Using social media strategies to increase environmental awareness
1. Using Social Media Strategies to
Increase Environmental Awareness
Raul Pacheco-Vega, PhD
MooseCamp/Northern Voice 2009
The University of British Columbia
February 20th, 2009
Vancouver, Canada
2. Agenda
• Why use social media when I have so much other
stuff to do?
• What are the lessons I have learned from others’
use of social media?
-Elements of a social media campaign and a few case
studies
• How can I make use of social media to raise
awareness of environmental issues? And…How
can YOU make use of SM?
• Summary
3. Why use social media when I have so
much other stuff to do?
• Building a presence online
-Creating a work portfolio that can be accessible and showcases who I am and
what I do.
• Find and absorb information that is available (more online than offline)
-“Those age 65 and older are nearly 3 times more likely (index of 296) than average to read the print
edition of newspapers 6 times per week, while those age 18-24 are 38 percent more likely than average to
not read a print newspaper at all during a typical week.”
• Comscore (2008) http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2109
• Creating networks of like-minded people
-Social networking around same kinds of issues
• Raising awareness
-Building up the profile of issues I am interested in and making my personal concerns explicit
in a way that creates interest in others.
4. Elements of an awareness-raising
social media campaign
• Target audience and demographics
-Who is your target and what do you expect them to do when you deploy your social media strategy?
• Issue selection and galvanization mechanism
-What is the issue you’re fighting for?
-How are you going to galvanize the public/convince them?
• Platform selection and deployment
-What kind of platform and justification for its use
• Life cycle and stabilization
-Pre-launch strategizing
-Launch (soft/hard)
-Follow-up and continuity
-Assessment and evaluation
5. Target audience Issue selection & Platform Life-cycle &
& demographics galvanization selection & stabilization
mechanism deployment
DeSmogBlog Mainstream Global warming Blogs Short-medium
media & PR folks term
Earth Hour General public Energy Twitter and Short -term
Canada conservation Facebook
Vote for Average Environment as Twitter/blog & Very short term
Environment.ca Canadian voters an outcome of Facebook
(>18 yrs old) political decisions
Save the Great Average Biodiversity Flickr/Facebook/ Medium term
Bear Forest Canadian folk conservation Twitter
RaulPacheco.org Academics & Wastewater, Twitter/blog- Long term
general public public policy Facebook/Flickr
6. My own case
• Created a personal presence online
- My (personal) blog
• Switched platforms and experimented with a variety of tools
• Built my online presence
- Flickr ( http://flickr.com/photos/rolexpv )
- Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/hummingbird604 )
- Facebook
• Customized my online presence
-Personal ( http://www.hummingbird604.com )
• Launched a separate online presence
-Professional ( http://www.raulpacheco.org )
8. Summary
• Sustainability MUST be in the conversation
-But it’s not the ONLY element
-Other issues (homelessness, poverty, justice, human rights)
-Lessons are transferable and transportable
• New directions for social media
-Creating conversation, sustaining bi-directionality
-Building online reputation
-Raising awareness through galvanization of issues
- Deploying a variety of tools in a myriad of platforms
9. Questions
• Thanks for coming!
• Contact me ( research ):
-raul.pachecovega@gmail.com
-http://www.twitter.com/raulpacheco
- http://www.raulpacheco.org
• Contact me ( social media )
-hummingbird604@gmail.com
-http://www.twitter.com/hummingbird604
- http://hummingbird604.com
