HOLAA! Social Media Manual

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A HELPFUL HOLAA! BOOKLET O N H O W T O S O C I A L I S E D I G I TA L LY

A HOLAA! AND OPEN SOCIETY I N I T I AT I V E P R O D U C T I O N

Being online is fun but not always easy and sometimes a little confusing. However, as an individual, business or organisation it is hard to avoid being on this space. The online space is a great way of having conversations, reaching out to people, furthering your work or plugging your product or calling people to your cause‌as long as you know how to do it well.

That is why we made this manual to help you learn to live your best life online!

C O N TAC T US : E: info@holaafrica.org | W: www.holaafrica.org Twitter: @HOLAAfrica | Facebook: HOLAAfrica | Instagram: insta_holaa

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SOCI AL M ED I A

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OCIAL MEDIA is more important today than ever before. It has presented to individuals, businesses and organisations alike the opportunity to exchange information and data on a daily basis in real-time. It is the best way to engage with the big wide world.

W HAT’S A SOCIA L M E DIA P YR AM ID? The figure below follows a similar concept to that of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, mainly what the levels of importance and needs are. It helps businesses and organisations structure their social media objectives.

As a result, entrepreneurs have been able to market their businesses and make money, and organisations have been able to bring attention to various causes in an easy way that is practically free.

LOYALT Y

With the growing significance of social media, organisations and businesses need to figure out how to use these platforms to speak to those who they need to speak to.

BUY IN ENGAGEMENT AWARENES S

But once you are on, there are certain rules to follow to keep yourself out of hot water and use it effectively.

The purpose of this section is to unpack social media and help you understand it better in order to be an effective communicator in this space.

F I R ST LY, WHAT I S S O C I A L ME DI A ?

Social media is an online platform that facilitates engagement, interaction and brand advocacy. The key to social media is the social. It is about engaging with people online, the most successful platforms involve other people, not just saying things, but also listening and responding.

WHY D O I N E E D TO B E O N S O C I A L ME D IA? Social media ensures a two-way communication between brands and their target audience.

Social media provides channels where you can track conversations – whether positive or negative – about your business or organisation using online tools. What makes this process significant is that it enables your business to improve your products and/or services.

Social media assists your business to reach a wider audience cost effectively whereas traditional forms of media rarely provides that. You can reach people across geographical borders and this can be used to test product demand in other regions.

ONLINE PRES ENCE

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Firstly establish social media presence on what your organisation and the cause it seeks to address. Figure out what your online flavour is and ensure it matches your offline persona i.e. advocacy, information, sex positive, pro-women, economics etc.

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After that you need to ensure your target audience is aware of your online presence through campaigns e.g. twitter-a-thons, engaging in other people’s campaigns etc.

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Next step: create and curate fresh content that will pique the interests of your target audience with the objective of having them engage with your content and start conversations around key topics.

» Through the use of creative content, your next objective should be to get your target audience’s buy-in in order to cultivate a movement of change agents. They must love you so they do not want to leave. » And ultimately your organisation’s social media goal is to have brand loyal customers who will spread positive word-of-mouth messages about your work and your cause. Let them form part of your comms team.

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F I G U R I N G O U T S O C I A L ME DI A : PLAT F O R M S A ND P R AC TI C E S There are 12 types of social media: » » » » » » » » » » » »

Social network platforms e.g. Facebook Blogs: WordPress, Blogger Microblogs: Twitter, Tumblr Forums Social media bookmarking: Digg Wiki: Wikipedia Consumer review sites: TripAdvisor Podcast (audio): Soundcloud Online video: YouTube, Vimeo Photo archive: Instagram, Pinterest Presentation: Slideshare, Prezi MicroVlog (tiny videos): Periscope, Vine

However, the most commonly used and referenced social networks include: 1. Facebook 2. Twitter 3. Instagram 4. Pinterest 5. LinkedIn 6. Google + 7. Snapchat

FACE BO O K Research shows that Facebook is the most profitable platform for businesses and organisations to make use of. It is also the largest growing platform within the African continent. However, it is important to make a distinction between a Facebook personal account, page and group. Facebook is often the easiest platform to use and has the biggest presence on the African continent.

On Facebook you have the option of a group, a page or a personal profile (which can be changed to a personality profile once you get super famous).

SOCI AL M ED I A

» »

» »

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Friends cap at 5000.

You must have someone accept your friend request before you are connected.

Profile can be public or private.

You can filter who sees your posts by putting some people on a restrictive list.

If you are not using a real name Facebook may block you or ask you to provide documentation. Make sure you follow the rules to avoid this.

FACEBOOK GROUP: » »

»

»

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Can be public or private.

Where public, you join a group and where private you request to join the group.

No limit in terms of the number of people that can be part of the group.

More conversational and interactive, not as open as a personal profile.

You cannot access insights on the activities happening in your group.

K E Y T I P : M A K E M U LT I P L E P E O P L E ADMIN OF A GROUP TO MAKE SURE YO U C O N T R O L T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N AND THE POSTINGS.

KEY TIP: BEFORE USING A PLATFORM FIND OUT SOME OF THE RULES ABOUT THAT PLATFORM E.G. DOES IT ALLOW NUDIT Y, HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT ALLOW YOU TO FOLLOW AND ALLOW FOR THEM TO FOLLOW YOU. NO NIPPLES ARE ALLOWED ON INSTAGRAM, BUT TWITTER ALLOWS FOR IT.

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FACEBOOK PERSONAL PROFILE:

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FACEBOOK PAGE: » »

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Pages can host videos, photos and links.

As admin you can share from your personal Facebook account onto your Facebook page and it appears as posted by the page.

You can engage with other pages as your page if you are admin.

People are able to contact you on your page through private messages.

You can set the audience preference upon signing up; this means you can target a particular audience.

You can assign people page roles. These include: admin, analyst, editor, moderator, analyst.

View page insights to determine top performing content which then helps you understand the content that gets more engagement for creating content going forward.

You can boost posts to reach more people who haven’t liked your page before or a target audience that wasn’t aware of your page or organisation. This does however cost some money.

»

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Facebook allows organisations to also promote various offers (for example events) on their Facebook Page.

Facebook admins can be private (Note: once a page is reported numerous times the admins are made public.)

KEY TIPS: HAVE MULTIPLE ADMIN FOR PAGES IN CASE ONE PERSON GETS SHUT OUT. FACEBOOK HAS A LOT OF RULES. THIS IS A GREAT PLATFORM ON FACEBOOK FOR ORGANISATIONS AND COMPANIES AS A LOW BUDGET WEBSITE. POST IMAGES ON THE PAGE TO BREAK UP THE STREAM OF STATUSES AND LINKS.

T WI T T ER Twitter is about quick convos. Tweets tend to go by at a million miles a minute so sometimes it is about putting as much out there on this quick moving platform as possible. It is one of the best ways to have conversations (or fiery arguments) and everything needs to be said in a succinct way because you only have 140 characters. It can be fun, informative and scary but also an incredible tool for mobilisation if used properly.

With Twitter there is no difference between a personal and business account per se. They all share similar functionalities such as: » Every user (personal or business) needs a unique username which starts with @ » A username is limited to 15 characters. » A username can be changed. » A bio is a description about you or your business and the character limit is 160 characters. Businesses can use the bio to describe their USP. » It is not compulsory to add a profile picture and/or cover photo, although it is advisable to do so especially if it is a business profile. » Your posts, which are referred to as tweets, are limited to 140 characters and this includes only links, not pictures and videos. » Twitter has an inbuilt GIF app which can be fun and easy to use. » To best organise tweets from the accounts you like, you can use Twitter lists. With these lists you can group users into lists which you can set as private or public lists. » Users can’t send each direct (or rather private) messages if they aren’t following each other. » Twitter abbreviates a long URL to cater for the minimum 140 character limit. You can use link shortening tools such as Bit.ly or goo.gl to shorten links.

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KEY TIPS: ADD HASHTAGS AND KEYWORDS TO YOUR BIO TO HELP PEOPLE FIND YOU. ALSO ADD LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE. STICK TO SPECIFIC TOPICS SO AS NOT TO CONFUSE YOUR AUDIENCE. ORGANISATIONS AND BUSINESSES FALL IN A TRAP OF ENGAGING ON ALL TOPICS JUST SO THEY CAN BE SEEN ON TWITTER. STICK TO YOUR BRAND AND TOPICS RELEVANT TO THAT. THIS WILL MAKE YOUR ORGANISATION THOUGHT LEADERS. START YOUR OWN HASHTAGS AND INVITE RELEVANT USERS TO ENGAGE ON DIFFERENT TOPICS. ALWAYS CHECK TWITTER TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE UNIQUE BEFORE USING THEM. ENGAGE IN CONVERSATIONS ON TWITTER ABOUT TOPICS THAT LINK TO THE WORK YOUR ORGANISATION OR BUSINESS DOES, ESPECIALLY CONVERSATIONS WITH HASHTAGS. THIS RAISES YOUR PROFILE. SEND MESSAGES TO YOUR FOLLOWERS AND REPLY TO THEIR MESSAGES, THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF TWITTER.

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IN STAGR A M They say a picture is worth a thousand words and it can be worth a thousand likes or more on Instagram, but only when you find and stick to your visual aesthetic.

Instagram is about the visuals so make sure your stuff looks good. On Instagram you can do a number of things such as: » Users can follow other users they find amazing and interesting. They can like their posts and comment. » With certain apps such as RePost App you can post the Instagram posts you like. » It is mobile driven, you can only post from a mobile device. » By turning on post notifications you get alerts every time some people post something new. » Users can follow as many accounts as they want. » You cannot post links on Instagram posts but can put them in the bio (then direct people there). » Users regularly use hashtags in order to easily trace content around the particular hashtag. » There is no limit to the number of characters in a post. » You can post videos and also use apps such as the RePost App to repost other people’s pictures/videos. » You can make Instagram stories like those on SnapChat. » Avoid using images with text; they usually do not go down well.

KEY TIPS: USE POPULAR HASHTAGS TO GET YOUR POSTS MORE COVERAGE. IT’S NICE TO MAKE UP YOUR OWN BUT ALSO SEE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE TAGGING WITH SIMILAR PHOTOS. WITH YOUR INSTAGRAM CONTENT TELL YOUR STORY IN THE MOST AUTHENTIC WAY AS POSSIBLE. CAPTURE MOMENTS THAT WILL CONNECT WITH YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE EMOTIONALLY. IF YOU ARE RUNNING A LONG CAMPAIGN ON A SOCIAL ISSUE OR WANT TO MAKE YOUR POSTS STAND OUT IN THE LONG TERM, CREATING A UNIQUE HASHTAG IS ALWAYS GREAT TO GET YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE INVOLVED.

HASHTAGS ON INSTAGRAM

########### Instagram the opposite of Twitter, shows posts with 11 or more hashtags have the highest interactions!

A QUICK GUIDE TO

#HASHTAGS

2x

17%

Tweets with hashtags get two times more engagement than tweets without.

When you use more than two hashtags, your engagement drops by an average of 17 percent.

11 +

NO #

Interactions are highest on Instagram posts with 11+ hashtags.

Facebook posts without a hashtag fare better than those with a hashtag.

Source: www.gemmasands.co.uk

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BLO G S

DE SIGN IN G A SOCIA L M E DIA STR ATE GY

Blogs are a great way to archive your thoughts and ideas online as well as market yourself. It is a little more admin than a Facebook page but starting a blog is kind of easy.

It is also a great way of spending info and news and creating a community around your thoughts and feelings.

Also if done well enough you can make money off it.

People, orgs and brands love to just jump right into creating social media content without a good amount of planning which backfires on them.

So first pick where you are going to play. Some of the blogging platforms you can use include: » » » » » »

Wordpress Blogger Tumblr Medium LiveJournal Wix

You have to start with an actual plan.

Most common question is: where do I start to get it right? A simple place to start is by looking at and checking up on your platform and also those of people in your spaces (e.g. other organisations like yours, people you admire and want to be like etc.). This is called a social media audit.

By doing so you are able to gauge content that works best for your target audience and identifying opportunities to explore.

On these websites you can choose designs, have a certain look and customise it to look like you want. You can also have a web designer help you out whilst being hosted on one of these sites.

On sites such as Wordpress you can schedule posts so that your site is always active. This means that even if you are not online you still publish content. This makes you look on top of your game (Google how to schedule posts if unsure).

BLOG POSTS There are a few rules to creating an awesome blog post: » Awesome titles are a good way of drawing people to your blog. Don’t make the titles a guessing game, hit people hard with what you want to say. » The first two or three sentences will make or break a blog post so get down to it. » Quality content will keep people coming back, having interesting and well researched/edited stuff on your site. » Once your post is online and awesome share it on your other social platforms.

NOTE: FREE BLOGS ARE HARD TO MAKE MONEY OFF SO TO DO THIS YOU MAY HAVE TO BUY YOUR DOMAIN NAME. A DEAD SITE IS A SAD SITE. MAKE SURE TO KEEP YOUR SITE ACTIVE AND POPPING! ENCOURAGE PEOPLE YOU KNOW TO READ AND SHARE YOUR CONTENT.

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SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT When conducting your social media audit you have to look at things such as: » Whether your cover and profile photo is on-brand and consistent across your social media channels. This is significant for your target audience as they can be certain that they are following the correct brands across platforms. They need to know it’s you on Instagram, Facebook etc. » Keywords used in the bio. The bio can be long or short – depending on the social media platform of your choice. By using keywords in your bio you are making the followers aware of the kind of content they can expect from your brand should they decide to like your page or follow your account. » Organisation/business details such as office contact numbers and office address on social media sites makes it easier for your target audience to easily reach you e.g. email address in Twitter bio. » The frequency of posting content is also a significant aspect to look into as this will determine whether you are oversharing content or not. » Look at the form of content (pictures, videos, polls, etc.) that you put out and which receives top engagement. » Look at the tone and the length of your social media posts. Are they professional like your organisation, are they fun like your brand, are they informative? » Sharing of links is an important way of getting traffic back to your website. » The use of call-to-actions in your social media posts encourages fans/followers to perform an action you want them to, e.g. click here, watch this, reblog this. » Engagement is of the utmost importance. Look at Likes vs Shares vs Comments vs Link Clicks.

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Negative commentary is essential for feedback on your organisation, product or services and can be used as part of your research and development phase in order to improve your product and/or services.

Follower growth is important for audience reach and establishing brand advocates.

It seems like a lot but once you have all the above information is it significant to evaluate your personal/ organisational needs and then determine whether it is necessary to position yourselves in the online space.

SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN Now comes the work, making a plan. When making your social media strategy, you need to tick these boxes: »

Purpose: why am I / my organisation using social media? Are we positioning ourselves there just because other people are, or is there a need we intend on fulfilling?

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Audience: who are the people we intend on reaching with our social media? Demographics and psychographics? Black, female, possibly interested in our work, is not enough. Find out who they are, what their interests are and the conversations they usually engage in across social media platforms and build brand personas around that. e.g. knowing African feminists follow certain people on Twitter and engage in #AfriFem Brand story: what is your story? How can you best tell / share it with the relevant people? How unique is your story?

Channels: which channels are you going to use to tell your story? Is it through video content (YouTube, Facebook Videos, Instagram, Snapchat), infographics, copy and pictures only, etc..?

KPIs: what does success look like on your social media channels? 10k shares per post, three retweets, four blog shares?

Who creates the content?

KEY TIP:

Once you know what you are doing its best to have an accessible document where you plan everything.

DO NOT JUST GET THE YOUNGEST PERSON IN THE ORGANISATION TO DO YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA. HAVE SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THE ORGANISATION’S ETHOS AND VOICE. SOCIAL MEDIA IS A FORM OF COMMUNICATION AND GETTING IT WRONG CAN GET YOU IN TROUBLE.

To help you organize the content which will be posted on your social media platforms, you have to use a content calendar which consists of dates, copy, visuals, links with the relevant platforms where the content will be posted onto.

What to post

How to populate (source and tone)

Twitter

Tweets and pictures

Database of tweets, Facebook, Internet

Facebook

Status update Pictures Articles

Internet, Database of photos

Blog SoundCloud

Who posts

Produce material / fun tiny clips

Notes

e.g. 5 times a week (once a day)

Write article Podcast

How often (once a week, once a day etc)

e.g. Once a week Mandisa

e.g. Once a month

No fuzzy sounds

Platform X Platform Y WEEKLY PLANNER

Monday

Platform (Twitter)

Platform (Blog)

Platform (Facebook)

Three posts - Facebook post and two tweets

None

New blog post

Platform X

Platform Y

Platform Z

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WEEKLY PLANNER CONTINUES Platform (Twitter)

Platform (Blog)

Platform (Facebook)

Tuesday

One post

One post

None

Wednesday

One post and Facebook post

None

Picture of activities

Thursday

Facebook post

None

Interesting article

Friday

One tweet

None

None

Saturday

One tweet and Facebook post

None

Sexy pic

The various social media platforms are continuously introducing new algorithms to better cater for their target audiences. We have noticed that with Facebook Pages only 2% of your fans can only see the content that you have posted, as a result you get a lot less eyeballs seeing the content you have published. It is a hustle to get businesses and organisations to invest in paid media.

KEY TIP: ON FACEBOOK A BUSINESS CAN ADVERTISE FOR AS LITTLE AS $10 OVER A DURATION OF 3 DAYS. PAID MEDIA ENABLES YOUR CONTENT MESSAGE TO REACH A LARGE SET AUDIENCE BASED ON INTERESTS AND LOCATION. IT GOES A LOT FURTHER. IT IS GREAT TO HAVE SOCIAL PLUGINS ON YOUR BUSINESS OR ORGANISATION’S WEBSITE OR BLOG. THIS MAKES IT EASIER FOR WEBSITE VISITORS TO FIND YOUR BRAND EASILY ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND SHARE YOUR CONTENT IF THEY LIKE WHAT THEY HAVE READ OR WANT TO FOLLOW YOUR WORK IN MORE ‘REAL TIME’.

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT Once you have gone live with your social media posts it is important that you engage your target audience, but constantly logging into all the channels can be a bit much. This is where you use social media management platforms.

Social media management tools allow you to plugin all your social media profiles into one place where you can

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Platform X

Platform Y

Platform Z

Twerking video

track conversations around your brand and respond to comments people might have. Furthermore, you can schedule your social media posts for the day, week or month.

Publishing posts on blogs and then not promoting them is not cool. Also having stagnant social media platforms also means people forget about you online.

A good way to make sure that you keep both your sites and your social media platforms active is by using scheduling platforms like Hootsuite. This means that you can run your online space without spending hours at a computer. Some tools are free, some are not.

HERE ARE S OME GOOD S CHEDULING PLAT FORMS : Hootsuite Buffer Social Oomph Tweetdeck

These allow you to take the stuff from your blog and your social media sites and schedule it.

Using social media is fun, innovative but also tricky.

Hope these tips, tricks and tools helped to put you on your way to being a social media maven.

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REATING a campaign that is effective takes time, effort and planning. Here are the top tips on running your campaign courtesy of the incredible women at APC.

TO P T I PS F O R STA RTI NG A N O NL I NE CA M PA I G N !

1. VIRAL ISN’T EVERYTHING, IMPACT IS: The first question you should ask is what is my desired impact?

Am I recruiting people? Am I getting signatures to my petition? Am I advocating for something? Am I raising awareness? Am I trying to drive traffic to my website?

Am I building my base of followers? What do you want to achieve? That should dictate your strategy.

2. DO YOUR HOMEWORK: Just because it’s online, it doesn’t mean the traditional homework of campaigning isn’t necessary.

Remember the 4C’s: Careful planning, Creative messaging, Coordination with grassroots and Checking the results.

Before you start a campaign, plan it, see what else people are doing, check your hashtags and see who you can partner with.

3. DO A RISK ASSESSMENT FOR YOUR CAMPAIGN: Think about the effect your campaign can have on your organisation or those who engage in it. Think about continued access to and safety on the platforms you’ll be using for the campaign, and for the privacy and safety of the people supporting and running it.

4. SET UP MEASURING TOOLS: Make sure you have a way of measuring this impact beforehand. What if it does go viral and you don’t have the stats to show off later on! If you have dashboards like Hootsuite and Tweet Deck you can see the impact of your campaign after it is done. Twitter and Facebook have their own built in analytic programmes that you can use. If you are measuring something like visits to a site, get your base data in order and track the progress as you go.

KEY TIP: PUT EXTRA SECURIT Y ON THE KEY ACCOUNTS RUNNING A CONTROVERSIAL CAMPAIGN ESPECIALLY IF IT IS A LARGE ONE. CHECK THINGS THAT ARE PUBLIC SUCH AS PHOTOS, GEO LOCATION, PHONE NUMBERS, ADDRESSES, REAL NAMES, LISTS OF FRIENDS.

NOTE: WHEN A CAMPAIGN IS SUCCESSFUL IT WILL BE ASSOCIATED TO KEY HANDLES/ ACCOUNTS. THESE COULD GET PRAISE BUT ALSO COULD COME UNDER ATTACK.

5. MAKE SURE YOU STAND OUT: The internet has become super crowded, so online campaigns today have to really speak loud. Make sure your ideas are catchy and that your campaign is noticeable. This can be done through a creative approach to something, noticeable hashtags and having amazing partners.

6. DECIDE ON THE TIME FRAME: is it a one-day awareness-raising thing or is it a longer campaign that builds up to a goal? That depends also on your goal, so the length has to match that goal. If it’s a single message you want to put out, it will fade out very quickly and you’ll get frustrated, so make it quick & sweet. If it’s more of an interactive build-up campaign to grow your network for example or to get people excited about an event that’s coming up... then you need a day-by-day plan.

7. DECIDE ON WHAT PLATFORMS YOU’RE USING: where you are hosting the content (website or blog or directly on platforms) and what social media you’re going to use to spread it. Then for Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram etc. you must set different strategies that are platform-specific. (see: the social media section for more on the individual platforms).

KEY TIP: KNOW THE RULES OF THE P L AT F O R M Y O U A R E U S I N G S O T H AT YO U R C A M PA I G N D O E S N OT G E T S H U T D O W N . F O R E X A M P L E I N S TA G R A M DOES NOT ALLOW FOR NUDIT Y OF A C E R TA I N K I N D , F A C E B O O K A L L O W S FOR POSTS TO BE REPORTED FOR H AT E S P E E C H . M O S T P L A C E S D O N O T A L L O W N I P P L E S . B U T T S A R E O K AY, B U T T H O L E S A R E N O T.

8. REACH OUT TO PARTNERS: The internet is very noisy so unless you have social media accounts with huge followings, you have to reach out to a large number of people beforehand to get them on board to support the campaign. Decide with partners on a time, topic, hashtag etc.

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KEY TIPS: K EY PA R T N E R S I N A C O N T R OV E R S IA L CA M PA IG N S H O U L D M AK E S U R E TO U S E S T R O N G PAS SWO R DS AN D C H E C K W HAT IN FO RM AT I O N O F T H E I R S I S PU B L I C O N SO C I AL M E DI A P L AT F O R M S .

H AV E BAC K C H AN N E L S O F CO M M U N IC AT I O N DU R I N G T H E C AM PA I GN IN CA SE YO U R H AS H TAG GE T S TAK EN OVE R O N S O C I AL M E DI A.

Some people like to prepare pre-written tweets/ Facebook posts/ email texts for their partners to put out and spread. Sometimes this can work but sometimes it is best to let your community spread the word in their own way with your guidelines. It is also best to have a few (very excited) partners than a lot of luke warm ones.

9.

CONTENT IS QUEEN: What you put out there has to be interesting and has to stand out. In a culture of GIFs and memes, sadly, silly content gets a lot more traction than serious content. This doesn’t mean you need to make your campaign silly, but it certainly has to be pretty. Try using cool artwork, very smart text that isn’t too long, fun videos and podcasts for example. Many platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook allow for short videos, GIFs as well as pictures to be posted ON the platform so make use of this. If you want this sort of content decide how you produce this content beforehand (this is part of the planning). Also leave room for people’s creativity who may want to join in the campaign and add to it.

If they like your campaign, they’ll get on board with their own content.

10. MAKE SURE YOUR CONTENT DOESN’T LOOK FAKE: Using posters with lots of logos and

information seems forced and posts that do not

seem like a conversation push you away from the

audience you are trying to reach. You want content

that looks sincere and speaks to people. Also you

should mix it up, sometimes you’ll have a main page

you’re redirecting people to (like launching a new

website) or maybe it’s only an article you’re

promoting. For that you need to be putting out the

main content and supplementing it with little things

like graphics and screenshots so people get a taste

if they want more. If it is a campaign you want

people to speak about or if you want to raise

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awareness around a topic, ask people their views

whilst telling them yours and also provide them with information.

11. AN INTERACTIVE CAMPAIGN WORKS GREAT: You know the ones where you ask people to take a

selfie with a sign for example, or to share their

stories or opinions? These are the interactive

campaigns. They can be difficult to pull off, so for

them to work, you need to have your base ready

(see # 6). Having partners will make sure the

campaign goes to more spaces than your immediate

circle and will gain it more reach. This will mean

more people are likely to jump on. There’s nothing

worse than trying to start a “viral” trend and falling

flat on your online face.

KEY TIPS: MA K E S U RE YO U U N DERS TA N D THE RI S K S O F S HA RI N G I N I N TER ACTI VE CA MPA I GN S . A S K I N G PEOPLE TO HOLD PO S TERS SAY I N G “I HA D A N A BO RTI ON” O R “LES BI A N S HAVE MO RE A N D BETTE R ORGA S MS” I S CO N TROVERS I A L I N CERTAIN LEGA L CON TEX TS . FO R THI S I DEN TI FY CHA N N ELS FOR A N O N Y MO U S S HA RI N G S U CH A S A GOO GLE FORM .

I F YOU S U PPORT A CA MPA I GN WI TH A FACEBO O K PRO FI LE ( A S O PPO S ED TO A PAGE) PEO PLE MAY REPORT YO U A N D G E T YOU BLOCK ED. I F YO U A RE N OT U S I N G A REA L N A M E THI S M AY BE A PROBLEM. I T’S BETTER TO RU N A CA MPA I GN WI TH A PAGE WI TH M U LTI PLE A DM I N .

N OT E : B E AWA R E T H AT I F O N E H A N D L E I S B E I N G U S E D BY S E V E R A L T O A D M I N I S T E R T H E C A M PA I G N , T H E S O C I A L N E T WO R K M AY S H U T AC C E S S D OW N S U S P E C T I N G S O M E O N E H A S H AC K E D YO U R AC C O U N T, B E C A U S E I T IS SEEING ENTRIES FROM DIFFERENT C O M P U T E R S AT D I F F E R E N T P O I N T S .

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S we keep saying being online takes planning and this is also the case in terms of your safety as well. There are viruses, malware, hackers and people wanting your information and that of your organisation or business. There are so many ways you need to stay safe and also so many ways to keep yourself safe.

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Change passwords Keep these passwords safe offline Log out of public computers in terms of email accounts, social media accounts etc.

Store your data offline and not on your phone. It is not a storage device.

There are too many others to list but here are some spaces where you can get some great security advice to get you started. These include: LEVEL-UP: This is a resource made especially for digital security trainers but it might have some useful links to play around with and learn more. Log on to the Level-Up website: https://www.level-up.cc/ SECURITY IN A BOX: Log onto this website and it will have a whole host of resources. It has tools for activists, tools for LGBTIQ folks, internet and desktop tools and a whole host of other things.

Website: https://securityinabox.org/en

SEND NUDES: This is a sexy guide on how to keep the erotic side of your online activity safe. This is a guidebook released by Coding Rights on sending nude photos safely, without spoiling the fun. Download it at the site: http://www.codingrights.org/send-nudes/ TACTICAL TECH: This website has a guide made specifically for LGBTIQ is Sub-Saharan Africa. There is a downloadable PDF on the site. Either visit www. tacticaltech.org and search LGBTI or go to the url https://www.tacticaltech.org/digital-security-tools-andtactics-lgbt-community-sub-saharan-africa DIY FEMINIST CYBER SECURITY: Keeping yourself safe online as a woman is extremely important and how better to do it than with a step by step guide?

As the guide itself says ‘This guide is intended to be a comprehensive and accessible introduction to some of the most valuable cybersecurity tools available. There’s a lot of information here, so it can get a bit overwhelming!’ This one takes you slowly and surely through it. Go to: https://hackblossom.org/ cybersecurity/ ON E OF THE M OST I M PORTA N T THI N GS IS TO K EEP SA F E ON LI N E. I T CA N B E GR EAT SPA CE B U T A LSO A DA N GER OU S SPA CE AT TI M ES. PR OTECT Y OU R SELF.

AC K NOWL E D G E ME N T S Thank you to all those who were there through the construction of this. Thank you to Bongani Tau for guiding the manual through social media and to Erika, Nadine and Jan from the Association for Progressive Communications team for their Take Back The Tech type wisdom on building a campaign. Thank you to Siphumeze Khundayi for providing the visuals that accompanied the words and for all the models who appeared in the work. Thank you to Alexis Teyie for your editing magic and making sure that it all came together.

Research for this publication was supported in part by Open Society Foundations (OSF). The opinions expressed herein are the author’s own and do not necessarily express the views of the Open Society Foundations.

Hope this guide was a helpful start to getting you well on your way to enjoying the digital space.

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