Social Movements for Good: How Companies and Causes Create Viral Change

Chapter 4Creating a Movement…With a Focus on Human-Centered Relevance

Azita Ardakani

Founder, Lovesocial

When the subject comes to messaging and movements today, it is hard to ignore the work that Azita Ardakani is doing for causes. As the head of Lovesocial, a communications agency based in New York City, she leads the team to build human-centered interactions for clients. Her clients happen to be organizations such as the Nature Conservancy and National Public Radio, all trying to garner and build an audience in an authentic way.

Azita sees social movements for good as a mechanism made up by a spontaneous group of people who are aligning on a common mission to make change. Their message is based on human-centered relevance, in which every voice matters to the force for good that the group is working toward.

When asking Azita about the concepts of human-centered relevance, she talked about a story of how people interact with an organization's mission and social purpose. She states that organizations, at their core, are composed of human interactions: the human interactions needed to solve a problem for a person in need, and the human interactions with donors and constituents to help them understand those challenges. All of these interactions are the threads that keep the organization together, from serving those who need help to helping those who can help understand the relevance of those who can't express their needs themselves. Organizations are at the heart of the individual ...