15andCounting: Strategy Behind a Social Media Campaign

Written by Hillary Muheebwa on September 9, 2009 – 6:51 am -


video introduction to the 15andcounting campaign

15andCounting is a campaign by the International Planned Parenthood Foundation demanding better access to sexual health services for youth.  They are using a mix of old and new social media tools, from an e-petition and Flickr to Twitter, the SMS platform Mxit, and the music platform Dopetracks.

In this interview I ask Paul Bell, a campaign representative, about the strategic thinking behind their tool choice and how their use of these  online and mobile tools will lead to offline change in government policies towards youth.

What is the 15andCounting campaign?

15andCounting is a global campaign to demand better access to sexual health services and education for everyone. We’re now 15 years into a 20 year commitment signed by 179 governments to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all young people. Only five years remain and many governments are seriously failing to make progress against their goals. 15andCounting is encouraging young people to call their governments to task on their grave failings

How have governments failed to make progress to promote, protect, and provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services?

There are 1.5 billion young people in the world today and the majority of them live without access to condoms or contraception. This is contributing to: the spread of HIV, millions of unwanted pregnancies, millions of women continuing to die from pregnancy related causes every year, and millions of young people having to drop out of education at an early age.

Any attachment to the choice of the name?

Fifteen years ago, at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, 179 governments signed up to a Programme of Action to improve the sexual and reproductive health of everyone. 2009 is the 15 year mark. People born in that year (1994) at the time of the ICPD, are now 15 years old and form part of the largest cohort of young people the world has ever seen – some 1.5 billion – who have a right to sexual and reproductive health services and information.

Why run the campaign now?

People born in 1994 at the time of the ICPD are now 15 years old and form part of the largest cohort of young people the world has ever seen – some 1.5 billion – who have a right to sexual and reproductive health services and information. Fifteen years after ICPD too many governments have failed to make good on their promises. Only five years remain for the vision of ICPD to become reality. Unless governments deliver on their promises young people will be denied services and information critical to their health and wellbeing.

What’s the motive for running the petition now?

The Count Me In petition will be delivered to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the 12th of October, in an attempt to help persuade governments to promote, protect and fulfil their promise to provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services for all young people. October marks the 15th anniversary of the ICPD conference in Cairo.

What are the network platforms you’re using to attain the goal of the campaign?

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/15-and-counting)

Twitter (http://twitter.com/15andcounting)

Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDGoFfvvIXY&feature=channel_page)

Dopetracks (http://www.dopetracks.com/forums/4/topics/13784)

Millions of young people across the world do not have access to a computer, but do have a mobile phone. Therefore we are also working with MXit, an instant message provider to reach young people primarily in Africa through their mobile phones via a WAP site (www.15andcounting.mobi).  We are also launching SMS campaigns in Kenya, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico.

With a lot of social network sites, why did you choose these particular networks over the other network platforms?

Twitter has been used as a way to get buy-in form professional stakeholders in the charity/care sector and to connect with bloggers and influential voices in the conversation: we feel that Twitter is the ideal for this purpose, but as a secondary function it also works to extend the outreach direct to people for petition signatures.

Youtube was purely there to host the video, which is easily embedded into other sites.

Dopetracks is a unique online proposition: a community of beat-makers, singers, poets, rappers, all collaborating online via their online music player/recorder (so that people don’t need any proprietary kit). We felt that the target market will be able to express themselves effectively – and engage with – the campaign though music. These people are very active promoters of their music and it encourages brand advocates to raise awareness with their peers.

How is each of the networks used?

http://twitter.com/15andcounting – we’ve built up a following or stakeholders and interested parties, which has stimulated wider distribution through blog posts and ‘retweeting’ of the 15&Counting messages. We have used Twitter as a distribution channel, not as a content channel.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/15-and-counting/56924592285?_fb_noscript=1 – a Facebook group has been set up and is used to flag up news and drive discussion amongst members and an ‘Are you a Sexpert?’ application was developed to further engage our audience. This is designed to pull together a community of supporters and drove people to complete the survey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDGoFfvvIXY A video on what the campaign is all about was put together and uploaded onto Youtube – this is video is embedded into the 15andCounting homepage, and is used as an background information piece for the blog outreach.

http://www.dopetracks.com – We’re setting up a competition on Dopetracks – a large online music collaboration network so that young people can create and distribute tracks with a 15andCounting theme within the network and in other networks: These people are very active promoters of their music and it encourages brand advocates to raise awareness with their peers. They frequently use twitter, myspace and other networks to increase the distribution of their music. We’ll also be encouraging people to collaborate with other people in different countries, using our blog/ partner network.

We’ll also be using the collateral created to promote into local radio and with a ‘mixtape’ of the featured tracks.

How effective will these platforms be for your cause?

The web is essential for IPPF to reach the target audience. These social platforms allow the campaign to engage directly with young people and allow them to get connected to groups in their country or region who are working towards improving sexual and reproductive health and rights. More than anything, we’re looking at how to facilitate people to become advocates for the campaign and motivate others. We have created an instruction/ training blog to show our partners around the world to engage with social media http://15andcountinglearn.wordpress.com/

We’ve been effective in activating community support for our campaigns, including driving support for ‘buzz marketing’ initiatives. We have had two Digg.com front pages: http://digg.com/health/Best_Condom_Adverts_Ever (this drove 22,000 people to the site in 24 hours) and http://digg.com/educational/Teach_5_to_8_year_olds_masturbation_says_UN_agency (this encouraged 6000 people to bookmark the site and broke traffic figures for the site).

You realize that their many online petitions, most of which unfortunately have failed to make impact, what have you done not to suffer similar fate?

We have done everything we can to ensure that the petition makes an impact by supplementing it with a number of elements – we have created a dedicated website for the campaign, used social networking sites (as detailed above) to target a wide variety of youth, and used mobile phones to reach the population who have less access to the internet. In this way we hope that we have ‘randomized’ our petition as much as possible, making it available to the widest possible net, without targeting specific communities. As such we believe we have compiled a very robust study, for example in Africa we have had 94,000 people sign the petition through the .mobi site. Furthermore we know that the activists involved in this campaign will continue to work hard on the ground in their countries to ensure the message stays alive.

How will you reach the larger population, which is not much involved in using digital tools?

A combination of the below:

Advocacy programmes are being undertaken by IPPF member associations – IPPF works in 176 countries worldwide and a global leader in providing and advocating for the right to improved sexual and reproductive health. Here we

Mobile phones – as mentioned above, we are targeting millions of young people across the world who do not have access to a computer, but do have a mobile phone – both through SMS and instant messaging.

Postcards – postcards which allow people to sign the petition have been distributed in key communities across the globe

Critics say online polls are highly non-representative of the population, and the respondents are self-selected.  Isn’t this also a pseudo-petition?

To get truly representative engagement with the target audience, we would have to spend a huge amount of valuable resources engaging people on the ground in each country: that money would better be spent campaigning. Online is the most cost effective way to run the petition, and we’ve addressed the differing ways that people engage with the net in different countries (e.g. via mobile phone) and sought to facilitate signatures in non digital formats (eg. postcards).

How will it be delivered to government heads, especially those who signed the memorandum? And what is your expected outcome thereafter?

The Count Me In petition will be delivered to high-level United Nations officials on the 12th of October, in an attempt to help persuade governments to promote, protect and fulfil their promise to provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services for all young people.

Through the 15andCounting campaign we will have engaged with a whole new generation and cohort of committed young advocates around the globe and we hope that these advocates will remain engaged with the issues 15andCounting addresses. We will continue to empower our youth advocates to become highly effective network builders and advocacy experts into the future.


Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Campaigns, Digital Images, E-Petitions, Microblogging, Mobile Phones, Social Networks, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tools, Video | No Comments »

Tool: 300K e-petition for Norouz

Written by Hamid Tehrani on March 5, 2009 – 9:22 pm -

norouz

treats to celebrate Nourouz, the Iranian new year’s holiday (credit: ISNA.ir)

Description: Norouz (also spelled “Nowruz”) marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the Iranian year. This day is celebrated by nearly 300 million people around the world including Iranians and many other peoples throughout Asia.

Digital Tool Beign Used: e-petition

How: The e-petition is addressed to Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of United Nations. The request is to add this day to the calendars’ of the UN agencies.

Impact: So far more than 300,ooo people have signed the petition.  This is a large number, but the e-petition is a very popular lobbying tool.  Is it still an effective way for activists to bring attention to their cause or has the ease of creating an online petition made it so commonplace that it is no longer taken seriously by decision-makers ?


Tags:
Posted in E-Petitions, Mid-East & N. Africa, Tools | No Comments »

Action Alert: Campaign to Free Jailed Doctors in Iran

Written by Hamid Tehrani on December 23, 2008 – 10:30 pm -

iranfreedocs1Description: Two sibling physicians, Kamira and Arash Alaie, have pioneered educational and harm reduction campaigns among drug users, prostitutes, and prison inmates in Iran and throughout the Middle East. They have been in jail in Iran for six months, and have had no legal representation. To date, no formal charges have been filed.

Tools: Facebook, blog, e-petition

How These Tools Are Being Used: Clint Trout, a friend of the Alaie siblings, who launched a Facebook campaign on their behalf asks supporters to:

  1. Make a sign that says “Treating AIDS Is Not a Crime: Free Kamiar and Arash Alaei and take a photo
  2. Sign the petition
  3. Get other people to do this action.

The IranFreeDocs site asked people to send an email to Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations.

Outcome: Many ex-prisoners say that the Islamic Republic of Iran is sensitive to international media pressure and the doctors will be treated with greater care if the are seen to have public supporters.


Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Action Alerts, E-Petitions, Mid-East & N. Africa, Social Networks | 1 Comment »

Campaign: Supporting Jailed Afghan Student

Written by Hamid Tehrani on November 11, 2008 – 1:59 pm -

Description: Recently an Afghan appeals court overturned a death sentence for 24-year-old Parwez Kambakhsh, a journalism student accused of blasphemy for asking questions in class about women’s rights under Islam. But the judges still sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

The case against this student, whose brother has angered Afghan warlords with his own writing, has come to symbolize Afghanistan’s ultraconservative view on religious and individual freedoms. Some people started to mobolize opinion to support him.

Digital Tools Being Used:Blog and Petition

How these tools have been used: Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) has launched a petition to support Afghan student and jailed Iranian academics. SPME wants to collect 1,000 signatures before sending it to the governments of Afghanistan and Iran and the United Nations Council on Human Rights. Some Afghan bloggers such as Afghan Lord call court decision ‘unjust’ and try to remind people his case.

Impact: Mobilizing international opinion and media may have a positive impact for this jailed journalism student. Afghan government depends on international aid to ’survive’ and ‘persecuting’ this Afghan student won’t be helpful for it’s image.


Posted in Blogs, DigiActive News, E-Petitions, Mid-East & N. Africa | No Comments »

Campaign: Iran – Protesting Online Against the Canadian Embassy

Written by Hamid Tehrani on September 24, 2008 – 5:17 am -

Description: About 670 Iranian-Canadians have signed a petition to Ottawa’s political leaders protesting what they say is worsening discrimination against Iranians who want to visit Canada, some of them internationally known dissidents on the blacklist of the regime. Only a minority of several hundred Iranian artists and intellectuals invited to Toronto events this summer were granted visas.

Tools: Blog, Petition, Email

How these tools have been used:A Visa for Ordinary Iranians blog explains the situation and provides the addresses where people can sign the petition. It also informs how media covers this petition issue. People who can not post the petition or take it to six different locals, are asked to send an email to support this initiative.

Objective : Visa for Ordinary Iranians blog says that the goal is to collect 1000 signatures before 14th of October.

Impact: Lawmakers may pay attention to their requests as Iranian community is a large one in Canada but 1000 signatures are not that much. If this news finds itself through Canadian mainstream media, the impact of the petition will undoubtably grow.


Tags: , , ,
Posted in Blogs, Campaigns, E-Petitions, Mid-East & N. Africa, Regions, Toolkit | No Comments »

Action Alert: 4 Ways You Can Help Free Moroccan Blogger Mohammed Erraji

Written by Amine on September 12, 2008 – 6:13 am -

As you may have been following through the DigiActive Twitter Feed, Moroccan blogger Mohammed Erraji was arrested last Friday, September 5th following the publication on the online news site Hespress.com of an article entitled “The King Encourages His Subject’s Dependency” (English) He was sentenced 72 hours later, in an expedited trial without assitance from a lawyer, to two years in jail and a fine of 5000MAD for “failure to uphold the respect due to the king”.

In a movement of solidarity reminiscent of the one which surrounded the campaign to help free Facebook prisonner Fouad Mourtada earlier this year,  the Moroccan blogosphere was quick to mobilize and condemn the arrest. Various international organizations such as Reporters without Borders, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and IFEX also issued statements calling for his immediate release. On Thursday September 11th, citing procedural misteps, a court in the southern city of Agadir granted him bail and he has been “provisionally released” pending his appeal trial next Tuesday.

Supporters who have set up www.HelpErraji.com , Moroccan bloggers and online activists are circulating messages calling all who support Mohammed Erraji to express their solidarity and contribute to the international mobilisation to free him. They have outlined a series of steps and actions including signing an online petition, joining a facebook group, sending photo messages and participating in a blog strike next monday:

1. Express Support by Sending Photo Messages:

You can display your solidarity by taking a picture of yourself with a message to Free Mohammed Erraji. Please also write where you are from in the message then send the photo to PhotoErraji@gmail.com, everyone who has a camera should participate! All the submitted photos can be viewed on this Flickr account.

2. Join the Facebook Group:Send Photo Messages

Express your support by joining the “Free Moroccan Blogger Mohammed Erraji” group and help amplify the message by changing your profile picture to the following. Don’t forget to also invite your friends!

3. Sign the Petition:

A petition calling for the immediate acquittal of Mohammed Erraji and the suspension of his sentence is available at www.helperraji.com


4. Participate in the Blogoma (Moroccan Blogsphere) Blog Strike :

Monday September 15th, on the eve of the appeal trial, several Moroccan bloggers and others around the world will start a blog strike that will last 24 hours. Those who wish to join to this movement will announce that their blog is on strike, indicate the reason they chose to participate in the strike, mention the details of the case and link back to the site put up in support for Mohammad Erraji. To introduce others to the strike several bloggers are ciculating a short descriptive text, and the english translation has been made available by blogger Jillian York.


Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Action Alerts, Blogs, Campaigns, Digital Images, E-Petitions, Mid-East & N. Africa, Social Networks | 4 Comments »

Digital warfare between Georgia and Russia

Written by Tamara on September 1, 2008 – 5:05 pm -

Description: The conflict between Georgia and Russia extended to the digital landscape as Russia attempted to block the unprecedented blogging drive drawing in novices to the blogosphere, through which the Georgians reacted to the Russian invasion. The campaign from both sides extended to video advocacy (YouTube).

As the international debate continues, digital tools are providing much needed support and publicity to the humanitarian efforts.

Tools: blogs, videos, on-line petitions

How these tools are being used: Global Voices’ South Ossetia Crisis 2008 campaign has been providing detailed coverage of the situation through a series blogs. The Hub also supported the efforts by drawing on YouTube video coverage so as to raise awareness of ways in which the pubic can support ongoing humanitarian efforts.

Avaaz means “voice” in many Asian, Middle EAStern and Eastern European languages. Avaaz.org is a global web movement with a simple democratic mission: to close the gap between the “have” and “have nots”. Avaaz uses digital tools to connect people across borders to bring people powered politics to international decision-making. In less than 2 years Avaaz boasts of 3.2 million members from every nation in the world and 7,719,361 actions.

Avaaz is running an on-line petition for the withdrawal of troops. Within a month over 90,000 people had signed the petition.

Other campaigns from Avaaz include the Campaign on the Climate, Burma, Tibet, Zimbabwe, Israel & Palestine, the food crisis and Iraq.


Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Blogs, Campaigns, E-Petitions, Video | No Comments »

Campaign: Half a Million Kenyans to Unite

Written by Tamara on August 1, 2008 – 11:21 am -

Description: It is an unfortunate fact that abuse of power particularly by politicians is normality in Africa. Most Africans feel disempowered by such widespread institutional corruption and unfair distribution of wealth. They are overwhelmed by a system that does not allow such injustices to be expressed, let alone redressed. Activism is the cause of much personal risk, not only to oneself but also to loved ones.

Yet they would do well to learn from the actions of their Kenyan brothers and sisters. Within months of the establishment of the coalition government, corruption amongst government officials has begun to become apparent. As a result activists are using on-line tools to challenge the system and raise international awareness.

Tools: blogs, facebook

How these tools are being used: The Sukuma Kenya project was launched in the aftermath of the humanitarian crisis at the beginning of the year. The project is an online donation blog that was launched to raise funds for the thousands of people displaced by the crisis. Within 24 hours of its launch the blog raised US$ 1,500.

Online activist Michael Bomet  launched a Half a Million Kenyans Unite campaign to unite the people of Kenya against the corruption of the government. The campaign unites people through Facebook and through an on-line petition. The goal is to unite half a million Kenyans in a petition to reduce MPs salaries and privileges. The campaign was launched on the 5th of June 2008 and at the time of writing had registered 4,613 Kenyans. The Sukuma Kenya project used their blog to amplify the message and helped raise 12,000 USD in around a month. 


Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Blogs, Campaigns, E-Petitions, Social Networks, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tools | 1 Comment »

Campaign:Online activists take on Beijing Olympics

Written by Talia Whyte on July 23, 2008 – 4:00 am -

Description: The Beijing Olympics are coming up in a couple of weeks, and this has not gone unnoticed by human rights activists worldwide. They are using the international event to spotlight atrocities thousands of miles away in Darfur, which campaigners say is indirectly due in part to the Chinese government.

Tools Being Used: YouTube, e-petition

What Are They Doing: Switch Over to Darfur is an international initiative to bring attention to the many Olympic corporate sponsors who have not spoken out against China continuing to finance the Sudanese government. Some of the sponsors include Adidas, General Electric and Coca Cola. The campaign is not intended to boycott the Olympics, but rather the campaign say they “are urging the Olympic corporate sponsors to join [them] in pressuring the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and China to, in turn, press Sudan to ensure that there is immediate protection for civilians and humanitarian workers on the ground in Darfur well before the Games begin.”

Supporters are asked to sign a petition on their website, pledging support for the campaign as well as read a message by actress Mia Farrow. The campaign has created the video below that speaks for itself, which can be viewed here.


Tags: ,
Posted in Asia, Campaigns, E-Petitions, Video | No Comments »

Action Alert: Support a Kurdish human rights activist

Written by Simon Columbus on June 10, 2008 – 10:44 pm -

Mohammed Sadigh KabodwandWhat? Send a mail to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei to express your concern for the medical condition of the Kurdish journalist and human rights activist, Mohammed Sadigh Kabodwand.

When? Now!

Where? Email or fax the letter below the “more” tag to:

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic:
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei,

Faxes: + 98.21.649.5880 / 21.774.2228
E-mail: info@leader.ir or istiftaa@wilayah.org

How? Just copy the letter below and paste it to your email.

Why? There are serious concerns for the health of Iranian Kurdish human rights activist and journalist Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand, who suffered a stroke in Evin prison on 19 May 2008 and has been denied access to adequate medical care. He has been held since 1 July 2007 on charges of “acting against national security”.

He was reportedly been denied access to medical help before and was held in very bad conditions in solitary confinement as well as being subject to torture.

Last month, two other Kurdish men (Kaveh Aziz Poor and Ebrahim Lotf Allahi) died while in government detention. It is suspected that both were beaten to death by government authorities. AKR again asks the international community to condemn these vicious acts.

Who is organizing the action? The campaign is lead by the lately relaunched Alliance for Kurdish Rights. The AKR is an independent and self-funded project started by a group of students and youth activists who wish to campaign for change and address the issue of Kurdish rights in the Middle East and abroad.

via Alliance for Kurdish Rights Read more »


Tags: , ,
Posted in Action Alerts, E-Petitions, Mid-East & N. Africa | No Comments »
« Older Entries