Growing an online community that will ultimately go out and DO something to effect change is hard. Really hard.
So I tracked down the folks at Health Justice CT. Led by Project Manager Heang Tan (with a big assist from the enthusiastic Jenn Whinnem at the CT Health Foundation), they had caught my eye with their innovative approaches to growing an online community around issues that aren’t always “sexy”– health disparities.
Here’s the scoop, straight from Heang, on 5 strategies that made a difference in organizing community advocates:
Twitter hashtags–# symbols preceding keywords– are integral to the Twitterverse, helping users organize conversations into categories. Clicking on a hashtag in a tweet shows you all the aggregated tweets on a topic–from Tweeters all over the world.
Hashtags are created organically by Twitter users; some are used regularly and others come and go (e.g. when a hashtag is created for use for a week-long conference).
Need a cheat sheet of hashtags to help you easily share news about all things Connecticut with your Twitter pals?
Helping Connecticut nonprofits achieve social change through creative, cutting-edge, strategic communications.
Carol Buckheit
is an experienced nonprofit executive and consultant who has directed high-profile advocacy and communications programs for Connecticut organizations. Read more
May 22: UConn Center for Continuing Studies, Nonprofit Leadership Program: Encore! HartfordSocial media training
May 31: Association of Developmental Disability Providers, Technology Day. Worcester, MA
