Digital Verdure

Climate activists and ordinary people around the world came together on October 24th to urge world leaders to slow climate change. The event, organized by 350.org, was described by CNN as "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history."

The 350 organization understood early that putting together a widespread international day of action, with limited resources, would require a media strategy that went way beyond celebrity public service announcements or even traditional analog-based grassroots organizing.

"Whatever the opposite of intellectual property rights is, that’s what we want people to do with 350—adopt, steal, do whatever with it,” said Bill McKibben, renowned climate activist and 350 leader. "The goal is to gather as many actions as possible and broadcast them through the 350.org website, blogs, YouTube, Facebook and other social media and networking platforms."

The same social networking strategies that worked for 350 on a global scale can work for grassroots climate activists at the local level. The tools and tactics are the same; the only difference is that local organizers work closer to home.

This post presents the most effective, free social media services availableto grassroots climate organizers, which fit into the following 5 categories:

Social Networking Hubs
Email List Management
Events
Media Distribution
Blogs

Next to each social media service is a feature highlight and example of a practioner who "gets" how to use that service. Examples are drawn from local grassroots teams in Cambridge, MA like Green Decade to international  juggernauts like 350.

Site/Service               Feature Highlight                    Example
Facebook Pages          Centralize everything               Boston Localvores
Twitter                         Real-time conversations           Cambridge Energy Alliance

These are indispensable platforms for organizations wishing to grow a web presence. They serve as the backbone of the social graph by formalizing connections as “Friends”, “Fans” or “Followers” and distributing the ongoing conversation or “stream” between connections. More people spend more time on these sites (or services, in the case of Twitter) than anywhere else online.  


Email List Management

Site/Service                Feature Highlight                              Example
Vertical Response         Popular, Free for nonprofits               MCAN Newsletter
MailChimp                     Slick and easy, Free for smaller orgs  N/A

Email is the original social media. Studies show that emails still get the greatest response of any online marketing tactic. Just be careful not to SPAM your community. Set an expectation as to how often they will receive emails from you. Personalize emails by using the recipient's first name in the opening.

 
Events

Site/Service                     Feature Highlight                        Example
Google Calendar                Scheduling ahead                        Green Decade        
Facebook Events                RSVP with Friends & Fans            350 Boston
Eventbrite/Upcoming          Index in Google results, Ticket sales

Good event sites show an RSVP list and prompt attendees to share details of the events with connections. People respond to popularity signals, so try getting as many friends to sign up for an event as soon it's announced. Google Calendar lets users share entire calendars, so teams don’t need to update revisions or new additions.


Media Distribution

Site/Service                    Feature Highlight               Example
Flickr                                 Photos                                 350 Global
YouTube                           Videos                                  Hopenhagen
Vimeo                               High-quality vido                  Idealist
Scribd                               Documents                           Climate Frontline
Slideshare                        Presentations                      Green Business Network

All of these sites make it super easy to upload and distribute certain content types across a range of social networks like Facebook, Twitter or email.


Blogs

Site/Service                   Feature Highlight               Good Example
Blogger                            Most popular                        Bldg Blog
Wordpress                       Many nice templates            Energy 2.0
Weebly                             Search engine optimized     Digital Verdure

These blogging platforms are extremely easy to get started, requiring no web design or development skills whatsoever. Several even let you purchase independent domains or URLs (ie, "www.yoursite.com") so you don't have to fiddle with domain registration. All offer HTML editors in case you do want to do a bit of customization.

Conclusion

There are many web services out there they help along grassroots climate efforts, but these are the ones most likely to get traction.

Note that I intentionally did not advocate building your own social network, such as on Ning.com. It’s an incredibly difficult task to get visitors coming back to your own social network with any regularity. It’s much easier to bring your message to your community where it already spends time vs. get them to come to you.

Did I miss any social media sites you like? Let me know in the comments below.