Giving Compass' Take:

• Alaina Leary explains the effectiveness of social media as a vehicle for positive social change.  She includes best practices for growing your social media presence for activism purposes. 

• How can movements use social media to advance causes? Is social media an appropriate medium to advance your cause? 

• Read about the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge on social media. 

It’s easy to think that social media is a force for negativity—that it’s bad for our mental health to be constantly exposed to a stream of news and avenues for comparing ourselves to others. But social media can also be a platform for creating and sustaining positive social change, and it’s something that we can all be a part of.

Hashtag movements such as #MeToo, which was started by activist Tarana Burke and later amplified online, have lasting consequences. RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) reported a 21 percent increase in calls to anti-sexual assault helplines after Harvey Weinstein allegations and #MeToo exploded, showing that online conversations can persuade people to seek help offline.

If you’re interested in using social media as an agent for positive change but you’re not sure where to start, here are some tips that might help:

  • Take advantage of interactive activism opportunities in online communities
  • Make sure your activism is accessible and inclusive
  • Remember that small steps are critical to getting the work done
  • Share the work that other activists are doing

Some of my activism work is fully online while other aspects have an offline component. But, regardless, there’s one thread of connection: Every time I speak up and share about these issues on social media, people reach out to me. They let me know that they feel empowered to share their own story, or that they’ve connected with a nonprofit I recommended to donate or do volunteer work.

Read the full article about how to use social media for positive change by Alaina Leary at YES! Magazine.