Index, Table Of Contents, About Page

Activist Toolkit; Green Social Media And Citizen News Reporting Via Voting, Letter To Editor, Tweeting, Blogging, Finding Allies, Organize At Grass Roots From Bottom Up, Versus 1 Percent Organizing From Top Down

Activist Toolkit; Green Social Media And Citizen News Reporting Via Voting, Letter To Editor, Tweeting, Blogging, Finding Allies, Organize At Grass Roots From Bottom Up, Versus 1 Percent Organizing From Top Down

ACTIVISTS ARE TRUTH SEEKERS AND TRUTH TELLERS



Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein spoke with Social Media Chimps about social media's impact and potential in any election after an Occupy Wall Street rally against student loan debt in Manhattan's Union Square.

The current dualopoly that exists in the USA does not allow any news or events coverage of third parties or causes such as the environmental or anti nuclear movements, among others. There are also many roadblocks put in place by both of these corporate controlled political parties on a political side in each state, to keep any threats from a citizen's revolt through voting in a third party in check and out of the running.  

The combination of these monopolistic tactics and having no real coverage or choice in the news media forces third parties and anything other than fake mass media news to exist via social media. 

Social media are powerful indeed, if used properly. The Arab uprising was largely communicated through Twitter, because the news media there was controlled by a dictator, so in essence the same situation as in the USA on the mass media side of things.



ARE YOU AN ACTIVIST?

The job of an activist is to spark activity in others, and to create other active activists.


WHAT YOU CAN DO


The first step in any social movement is to bring awareness about an issue that needs attention, to the public. The following steps all serve to bring awareness of a particular issue to larger numbers of people. In order of time, energy and difficulty, several activist steps are outlined below. 

1. Forward this article by clicking on the social media facebook, google plus and/or twitter buttons below this article. 

2. Send this article to those who may be interested via copying and pasting the article title and link below into one or more emails. 

3. Seek out a petition to sign around this issue, or create one via the following websites. 

Search for an existing petition to sign. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/browse-petitions/

If you cannot find a petition around the issue, start a new petition; http://www.thepetitionsite.com/

4. Write a letter to the local newspaper editor about this subject or any other subject that you have a passion about. A short training is provided below...

How To Write A Letter To Editor (LTE); Activist Teach In
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/11/support-green-party-write-letter-to.html

5. Learn how to be an effective activist via social media. 

Activist Toolkit; Green Social Media And Citizen News Reporting 

ACTIVIST TACTIC: VOTE

The first and powerful arrow in the quiver of activists is to vote, every time, in every election, locally, regionally and nationally. Vote only for candidates that do not take corporate money, as corporate money corrupts the candidate terminally in almost all cases. If everyone voted this way, most of the problems in politics would be solved almost immediately. For example, the green party does not allow it's candidates to accept any corporate money. 

13 Reasons Why People Don't Vote; 13 Reasons Why You Should Vote, How To Fix The Broken Elections System
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/11/10-reasons-why-people-dont-vote-and-ten.html

ACTIVIST TACTIC; PROTEST, AND WRITE LETTER TO EDITOR, OP ED ARTICLE


Another activist tactic is to write letters to the editor of local and other newspapers. What follows is a training and resource guide oriented towards writing a letter to the editor.


How To Write A Letter To Editor (LTE); Activist Teach In
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/11/support-green-party-write-letter-to.html

List Of 100 Large Newspapers Letter To The Editor And Op Ed Editors Contact Information
http://www.ccmc.org/node/16179

ACTIVIST TACTIC; WRITE AN OP ED AND SUBMIT TO NEWSPAPER

An OP ED is just a longer version of a letter to the editor. What follows is a training course and guide to writing an OP ED piece.

How to write a letter to editor or op ed piece

GUIDE TO OP-ED PLACEMENT and LETTERS TO  THE EDITOR

TWITTER ACTIVISM 

Twitter is another tool for activism and activists. Protest actions have been coordinated and communicated via Twitter both locally, nationally and internationally. Share article titles and links to that article via twitter, or make short points about a particular point of view.

Keep it brief. Twitter only allows 140 characters, try to not go much longer on other platforms.

Videos are typically best if they’re 1-3 minutes.

Tag users whenever appropriate. Likewise, use hashtags (but, not too many). 

Twitter's Activist Roots: How Social Media And Spontaneous Protests Influenced Twitter
Twitter can help organize protesters, and update them quickly via a simple, easy to use social media platform. 

Twitter was used extensively in the Arab Spring Revolution. 

By searching for hashtag marked words, a 'movement' can be followed via Twitter. 

ACTIVIST TACTIC: BLOG 

Blogs are a powerful tool in the activist toolbag.

Blogs can be used to train activists, inform followers and educate the public.

Blog posts are best at 300-600 words. 

People have extremely short attention spans these days, so get to the point as quickly as possible.
Be human. It’s called social media because it’s supposed to be social. Be conversational, ask questions, respond to comments - act like you’re in a room with these people.

Include a Call-to-Action in the blog post.

Ask a question, urge liking on Facebook, social media sharing, and/or re-tweeting. If it’s relevant, include a hyperlink (shorten using a service like bitly).

ACTIVIST TACTIC: SEEK OUT NEW ALLIES


Seek out new allies.

If you already 100,000 followers on Twitter, kudos! But, for most of us, we need to constantly seek out new allies and build our networks. Don’t expect them to find you, you need to find them. How? 

Here are a few ideas: 

Do keyword searches. For example: “progressive online influencers,” “best green twitter accounts,” etc. 

Look at who’s following people you follow and who they follow. Did that make sense? Essentially, it’s examining existing networks to find allies of allies. 

Search relevant hashtags to see who’s using them.

Find relevant bloggers, comment on their posts, and connect with them on social media.

ACTIVIST TACTIC: WRITE GREAT CONTENT


Write great content.

Whether it’s a 100 character tweet, a flyer, a petition or a 500 word blog, make every letter count. Try to be clever, persuasive, positive, inspiring, anything to stand out (within respectful reason). Also, watch your grammar and spelling. Get someone else to proofread before the final product is released.

ACTIVIST TACTIC: INTEGRATE CHANNELS AND COMMUNICATION METHODS


Integrate Channels and Communications.

To be most effective, social media should be a part of all communications. Prepped tweets in emails and blog posts; links to profile pages in email signatures; URLs on brochures and fliers. Remind people every chance you get that they should join you online.

ACTIVIST TACTIC: ORGANIZE VIA GRASS ROOTS BOTTOMS UP NETWORKS


Organize.

Once you’ve made a lot of connections, organize! The number of ways you can come together as a collective force for good - both online and offline - are endless. 

Identify a goal (raise awareness, gather signatures, raise money, etc), create a strategy for reaching it, delegate tasks to interested allies, execute, celebrate your success. Clearly, there’s a lot more involved in organizing using social media, so we encourage you to use the resources below to learn more.

RESOURCES FOR FURTHER LEARNING 


17 Social Media Cheat Sheets - http://bit.ly/RXkN4l

ePolitics: Dissecting the Craft of Online Political Advocacy -http://www.epolitics.com

Social Media, Advocacy and Policy (great Pinterest account) -http://pinterest.com/drdigipol/social-media-advocacy-and-politics/

Ten Ways Social Media Can Improve Campaign Engagement and Reinvigorate American Democracy -http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2011/06/28-social-media-west

Online Organizing 2.0 - http://www.organizing20.org/

Journal of New Organizing - http://neworganizing.com/

Organizing Tools -http://www.gp.org/organize/index.php

ACTIVIST ARTISTS

Artists of all kinds can be activists as well. Have you considered using your art as a tool for activism?
 

END

Activist Toolkit; Green Social Media And Citizen News Reporting Via Voting, Letter To Editor, Tweeting, Blogging, Finding Allies, Organize At Grass Roots From Bottom Up, Versus 1 Percent Organizing From Top Down