What Environmental Leaders Can Learn from Obama’s Mastery of Social Media
15 January 2009:
If Obama can mobilize a community online, environmental leaders can too.
What does Obama’s election have in common with the environment? Four things: conviction that change was needed, use of the Internet to mobilize the masses, young people at the nexus, and a community to create a revolution.
Key to Obama’s victory, according to a recent Wired article, was the Internet. The inner sanctum with a handful of political junkies was trumped by a gateway for millions of Americans to participate in the campaign process. The New York Times concluded politics will never be the same. The Internet catapulted Obama to the Presidency, much as TV did for John F. Kennedy. Both media were ignored by their predecessors, although Dean’s small donor solicitation online in ‘04 hinted at the possibilities.
How do you use the power of technology and community to make everyone an environmentalist? With these seven steps, strong corporate leaders and early adopters can take lessons from Obama’s Web movement to help their environmentally-focused companies and programs gain a broader reach:
1. Set goals, be active and be authentic.
Politicians and businesses can run, but they cannot hide, at least for long. Concerned citizens can literally fact-check debates in real time and social media enthusiasts can easily point out a disingenuous company. What should you do? First decide what your organization’s core social values are. Then create an honest Web persona which mirrors them. Transparency and authenticity are crucial to success.
2. Articulate why and how to change.
Obama’s supporters want change. Environmentalists do, too — in policy, consumer behavior, and institutional processes. Where to start? Your message needs to be convincing. For example, leading environmentalist Bill McKibben’s international awareness campaign, 350.org, teaches people that unless we can reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause irreversible damage to the earth. The group uses the shocking reality that 350 is the red line for human beings to create a sense of urgency, and rally the world behind solutions that science and justice demand.
3. Find the champions.
Thousands of bloggers and Twitterers are now dedicated to the environment. As business leaders, we can seek out these individuals more easily than prior due to the existence of social media. Operating often as a labor of love rather than as a paid engagement, these passionate thought leaders speak out for or against the issues they care about. While their point of view may differ from your company’s, you can engage with them as a sort of virtual focus group and learn something from them.
4. Involve everyone.
Maximize group collaboration while highlighting individualism. A lesson from Obama’s campaign is that while leadership is essential, it takes a community to truly spread influence to the masses. Obama Girl, Treehugger’s Convenient Truths contest, GlobalGiving grassroots philanthropy, nonprofits that protest injustices, and a myriad of other successful campaigns have one thing in common: they embrace the Internet to inspire individual creativity and create a shared sense of purpose.
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Source: Environmental Leader
