Online Social Activism 101

Starting-up

To begin, start by identifying the most suitable cause. Try answering the following questions from YourCause.com: What is your cause? Who can you help? What is your passion? How will you move others? What will you champion?. Identify a cause as in a way you identify yourself and your life. The more it identifies YOU, the more you’d feel fulfilled in volunteering time and energy for it. Following through the progress of major grassroot establishments, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and Oxfam for instance, or online community initiatives naming One and To Write Love On Her Arms. The more passionate and confident key initiators feel towards their causes, the more appealing it would be for people to join and get themselves actively involved.

Next step is how the cause or initiative is going to be reinforced. Good activists would likelier deploy positive reinforcement, instead of a negative one. Take as an example, YourCause.com is not asking: Who can you destroy? What is your grudge? How will you intimidate others? What will you defeat?, instead it presents a positively reinforcing way to get people involved. The online media is mainly about integrating the internet ecosystem and one or more technical fields, therefore, what technical field do you find most effective? Music, print media, event organizing, journalism, arts?

Initiatives are mainly divided into two kinds, service-based and action-based. Service-based initiative requires less mass or immediate goals, it relies more on solid presence, a team and activity schedule; for instance: providing shelter (rumah singgah) for street kids, building libraries in underserved areas, educating safety tips on riding. Action-based initiative is more goal-oriented, mass-driven, requires more effective (and sometimes aggressive) strategies; for instance: pressuring the elected official to issue an act, signing petitions for ceasefire, garnering donation money for disaster and conflict areas. All agenda are also must be clear, transparent and well communicated.

Remember to prioritize the cause first, then your community–you and your community will consequentially be presented alongside. If you prioritize certain key figures (or yourself), the first thing that pops into people’s minds is that the initiative is having political nature, thus lacking sincerity and commitment to the cause itself. Even if that is what you’re intending, be straightforward. Most people wouldn’t go online if they want to be dumbed down.

Negative aspect of what is publicly known as activism is how it is prone to be associated with extreme, fatal actions. Learning from this, methods used ought to be constantly examined, refined and improved over a period of time. Sometimes that giant a leap of faith contains small leaps, intelligent, careful actions yet steady and persistent dynamic. Keep in mind causing fear in society contradicts the whole point of activism itself.

Lastly is developing ways to network and build relationships with the community. Each cause requires a different approach, it’s up to the community and key initiators to recognize their own target audience and to figure out the most suitable method. The aim is to progressively developing a positive and productive environment, by then, online activists will be ready to implement ideas in the offline world as on the internet. As above, so below.

Utilizing tools

Taking action online more or less like organizing virtual rallies or campaigns, it requires effective tools and resources to voice public opinion regarding an issue. Social media tools function to increase public awareness by encouraging people to view an article, story, or video; not only to promote a community, but also to educate and inspire the surrounding public. One thing to avoid is behaving too institutional where communication streams are less open and interactive. These tools can be part of promotional method, for instance by providing downloadable activist toolkits, or part of the content itself.

• Graphics and Images
• Videos
• Blogging and microblogging
• E-mails and Mailing Lists
• Petitions and Pledges
• Social Networking Sites

Using graphics is probably the easiest way to advertise your community projects. Videos are most effective for developing viral buzz that centers around a particular initiative, but also for delivering high quality, audiovisual content. For action-based initiative, tools commonly used are e-mails and petitions generator, using pre-written, customisable messages–always make sure to inform and verify your campaign with the receiving end, be it an elected official, a senior aide, or a representative. Mailing lists and newsletters are also useful for keeping interaction active among activists or volunteers.

Read tips from WWF Passport concerning writing to elected officials:

Keep it short. Limit your letter to one page and one issue.

Identify yourself and the issue. In the first paragraph of your letter state who you are and what issue you are writing about

Focus on your main points. Choose the three strongest points to support your argument and develop them clearly. Too much information can distract from your position.

Make it personal. Tell your decision maker why the issue matters to you and how it affects you, your family, and your community. Make a connection to the elected official. Did you vote for her? Did you contribute to the campaign?

Ask for a reply. Include your name and address on both your letter and envelope. Trust your voice. Be polite and take a firm position in your letter. Be confident in your understanding of the issue and remember that the official may know less than you. Thank elected officials when they make a decision the way you want.

Media such as blogs or microblogs is an essential medium for advocating social initiatives and sharing various types of content—graphics, multimedia, live streaming broadcasts, and so on. Blogs allows interacting with constituents, also integrating almost all online media tools. Using social networking sites establish web presence among individuals, focusing more on personalized and direct approach.

Learn more on how to support charity through social media here.

Networking your cause

Now this is where ___[fill in the blank] such as you and me come into the scene, by helping online communities network initiatives whether voluntarily or professionally. As quoted from Need Magazine: “We are not out to save the world but to tell the stories of those who are.”.

Thin difference between promoting and networking is how networking is not all about placing banners and leaving it right there for people to click, networking is about you “hooking up” with the right person, even better, having someone else to make sure that the right person “hooking up” with you. It’s two-way, not a one-way interaction. Who are these right person(s) to network with? From writers, bloggers, journalists, corporate executives and representatives, researchers, artists, scholars, politicians to celebrities, or activists from other organizations, in other countries. The aim is to make the initiative’s presence known, even to get the people networked actively involved in it, but most importantly, to get them inspired, get them thinking.

In Indonesia, most publicists specified in activism field or alike fall in one category, Public Relation (PR), and mainly dealing with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. Abroad, there are PR agencies delivering e-advocacy services in one package, for instance CauseWired, or MySociety for IT-based frameworks, and DemocracyInAction with their own designed platform, Salsa. Locally, you could try out public relation consultancy offered by Maverick Indonesia, experienced in handling the niche.

CauseWired as “consultants to organizations working to make the world a better place”, provide services such as: Strategic Planning, Case Development, Social Media Strategy, Development Planning, Content Development, and Project Management. If you and your community can independently develop and manage these tasks, then you’ll have no problem in maintaining stable development in years to come, off the charge.

Collaborating into action

Collaborating is a big bonus after acquiring the right tools and the right network, it helps mobilize the cause and expanding it even further. As numero uno priority, elect local charity foundations and non-profit organizations that will receive donations from cause efforts. From there, collaborating with corporate establishments, media agencies, or cultural centers would do great for the community in the long run.

You could collaborate with the local government as well, preferably for organizing events, such as seminars or conferences. It’s possible that your community can even influence local elected representatives into developing new policies related to the cause—quite of a groundbreaking success, if you’re so inclined. UK residents could use WriteToThem, a simple way to contact Councillors, MP, MEPs, MSPs, or Northern Ireland, Welsh and London AMs for free. Always keep your say-meh-on-corruption antennae up, because you’ll never know. Keep your collaboration transparent, educative, and stay true to your values at all times.

Below are examples of social initiatives, locally and internationally, go to each sites to view live usage of tools elaborated above. Three cheers and lots of love to men and women behind them.

	Change Magazine, magazine published by Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan covering politics, culture, and social issues, for teenage demographic
	Movember, Australia-based organization that runs Movember event annually, on the awareness surrounding men’s health issues
	send.a.message, get custom-ordered message spray-painted on the wall dividing Palestine and Israel, established in collaboration with Palestinians living nearby
	Charity Focus, volunteer-run virtual organization that provides e-advocacy for nonprofits and to-be-volunteers
	Adobe Youth Voices, CR program by Adobe, providing learning experience using multimedia tools for youth in underserved communities worldwide. Explore vids here.
	Pink Chaddi Campaign, India’s feminist movement and non-violent protest against local political group, Sri Ram Sena
	Jangan Bikin Malu 2009 viral video
	shirTalks political fashion
	CitizenSpeak, free email advocacy service for grassroots organizations
	Care2 (Petitionsite) e-mail petition for Roxana Saberi
	Politikana tweets
	1000Guru.net AV lectures
	Rock for Darfur, community initiative built in MySpace, concerning conflict in Darfur. Provides downloadable dialogue toolkit for members.
	Gowes Anti Panas, event organized by Bandung-based Greeners Magazine in collaboration with Oxfam, promoting biking to work and building awareness on enviromental issues

Essential portal sites to promote, network and find related tools:

• YourCause.com
  
• Change.org
• Idealist.org
• Care2
• ThinkMTV
• MySpace Impact

Several resources if you’re ready to advance your social initiative:

• NGO Ethics in Indonesia
• Tao of Charity Focus
• Just Add Consciousness, Oxfam
• Working with the United Nations Human Rights Programme: A Handbook for Civil Society, OHCR
• iRevolution, blog by Patrick Meier
• Social Good Conference, one-day educational event celebrating the finale of Summer of Social Good campaign.

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