A good friend approached me a few weeks ago to ask if I would contribute a question for a Climate One Connect panel discussion called “Youth Grabbing The Wheel: Speaking Up to Drive Down Carbon,” organized by Climate One at the Commonwealth Club. The panel members, all student activists under the age of twenty, were presented with questions from various community organizers and activists.
Heavy with questions and light on answers, I was more than willing to ask the question that has persistently arisen with my work organizing for The Wigg Party. My question: How does an organization cut through the fog and white noise of various online social networks to effectively communicate with it’s participants and actually reach out to potential members?
This question will continually arise and I ask patience and forgiveness from those who suffer my snafu email correspondence. I may learn that online communication and social networking is not my strong suite. More likely, I will grow from the cracks where my mistakes are mended. I work with animals and I often think in animal analogies when it comes to my own personal growth: to grow one must shed their skin and cut their teeth.
For now, we of The Wigg Party will try to tiptoe that fine line between deep engagement and over inundation.
Your comments are always helpful. How often do you want to receive emails from a community organization? How long of an article or email will you read before you considered it verbose? What software or website do you consistently use to organize your social and work events? Thank you to our early readers and for your feedback on the blog.
I think that groups have to provide useful information and content consistently and always showcase efforts get good traction online — they’re constantly keeping you updated. As for social media, having some kind of editorial calendar could help – like some kind of small tip every Tuesday for d.i.y. home improvement or “How-To-Fix-It YoSelf Wednesday”– dunno, just my thoughts