quick intro to online campaigning
DESCRIPTION
Broad description of effective use of social media for online campaigningTRANSCRIPT
Drop Dow Now
Get information out
Expose realities
Share articles
Tell your own story
Offer comment
Put out coverage from demos and events –videos, photos, interviews
FoI requests – exposing government/council
Mobilise for change
Take action
The best way is to use each of these tools together with the others – e.g. Twitter and Facebook can promote a video that is linked to the webpage on your website, from which people can explore the
rest of the issue and then take action on Twitter…
While this may seem daunting, a website is really easy to set up using Wordpress or something similar.
This can be your central point to post information, videos, photos, blogs, etc.
Other social media can therefore link interested people back to the detail on your website.
For a fee you can have a more „professional‟-looking web address e.g. www.mycampaignwebsite.org, .com or .net...
Choose how you want it to look...
And you‟re ready to go!
Posts are blog posts. They will run in chronological order, with the most recent at the top.
You can create „Sticky‟ posts if you want something to always stay at the top of the front page of your site.
TOP TIP: LINK IN
You will get your website higher up search engine results (making it easier to find) if you link your posts to things on other websites.
When you are writing, simply enter the web address on the page OR highlight some text, click the „Link‟ button and enter the web address.
Also, contact groups with aims similar to yours to see if they are happy to put links to your site.
Here‟s your highlighted text
Here‟s your link button
Here‟s where you put the website you want to link to
Pages will be in a contents page or menu on your front page, and will always be there. They don‟t get „bumped down‟ by new posts.
This is a good place to have your key information that you want people to easily access about your campaign.
E.g. A clear introduction to the issues, contact details, a links page.
These are what allow you to link into Facebook and Twitter on your site.
Choose the appropriate Widgets from your Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets
Apply the Facebook „Like‟ Feature and the Twitter feed with „Follow‟ button.
Dragging these into your „Sidebar‟ will mean that they are available on your website
This means that you‟re linking into Facebook and Twitter from the start.
On Facebook it is useful to set up as both a Person and as a Community.
The Person means other people can get personal status updates from the campaign, and you can invite friends to campaign events. ◦ It could be you, or a made-up name like Drop DowNow
if you would a) like some anonymity, and b) if you want to share the FB responsibilities.
The Community has your campaign‟s name (ieDrop Dow Now) and people can „Like‟ the campaign from your website and then receive updates from you.
Keep your Facebook page updated with links and comments, and your page can tell you how many people have seen your posts.
VOCAB
„Tweet‟ – a message of 140 characters or less
@ - to communicate to a person
# - to add context and extra data for searches, e.g. #greenwashgold
Re-Tweet (RT) – repost someone else‟s Tweet
Direct Message (DM) – private message
Link to your website, to videos, articles, events, etc so your followers can see them.
Send your Tweets to individuals to see if they will Re-Tweet your message to their followers.◦ Chase journalists, celebrities, groups with links to
yours.
Engage in conversation with people about issues – your Twitter feed need not just be about pushing information.
It can be useful to post something multiple times so you can send it to individual people
Linking into Facebook from Twitter is easy through your Profile.
Facebook removed its „Invite All‟ button
But you can still invite all your friends to events
On Google Chrome, go to Google Chrome Webstore(www.chrome.google.com/webstore)
Search „Facebook Friend Inviter‟
Download the App, and there you go!
„Add to Chrome‟ and then follow the instructions, it will select all of your friends for you.
Government e-petitions -http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/◦ if it gets at least 100,000 signatures, it will be
considered for debate in the House of Commons.
Change.org - http://www.change.org/
Our Drop Dow petition gained over 28,000 signatures, and we combined with a US-based SumOfUs petition to gain over 60,000.
The hand-in was an event in itself, and could not have been possible without the tens of thousands of signatories, and everyone who promoted the petition online
Contacting an individual or company directly
Flooding their inbox and Twitter feed with messages about your issue
Provide the content of the email/Tweet so that it is minimal effort for others to engage.
Give people a couple of options for Tweets, and link to further information so they (and the target) can find out more.
TOP TIPS
Starting your Tweet with “@someone” directs it at them, so while it is not a private message, this will not turn up in other people‟s Twitter feeds.
e.g. “Dear @sebcoe Stop Defending #Dow‟s toxic legacy. Justice for #Bhopal. http://tinyurl.com/bu533vr”
NOT “@sebcoe Stop Defending #Dow‟s toxic legacy. Justice for #Bhopal. http://tinyurl.com/bu533vr”
You can generate shorter links to use in Tweets through websites like www.tinyurl.com www.tiny.ccwww.bitly.com
Especially useful for people who cannot participate in person in a demonstration
Linking in worldwide participation
Set up websites/pages on the website/Facebook page on which people can post testimonies or images in support
Use a #hashtag so that everyone supporting can be united