Using Social Media to Have a Voice and Make Change!

1. Using Social Media to Have a Voice and Make Change!

2. About the NRRA School Recycling CLUB The NRRA School Recycling CLUB (the CLUB) assists schools in implementing, maintaining and improving recycling programs! We are housed and managed by the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA). The NRRA is a non-profit 501(c) organization that provides cooperative purchasing programs, educational and networking opportunities, technical assistance, and cooperative marketing programs. NRRA has received national recognition for establishing innovative grassroots recyclables marketing cooperatives with competitive pricing which enable small, rural and large urban communities to manage their own recycling programs!

3. The Why & How of Social Media? Blogs, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are a great way to stay in touch with friends and follow topics that are important to you, but they're also an excellent means of raising awareness of important causes!

4. What is Social Media At the most basic level, social media is defined as the online communication platform used to connect individuals to one or many others.

5. Change the Way You Think About Social Media Think of it as a marketing tool. Though it’s a cause and not a business, you’re still trying to convince or sell someone on your idea or get them to join your cause.

6. Change the Way You Think About Social Media Social media marketing is really just word-of-mouth powered by technology or electronic word of mouth

7. Change the Way You Think About Social Media Social media marketing involves implementing marketing messages into conversations occurring on social platforms, resulting in electronic word of mouth. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns.

8. To successfully utilize social media marketing for your cause, focus on these three things: 1. How to do social, not how to “be social.” • Remember that social media marketing isn’t all about pushing your message out. It’s a two-way street. Focus on how you can add value to the conversations and the community you’re targeting.

9. 2. Act like a human • Social media marketing doesn’t sound like traditional marketing. It is more conversational and quite frankly, human. By building relationships and engaging in social media conversations, you can implement your marketing message in a softer way. With social media marketing, your message becomes part of the conversation, not an unwanted distraction.

10. 3. You still need a goal, but it shouldn’t simply be “engagement.” • Engagement is not a goal because it’s essentially the entire purpose of social media. • What would your goal be?

11. Tell the World • Research confirmed what earlier studies found, that blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction by actively promoting the development of learning and communication.

12. How Telling the World Can Help Your Cause Let people in on how excited you are about your idea. • The best way to get people excited about what you’re doing is to let your passion show. Share the process, ideology, and execution. • There’s nothing more rewarding than feeling like you’re a part of something, so let your audience in on your project.

13. Tell the World A great way to engage your community is to ask for their input. Share your experiences, and ask for something back from them.

14. Tell the World • If your current circle of friends and contacts were enough to help you reach your goal, you would be there already • Finding a new community, one filled with people who are already doing what you want to be doing, will push you to accomplish it yourself. But only if you jump in.

15. Have a Voice • To feel connected and inspired, you can’t stand on the sidelines. • In community, as in any aspect of life, you get out of it what you put in. Passive lurking or anonymous posting may not be as affective as putting a face to a cause.

16. Make Your Voice Louder • Think of your community as collaborators – not an audience. • The people most likely to engage with you are those who know what you’re going through and appreciate the kind of work you do. Go through it together, and in the process, you’ll begin building a really powerful creative community.

17. Market Your Message Thoughtfully • Don’t overload people with enthusiasm. • Nothing comes off as more suspiciously non-human than frantically beating people with enthusiasm about your ideas and products. Find a balance, and be authentic.

18. Ensure Your Voice Doesn’t Fall on Deaf Ears • Your audience needs to care about you before they care about what you have to say. • Build your audience just as you would in real life – by being a real person, and by devoting real time to individual relationships.

19. Build your audience just as you would in real life – by being a real person. • The most important way to engage is with individual outreach. • Instead of writing a mass email or a broad tweet, target the message to the person.

20. If you have something great, people will start engaging on your behalf. When this happens – be sure to acknowledge this and check out what they have going on as well. Once you build an audience/following consider using tools like Thunderclap.

21. Save the Date • America Recycles Day, November 15th • 2014 Earth Day, April 22nd • 5th Annual School Recycling Conference June 10th, 2014 in Manchester, NH

23. Now Its Your Turn • Tell the World! • Lights Camera Recycle!