From Montfort: Social media consultancy firm Montfort has published a handy accessible guide to producing social media video.

Social media video: a guide, by Montfort

From informationactivism.org: The Info-Activism How-To Guide is a new guide for activists, advocates, NGOs and community based organisations who want to use technology tools and practices in their campaigning. This guide assembles strategies, digital tools and case studies from around the world with a critical focus on the intended strategic impact of digital campaigns.

Contents of this How-To Guide include…

• Who are you talking to? Know your audience
• What are you trying to say? Frame your message
• Collaborative working: build your network
• Policies and practices: Create your content
• Track your reach: campaign analytics
• Top 5 tips for digital security and privacy
• Make your issue their interest
• Make your issue their issue
• Make your issue their action
• Digital tools: audio, collaborative, image, mobile, outreach, print, security, video
• Info-activism examples from around the world

[Go to full Info-Activism How-To Guide…]

License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

From Brand Driven Digital: If you use any social media, whether its Facebook, Twitter, or even Instagram, you’re no stranger to social media activism. It takes the form of Facebook profile picture overlays, trending hashtags, or the latest movement, Standing Rock location check-ins.

There are a lot of opposing viewpoints on whether those using social media to voice their opinions are just being lazy or if their tweet or status is actually helpful. There’s no doubt that social media has changed the activism game. It allows people with the same views and ideas to come together and feel part of a larger community or movement.

In any situation, it’s always a good idea to look at multiple sides in order to develop a well-rounded viewpoint; so I figured it was a good idea to look at what some people are saying about online activism.

[Read full article on Brand Driven Digital…]

From Contently: Handler’s clip, which stays true to her offbeat sense of humor, is an example of Global Citizen’s unique brand of activism that involves viewer education, celebrity endorsement, journalism, and social media participation.

“We don’t raise money for ourselves and don’t generally raise money for other people. We don’t deliver vaccines or feed the hungry,” explained Richard Wolffe, Global Citizen’s chief digital and marketing officer. “We mobilize people. We build a movement to put pressure on other people, mostly governments and corporations, to go and do the big stuff.”

[Read full article on Contently…]

From the Shorty Awards, honouring the best of social media: These people stand up for what they believe in, cause a movement, or live up to Gandhi’s words, “be the change you want to see in the world”. Whether they use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or other social means to help generate awareness of their cause, start a revolution, or inspire others to do the same, they might just win this Shorty.

[Go to full finalist and nominee lists, with features, on Shorty Awards website…]

From AdWeek: While some have derided hashtag activism as ineffective, there is no denying the impact of social media in raising awareness of social issues this year.

In 2010, protests and civil war broke out across the Middle East, and social media played a huge role in raising global awareness of what was dubbed the Arab Spring. But that was just the beginning of social being used as a vehicle for activism.

While some have derided hashtag activism as ineffective, there is no denying the impact of social media in raising awareness of social issues this year. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest social issues on social media during 2015.

[Read full article on AdWeek…]

From Huffpost: Social media is one of the most powerful forms of activism, and (dare I say) a catalyst for change. Here’s why:

1. With social media, you can send more messages to more people, more quickly.
2. Social media has the potential to bring to people fair and balanced news coverage with little or no bias of mainstream corporate media or propaganda, thereby becoming the de facto news.
3. Social media gives people the power to call out injustices, inaccuracies and misrepresentations and brings about better understanding of other cultures and people.
4. By organizing, creating and supporting hashtag campaigns, people from all over the world can get involved in important conversations.
5. Social media is a more accessible way of activism for those who cannot leave the home.
6. Social media equals power, as demonstrated by certain countries banning or controlling access.
7. An engaged and interactive audience for live TV shows.

A big drawback with social media, is the sharing of photos and links without verification of information. We are all guilty of this because sometimes misinformation is hidden so well that we are unable to see it for what it is — unsubstantiated and false. Because of the hyper speed of the internet, this misinformation is spread at a fast pace and can be difficult to contain.

[Read full post on Huffpost…]

This toolkit is published by Association for Progressive Communication Women’s Networking Support Programme and Violence is Not Our Culture (VNC). It was inspired by workshops held in Asia and Africa for the partners and members of the VNC campaign. It can also be a resource for human rights activists who are keen to develop their online activism and want to know where and how to to start.

It is intended to provide the following skills to campaigners:

• An understanding of why and how information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be appropriated by women’s rights and human rights groups in their advocacy skills through their use of online tools, including networking and mobile tools for advocacy and campaigning
• The ability to develop an advocacy / communication strategy
• Knowing what social networking is and the various spaces and tools they could use in their online activism
• An understanding of online privacy and security issues relevant to building their online activism.

[Link to Strategising Online Activism Toolkit (pdf)]

From Mashable: Social media provides a new first step on the engagement ladder. The methodology of approaching stakeholders and encouraging them to take deeper actions requires acceptance of their current level of activism, and well-crafted approaches towards deeper commitment.

“There are some slacktivists that will become fundraisers, but if you are messaging correctly, they will mostly self-select,” said Dan Morrison, CEO and Founder of Citizen Effect. “But the fastest way to lose slacktivists is to ask them [to do] what they hate doing the most — getting off their butt and [doing] something. My advice? Send out great content targeted at recruiting more fundraisers and driving people to donate, and empower the slacktivists to spread the word for you.”

“It is important to know how to meet people where they are at, and craft your conversation starters and calls to action appropriately so as to match the specific interest and commitment,” said Beth Kanter, co-author of The Networked Nonprofit.  “Organizations need to have good processes and strategies for stewarding people toward ever higher levels of engagement with their causes and campaigns.”

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