Learning and Applying Social Media and Other Tools for Advocacy

This presentation, first of a series of two, gives an overview of trends in applying social media. The presentation comes from a workshop at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region Knowledge Management event, Tangier, Morocco, October 2010.

The objectives of the presentation include discussing: how and why social media are reshaping the global media and communication landscape; social media culture and etiquette; basic social networking tools for activism: blogs, microblogs, social networks, social bookmarking, photo and video sharing; and an exploration of tools and examples. Tools include: Gmail (email and Google services account), Delicious (social bookmarking), Blogger and Wordpress (blogging), Facebook (social networking), Flickr (photo sharing), YouTube (video sharing), and Twitter (microblogging). Readings linked to the presentation include: Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents; We Media; Why Social Media Is Reinventing Activism; and New York Times debate: Can Twitter Lead People to the Streets?

The presentation topics include:

1. Understanding the Speed of Change - graphing the use of media.
   
2. Understanding the Metaphor of Conversation - a social media chart including an array of exchange (music, events, blog communities, etc.) and an example of an 8-year old interacting through media with Boeing Corporation.
   
3. Understanding the Culture of Social Media - its nature: conversational, personal, social, participatory, chaotic, mobile, experiential, brief, current, and passionate.