Broad description of effective use of social media for online campaigning

1. Drop Dow Now

3. 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

4. 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…

6.  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.

7. For a fee you can have a more „professional‟-
looking web address e.g.
www.mycampaignwebsite.org, .com or .net...

8. Choose how you want it to look...

9. And you‟re ready to go!

10.  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.

12. 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.

13. Here‟s your link button
Here‟s where you put the
website you want to link to
Here‟s your highlighted text

14.  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.

16.  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.

18. Dragging these into your „Sidebar‟ will mean that
they are available on your website

19. This means that you‟re linking into Facebook and
Twitter from the start.

21.  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 (ie
Drop Dow Now) and people can „Like‟ the
campaign from your website and then receive
updates from you.

22. Keep your Facebook page updated with links and
comments, and your page can tell you how many
people have seen your posts.

23. 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

24.  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.

25. It can be useful to post something multiple times
so you can send it to individual people

26. Linking into Facebook from Twitter is easy
through your Profile.

28.  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!

29. „Add to Chrome‟ and then follow the instructions, it
will select all of your friends for you.

32.  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/

33. Our Drop Dow petition gained over 28,000
signatures, and we combined with a US-based
SumOfUs petition to gain over 60,000.

34. 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

35.  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.

36. 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.cc
www.bitly.com

37.  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