Here are my running notes of the Lift conference in Geneva. This is Greenpeace social media strategy and on-line campaigns (Claudia Sommer), part of the Politics session. May contain errors, omissions, things that aren’t quite right, etc. I do my best but I’m just a human live-blogging machine.
Found other good posts about this session? Link to them in the comments.
Changes that have a huge impact on Greenpeace campaigning. (*steph-note: first talk in English for @csommer, she says!*)
*video*
Open campaigning. Direct communication with the people. In Germany, some environmental issues have been solved, but some huge ones remain. Need to push those in the spotlight. Need to create pressure on politics and create peer pressure. Get in touch with people who are already active and can mobilize others. Young people are motivated — it’s their future!
Greenpeace is present on many social networks and also have their own social network, Green Action.
Building a campaign community:
- involve the public
- go where people are active
- young people are online
- diverse range of internet users => diverse ideas
- …
GreenaAction to provide a variety of solutions, push industry/politics to implement them, wide public support, and media independant counter-movement. (*steph-note: reminds me of conclusion of workshop this morning, brands need to become their own media*) The platform is completely independant, no advertising, no political parties involved, no companies. Open campaigning initially for Greenpeace, but now open to other environmental campaigns.
Visualise individual commitment, combine strength and wisdom of many, give power and protection (sometimes there are legal issues, it helps if Greenpeace has your back).
After 8 months, over 6K users, many below 25, 15-20% launching campaigns. Individuals, campaigners, and organisations like Bund, Campact…
How do people use GreenAction? Strong offline focus, mashup campaigns, activists actively in touch with each other and other communities, low number of ToS violations, participants involved in improving the platform.
Nestlé KitKat/Killer campaign. Twitter wall instead of Greenpeace banner on Nestle building.
Case study: Gorleben, nuclear waste. Political or geological decision? => access to source documentation from the seventies, so everybody can access and make their mind up.
Q: what should Nestlé have done? *Claudia says it’s not for her to talk about ;-)* They had the wrong kind of attitude towards the customers. Would have been smart to talk to people when the campaign started, rather than just press release (people don’t care about press releases).
Q: concentrating too much on digital natives? Double strategy, online and off in parallel.
*steph-note: didn’t get all the questions, sorry!*