ONLINE ACTIVISM

 

Online tools have the capability to mobilise like-minded individuals and create significant social and political change when the correct methods are employed. These steps are designed to help you create an online campaign that results in tangible offline change.

 

• Identify a political or social issue

• Research the issue in great depth

• Establish a refined goal that will benefit the issue

• Pinpoint specific political targets or significant stakeholders who may influence the outcome of your goal. When you require a change in action from a large company it is useful to approach their online profiles. Tag them on Facebook and contact them on Twitter. If it is a big brand risk to support an issue that your campaign is trying to solve, they are more likely to respond in your favour.

• Source useful contacts online who may be able to donate their expertise and services  to assist in developing your campaign. These could be journalists, publicists, graphic designers, lobby groups, opposing politicians or other media professionals. Start a closed Facebook group to keep them up to date. Trust is important.

• Develop an advocacy message that is strong, engaging and memorable. Include information about what is happening, how this is impacting individuals or communities, why this is no good and what needs to change.

• Know your audience. Determine the type of supporters you need to attract. If your campaign requires donations, aim for an audience of over 30s as they are more likely to have a steady income, but if you want your online petition to be signed you should aim for the under 30s audience bracket.

• Construct your campaign with a clear theory of change that is suitable to your time frame and budget. Create your petition or organise a rally/demonstration. Levy (personal communication, 26 May 2014) advises that ‘[t]he actions needs to be specific, measurable and meaningful’. It is important to provide a clear theory of change, a deadline for the action, and an engaging story. Personal stories are great for gaining interest.

• Create a simple process. Do not ask for registration details such as an email address if you do not require it for an individual to participate. This additional process of divulging personal information may turn them away and individuals may only have a short period of time online, there should be no more than three steps to the taking action process. Levy (personal communication, 26 May 2014) mentions when there are more than three, the process becomes ‘…too tenuous and onerous’.

• The process must be accessible. Not all interested individuals will know or be comfortable with using these new tools. Include links to websites that can explain how to use them or provide contact details of someone who can help (Bravo 2007).

• Make your request to your supporters meaningful. Describe how their online participation will help make change (Bravo 2007). They are providing you with their money, time or personal information therefore you need to ensure it is worth their while to get involved. Levy (personal communication, 26 May 2014) advises that it must be compelling, creative, unique, and shareable.

• Do not rush the process. Do not request them to spread the message urgently by including exclamation marks and unnecessary capital letters as this pressure may detract support (Bravo 2007).

• Identify the correct online platforms that are easily accessible by the audience

  • Use software such as Nationbuilder (http://nationbuilder.com/) that integrates social media and is designed for assisting online campaigns. NationBuilder is a site that allows the smallest of campaigns to digitally organise supporters around a cause that was previously only accessible by major political campaigns (Fitzpatrick 2012). It has proven a successful online tool whose purpose is movement building. This software integrates social media by drawing supporters details which allows for easier engagements with the supporters. It brings individuals together into one place and provides the ‘nations’ with all forms of online tools such as ‘…websites, social media accounts, volunteer recruitment pages, petition platforms, donation pages and… a database of voter data and confirmed supporters, which tracks information about everyday interaction between a campaign and each of it’s potential supporters’ (Fitzpatrick 2012). The cost varies depening on the number of people in your database, but is intended to be accessible to anyone.

  • Or utilise pre-existing sites such as change.org (http://www.change.org/en-AU) that are designed to help petitions get noticed

  • And develop campaign social media profiles on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as they are ideal for sharing the campaigns.

  • Include a memorable hashtag as clicktivism through this device has the capability to move issues from facebook/twitter/instagram into mass media such as the recent #bringbackourgirls campaign and therefore prompt response from world leaders (Rogers Lowery 2014).

  • Levy (personal communication, 26 May 2014) advises custom built sites are ideal, although do not bother developing costly websites, online advertisements and other media if they are not integral to achieving the campaign goal.

• Promote and share your actionable message through these sites and contact celebrities who have an existing fan base online. Gordon (personal communication, 16 May 2014) mentions that individuals must hear about an event at least three times before they consider attending. Making something viral is extremely difficult and relies on hard work and persistence, as well as luck (Levy, personal communication, 26 May 2014). Include your contact information in case a supporter would like to be more involved, offering their skills to help further develop the campaign. 

• Listen to your audience. If you have a low or high response rate to a post you made on Facebook, try to work out what element may have disinterested or interested people and use that to improve your following posts. Test different voices.

• If your advocate group is a not-for-profit organisation, it is important to state this in order to help avoid high expectations and unreasonable demands from supporters.

• Avoid contributing to activist fatigue. With the overload of information on social media sites try to limit posts and requests for supporters to take action that costs time or money.

• Adapt to changes as they occur. Keep the issue fresh and interesting by updating supporters with current information relating to the issue. Use different methods of communicating information to revitalise the campaign message including videos and graphics; dry political talk is not going to attract much attention. It is important to ensure current information is passed onto the supporters to keep them informed and educated on the topic. 

• Encourage a sense of community. Provide methods for online supporters to network with one another and create relationships. ‘Technology intended to connect young activists needs to be culturally relevant and user- and value-centric, and support face-to-face organising’ (Bravo 2007).

• It is the responsibility of the campaigner to correct any mis-information being spread. Levy warns if you fail to so, your integrity is at risk and you could be liable for legal action (personal communication, 26 May 2014). Let your supporters have a voice; your communication with them should not be scripted and it is usually okay to step out of the boundaries, but Levy advises that campaigners should be aware of the phenomena of trolling, a negative side effect of the online environment (personal communication, 26 May 2014).

• Create the steps for individuals to take further action in the campaign. Levy mentions that ‘it’s not too difficult to get people to take action online, relatively simple to get them to donate a small amount, but it is extremely hard to ask them for their time’ (personal communication, 26 May 2014).

• Host your rally or collect signatures for your online petition. To arrange a meeting with the politicians it is necessary to show your issue is of importance to a large number of people. Notify police, councils and all parties who may be affected to avoid any dangerous activity.

• Take the campaign offline. It is integral that you take the newly formed awareness of the issue to the government in order to table the petition and actually incite the change! Provide the government with solutions, as they are unlikely to solve the issue for you.

• Acknowledge your supporters. Thank the integral supporters personally for their contribution and also thank them in a broad email or status on social media, but do not divulge personal information such as names if this could damage the individual in any way.

• Report the outcome. Was your campaign successful or unsuccessful? It is important to announce these results as a ‘matter of courtesy’ (Bennett & Fielding 2000). It will also give you an opportunity to promote the next phase of action.