UNICEF promotes the idea of social mobilization as central to the success of communications efforts. UNICEF defines social mobilization as

a broad scale movement to engage people's participation in achieving a specific development goal through self-reliant efforts. It involves all relevant segments of society: decision and policy makers, opinion leaders, bureaucrats and technocrats, professional groups, religious associations, commerce and industry, communities and individuals. It is a planned decentralized process that seeks to facilitate change for development through a range of players engaged in interrelated and complementary efforts. It takes into account the felt needs of the people, embraces the critical principle of community involvement, and seeks to empower individuals and groups for action... Mobilizing the necessary resources, disseminating information tailored to targeted audiences, generating intersectoral support and fostering cross-professional alliances are also part of the process. Social mobilization in total aims at a continuum of activities in a broad strategic framework. The process encompasses dialogue and partnership with a wide spectrum of societal elements.

The ICEC and Global Social Mobilization, October 2000
The International Communication Enhancement Center
Tulane University

Explore the harm being caused by the misinformation you are trying to address. What are the real-world consequences of, say, not getting vaccinated, or believing that foreigners are in a country only to do something harmful, or voting for a candidate only based on a gut feeling? Can you show an actual person, family or community that has been harmed by the rumor or misinformation? Put a human face on the harm. This has proven particularly effective in getting anti-vaccine believers to reconsider their beliefs. 

Remember that you must be able to leverage local networks to deliver messaging on your behalf - otherwise, your outreach efforts will probably not work. Local health care workers, local leaders (official and unofficial), local NGO staff, local business people, local police - these are your messengers in countering misinformation. Also, you must work to convince these leaders - these influencers - that what they do must be reflected in what they say: as we learned during the COVID-19 global pandemic, people broke public health guidance when they saw those with privilege ignore them. Why should people socially-distance, avoid travel and wear masks when politicians and celebrities aren't? In fact, you need a strategy for what you are going to say and do when the inevitable happens: a photo of a politician, celebrity or other influencer doing exactly what public health officials said NOT to do goes viral.

Don't prepare plans based solely on facts and statistics, because people don't reason with and respond to pure facts and logic alone. Think about how people -- both messengers and community members -- currently feel about the issues at hand, what their emotions are around the issues, and the symbolism is that they might be seeing in events and responses that might not be obvious via facts alone. Fully think about their emotional response, define it, and then look for the reasons behind their desire to believe something despite the facts. Think about what is important to them at their core, because of their values, and think about how to appeal to those values to steer them to truth. Appealing to their emotions may work better in changing hearts and minds, even if doing so might seem antithetical to staying fact-based, however, providing people with accurate information alone usually doesn’t help regarding a highly-emotional issue; they simply discount those facts. For instance, if they feel that family is more than important than anything, how could you frame the issue regarding family values? If people see themselves as religious, how could you frame the issue within that religion or its values? If you appeal to someone in a way that will reinforce what they identify as - a religious person, a mother, the head of the household, a farmer, a person that values practical experience over formal training, an environmentalist, a conservative, a patriot, a member of a particular tribe, etc. - you have a better chance of engaging them successfully.

That said, do provide references to scientific sites and information. For instance, provide references to reliable medical information, such as the University of Maryland Medical Center's Medical Reference Guide a comprehensive medical reference includes more than 50,000 pages of medically-reviewed health content written in human-friendly language. It includes a Complementary and Alternative Medicine Guide, which examines different herbal medicines, such as turmeric, from a medical research point of view. Also, Science-Based Medicine is a web site dedicated to evaluating medical treatments and products of interest to the public in a scientific light, and countering the often dangerous narrative of many "alternative" medicine advocates - though science-based, it uses very accessible language.

There are also web sites devoted to debunking specific rumors and to helping to create awareness about viral myths and misinformation campaigns, and their messaging is easy to re-share on social media. For instance,

• in the USA, Snopes is a web site that thoroughly researches widely-circulated warnings and stories and evaluates their truthfulness.
   
• There's also the That's Nonsense, which debunks trending misinformation on Facebook specifically.
   
• Alt News is an India-based effort committed to debunking misinformation, disinformation and mal-information on social media and in mainstream media.

Again, remember that humans have natural tendency to resist correction. Correct information may make them double-down on their beliefs in misinformation. For instance, when people are given scientifically-based information that shows vaccines are safe and most certainly do NOT cause autism, people who believe vaccines are unhealthy will rarely change their minds. Instead, those people will say the information is false, that it's been manipulated by large pharmaceutical  companies, etc. Think about ways to guide people towards correct information while acknowledging their real grievances that may lead to the misinformation, and without making them feel or look "wrong" or stupid. Try to cite sources that they do believe in and trust. If you can talk about your own experience where you have yourself have been mislead, how you felt when you learned the truth, and how it felt to change your mind, all the better.

Identify those who might be possible sources of misinformation, intentionally or unintentionally, before undertaking any field-based activity. Try to understand their psychology of belief: why they or anyone else might believe something that is not true and reject or ignore fact-based information that contradicts that belief. Try to identify real grievances people have had with government, media, doctors, certain businesses, other communities, etc., that may lead to a resistance to fact-based information. Fully explore the reasons behind the desire people have to hold on to a belief despite the facts - you may need to create an ongoing communications strategy that addresses ONLY those reasons.

Be careful in how you characterize those that are resisting your medical information, your scientific data, etc. Belittling them with insults can create a backlash. No one likes to be called stupid - or for it to be insinuated that they are such - for instance. That said, DO build an ongoing, fact-based narrative that fully exposes motivations for misinformation, if there is such - for instance, various people and organizations showing the basis for the scientific fraud that gave rise to the fears regarding vaccines has helped tremendously in debunking harmful, dangerous myths about vaccines and autism.

Highlight and promote success stories. If you have changed someone's minds, sit down with that person and find out what helped them to change their mind. Telling that person's story, about how they thought about the issue before your interventions, and how they think now, could help convince others. Could you create a video of your interviewing them and share it on YouTube? Could that person become a spokesperson for you?

And work directly with reporters. The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), is connecting journalists with health experts and newsroom leaders through a webinar series on COVID-19. They have produced various materials as part of the ICFJ Global Health Crisis Reporting Forum on Facebook. In a webinar to examine global trends in COVID-19 disinformation, Andy Carvin, senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), noted. "If it's only professionals working to correct the public record or clarify what the science is, there will continue to be misinformation and disinformation spreading."