Portfolio excerpt 11/2022 - BY SONIA OUERTANI STARKEY | Comms From Within

Dedicated to combining my passion for communication, psychology and systemic design and help bring about profoundly engaging communication strategies that involve and speak to everybody...

I help at every step of the process, from the strategy to the delivery of outputs, keeping in mind and making fruitful the complementarity between digital and offline through the digitisation of lived experience and the translation of work in terms of real life impact.

In 2022, before leaving London for Switzerland, I have founded 'SOS From Within Ltd', a limited company that will allow me to work on projects in the UK.

My brand name, 'All⸱One Within', is due to change to 'Comms From Within'. More about this very soon...

The three pillars and levels of understanding that guide me are:

  • Harmony: I believe a good communication strategy shows the bigger picture of the organisational strategy in every detail. When they are reacting to external events, communications should be timely and consistent with the DNA of the organisation/network.
  • Empowerment: It should develop the consciousness of common grounds. Work towards understanding patterns of events is essential. It allows to plan, anticipate and engage audiences more deeply through systemic service design.
  • Universality: Communication should be inclusive at its core and speak to everybody to engage even the most indifferent. By looking at mental models, there is a real chance of lasting impact and transformation through generative and unitive communications.

I also pay a lot of attention and work in the background by creating tools that will help communicate about plans, track results and give an idea of the bigger picture. I am deeply convinced that the whole is more than the sum of its parts and every work affects the whole. So I have developed internal tools such as grids/matrices showing all the priorities, in relations with each other (eg. audience-centric communications, accessibility, unpredictability, timeliness, branding, internal communications, etc), digital grids (showing the specificity of each platform), calendars of upcoming and past actions that are open to contributions and populated with data tracking information, and so on.

Several examples of past work

(please click on any of the below images to see in full)

Global flagship reports and campaigns

Start Network COP27 advocacy Pack (2022)

Creation of a pack to the attention of a wide range of international stakeholders all members of the 'Start Network' (including Oxfam, Doctors of the World, Care, Plan, Action Aid, and more than 80 other local and international organisations) containing: key messages, policy asks, inputs and calls to action (co-elaborated with them or originating from them), resources (reports, blogs, and videos) from Start Network and members and graphics for social media purposes in Spanish, English, and French made by me in collaboration with the Start Network core global team. And creation of a draft video showing the effects of local action, anticipatory actions and the empowerment of local people to manage the issues that directly affect them.

Click here to see the advocacy pack

Promotion of a research report by Start Network in collaboration with ODI: ‘The Potential for Anticipatory Action and Disaster Risk Finance: Guiding the Setting of Humanitarian Targets’

Multi-channel dissemination (Internal, with partners, and on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) - See more examples of social media posts on Twitter (X)

ARTICLE 19 (2019-2021): Publication of the Global Expression Report and findings 2020 and 2021

At ARTICLE 19, NGO defending and promoting freedom of expression and access to information, I have supported the launch of the annual flagship report in consecutive years by putting a large amount of effort on the branding, dissemination to regional offices, creation of packs for media and colleagues to complement and share. I have worked intentionally with other offices so each office is in charge of their content so they can speak to their respective audiences as closely as possible while encouraging the re-sharing of publications within the network and stimulate engagement internationally (rather than globally). The intention was both to decentralise the information, engage and empower colleagues and partners and join forces. Before my departure from the organisation I also advocated strongly to emphasise the event dimension of the report along the year, rather than as an annual launch, suggesting that the report can become the reference for each and every piece of work disseminated along the year and serve as a constant teaching, both internally and externally.

Every message shared with audiences is an opportunity to build a mutual sense of role and responsibility and engage around common values and goals, as well as a robust network internally - within the organisation and/or network -, within external audiences and between internal and external audiences, through the accountability to the people we serve and their support to us in return.

Creation of a weekly press review on social media

An NGO that is globally oriented faces a number of challenges, amongst which, the difficulty to be always timely and informative, in a world that is constantly changing. Seeing the amount of work done internally to keep up with the world news, I suggested that we translate our internal weekly media briefing at ARTICLE 19 into a digital product. Here are examples of the #EyesOnExpression series that is running weekly on the organisation's Twitter account since July 2020. The banner designs are changed weekly and often reflect another announcement, such as Pride Month or the launch of the organisation's flagship report, the GxR (Global Expression Report). This social media product also highlights other internal campaigns or messages to audiences. Relevant organisations, journalists or accounts in general are tagged in each banner to generate attention and encourage re-sharing.

Newsletter work

I have been very active in helping re-shape the ARTICLE 19 newsletter so it doesn't become a vector for descending information but rather engages audiences with more varied, constructive content (such as book recommendations, quotes, and opportunities to catch-up with missed conversations) and build bridges between email platforms and social media using pre-written tweets inviting readers to submit suggestions and feedback.

Podcast launches

Example from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (2016-2017) and ARTICLE 19 experiences

In the past, I have also contributed to the success of new podcasts, such as the 'Paediatric sepsis' podcast launched by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and 'Boundaries of Expression', by ARTICLE 19. For example, at RCPCH, this work combined social media advertising on Twitter and Facebook, the production of posters to be distributed in health facilities and the cross-promotion of courses teaching child health professional about the important topic of sepsis in children and young people.

Regional reports dissemination internationally

Other report launches included work for other regions where I have both tried to be of service by providing designs (templates, covers, gifs, videos, etc) and also by delegating to regional offices the priority in posting the announcements from the angle of their regions while focusing on my end on the thematic level. I advocated at length for the clarification of goals between the global office and regional offices so there is no resentment, duplication of work and we could all benefit from each others' complementary social media effort.

Digital campaigns

Digital campaigns are an opportunity for any organisation to showcase the real impact and inspiration of their advocacy work. I have contributed to the dissemination of various campaigns in the past, with geographical scopes ranging from Ireland to Kenya to Kyrgyzstan or Mexico, on topics such as disinformation, social media content moderation or facial recognition, and organised meeting points with audiences in the form of social media Q&A takeovers and invitation for contributions (petitions and feedback).

Tributes to social media followers, and corporate communications

During a little over than two years at ARTICLE 19, I witnessed an increase of more than 10,000 Twitter followers. When the account reached 40k, I suggested to run a social media series - called #FortyfiedbyYou - with banners giving thanks to the audiences for their support and acknowledging the impact this support has meant for the staff, by gathering and disseminating testimonies from colleagues and teams on social media.

Delivering Value

Social media impact

Short preview of the progression of followers on Twitter during my time at ARTICLE 19 (Dec 2019 - Sept 2021), important in a context of saturation of the information on the platform where algorithms make it more and more difficult to reach audiences.
Short preview of the progression of followers on LinkedIn during my time at ARTICLE 19 (Dec 2019 - Sept 2021). LinkedIn was not used as a communication platform before I joined, and I took the initiative to launch it as such in May 2020.

Feedback from former colleagues

"In 2020, you provided tremendous help with the first zoom event we organised, helped to set it up and show us how to run such events (something that was totally new for us) and helped to promote the events

- Prepared resource material for A19 on how to run those events (something that was not your responsibility to begin with)

- Helping to promote several events to which A19 was invited or which we organised subsequently

I also appreciate that you have always been ready to step in and help with communication issues, far beyond the call of duty and your stated responsibilities."

"I think you embody our values (Integrity; Collaboration; Diversity; Transparency; Accountability). You are also a great colleague to have around as you are always ready to help and engage with others."

- From the Senior Director for Law and Policy at ARTICLE 19

"You support and collaborate with the LP (Law & Policy), even when we raise our tiring nuances for each piece of work. I find very easy and exciting to work with you. You always bring new ideas for improving our outputs and support as much as you are able to considering the enormous number of requests you receive from different teams.

Your proactivity and creativity have been accompanied with patience and responsiveness, even when you say that there is no capacity to support. Which I think it is a positive way to respond when requests are not done with time and in advance. Thank you so much for all the good ideas and approaches you bring to the organisation and the work we do together."

- Senior Legal Officer at ARTICLE 19

"Sonia is the type of colleague you would be lucky to have. She brings great passion and attention to detail in every collaboration we have had. She is great at being accessible, approachable and highly competent at everything she does. She has really advanced ARTICLE 19's social media presence. Comparing our social media presence to before her arrival, you really see the impact her vision and hard work has had. Even on the projects and tasks she works on that are unrelated like events, she brings so much competence and ease of mind to the work flow, that you can't help breathe a sigh of relief knowing she is involved in the work.

I really don't have enough good things to say about Sonia. I know myself and my colleagues are always relieved to know when Sonia is involved in anything we are doing."

- Senior Programme Officer, ARTICLE 19 Iran

"Sonia was really supportive when she worked with me on the social media strategy for PROTECT. I did not have any social media experience but she took the time to explain the strategy to me. She also joined the three A19 team meeting to go over the plan and clearly articulated what information she would need from the teams."

- Consortium coordinator, ARTICLE 19 / PROTECT consortium

Thank you for your attention.