1. “Using Social Media Activism to Realize
your Own Dream.”
Presented by: Tomeeka Farrington
Principal/Founder, Spotlight Communications
Lawrence Academy
Monday, January 16, 2012
3. WHO AM I?
Principal/Founder of Spotlight Communications
Boston-based marketing and communications
company
Provide social media campaigns, PR, web design,
and video production services
Founded Social Media U in 2011
Social Media Activist: Use social media technology
every day to reach thousands of different audiences
4. ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
This workshop will help you understand how social media and
social activism are used across sites such as Facebook, Twitter
and YouTube by Organizations such as the Martin Luther King,
Jr. Day of Service. Students will use this model to help develop
their own social media activism campaigns.
6. 4 SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY IDEAS
WE CAN LEARN FROM
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
1. Content
2. “The Dream”
3. Focus
4. Influence
7. WHAT IS THE MLK DAY OF SERVICE?
Aftera long struggle, legislation was signed
in 1983 creating a federal holiday marking
the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. The federal holiday was first observed in
1986, making 2011 the 25th anniversary of
the King federal holiday.
8. WHAT IS THE MLK DAY OF SERVICE?
In
1994, Congress designated the Martin
Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday as a
national day of service and charged the
Corporation for National and Community
Service with leading this effort. Taking place
each year on the third Monday in January,
the MLK Day of Service is the only federal
holiday observed as a national day of
service – a “day on, not a day off.”
14. “What are you doing
for others?”
-DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
15. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
MLK Day Website: http://mlkday.gov/
MLK Day Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/mlkday
MLK Day Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mlkday
9 Social Media Uprisings that Sought to Change the World in
2011: http://mashable.com/2011/12/07/social-media-
uprising-activism/#372597-London-Riots
Nobody would have turned up to MLK Jr's speeches if he had nothing to say, or if he was simply regurgitating old ideas. People felt there was something to gain from listening to him, and they went out of their way to find and talk about his content. Why? Because it was unique, interesting, and presented in a way that got people talking.This should be the ultimate goal of your social media content: Make it new, interesting, and shareable. If you are talking about an old issue, tackle it from a new angle, or think about it from someone else's perspective, and always relate it back to what you or your brand's own stance on the subject. Think about the people you follow on social media… I'm sure you would be able to identify what each person stands for in their particular field. Martin Luther King had a "dream" which he made explicitly clear every time he addressed the public. It's this type of vision that attracted like-minded people to his cause, and something that we should all strive for with our own brands, personal and business.As in any area in business, to get to where you need to go you need dogged determination and focus. What’s the plan? Does your business have a detailed social media strategy which includes achievable goals? If there's one thing that Martin Luther King Jr had no shortage of, it's focus. He had an absolute commitment to his dream and never wavered from his beliefs.There's one main reason why over 300,000 people marched toward the Lincoln Memorial in 1963: to hear what Martin Luther King had to say. This was in an age without any platforms for user-generated content like Twitter and Facebook -- this event was promoted purely through natural word-of-mouth and conversations.This is the kind of influence any business owner or social media user would love to have. So how do you get it? It's a natural by-product of all the above characteristics. Influence is such an intangible metric, but if you can generate good content which promotes your vision, stay focused on your plan, stand for your dream and drive your market forward, then influence will come naturally.