Archive for 'Politics' category

Lessons from the Susan G Komen Foundation/Planned Parenthood firestorm: What other non-profits can– and can’t– take away

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Introduction

There are a lot of ways to cover the Komen/PP firestorm–too many, in fact. For the purposes of my work here, I’m going to focus on what made this brouhaha different than any other concerning Planned Parenthood, the lessons learned if you’re on the defensive, and the lessons learned if you’re on the offensive.

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On CBC: Komen, Planned Parenthood and the power of social media

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My segment starts at 38min 37sec; I come on at 41min.

Exciting news: Social media for social justice workshop in San Francisco, March 5

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I’m really psyched to announce that in partnership with my speaking agency, Aid & Abet, I’m launching a series of boot camps across the country. Our pilot is in San Francisco on March 5, 2012:

You know about social media. You know that you’ve got to get on board with it for your organization, or for your own activist work. You may have even signed up for Twitter or Facebook already, but you don’t know where to start. What are the right tools to use? What do I say? Why are other people doing this? And, perhaps, most importantly: how the hell do I know if it’s working?!

View the full event page for the whole description and pricing information, and to register. We’re also offering scholarships for those in need.

WE ARE GOING TO HAVE SO MUCH FUN.

Oh, and speaking of need, I should mention how this idea came about– a lot of people come to Jen Angel (of Aid & Abet) and I looking for a hands-on workshop, but can’t afford to bring me into their organization or event. This workshop will get folks who need it the most, working on the front lines, the skills they need without emptying their budgets.

Based on how things go in SF, I’ll be offering this boot camp in other cities (likely next up will be NYC and DC), and possibly online. If you’re interested helping to host one in other cities, please let us know– leave a comment below or send me an email. And, if you’re interested in bringing me to your organization for a group training or strategy session, drop Jen a line.

The trouble with Google+

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I’m concerned about some initial sociologial (versus technological) trends I’m seeing on Google+. Admittedly, I haven’t played around with it too much — I still like Twitter and Facebook, since people with whom I have high-value relationships participate heavily there. Google+ is more a novelty (and a necessity for me to figure out for my clients). And frankly, while I know lots of people love the Circles — for the non-Google+-er, those are groups in which you have to put people — I’m overwhelmed by having to choose where I want to put every single person in whom I have some semblence of interest. The implications of Circles could be a whole ‘nother post, so I’ll leave it at that.

What I’ve found troublesome so far is that the atmosphere/culture Google+ has far less “personality” than the other services do. I don’t see as much intimate content there (yet?) as I do other services. And the intimate content that is posted there doesn’t seem to resonate as much with readers.

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Marriage rights pass: live from Stonewall Friday night

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I went to the West Village on June 24, 2011, right after same sex marriage was passed in New York State.

I arrived at about midnight. Walking west on Waverly from the West 4th Street subway stop, the celebration was rising. Amusing to watch the obvious tourists get caught up in the excitement. Empathetic joy.

Then I arrived at Sheridan Square, just outside the Stonewall Inn.

Holy shit. (@ Stonewall Inn w/ 102 others) [pic]: http://4sq.com/jVvxlQ
randomdeanna
June 25, 2011

There were several hundred people in the street. I decided to wade through the crowds; a big decision for me, since I’m normally pretty crowd averse and I get a little panicky. But the mood was jubliant, and not overwhelming, so I felt safe.

“Joy” was certainly the main emotion in the crowd, but there was another feeling just underneath that.

The biggest feeling, after joy, here outside Stonewall: relief. #ssm
randomdeanna
June 25, 2011

I wandered back through the crowd, taking some pictures and tweeting a few thoughts. (I clearly had no other word available but “joy.” Heh.)

This is what equality looks like.
Photo by randomdeanna on flickr

It seen like ppl are getting engaged every 10 ft, haha #ssm
randomdeanna
June 25, 2011
OH: “Everyone deserves hugs and kisses.” #ssm #stonewall
randomdeanna
June 25, 2011
Where it all began. Thank you to all who sacrificed before us. http://flic.kr/p/9WAstm
randomdeanna
June 25, 2011

Where it all began. Thank you to all who sacrificed before us.
Photo by randomdeanna on flickr

Also a common theme outside Stonewall: random reunions, inspired joyous serendipity. #ssm
randomdeanna
June 25, 2011
I’m also loving the diversity of genders, ethnicities and identities. Everyone deserves this joy. #ssm #stonewall
randomdeanna
June 25, 2011

Crowds outside Stonewall, #1
Photo by randomdeanna on flickr

Crowds outside Stonewall, #2
Photo by randomdeanna on flickr

Spontaneous song breaks out: “Going to the chapel” #ssm #stonewall
randomdeanna
June 25, 2011
Then I had the pleasure of running into Jeremy Heimans — Ford Foundation Visionary, co-founder of Purpose NYC, co-founder (with my amazing pal Andre Banks) of AllOut.org — and his boyfriend, Brock. It was late and dark, but I asked them how they felt. Brock sums up his needs right at the end.
@randomdeanna LOL! KitchenAid Mixer Artisan series. Good call. Have a blast celebrating at Stonewall!
ruthkalinka
June 25, 2011

I poked around for a few more minutes and decided to go home. So glad I had the opportunity to go and share in person the empathetic experience of a whole group of people finally getting the rights they have been owed for a long, long time.

Empire State Building Goes Rainbow
Photo by zennie62 on flickr

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Social media reactions to bin Laden’s death

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I’ve got a full work plate this morning, and my own set of feelings to process about the news of Osama bin Laden’s death (more on that will likely appear on my Tumblr later tonight), but wanted to get down a couple noteworthy bullets. If I have time, I’ll return and flesh these out into a coherent piece.

  • We all know that social media get the word out at lightning speed–but what struck me most about this news was not the speed of information, but the immediacy of community development. People are using Twitter and Facebook to work out what are, for many, complicated emotions. Relief, joy, anger, sadness are all appearing at once. This is in stark contrast to what we often see in traditional media soundbites (particularly video media), where broad strokes are painted when it comes to emotional content–i.e., those people are cheering, those people over there are not. Social media is creating a space where it’s acceptable, and useful, to express multiple feelings. This is also very different than, for example, the days following 9/11–when the war on Afghanistan was announced, it was largely extremely taboo in American public squares (online or off) to express concern, or disagreement. Part of that was the political climate, but part of that was that there weren’t necessary effective public spaces for people to be nuanced human beings.
  • I’m also struck by the speed with humor was employed as a tactic to process the news. Again, in contrast to 9/11, when we waited two weeks for the new issue of The Onion to come out–no one made any jokes before then. Not only was it taboo, but there just wasn’t a way to deal. (By the way, that issue of The Onion might be the best one ever–headlines like, “God Angrily Clarifies ‘Don’t Kill’ Rule, “Hijackers Surprised To Find Selves in Hell,” and many more gems.) Last night, some of the immediate jokes, some in good taste, some not, clearly paved a way for people to express all kinds of reactions to this global news phenomenon. My personal favorites were @marcfaletti‘s “It was that f***ing iPad location history, wasn’t it?” and the newly created @OsamaInHell account tweeting, “Wait, what?”

More as time allows today…

At SXSW: Panel, book signing and Twitter for Social Good

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In case you’ll be at SXSW Interactive this weekend, and in case you want to see me and some pretty amazing folks doing some killer speaking and workshopping… Monday is the Day o’ DZ:

  • Monday, 9:30am. Hyatt TX Ballroom 1.
    The best donuts you’ve ever had in your life will be served!
    People Power: Leveraging Personal Stories to Build Influence.
    http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_IAP7037
    With: Twanna Hines, Jean Russell, Cheryl Contee and Andrea Miller.
    Now, social is personal. From finance site Mint.com’s anti-immigration blog post gaffe to YourTango CEO Andrea Miller’s “How to Date an Indian (Advice for the Non-Indian),” social media fuses personal with public in a way never seen before. Whether sharing taste in hiphop, dating preferences, provocative political ideas, or insider information about a soon-to-be-launched business, social media strategically develops personal and professional reputations. Stories can build audiences, grow support for campaigns and change mainstream ideas about social issues. They can also alienate various communities, compromise business information confidentiality or damage brands. If social media has shown us anything, it’s that stories still matter. This panel will be a concrete conversation on how successful online personalities have managed their personal and professional lives using social media: telling authentic stories about our experiences, and using those stories to build powerful, engaged communities.
  • Monday, 11:30am. SXSW Bookstore — ACC Ballroom Foyer D
    Book signing! I’ll be there till 12pm.
    http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_OE00561
  • Monday, 12:30pm. Icehauers, 83 Rainey St.
    Twitter for Good at SXSW and Beyond
    http://claire.us.com/twitter-for-good-at-sxsw-and-beyond/
    The lovely Claire Diaz Ortiz, who leads philanthropy and social innovation at Twitter, is hosting this lunchtime discussion and workshop to answer the question: “What 1 THING could Twitter, Inc. do to better help non-profits, causes, and anyone trying to make a difference in the world using the platform?” More details at Claire’s blog post.

Case study in social media for social justice: Exhale’s “16 & Loved” campaign

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I had a perfect storm of a project recently, and decided to write it up as a case study in how to manage a short-term social media campaign. I’ll discuss tools, tactics and metrics — hope you find it useful!


At the beginning of December, Aspen Baker, the executive director of Exhale, wrote me an email. “I’m looking for a social media coordinator and web person for a short-term project,” she said. “Interested?” I’ve always been a fan of Aspen’s work at Exhale — they’re a nonprofit organization which provides the first and only nonjudgmental national, multilingual after-abortion talkline. One of the things I love most about Exhale, which I learned largely through their campaign, is their advocacy of “pro-voice” in dealing with abortion. Every woman’s voice deserves to be heard; women (in numerous political contexts) don’t need to be talked at, shamed, have numbers and percentages thrown at them as much as they need to be listened to, and told that they are loved.

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How to join the #dearjohn campaign

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Note: This how-to became quite popular, and I wanted to be clear that it is available for reposting and reuse for other campaigns, so long as you respect the Creative Commons license (Attribution non-commercial share-alike).

THE INTRO

For background on the #dearjohn campaign, check out these posts from Sady Doyle and Amanda Marcotte.

If you’re not on Twitter, but you’d like a helping hand through the sign-up process, go here.

If you’re new to Twitter, and want an introduction to basic concepts– retweets, hashtags, and mentions, oh my!– go here.

THE GOODS

One of the more attractive social media tactics when it comes to creating a stir is to use hashtags. Hashtags, in the case of campaigns and politics, can be useful to:

  • collect all the tweets about a particular topic in one place;
  • put pressure on public figures to respond to a topic (because of the above);

What’s a hashtag? It’s an agreed-upon keyword preceded by the pound sign that’s added to your tweet. In this case, we’re using #dearjohn. No special skill is required–just type it into your tweet, or copy and paste it.

Tweets with the #dearjohn hashtag should convey one or more of the following:

  • A sense of urgency about sexual assault and reproductive rights.
  • A personal story–storytelling is what gets to people, not isolated facts and figures.
  • Deep conviction. You don’t have to tell your story to be authentic, but your words should be your own.

UPDATE: Check out Sady’s newer post for content ideas and guidelines.

Consider also monitoring the #dearjohn hashtag (how to do that is explained below) and retweeting posts that you agree with. Amplifying powerful messages and diverse voices goes a long way towards building critical mass.

It’s also helpful to include the Twitter handles of people that you want to hear your message. House representatives who are sponsoring the bill should be considered first–start with @SpeakerBoehner himself. A list of the rest of the co-sponsors–all 173 of them!– can be found here (click on “Co-sponsors” under Representative Christopher Smith). You can use GovLuv to find the Twitter handles of the representative you wish to mention. Consider also sending messages of thanks to representatives who are speaking out and standing up for women in this fight. UPDATE: Amaditalks on Tumblr compiled the whole list here.

You might also think about starting (or joining an existing) an act.ly petition to collect #dearjohn tweeters in yet another online location.

A word about decency/politeness: You don’t have to be nice in your tweets when confronting folks that support HR3. But calling names, making false or libelous accusations, etc., only hurts the rest of the movement. Be outraged, but keep your head on straight.

A word about trolls: If you’re new to this kind of thing, you might not have had much experience with trolling behavior. Basically, a troll is someone who actually isn’t interested in having a productive discussion, and only posts extremely inflammatory comments to derail the entire conversation. Ignore them. Block them. Do not, repeat, do not respond in any way, shape or form–do not even tell them that you’re blocking them. Trolls are vampires: they are emboldened and strengthened by any response to their antics, and you will inevitably be weakened. I know it’s hard to ignore them. But trust me, it is the only way.

To see the running log of all #dearjohn posts, you can do a few things:

  • Keep coming back to this post and clicking on #dearjohn
  • Look at the top of your Twitter page–there’s a search box. Enter #dearjohn into it, and when you see the search results, you’ll notice a button at the top right of the results–”Save this search.” Click that. Then, to find it again, look at the top of your Timeline for the “Searches” link. Click on it, and you’ll be shown a list of your saved searches.
  • For more advanced options, you can perform an advanced Twitter search here: https://search.twitter.com/advanced

I’ll continue to update this post as the movement builds and evolves. Have a tip for me? Feel free to @me on Twitter, or drop a line.

CNN International: Wikileaks and digital activism

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(For a more in depth exploration and ensuing discussion of DDoS, see my post, and the comments, over here.)