors, you will find some message delivery methods work better than others. None of the message delivery options discussed in this chapter of the Playbook are particularly costly; however, they all take staff time to do well. You should expect to invest significant amounts of staff time if you move forward with an integrated surround sound approach to message delivery.

42 Chapter 5. Message Delivery Checklist of Critical Activities  Create foundation with internal message delivery strategy  Create or refine direct audience contact strategy  Create or refine traditional media strategy  Create or refine new media strategy Step 1: Internal Message Tactics Most of this Playbook’s guidance is about communicating beyond the doors of your own state DOT. However, achieving early buy-in about the importance of preservation from key DOT policy- and decision- makers is a vital precursor to taking your messages public. By securing leadership support for your preservation communication strategies, you can ease the challenges of securing resources to support large-scale external message delivery tactics. You can also secure the roles of your agency’s leaders as vital advocates for preservation who are actively engaged in subsequent message delivery efforts. In contrast to delivery of external messages, delivery methods for internal messages targeted to DOT staff are likely to be rougher and more informal. The primary task of message delivery in this foundational step is to reach and engage senior leadership in a positive conversation about preservation; slideshow and fact sheet materials are a natural aid in this process. Internal forums that may provide appropriate opportunities for delivering messages include regular executive leadership meetings, strategic plan development meetings, long-range plan development meetings, or district-wide staff meetings. Both of the Playbook’s campaign scenarios in Chapter 1 provide templates for internal slideshows and handouts, which are included in Appendix A. Unlike your materials for external audiences, internal presentations may get more in-depth about the rationales for your agency’s preservation policies. Your internal presentations and fact sheets should have sufficient detail to help build the case for moving forward and to nurture a set of DOT personnel who can carry the message for the agency. Identify Desirable Audience Segments — Be sure you know which audience segments you wish to target and save direct audience contact primarily for high-impact, high-interest audience segments and high-impact, but low- or moderate-interest audience segments who can be shifted to the former group. These groups most typically include supportive state legislators, receptive local government leaders, business leaders, and local elected officials. The audience identification chapter of the Playbook provides lots more ideas about how to identify audience segments. Building Block Tie-In: Audience Identification

Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook 43 Step 2: Create/Refine Direct Audience Contact Strategy Message delivery options for direct audience contact are easy to implement, low cost, and very much a part of successful preservation message delivery; they range from formal speaking engagements to looser formats like open dialogue sessions or “closed door” meetings. If used on a regular basis, direct audience contact is a powerful delivery tool because no filter comes between you and the audience, you usually have time to explain your message in depth, and you get immediate feedback on whether your messages are working. At many DOTs, direct audience contact is already the primary method for delivering preservation messages and this step is about refining strategy. Depending on the scale of preservation as an issue in your state, you may wish to undertake intensive, dedicated direct audience contact efforts or you may opt for a lower intensity strategy of piggybacking them onto other direct audience contact efforts. If you plan carefully, direct audience contact tactics will round out other elements of a surround sound message delivery package. Remember, however, that direct audience contact can be time and labor intensive, so you need to reach the right people. Don’t save direct contact efforts only for high-influence/interest audiences; use them to help sway high- influence, but moderate- or low-interest audience segments who might be on the fence about highway preservation. You should consider direct audience contact to be among your essential baseline delivery methods for any preservation message. The secret to success is to field an agency-wide team of messengers who know how to sing from the same sheet music and repeat their message regularly: • Tap Suitable Messengers — Think about who within your agency should be tapped as spokespeople to deliver preservation messages, based on their credibility outside the agency and their range of contacts. Obvious candidates include your secretary, chief engineer, and district engineers. Other important messengers may include public affairs staff, the legislative liaison, and technical staff in maintenance and operations roles. Don’t stop at the doors of the DOT: third-party spokespeople like business leaders or a supportive governor may be willing to carry the message; local government public works directors or metropolitan planning organization (MPO) staff may also be credible messengers who help you reach a bigger audience and — perhaps more important — get your message repeated. Spokespersons should be: · Well versed regarding the preservation message; · Familiar with all the campaign tools provided; and · Credible, prepared, accessible, effective communicators.

44 Chapter 5. Message Delivery • Seek Out Speaking Opportunities — Engagement opportunities for reaching your audience directly vary widely; look for opportunities not just in the state capitol, but across the state: · Feature Preservation at “Grasstops” Forums — Your strategy should emphasize regular contact with grasstops audiences, either as special preservation events or as part of other functions. These are the transportation leaders and organizers in a community who are connected to different constituencies. They have lots of resources at their disposal and are in a position to make a pivotal change happen through their positions in the community. Look for opportunities to piggyback preservation messages on events with these groups. In Texas, for example, the annual Texas Transportation Forum — now in its sixth year — creates a unique environment for attendees from public agencies, industry groups, advocacy organizations, academic institutions, and the political sector to examine and exchange ideas regarding the future of transportation in Texas and the forum regularly includes presentations on preservation issues. · Feature Preservation at Grassroots Forums — Your strategy should also include grassroots outreach. If grasstops support forms the apex of the audience pyramid, grassroots support from a broad cross section of the public forms the wide base of support for the pyramid. Community forums and town hall sessions allow you to deliver your DOT’s message on maintenance and preservation directly to citizens, with no filter or editorial commentary. Hosting town hall meetings on maintenance and preservation allows you to engage local officials, community and business leaders, parents, and local policymakers on this important issue, while demonstrating that all stakeholders play a role in the preservation of transportation infrastructure. · Feature Preservation at Partner Forums — DOTs work with many partners to ensure adequate maintenance and preserva- tion of their highway systems. Natural partners to meet with include local governments, MPOs, construction businesses, freight haulers and logistics firms, and road users groups. It is critical to have the ongoing support of these stakeholders. Participate in regular meetings with partners across the state, updating them on preservation and maintenance efforts and highlighting how they can continue to be involved. These discussions can occur at regularly scheduled conferences and meetings of such partners or can be scheduled separately. California’s Pavement Preservation Task Group (PPTG) is a good example of a forum where California’s state DOT can share preservation messages with its partners. The PPTG includes representatives from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), local government, industry, and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). It describes

Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook 45 itself as a “partnering platform for all issues related to pavement preservation.” The PPTG meets about twice a year. Another example is Wisconsin’s Transportation Development Association, which is a statewide alliance of 400-plus transportation stakeholders that has as its mission development and maintenance of a strong, interconnected transportation network that will support a robust economy and enhance the quality of life for everyone in Wisconsin. • Mix in Other Media Delivery Methods — When planning a public or stakeholder event, consider how to best create lasting impressions of your messages: Public and stakeholder meetings often work best when supported by other delivery mechanisms — perhaps showcase a new video or provide a leave-behind fact sheet; be sure to mention your website and blog if you have one. Press releases can be used to announce upcoming events. • Provide Slideshows and Talking Points — To keep control of your message in a direct audience contact setting, you will want to assemble slideshows and/or talking points for your messengers. These message delivery tools help keep the conversation focused on the message and ensure it is delivered as clearly as possible. The content of slideshows and talking points will vary by audience, but it is likely to include more detail than you put into your new or traditional media strategies. The National Center for Pavement Preservation, for example, has developed a presentation that communicates the cost-effectiveness of a preventative maintenance philosophy, which it succinctly describes as “applying the right treatment, to the right pavement, at the right time.” The presentation makes effective use of clear graphics to illustrate how preventative maintenance assures lower life-cycle costs and better pavement condition. Both of the Playbook’s campaign scenarios in Chapter 1 include templates for external slideshows, which are included in Appendix A. Customization Opportunity • Level of Effort — If preservation is a major issue in your state, dedicated presentations, slides and fact sheets make sense, but if preservation needs are manageable then piggybacking on other issues makes sense. • Take Advantage of Unique Opportunities — Tie in your direct audience contact tactics to unique but related efforts such as development of a new long-range transportation plan, annual program development outreach, or legislative activities to raise funding for transportation. • Working with Partners — Partner up with strong grasstops or grassroots organizations that share a common interest in preservation. • Tie in to Other Delivery Methods — If you have strong traditional or new media delivery mechanisms, don’t be afraid to link them with your direct audience contact tactics, e.g., use press releases to promote events, then write about them afterward on your DOT blog. Another idea would be to include a YouTube clip in your presentation.

46 Chapter 5. Message Delivery • Blend Preservation Messages into Other Events — Maintenance and preservation of highways casts a wide shadow, with real impacts on and benefits for travel safety, mobility, and economic development. DOT officials can, where appropriate, refer to preservation messages in public speeches, thus strengthening the linkages between preservation and a given issue with the media, the general public, and specific audiences. Step 3: Create or Refine Your Traditional Media Strategy Traditional media strategies range from printed fact sheets and brochures to orchestrated media events designed to land stories in newspapers and on radio and television stations that have delivered information to our communities for decades. The continued power of traditional media as a communications medium necessitates that you include them as a core delivery method for your messages. Traditional media — such as newspapers or television channels — confer status on your messages because they offer recognizable and credible branding. They also offer the potential to reach a much larger audience than direct audience contact or new media methods. Furthermore, traditional media often feeds new media, i.e., blogging and other new media channels often focus on what is going on in traditional media. If your DOT’s message airs in traditional media, it is likely to catch the attention of social media as well. Alternatively, you can post in your own blogs and in social networks about stories appearing in traditional media. Traditional media message delivery methods are well suited to transmitting your messages in visual or succinct narrative formats; they are less appropriate for detailed technical explanations. Here is how you can put traditional media to work on your messages: • Print Materials — Brochures and fact sheets are a great way to summarize your message, particularly if you don’t have a chance to speak directly with your audience. They are often used as leave- behind materials at direct audience contact events, but they can also be mailed or emailed to a wide audience and posted on your website. Print material’s content and style can be geared to a general audience or customized to audience segments and they work well for either highly technical information or a general overview. Good design and high-quality printing strengthen the effectiveness of printed products as a delivery mechanism. Print materials can be informative and inexpensive and allow messages to be left with the recipient. Printed materials are typically either mailed or handed out at various meetings, public places, or events. Be sure to have a plan for distributing materials — whether via mailing lists for targeted audiences or forums — otherwise printed materials will be a waste of money. Print materials also provide an opportunity to

Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook 47 direct audiences to new media communication channels like your website or a news-sharing service. Some examples of print materials from DOTs and other organizations are included in Appendix B. ASCE has prepared a series of infrastructure condition fact sheets that are among the best-known and most compelling examples of print materials that address preservation issues. An eight-page brochure prepared by the Missouri DOT (MoDOT) makes the case for greater preservation funding by likening the consequences of an anticipated shortfall in Missouri’s transportation funding to falling off a cliff that will lead to drastically eroded highway conditions. In addition, Appendix C includes templates developed as part of the Chapter 1 campaigns. • Media Releases and Events — Use media releases and events to launch a specific new communications initiative or to sustain interest in preservation stories on an ongoing basis. Your DOT’s public affairs staff can help you design media events that create or sustain interest among traditional media in your messages; however, you have to provide new information or a new “angle” on an issue to receive ongoing attention in traditional media. This is a time to get creative in how you tell your preservation story: Maybe you’ve just experienced an unusually harsh winter and you can showcase the damage your highways have sustained. Or perhaps a study has just been conducted showing that your state has significantly improved or fallen in national performance metrics. Examples of actual DOTs’ press releases are included in Appendix B; in addition, Appendix A includes press release templates developed as part of the Chapter 1 campaigns. Combining some or all of the following types of media releases will increase your DOT’s exposure to audiences and help them better understand your story — and using print materials or advertising at the same time can increase the effectiveness of your media event: · Print news releases — Press releases represent the standard approach for providing information to traditional media outlets. Well-produced news releases provide a succinct version of the details about the story’s “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” and “how,” so they can be picked up for publication or radio broadcast. Examples in Appendix B include press releases for Minnesota DOT’s launch of its Better Roads for a Better Minnesota program; Tennessee DOT’s 2011 national award for its preservation program; the Building America’s Future Education Fund’s Falling Apart and Falling Behind report, and others. · Video news releases — Video news releases are becoming a more common type of news release. It is a short (20 to 60 second) video that promotes a particular event or issue and is distributed to television news organizations. Most news directors, however, prefer “B roll” or “B clips” that present

48 Chapter 5. Message Delivery background video footage, which can be voiced over from an accompanying fact sheet. As an example, Kansas DOT released “The Rough Road Ahead,” which is a 4-minute video press release — distributed via YouTube — that warns about the importance of additional funding for keeping the state’s highways in good repair. The video includes narration, footage of preservation work, compelling statistics, simple graphics, and remarks from the secretary of transportation. · Press conferences — Your DOT can include preservation in regular press conferences and briefings. Citing the importance of preservation in answers to questions on transportation safety improvements or economic development keeps the issue visible. If there’s a new problem, success, or issue to highlight related to preservation, your DOT may hold a press conference. The City of Los Angeles, for example, recently held a press conference featuring the Los Angeles chamber and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa calling upon Congress to act to “fix our aging infrastructure and to fund transportation.” • Op-eds and Editorials — Writing and having op-ed pieces and letters to the editor published allows you to get your DOT’s message to key audiences virtually unfiltered by the media. In addition, plan to meet with newspaper and television station editorial boards to discuss preservation and maintenance issues. If those boards don’t understand the financial constraints of your DOT, you are much more likely to be the target of negative editorials about insufficient preservation and maintenance efforts, which eats away at your credibility. On the other hand, if editorial boards do understand your financial constraints, they may still call out the poor condition of your highways but are much more likely to acknowledge that more funding is needed to preserve highways in acceptable conditions. Some example op-eds and editorials from actual DOTs are included in Appendix B; in addition, Appendix A includes op-ed templates developed as part of the two campaign scenarios described in Chapter 1. • Take Advantage of Unique Opportunities — Tie in your traditional media tactics to unique efforts, such as the release of annual pavement or bridge performance data. • Work with Partners — Partner up with supportive legislators or strong grasstops organizations that share a common interest in preservation to produce press releases and media events. Customization Opportunity

Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook 49 Step 4: Create or Refine Your New Media Strategy New media channels are a rapidly evolving way for DOTs to communicate. Commonly defined as internet-based media, new media has evolved over the last decade from an emphasis on email and modest websites into a much wider portfolio of information channels including blogs, YouTube, podcasts, Twitter, Facebook, and other electronic tools. New media tools offer a low-cost alternative to traditional media that also allows DOTs to enter into more of a two-way conversation with their stakeholders that can help strengthen connections. It can be used to convey visual or succinct narrative messages, but it also supports dissemination of more detailed technical information. As audiences’ reliance on new media grows, use of traditional media sources for information is declining. (See Figure 7.) Figure 7. New versus Traditional Media Audience Trends: Results of Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism Survey 17.1% -1.5% -3.4% -5.0% -6.0% -8.9% -13.7% Online Local TV Network TV Newspapers Audio Magazines Cable TV Percent Change in Audience, 2009-2010 For many DOTs, new media increasingly offer a powerful message delivery platform that complements direct audience contact and traditional media strategies. Common components you will want to consider or refine include: • Email Lists — In the rapidly changing field of new media, email lists that contain up-to-date contact information for important audience segments are still a valuable message delivery mechanism. Find out what mailing lists your DOT maintains and use or improve them. Email lists can be used in many ways: to share electronic versions of traditional media strategies, such as print materials or press releases; to alert stakeholders to upcoming direct audience contact opportunities, or to complement your other new media strategies, such as alerting stakeholders to changes on your website.

50 Chapter 5. Message Delivery • Websites — Your DOT’s website offers the potential to communicate preservation messages in a wide range of styles. It can feature both detailed technical information and succinct visual and narrative elements. Your website is only as useful as the traffic it generates. You may wish to use a banner or other graphic on your DOT’s homepage to attract viewers to visit the preservation page. To sustain audience interest, your website should also include features that can be updated on a regular basis (such as miles of preservation completed on a regional basis or a blog on preservation-related developments in the state). Blog, Twitter, or Facebook posts can be used to draw attention to new content. Sites could include buttons that direct specific audiences to targeted messages and content or to sign up for email alerts. Appendix A offers a potential website template. Examples of preservation-related websites used by DOTs and other organizations include the following: · Minnesota DOT : Better Roads for a Better Minnesota — At Minnesota DOT’s Better Roads for a Better Minnesota website (http://www.dot.state.mn.us/betterroads), a simple web page contains a press release, a one-page fact sheet, and two maps showing project locations. The site emphasizes that the new program will not be paid for by an increase in taxes and that it will help support Minnesota jobs. The site was designed by MnDOT to promote its efforts to designate $398 million in transportation funding to its preservation program by creating the Better Roads for a Better Minnesota program that will improve ride quality on more than 700 miles of highways over four years. · AASHTO: Rough Roads Ahead — AASHTO’s Rough Roads Ahead website (http://roughroads.transportation.org/) is designed to educate a range of audiences about the condition of the nation’s major highways, costs to preserve the highway system, added costs to motorists due to poor pavement, and states’ solutions to maintain their highways. Rough Roads Ahead is part of AASHTO’s broader Are We There Yet? campaign to build awareness and support for the nation’s transportation system. · ASCE: Infrastructure Report Card — ASCE launched its Infrastructure Report Card website in 2005 and updated it in 2009. The report card is made up of a series of 15 brief fact sheets that profile transportation, water, energy, and public schools infrastructure conditions across the United States. Each fact sheet presents and discusses a letter grade for infrastructure condition, an example of which is in Appendix B. · South Carolina DOT (SCDOT) Preservation Website — SCDOT’s preservation website (http://www.scdot.org/inside/Pavement_ Preservation/default.shtml) offers a basic primer on the DOT’s preservation activities.

Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook 51 • YouTube Clips — You can use short video or audio clips to communicate the value of preservation and related issues in succinct sound bites. Generally, these materials can work either as stand- alone products or as part of a wider campaign. With the advent of YouTube, internet video and audio is becoming a practical, low-cost method for communicating with a wide audience using information that previously might have been contained only in a presentation, press release, or print product with limited opportunity for distribution. Viewers of these types of media are counted in the thousands or tens of thousands, instead of tens or hundreds. While YouTube clips can easily be produced in-house at most DOTs, they can be time-consuming to script and plan. Examples of preservation-related YouTube clips include the following: · “Life Cycle of a Highway” (MoDOT) — MoDOT created an educational two-minute video that uses simple terms and visuals to explain how and why pavement conditions deteriorate over time and why repairs are costly. (http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=vd8rT7iZgAk ). · Preservation Report (Wyoming DOT) — 90-second news correspondent-style video that explores the state of preservation spending in the state of Wyoming. One of more than 50 YouTube videos posted by Wyoming DOT. (http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q3ABytYbBY). · “The Rough Road Ahead” (Kansas DOT) — This 4-minute video press release , distributed via YouTube, warns that without additional funding the state’s highways will fall into disrepair. The video includes narration, footage of preservation work, compelling statistics, simple graphics, and remarks from the secretary of transportation. (http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=cJV09-Pbba0). · “Pennsylvania Bridges: Maintaining the Past, Preserving the Future” (Pennsylvania DOT) — This 8-minute video provides an overview of the importance of bridge preservation in Pennsylvania. (http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mx-4yY7oxAs&feature=related). Appendix A offers a sample YouTube video script from the two scenarios described in Chapter 1. • Social Media — Emerging social networking platforms are fundamentally changing the way many corporations and organizations work with their stakeholders, offering new ways to engage that allow DOTs to build more successful communication strategies — and ultimately stronger, more active relationships. The most popular and widely adopted examples of social media platforms include Facebook and Twitter, though new platforms are being developed and tested constantly (e.g., Google+):

52 Chapter 5. Message Delivery · Facebook — Facebook has more than 750 million active users sharing over 30 billion pieces of content each month. As it grows, companies and organizations are learning and experiencing the value of using Facebook as a tool for sharing information, engaging in dialogue with supporters, and monitoring issues. · Twitter — Twitter has more than 106 million users who send one billion tweets in one week. Twitter allows users to share status updates and links in 140 characters or less, and works from a variety of platforms and with other sites as well. Most frequently compared to sending a text message, Twitter enables users to share “quick hits” of information with followers. Facebook and Twitter are exciting tools with lots of potential; however, you should have guidelines and standards in place before launching, so that content managers have a clear understanding of expectations. For example: · Who is responsible for managing the platform, monitoring conversations, and developing relationships with your online community? · How frequently will you post or update information and what will you use for content? · How will you respond to criticism or negative posts? · What voice will be used for consistency? · Will there be an approval process in place and how will it function to ensure prompt and real-time response/dialogue? • Blogs and Podcasts — These can be used to engage audiences in an ongoing, informal two-way discussion of preservation topics. For example, bloggers may ask readers to send descriptions or tell stories of some of their best (or worst) highway experiences or podcasters might interview working professionals — such as highway engineers or construction workers — about the nature of their careers and the educational pathways that led them there. Blogging software (such as WordPress, Typepad, or Tumblr) is relatively inexpensive and easy to use, as is the software used for producing podcasts (some, such as Audacity, can even be downloaded for free). In addition, blogs and podcasts can be used as content in Facebook and Twitter updates, linking and leveraging all methods to reach as many audiences as possible. Customization Opportunity • Take Advantage of Blog Opportunities — Tie into your DOT’s regular blog if it has one. • Work with Partners — Partner up with supportive legislators or strong grasstops organizations that share a common interest in preservation to enhance your initiative’s social media presence through “liking,” following, and retweeting each other’s content.

Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook 53 Message Delivery Conclusions Message delivery options come in many shapes and sizes. You must use all or many of them to create a surround sound campaign that gets your message heard and seen and remembered. This means getting your message out via traditional media, on the Internet, and on the ground in face-to-face settings. Some versions of your message will be delivered visually — in pictures, video, charts, and graphs; other versions will be in the form of words like a newspaper op-ed or a presentation from the DOT secretary; and some will be a combination of both visuals and words, such as on a blog posting or in a brochure. Catchy slogans delivered via your website, in email, or on slides will resonate with your high-impact/high-interest audiences, but they can also get more detail when they hear a full presentation at a stakeholder forum or visit your website. This is what a surround sound message delivery approach looks like.

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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 742: Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook presents guidance for communicating the value of highway system maintenance and preservation.

The report includes numerous examples and models that transportation agency staff members can use to present to agency leadership, elected officials, and the public to make the case for allocating budgetary and other resources to preserve and maintain the public’s investment in highway infrastructure.

TR News 292: May-June 2014 includes an article about the report.

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