SOCIAL MEDIA & SOCIAL CHANGE Focuses on building relationships with the right people. Presentation by Santina Nyagah

What is social media ? “Never ask for medical advice on google. You go from irritating cough to an emergency in a single click.”

Can anything good come from Social media ? One of the most rewarding and meaningful things we will ever do on social media is to do something good for other people and the community we live in. Technology is a tool to be used not abused.

Remember this ? Paris Attack.

How social media works... Social media has given us a voice,suddenly tens,hundreds,thousands and millions more join in and we have a choir. People have taken a stand and shown their support for causes online and soon enough their family,friends,workmates and so on join in. Word of mouth at scale.

Do something... Social media calls us to action and we can use it for social good.

Why ? Wide reach Social media has amplified people’s voices all over the world,giving them the opportunity to be part of and support causes they believe in. February 2012, Pew Research Centre survey - single post on Facebook had potential to reach 150,000 people through friends of friends. Since then new social media platforms have emerged and all have reported growths of more than 10 %

How to go about it ? Focus.. All change starts small and for any campaign for social change to be meaningful,focus should be put on getting the right people on board.

Action Turning a small group of people into a movement requires hard work and action. Partner with like minded organizations and groups doing the same thing you are doing-driving social change through social action. Cross promote,drive traffic and engage with these individuals and groups.

Best way to do this... Through stories … Allow your audience to see themselves through the eyes of the people you are trying to change.Create Facebook posts and blog posts telling stories. Share pictures,tweets. One of the best examples of these is HONY-Humans of New York.

What they do.. “Every week I get one dollar for allowance. Then I get to choose the section where I put my dollar. There are four sections: spend, save, donate, and invest. If I put a dollar in the ‘invest section,' my parents give me two extra pennies at the end of every month. I’ve only used my 'spend section' twice! I have way over $10 in my 'invest section.' I used to have more but I took some money out and put it in my 'donate section.' We used to it to buy food for people who do not have money in their spend section.”

Think local act global... The value of social media should not be in the number of people we can reach,rather it should be on the depth of the relationships we build. With a global internet penetration of 46 % which is more than 3.4 billion people,opportunities exist for local issues to generate global attention. #letschangetheworld