NEDA09: Social Media for Social Change

Social Media for Social ChangeConnecting Activists & Raising Awareness Online

Julie Neumann www.julieneumann.com

NEDA Conference 09

Social Media: Conversing with the community

Winners of the 2009 and 2008 NOW Love Your Body Campaign

Social Change: Creating a cultural movement

• 95% of sufferers are between the ages of 12 and 25 1

• 25% of college-aged women binge and purge as a weight-management technique 1

• 40% of newly identified cases of anorexia are in girls 15-19 years old 2

• 75% of women 25-45 years old display disordered eating behaviors or symptoms 3

1.) Renfrew 2.) NEDA 3.) SELF-UNC 3.)

Demographics: Eating disorders & body image

1.) Pew

2.) Q Interactive

Demographics: Internet users & social media• Over 90% of 12-17 year olds are online 1

• 68% of 18-32 year olds and 82% of 33-44 year olds get health information online 1

• 65% of 12-17 year olds and 67% of 18-32 year olds use social networking sites 1

• 54% of adult women visit social networks at least once a day, Facebook is the favorite 2

• Social media demographics 1

– Facebook: Largest network with 150 million users, 700 million photos uploaded monthly

– Twitter: 3.9 billion tweets, grew 752% in 2008, 65% are under 25 and 53% are female 2

– YouTube: 13 hours of video are uploaded every minute, hosts 44% of all online videos, 75% of Internet users view videos online

– 51% of adult social network users have two or more online profiles, so don’t forget MySpace, Digg, Flickr, CafeMom, etc.

1.) New Media Lab 2.) Sysomos

Demographics: Internet users & social media

• 4.2 million results in Google for the term “pro-ana”

• Pro-ana sites increased 470% from 2006-2007 1

• 12.6% of 13-17-year-old girls in a 2009 Flemish study visited pro-ana sites 2

• 35.5% of diagnosed anorexics in a 2006 Stanford study had visited pro-ana sites 3

1.) Optenet Research 2.) Custers & Van den Bulck 3.) Wilson & Peebles

Pro-Ana: A social media success story

• Thousands of groups and pages dedicated to pro-ana on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter

• 12,500 “thinspo” and 6,240 “pro ana” videos on YouTube

• LiveJournal still reigns ED social media

• Private pro-ana forums continue to prosper

Pro-Ana: A social media success story

• Perfect storm of powerful tech with teenage angst

• Keys to success– Early adopters

– Powerful branding

– Supportive community

– Viral spread

– Continuing adaptation

• Take what works in pro-ana and apply it to positive awareness and activism

Pro-Ana: A social media success story

Defining social media

• We are building our cloud of knowledge together• Social media is a two-way conversation• Conversation allows you to

– Create

– Share

– Collaborate

• Quality over quantity

• Remember your audience

• Always be authentic

Three guiding principles of social media

1. Listen and learn

2. Plan your brand

3. Join the conversation

4. Create content to connect

5. Nurture your community

6. Build your buzz

Steps to social media engagement

• Familiarize yourself with the social web

• Decide what your social media objectives will be

• Develop a flexible strategy for success

• Establish your basic tool box:– Keywords

– RSS feed

– Google Alerts

Step 1: Listen and learn

• Do brainstorm a unique voice

• Do have a vision but plan to evolve

• Don’t follow the crowd

• Establish your presence on:– Facebook

– MySpace

– LinkedIn

Step 2: Plan your brand

• Do reach out to individuals

• Don’t make it all about you

• Establish your presence on:– Change.org, Care2 and specialty networks

– Blog like Wordpress or Tumblr

– Twitter

– Digg

Step 3: Join the conversation

• Do share valuable information

• Do contribute original content

• Don’t be a copy machine

• Establish your presence on:– Flickr

– YouTube

– Podcasts

– Wordpress, Tumblr, etc.

Step 4: Create content to connect

• Do collaborate and evangelize

• Don’t just sell a product or promote yourself

• Do organize events both online and in real life

• Remember, it’s social media

• Maximize your productivity:– Tools and apps

– Metrics and ROI

– Keywords and SEO

Step 5: Nurture your community

• Do innovate and experiment

• Don’t limit yourself

• Do link it all together

• Have fun!

Step 6: Build your buzz

• Custom API with social media promotion– Experimentation– Innovation– Interaction

• Roughly 3,000 submissions and 2,000 new email addresses collected in two weeks

Social Success: HSUS LOLSeals

• Launched in 2004, still going strong in 2009

• Dove Evolution viral film won Ad Grand Prix at 2007 Cannes and has over 12 million views on YouTube

• But is it authentic? More ad/PR than social media.

Social Success: Dove Real Beauty Campaign

• 344,170 MySpace friends• 46,587 Facebook fans• 41,171 Twitter followers• 640,608 YouTube views• Why? It’s unique and real.

Social Success: To Write Love On Her Arms

• Pick a focus– Promote healthy body image– Counter pro-ana and thin ideal– Educate public on eating disorder issues– Support those with eating disorders– Support those in recovery– What do you believe in?

• Where do you want to end up?• Who do you want to reach?• How can the community support your idea?• How can you support the community?

Social Success: Are you next?

NEDA Conference 2009Social Media for Social Change

Julie Neumannwww.julieneumann.comjulie.neumann@gmail.comwww.twitter.com/julie_annawww.facebook.com/julieneumannwww.flickr.com/julieanna

The sky is the limit,join the cloud.