Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D., of the Center for American Progress is doing a presentation on social media advocacy. Not particularly animal-related.
Talks about additive summation. Used Pres. Obama asking everyone to call congressional reps last week, they call -- and crash the phone system -- but they also post to reps' Facebook pages, protest outside of their offices, etc. Hit them everywhere, they're more likely to budge.
Same for us if we want to mobilize people we know. Reach with Twitter, Facebook, signage, talking in coffee shop, house parties, dog-washing parties. Bring people together, spread the message. We know repetition works with messaging. When we hear from more than one source, there's this thing called "source amnesia," they may not remember where they heard the message, but they remember the message.
Social media. "Here Comes Everybody."
The way things were: Talks about email lists of the past. Email is a closed communication loop.
The way things are now: Eg, Congress can't ignore FB, Twitter, etc. on social networks is because the world can see. Because the reason most people are there is to share what they find.
Social is not intrusive. It's not in your email box. It's just in your news stream. That is the nature of the platform. It's there, then it's gone, you don't have to do anything about it if you don't want to.
Members of Congress may not care to hear from non-constituents by email, phone, via web contact, but they have to care that people from anywhere can shut down their Facebook page with posts, or organize to raise money for their opponent.
You can't target everyone. You have to focus your message and pick key people. (I AGREE!!!!)
A 9-second sound bite = around 140 characters, Twitter limit.
He's never found a haiku longer than 80 characters, and they can describe the universe. "Imagine what you can describe with 140." But he says stay at 120 if you want people to re-tweet -- 80 percent RT manually, so they can add their own comments or hashtags.
Discussion of hashtags. This conference is #nkc2011, but people on #nokill don't seem to know. Need to announce a new or event-specific hashtag by announcing to more widely-used hashtag what the new hashtag is. Eg, tweet to #nokill and mention that #nkc2011 is the hashtag for this conference.
Long discussion about using "Facebook page takeovers" and the "etiquette" of removing posts on your wall and comments that you don't like. Your shutting down your critics can hurt you. Big time.
The movement of sophistication on these platforms is different from old time PR (how to make you LOOK good, not be good) to new PR, where they're really being told they have to BE good, DO good, to walk the talk.
I just noticed David is reading this liveblog while he's sitting next to me listening to it in real time. I AM DEAD OF THE META.
Interesting that most interest at this presentation from the audience is about Twitter!
Question from audience: Do hashtags have RSS feeds? Answer: Yes.
Q: How to find someone's Twitter name? A: He recommends searching on Google with the person's name and the word Twitter rather than searching on Twitter.
Twitter reaches INFLUENCERS, Facebook better for grassroots.
Experts are more trusted than the most trusted institutions, so not just your organization should be on Twitter and FB, YOU and YOUR PEOPLE should be on FB and Twitter.
Better to have a few influential followers than many more who aren't.
To get more followers:
Step one: Make a connection. Fan or friend them, follow them. Talk with them on social media -- it's SOCIAL. wefollow.com. listorius.com. keyword search or location search on search.twitter.com.
Step two: Engage the people you want to get in your audience. Share their stuff with your audience. Ask them for their expertise so they can help you, which massages their ego.
Step three: Recommend them. #followfriday or #ff. Create lists who are influencers in your field, then rec the list. On FB, like a post, or comment, and share on your wall. Once they follow you, keep repeating "engage" and "recommend." The more you give the more you get.
Web is altruistic. We draw people to us to send everyone to other places.
Comments