Learning How to Be a Kick-ass Political Activist on Social Media by Laurel Davila

Today it was my pleasure to perform a weekly social media training session with a couple of Democratic Party members who desire to be political activists with an increased Twitter following. They also wanted to learn how to participate in, and/or start up a Twitterbomb off the UniteBlue.org website.

For me, it is always a joy to hangout over on Google Plus with my Democratic Party friends. In the Google Hangout venue for training you can introduce yourselves to one another with your video and microphone from your device or pc. Once introductions are performed, I usually orient folks to the Google Hangout format itself. Most people like the Google Hangout enhancements of funny hats, masks, backgrounds, and sound effects.

After introductions, and the orientation, I usually get right down to business. I let the participants know what I plan to cover in the training. I try keep my training pretty casual, with an open question format, and make sure everyone is enjoying themselves and comfortable while learning. I periodically stop and ask if folks have questions on a particular social media maneuver I am teaching.

I use the screenshare feature that the Google Hangouts offer so the participants in the training can see exactly how I go about unfollowing folks who do not follow back on Twitter, and how I use the UniteBlue.org website to follow those people on the Left who are more apt to follow back and who would likely engage with my account by retweeting my content.

The participants today were excited to know where on the UniteBlue.org website the “Spark a Twitterbomb” link was, and how to complete that form. They liked learning about the Leaderboard, which is a special tab for trending hashtags on Twitter, and to find out who the top Twitter accounts for tweets on that topic were. They learned how to hover over their accounts to see how many impressions their Twitter account was making on that topic, and why.

I taught them how to create Lists on Twitter, and how to subscribe to someone else’s Twitter List so they can read, and retweet the top Twitter accounts without having to follow them. I also showed them how to create good content on Twitter from the 140elect.com website.

If you are a Democrat, and would like to learn how to be a social media clicktivist to move your Democratic Party message out across Pinterest, Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook, please request to join us at the closed Facebook group: Progressive Democrats - Moving Forward, Not Back. We would love to train you, and help you get out your message. Just use the Facebook search engine and type in the name of the group, and click on the group and request to join it. I will send you a message via ‘other chat’ to ask you for your Twitter profile link, and your Google Plus profile link. Hope to see you soon! 

http://www.140elect.com/

http://www.uniteblue.org/

https://www.facebook.com/ProgressiveDemocratsMovingForwardNotBack