How to Use Our Power and Tools to Amplify All our Voices and Get the Job Done

So let me start that this is probably the first of many posts that will have something to do with inspiration or insight that was gained from the American Adoption Congress Conference in San Francisco. It was an AMAZING trip and I have so much emotional and mental stuff to still ‘unpack’. This one gets first dibs because we are in a huge time crunch with the New Jersey Birthright Bill Deadline on the 28th of April.

One of the lunches, don’t ask me what day anymore, we had the regional lunches where OBC access bills and updates were given. In that meeting, we discussed how to target and use social media to our advantage. Of course, being with my trained geek background, I ended up talking about what we can do and how to do things better. It became very obviously to me that;

1. We WANT to do this better.
2.  We can amplify our voices.
3. Not everyone knows how.

Luckily, I have a background in education too. OK, it was nursery school, but whatever. I can teach.

Quick Social Media Tips to Increase Visibility of AdoptionLand Goals

When on Facebook…

Share from the original source. The Facebook algorithm is very complicated, a huge secret and constantly changing but the basics go like this:

“Facebook calculates affinity score by looking at explicit actions that users take, and factoring in 1) the strength of the action, 2) how close the person who took the action was to you, and 3) how long ago they took the action.

Explicit actions include clicking, liking, commenting, tagging, sharing, and friending. Each of these interactions has a different weight that reflects the effort required for the action–more effort from the user demonstrates more interest in the content. Commenting on something is worth more than merely liking it, which is worth more than merely clicking on it. Passively viewing a status update in your newsfeed does not count toward affinity score unless you interact with it.”

So for us, in AdoptionLand,  to support a post, we need to: Comment, Like it, Share it.

The more a post gets these actions, the better chance it will show up in the top of a news feed. That means that MORE people will see it and hopefully engage in it. Which would then, keep it up on top enticing more actions, etc.

So if one comments on a post already shared, but not the original post, then we are diluting the efforts.  Now, as we want ALL to be supported, it is JUST as easy to comment on one post, then copy and paste that comment on the shared versions of that post!

For example (apologies; I had to use an example from my page as I needed shares to show)
Here I have a post about the “Girl Like Her” film screening in Chicago May 1st; it has four shares.

So I want to bump it up, I SHARE it again on my page, but this time I add info and TAG other posts!

Using Tagging on Facebook to Increase Reach

I use the @ ( at tag) to pull in other pages. The directions on how to tag are here along with other hints regarding keywords and how to use social media for adoption searches;
I tagged the LOCATION: @Chicago, Ill. So in  NJ posts, I tag @New Jersey. In NY posts, I @New York, etc.

I tagged the movie @A Girl Like Her and the book @ The Girls that Went Away so both THOSE pages get the notice too.  See.. I didn’t PUT the post there, but because I TAGGED the page, it shows up in “posts by others” . It also notifies the page that I am talking about them and helps THEIR page popularity/ rankings “people who are talking about this” improve.

Note: not every page allows “Posts by Others” but all ours should. It’s annoying not to and you DO have a harder time seeing what people are saying about your page!

And I tagged the museum as well. Now because this is on a PAGE, I cannot tag PEOPLE, only other FB PAGES, but for our sake. Christie has a PAGE!

So as the original post has 4 ( now 5) shares, if I CLICK the little share image, I can see them! Here are two. Notice how I LIKED that they shared them. I LIKE everything I can. It’s like a acknowledgement and thanks for sharing.  And commenting, per the FB algorithm, helps! As all the shares open up in a new window, it is easy to just copy and paste the same message.

I usually share a new blog post on my PAGE. I then like it. I comment in replies to folks. Then later on, I SHARE it to my own timeline. Keeps it moving. Its like bumping a thread to the top of a forum. After it has died down that way, THEN bring it out “for a walk” to other groups and pages.

Tagging for Governor Christie?

• @New Jersey (https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Jersey/108325505857259)It won’t show up on the page really.. but PHOTOS tagged with NJ will! Most other locations also have pages. Look around in search and see if you can find them and tag them.
• @Gov ChrisChristie (https://www.facebook.com/GovChrisChristie) ( now he doesn’t let viewers see what people are saying, BUT his team, I can assure you does)  Most legislators have pages and you can tag them too.
• @NJCARE why? Because not everyone will do the right thing and you do want folks to know where to go back to. Help them find NJCARE.
• @Adoptee Rights Because then you get that pages almost 4K fans seeing it ( makes it easier for me to see it and share it)

You can actually tag ANY group..I would suggest making a point of tagging the bigger adoption groups so they see the actions! @American Adoption Congress, @Bastard Nation, @Concerned United Birthparents, etc. Take it to your groups too.

Why Use Hashtags on Facebook?

As MY page or profile posts also feed into my Twitter account, I also use hashtags. Like I try to get #adoption up in the front as Twitter ONLY takes the first 140 characters.  See, this one was short enough that I could just pop it on the end:

Targeting  Gov. Christie’s Page

Ok so Chirstie does NOT allow others to “post ” on his page. But he allows comments!

So in essence on Facebook, we need to literally STALK his page!   Of course it is best to have a comment like this one where he is literally walking into the discussion with National Siblings Day!

Notice that comments also get sorted based on “Top Comments’ ie; the ones that get the most likes or replies. So again, good practice, LIKE other peoples comments that have to do with the adoption OBC issues and reply to what they say! ( Notice the adoption comments are on top!)

So since this post was so tempting and perfect, I shared it. Now sometimes one cannot share to some groups or pages. Here’s a trick.  If you go to a post that you want, click the date

Then it will open the post up in its own window and you can grab the URL. MUCH easier than telling folks to “Go to Christie’s page and comment on the image”  Copy and paste the URL of this new window in anything! Emails, Tweets, other groups, etc! It will be a long string of letters and numbers, but it will bring folks right back to the image.

Gosh, I am so sick already of this image. Makes me angry that he and his brother look like each other, but he then DENIES his own sister the same.

Using Twitter to Expand the Reach of AdoptionLand Voices

So same deal in many ways.
Christie’s official page on twitter is https://twitter.com/GovChristie

To tag him on Twitter use @GovChristie One does not have to follow him to tag him.

It is also good to reply to his tweets such as like this:

Notice how I have his name in the reply, I added @NJCare1 and hashtagged both #adoptee and #Adoption  AND used the same hashtag HE had in his tweet; #whatstheholdup.. because oh, it fit so perfectly!

So good hashtags to use? His own #whatstheholdup #honorsusanperry #needapen?  #whatwillchristiedo?

One of the good things about hashtag is also that they are searchable. So if there is a tweet with a hashtag, the hashtag is a link. If one was to click on that hashtag, then Twitter will give you all the Tweets from pretty much everyone who has used that hashtag! For instance this is the result for the “Whatstheholdup” hashtag that seems favored by NJ politics: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23whatstheholdup&src=hash

For anyone who has a Twitter account, it is also important to retweet ( RT) and favorite others messages! Just like on Facebook, if a Tweet gets more RTs, it just performs better. So I will often either search for a hashtag or look at profiles of like minded tweeter or even just search for a world like “adoption” and then retweet other posts. As I don’t like to spend all day doing so or send out 20 tweets at a time, I use scheduling tools. Right now my favorite is Buffer, but Hootsuite and Future Tweets (http://futuretweets.com/) are also good. There are more here:  http://socialtimes.com/10-apps-to-schedule-future-tweets-on-twitter_b8863

Also, this profile uses #Christie  and retweets! https://twitter.com/ChristieTNews

Sample Tweets for NJ and OBC Access  ( 140 characters only)

• 12 days left! #WhatWillChristieDo? Will Adoptees be treated equally in #NewJersey or will @GovChristie deny them again? 30 years is too long
• 34 years in the making & 12 days left! @GovChristie needs to sign the Birthright bill! It’s the right thing to do. #NeedaPen? Pz RT
• Your JOB is to do what the people of #NJ want and #NewJersey wants Equality for #Adoptees! #whatstheholdup  Pz sign the Birthright bill
• 1000 post cards coming to @GovChristie in support of #AdopteeRights in #NJ. #whatstheholdup #needapen SIGN THE BILL
• Tell @GovChristie to SIGN the #NJ Birthright Bill!  http://bit.ly/QpBo2S Support #Adoptee Equality! #whatstheholdup

Any of the above phrases can also be easily used together to create new tweets!

Now in making this, I found a great image about something political Christie camp is doing…

So I altered it for this:

As images  tend to get better responses and get shared more. It’s too tempting NOT to use.

Chris Christie is So Hip; He’s on Instagram

So yes, one can comment there too. http://instagram.com/govchristie

Again, each image has its own URL when one opens it, so those can be shared; http://instagram.com/p/ZGQGVizevx/ Like this one is pretty good;

Beyond Social Media Tricks

Of course the best way to get people to help is to make it as simple and easy as possible.  What to do, how to do it. Three seconds, three clicks! What has been working is perfect. As this info is on the home page of NJCARE, the http://www.nj-care.org/ url can be used as a landing page for most actions. IE; if a URL is to be shared, then this is the one.

While the URL is pretty short; we can also use this one: http://bit.ly/QpBo2S that is four characters shorter.

If you can do JUST ONE THING to help the *NJ Birthright Bill

be enacted, here it IS!

URGE Gov. Christie to sign *it A.S.A.P.

Phone:

609-292-6000

Write: 

Gov. Christie

P.O. Box 001

Trenton, NJ 08625

Send emails to http://www.state.nj.us/governor/contact/

Mail Gov. Christie a PEN

Seriously, I think it’s hysterical. Let’s all snail mail him pens, crayons, pencils with teeth marks chewed through. #Needapen?

• Governor Christie
• The NJ State House
• Trenton, NJ  08608-0001

I think the thing to remember is to keep putting the information out there. One tweet or one Facebook update won’t do it as the news feeds move so quickly; so asking the same thing again and again is how we gets enough eyes on the issue to make a difference.  It might be annoying for some, but it’s only a few weeks and it is important.

So, with that, PLEASE be on the lookout for any and ALL things of Facebook and Twitter regarding New Jersey. Comment, like it, share it. Add a hashtag, tag and expand. Post in a new group. And WRITE YOUR EMAILS AND LETTERS.

The Power of Us TOGETHER

Back in 2008, when I was first learning about SEO and how Google worked, I was instantly floored. It immediately became apparent to me that we had incredible potential. We are, for the most part, a pretty “web savvy” community. We have great numbers. We are mobilized and passionate. So many of us already own huge chunks of what I call “internet real estate”. IE : we have blogs and websites and URLs a plenty!

By working together and supporting each other, we can conceivable CONTROL the information found on line about adoption. Take it right out of the hands of the adoption industry and agency websites.Make them have to pay for googel PPC ads. Hurt them right in the profits! It’s a bit more complicated than this, but social media sharing DOES play a strong role in search rankings.

It can be done. We have the power. We have the technology.

Now cue the music from the Six Million Dollar Man and get sharing, OK?