Name: Pinterest
In short: Think Facebook ‘likes’ meets Tumblr. Collecting all your favourite things, and discovering other people’s favourite things (and collecting them).
Popular with: Women, particularly those who like pop culture, images, pretty things.
The buzz: (From Mashable)
Pinterest is social media’s rising star — and now has the traffic stats to prove it.
The darling network of brides-to-be, fashionistas and budding bakers now beats YouTube, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace for percentage of total referral traffic in January, according to a Shareaholic study.
Pinterest accounted for 3.6% of referral traffic, while Twitter just barely edged ahead of the newcomer, accounting for 3.61% of referral traffic. In July 2011, Pinterest accounted for just 0.17% of referral traffic, proving the site’s blockbuster growth.
(Only Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Yahoo! outrank Pinterest in terms of referral traffic.)
Campaign potential: I’ve often wondered how we could better utilize my NGO’s incredible bank of photos and this might be the way. A pinterest board full of gorgeous, moving, “pin-able” photos or slogans might do really well. And the referral traffic could turn what is essentially a ‘superficial engagement’ (I just like this pretty picture/ animal/ place/ slogan) into a deeper engagement once they click and read any related stories. To really get the message across, pair amazing photos with moving or catchy slogans and sound bites.
For more info: This infographic from Mashable is a neat summary of Pinterest, how to use it, and why it’s relevant.
Yesterday I talked about ‘positive vs. negative messaging‘ in activism, but today I want to talk about something I’m not exactly sure the terms of. But for now I’ll just name it ‘start campaigning’ and ‘stop campaigning’.
‘Stop campaigning’ is all about asking people to stop or reduce how much they do something. ‘Start campaigning’, as you can guess, is all about asking people to start doing something. I’ll use a few examples to illustrate:
Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer incidence in the world, and accordingly also an ongoing skin cancer awareness campaign for over thirty years now. Back when I was a kid in the 80s SunSmart Australia had a super-catchy decade long campaign with the line “Slip! Slop! Slap!”. Even now I can remember what those three words meant – slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen, slap on a hat. It’s a great example of ‘start campaigning’. Thanks to this successful campaign Aussies around the country started wearing sunscreen, hats and other protective gear.
According to the SunSmart site, “as the public became more aware of the Slip! Slop! Slap! message, SunSmart began to focus on telling people how they can reduce their skin cancer risk and how to identify changes to their own skin that may be a sign of skin cancers.”
And one of their most recent television ads is a good example of ‘stop campaigning’, with the message being ‘stop tanning because it’s unsafe’.
The environmental movement is a big fan of ‘stop campaigning’. The entire simple living movement is all about reducing one’s possessions, ecological footprint, energy usage etc. While it’s a message that works well with people who feel overwhelmed by modern day materialism and conspicuous consumption, there’s also the danger you’ll come off as a kill-joy.
Recently Emily and I launched ‘The Winter B-icicle Challenge‘, in which we encourage citizens around the world to bike to work or school every day throughout winter. We’ve employed ‘start campaigning’ and I guess the ‘stop campaigning’ equivalent would be World Carfree Day which asks drivers on September 22 to leave their vehicles at home.
While both the ‘Winter B-icicle Challenge’ and ‘World Carfree Day’ have similar goals: stop climate change by reducing the number of CO2 emitting cars on the road, the methods in which we achieve that goal is different. Our ‘start campaign’, I believe, is more fun, and much easier to create content or engagement with the challengers. But at the same time, it’s very specific (we exclude those who might walk or catch public transport) and the environmental messaging isn’t as clear as ‘World Carfree Day’.
In the end, as was the case with the SunSmart campaigns, you need both. You need people to reduce harmful activities (and know why they need to reduce) but they also need to be informed and encouraged to take up positive alternatives.
Image (cc) jakeandlindsay
Here in activist land, we often talk about ‘positive vs negative messaging’.
Quit smoking ads and skin cancer ads almost always make use of ‘negative messaging’. Sad ads featuring puppies in the RSPCA or starving children in Africa are others examples. It appeals to people’s inborn fears – fear that they’ll die, fear of pain, fear of losing one loved ones, fear of poverty, fear that their life in undeservedly more comfortable than that of others. The hope here is that people become so sad, so guilt-ridden or so afraid that they’ll get up and do something.
It’s a powerful tool because it has the power to move people deeply, but it can be dangerous if overused. People can become ‘turned off’ and thus discouraged.
Environmentalists used negative messaging at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit. Their platform was “it’s now or never” and “this is our last change”. The sense of urgency was meant to instigate change. Of course, nothing miraculous happened at COP15. So with all their chips spent what were environmentalists to say at this year’s climate change talks in Durban? “Um, you know how we said Copenhagen was our last chance? Actually, THIS is our last chance. For reals this time.”
These days most campaigns try and use positive messaging. Positive messaging tries to inspire people to strive for a better and more beautiful world. One of the best examples must be the recent and incredibly successful GetUp! campaign ad. If you haven’t seen it yet, you really should.
It’s simple, beautifully made and leaves you feeling all gooey inside about how awesome love is. No wonder it’s garnered over four million views in less than two months. The campaign for marriage equality usually relies on ‘negative messaging’ – the tone is normally one of indignant anger, or sadness, about the injustice of a homophobic law that bans same-sex marriage. So I think this ad is unusual in that is uses ‘positive messaging’.
In truth, both positive and negative messaging have their place. (Note, when I use the word ‘negative’ that doesn’t mean bad, it’s just a technical term.) And sometimes great campaigns make use of both. Take the Occupy Wall Street poster:
The rioters at the bottom is ‘negative’ – they represent anger against an injustice system. But the ballerina is ‘positive’ – she inspires us to prevail and create something wonderful.
Image (cc) MeckiMac
I recently tweeted:
Starting at Greenpeace basically made complete my transformation into a complete commie, hippie, left-leaning bastard.
For a long time now, I – as so many do – have been searching for something bigger. A cause, a reason to live and work, something that I could disappear into, like an amoeba. Lose shape and colour, and fold amorphously into the form of another, larger cloud.
I wouldn’t have to think or decide anymore. It would give me all the answers. Everything would become singular and crystal clear. Absolute salvation.
Over the years I’ve flirted with different causes and different ideas. If you put all my blog posts on a chart you could probably map out, with total accuracy, my conversion from vapid, pop-culture junkie and hipster party girl, to activist (not that the former has completely left me).
I love Greenpeace, and I think the work we do is so important, but working there hasn’t meant I’ve lost all body and form. Because I’ve realised I should never have searched for one cause, or one organization. What I was looking for, and what I have found, and what I can credit Greenpeace for having made my search complete, is an identity.
I am an activist. And an activist need not be restricted to one fight. An activist is an environmentalist today, and a feminist tomorrow. An activist is led by values, rather than causes. An activist is a hopeless idealist, with a brilliant vision of the world she wants to live in, and then acts every day, and with every step, in accordance to that ideal. For an activist, every act, no matter how mundane, is an act of creation.
And with that, I want to introduce you to Lane Change, a new non-profit bike advocacy group I’ve started with my mate Emily D’Ath. Our first activity is the ‘Winter B-Icicle Challenge’ in which we encourage all northern hemisphere folk to ride all throughout winter. Sign-up!
Emily D’Ath and I are on the hunt for a graphic designer willing to do some pro-bono work for our new, non-profit, bike advocacy group. Here’s the brief:
- A web-only flyer for “The Winter B-icicle Challenge”, in which we ask bike riders to make a commitment to ride all throughout winter as part of their green, biker lifestyles – weather be damned.
- Concepts: Winter, Bicycles, Icicles.
- Do not tie the graphic to any specific city or country, as we’d like to extend this to all Northern-Hemisphere locations.
- JPEG format, 800×600 pixels (although this can be changed).
- We’d like to have this image by Tuesday, November 29, and earlier if possible. Yup, we realise that’s a big ask!
It’s not difficult to wax lyrical about the joy of cycling. It’s fun, good for your health, better than being stuck in traffic, and gives you an entirely new relationship to a city. And on a larger scale, it’s a much more environmentally friendly option than gas guzzling cars. Something to think about what with climate change breathing down our necks.
If you’re willing to throw in a little time and talent to the cause please contact me at monica.ys.tan [at] gmail [dot] com.
